Last Updated on July 10, 2023
For this past New Year’s, JC and I planned a ski trip with our good friends Sapo and Dennis. This was our second year in a row planning a ski trip for New Year’s with them. The previous year we had gone to Bichlbach, which is in the Tirol region of Austria. This year we decided to try the French Alps at Le Corbier, France. Le Corbier is one of six mountain peaks that make up Les Sybelles ski area. The advantage with Les Sybelles is that you can easily ski all the connected peaks with one ski pass. It is also incredibly family friendly with children’s ski lessons as well as daycare options. And you won’t break the bank skiing at Les Sybelles: prices for ski rentals and passes are very reasonable. Read below for everything you need to know about the area and how you too can plan a ski trip to Le Corbier and Les Sybelles.
How to plan a ski trip to Le Corbier – How to get there
Le Corbier is located in the French Alps, on the border between France and Italy. The closest airports to Le Corbier are Torino (Turin), Geneva and Lyon Unfortunately, coming from Berlin, there are no direct flights to Turin or Lyon. And while there are direct flights to Geneva, renting a car in Switzerland is incredibly expensive. That’s why we chose instead to fly to Milan. Milan Malpensa airport is the closest to the French border. Unfortunately, at the time of booking, all flights between Berlin and Milan Malpensa were mysteriously canceled. That’s why in the end we flew to Milan Linate airport, which is the airport located closest to the city of Milan. We rented a car for five days from Milan Linate airport for approximately 50 EUR per day, not including the baby seat. The drive should last 3.5 hours from Milan to Le Corbier; however, we got stuck in a major traffic jam and it took us almost 5 hours to get there! If you have the option to fly into one of the three closer airports (Turin, Geneva or Lyon), do it, as you will save a significant amount of driving time.
How to plan a ski trip to Le Corbier – Where to stay
When planning our trip to Le Corbier, we actually found the Airbnb before choosing the destination. We have taken this approach a few times before, including our trip to Crete. Airbnb has a great feature now where you can filter by ‘category’ of home, so in our case we filtered by ‘skiing’ and then filtered for accommodations with 2 bedrooms and located in Europe. Once we had our favorites we compared the ski resorts and chose Le Corbier because of the number of piste (it had the most). You can find the listing for our Airbnb at Le Corbier here. We paid 765 EUR for 4 nights with 4 people and a toddler. That’s 191 EUR per night or 95 EUR per night per couple. Not too bad for the prime location right on the ski mountain.
For general convenience, the location cannot be beat. There is a restaurant in the chalet, as well as a ski rental store. Ski lockers are also available for free onsite and you can easily ski a few meters to the nearest chair lift up the mountain. Prices for ski rentals were also quite reasonable, we paid 41.50 EUR for 3 days with skis, poles and helmets included. One tip – go to the ski rental early! My husband and Sapo waited too late and had to go to another rental site because they did not have skis left! The ticket office is also right next to the chalet, so you can buy your ski passes the same day. However, I would recommend buying your Saturday ski pass in advance (before Wednesday) online to secure a 50% discount (25 EUR instead of 50 EUR!). You can then simply pick up the online ski pass at one of the ticket machines.
How to plan a ski trip to Le Corbier – Where to eat
There are many restaurants to choose from immediately in front of the ski slopes at Le Corbier. However, our favorite by far was La Fontaine de L’Ours. We ate there on our last night in Le Corbier and it was the perfect restaurant to end our trip. We ordered cheese and meat fondue in advance (you need to tell all the restaurants with anticipation if you want fondue or raclette). For the cheese fondue I chose the truffle cheese and it was heavenly! If you love cheese and especially if you love truffles it is a must! Our waiter was also incredibly kind and attentive and spoke great english. Be sure to come here if you make a trip to Le Corbier and be sure to make a reservation ahead of time!
Options for children at Le Corbier
I desperatly wanted my 2.5 year old daughter to get on skis for the first time at Le Corbier. I emailed the ski school and they told me it was possible to get my daughter in lessons at either at 9 am (until 11 am) or 11 am (until 1 pm). Prices are 36 EUR per lesson and you can buy them at the ESF ski school counter. I decided to wait to buy the lessons until I saw that I could actually get her on skis. The ski rental had her size (the smallest boots there)- she is a 25 EU shoe size for reference. And I even was able to get her measured and try the boots on. However, when I tried to put the boots on again with her skis, she absolutely refused. I was devastated, but decided to rent a sled for her instead, which she also reluctantly got in.
What I didn’t know until too late was that Les Sybelles actually has childcare facilities (daycare) where you can leave your child for a half day or even full day. Oh well, next time! But a great option for parents who want to get some ski time in without their baby. JC and I just alternated watching Isabella and skiing (and we shared a ski pass accordingly), but it meant we never got to ski together.
And that’s how we planned our trip to Le Corbier for New Year’s and everything you need to know to make a ski trip at Les Sybelles. Let us know in the comments if you have any favorite ski areas in Europe that you think we should try next!
