Amazingly child and dog-friendly holiday: Vaujany, French Alps
I am so excited to write about this amazing place we holidayed for a long weekend! It’s almost impossible to find places that cater for both children and dogs in the same place, so this is truly a find!
It’s a 2.5hour drive from Geneva. With two young kids, in reality it took us 3 hours including one stop to get there/back.
A great place for the kids to play right on the hotel sight
Vaujany, a hidden gem!
We stayed at the Appart’hotel La Fedora, and had the Marmotte chalet, a ground floor two bedroom chalet. The hotel has a number of apartments in the main building as well as independent chalets on site. La Fedora boasts a SPA, a kid’s playground including 9 crazy golf holes and a giant Wendy House. There’s also a communal BBQ with a fantastic gas BBQ. The communal kitchen is at your disposal to use cutlery, plates and glasses when using the BBQ area. It has a fantastic view of the valley, we ate here every night!
Lara the hostess speaks perfect English (may be an anglophone?!) and she gave us a tour of the facilities when we arrived. She loves dogs so was happy to meet Luka and she said he could wonder around off the leash, so an excited Luka accompanied us around the resort as she showed us around. She informed us dogs are even allowed off the lead in the play area, as long as we respect any children who are using the space that might be scared of dogs. Fair enough.
The hotel is located roughly half-way up from the tourist office/telecabins at the bottom of the village and the main square at the top. There are a number of escalators that take you up/down, meaning that you don’t have to walk (unless you are the one with the dog!)
As it is a tiny resort, restaurant options are limited, but we self-catered for almost every meal so didn’t pose a problem. There is also one very small shop where you can buy basic supplies and food. I would recommend stopping at a large supermarket on the way here before you arrive to make sure you have most of the food and supplies you need.
A fun-filled itinerary for all
Every morning we would wake up to bread delivered to our door (you order by 18.30 the night before), then go for a hike. We’d then be home in time for Kai’s nap at lunch time. After the nap, we would ride the free tourist train that goes up and down the village, it’s a great one to amuse your kids because if you wanted to kill a decent chunk of time, then you could just stay on the train as it simply does loops.
We would then go and take some apples and carrots to feed the resident ponies Biscotte and Bridget who graze on the ground right next to the play area. Then Kai had a great time “playing” golf until dinner time.
On the weekend we stayed, there was a vintage car race on, so the village was filled with beautiful vintage cars! Kai had a great time pointing out every car as they sped past!
Bringing the average age of his race down by about 8 years!
The last afternoon we were there on Saturday, they had set up an electric car race at the main Square, Place de la Fare. Kai made it to the Championship finals! Though it mainly ended in him having a meltdown because he wanted to pick up the cars and play with them, not race them. Oh well.
We only stayed 3 nights, but we could have stayed an entire week and did something different each day! The public swimming pool is open to babies on Saturday mornings, we also heard there is a climbing wall for kids, pony rides amongst other fun things for kids to do. There are a number of events on year-round, keeping your stay interesting and varied.
Lara also informs us that during the winter months, you can avail of the nursery for the parents who want to go skiing. It’s a very small ski resort, but I’m thinking it would be perfect for us to get a few hours of skiing in, then take Luka for a walk whilst the kids are having fun at the nursery!
The nursery, called the Pôle Enfance is open year-round and accepts children from 6 months old to 3 years old. If we had known this was available to us, we definitely would have taken advantage!
Family-friendly hikes in Vaujany
For our hikes, we kept them all local and did a variation of the same route each morning. The first morning we went up to the local waterfall La Fare, which is about a 45minute walk up. It’s an out and back route. We would walk along the footpath to La Villette which is the next village over, about a 20 minute walk from Vaujany. Then the Cascade de la Fare is signposted. It’s popular with the tourists and we saw many families with young children walking this route. It’s uphill, but nothing too crazy in terms of incline.
The next day we did a loop walk along the valley on both sides of the stream. This is much flatter and also shaded, so is a good option on a sunny day. It also means the dogs have somewhere to paddle in the water if they get hot, which is always a benefit of walks that run along water.
For a GPS map of the route, click this link.
The loop walk pops you out by the telecahin and public pool at the bottom of the village, and there’s a free cable car that you can take up to the tourist office…thank goodness!
Luka is in training for a 3 day hike I’m planning on doing in October, so was carrying his own food and water. It weighed him down sufficiently to wear him out for the rest of the day, so he was happy to hang out in the park in the afternoons.
I was genuinely depressed about coming home from this place, but we will certainly be back to enjoy more that Vaujany has to offer.
I hope this post inspires more families to holiday with their four-legged babies in tow!
