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Speaker A: Hi there, Poodling Arounders.
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Today we're hitting a peak and we're talking adventures in the mountains, both on two wheels and of the winter sports variety.
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With the help of today's guest, Richard Wilford, who is a director of Atlas Ski Co and Atlas Ride Co, I'm going to whisk you off to the French Alps, to a place not too far from Geneva in Switzerland.
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Together we're going to discover the delights of a place called Morzine, exploring all that Atlas can offer to you. If you fancy whizzing across a piste or hitting a trail, you can, as we discover, be anything from beginner to pro.
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And fear not if you are more of a sporting softie, as you will also learn that there is something for everyone, even if you are just a lover of fine food.
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Regardless of where you live in the world, this episode can inspire your travels, even if you just want to explore the whisky distilleries of Scotland, as Atlas has so many resorts and different options available worldwide.
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So let's listen to what Richard has to tell us and what special offer he has also created for Catapult PR and its Poodling Around listeners.
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Hello, Richard, thanks for joining us today. I think this interview is going to be a real treat for anyone who's an outdoor adrenaline junkie or winter sports fan. And I'm very excited to find out more from you.
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But just by way of introduction, as we start this interview, could you give us the names of your adventure travel businesses and your role within them so everybody knows who you are?
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Speaker B: Yeah. Hi Jane, thank you very much for having me on today.
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So businesses are Atlas Ski Company, which is our ski company, obviously. And then we've got Atlas Ride, which is our mountain bike company, which kind of does mountain bike, bit of gravel riding as well and stuff.
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But yeah, kind of we've got the ski and the mountain bike at the moment. That's where we're at right now.
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Speaker A: Great. And which of these businesses was your first business, baby? And what does it offer?
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Speaker B: So the first one was the ski company, so moved out to the French Alps in 2000 or 8 was my first ski season and we set up a small company called Ski Season Beds, which was basically to accommodate seasonaires who had finished university.
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I had 500 people at my Bournemouth University, part of the ski, the ski asylum there. So yeah, we basically had the first company called Ski Season Beds and that basically did seasonal accommodation where you'd come stay for 5 months, get yourself a part time job or a full time job, ski as much as you could, go out, have fun.
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And yeah, that was that one, that was how it all started.
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Speaker A: Right, okay, that sounds interesting. So that's how you got into this world.
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Now your current business, both of your businesses actually, are based on a town called Morzine, aren't they? So why Morzine? Where exactly is that and what's so great about it from a mountain biking and ski perspective?
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Speaker B: So Morzine is where I did my first ski season, based out in the French Alps. You're about an hour and 15 minutes drive from Geneva. So a lot of people land into Geneva quickly, whiz up into the mountains.
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You're on the French-Swiss border as well. So basically it's part of a resort called the Port de Soleil, the Doors of the Sun, which is one of the largest linked ski areas in the world.
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12 resorts. So yeah, had a really good reputation for skiing and snowboarding and there was a lot of kind of English speaking companies operating there, transfer companies, chalet companies. So it just seemed kind of a natural, a natural place to gravitate towards for my first ski season.
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And I was a snowboarder at the time and it had some very, very good snow parks for all the jumps and the rails and stuff. But yeah, that's how, that's how I ended up there really, to be fair.
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Speaker A: And your first business there, am I right in thinking, was the mountain biking to start with?
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Speaker B: So the very first one was Ski Season Beds, where we did the seasonal accommodation and then opened up that seasonal accommodation in the summer for the mountain bikers to stay June, July and August.
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And then it all developed into kind of selling other companies ski accommodation on a weekly commission basis. Then we launched some of our own stuff and then we launched our own mountain bike catered chalets.
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So yeah, it all, it all grew from that. Kind of kind of grew together, but as separate businesses at the same time as well. Because mountain bike and ski, were quite different activities really with different clientele back then.
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They've merged a lot more now, I think Covid and all that time kind of people rode bikes a lot. It became a lot more mainstream than mountain biking, you know.
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But yeah, that's how it kind of started.
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Speaker A: Yeah. And what sort of mountain biking experience can somebody enjoy in Morzine then?
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Speaker B: So a lot of people think because it's in the Alps, they think it's all like big downhill jumps and all this kind of stuff. But you can do anything from absolute beginners up to World cup racing professionals.
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You know, if you imagine the mountain in the winter with the ski piste and you've got green pistes which are your family friendly ones which kind of traverse from side to side down the mountain and then you've got your black runs which kind of go straight down.
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So yeah, we've seen three year olds on balance bikes whizzing around on these green family friendly trails with their dad or mum following behind them.
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And then you get the likes of the World Cup racers that are doing 60, 70 foot jumps and going 50 kilometres an hour. So there's something for everyone out there, you know.
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And then there's even a lot of stuff for leisure cyclists, if you want to pedal around the gravel roads on the mountains and around the mountain lakes and all that kind of stuff.
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So yeah, we're starting to see the mountains really become a kind of a multi activity family holiday destination really.
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Speaker A: So you literally need no experience. You could just turn up and start doing something there, could you?
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Speaker B: If you can ride your bike around the park or on gravel roads and stuff in the UK and you've got fairly competent kind of mountain bike skills, you can stand up, you can go around the corner, you know, like you could come to the Alps yet, you could get a lesson or you could go up the chairlift, find the green beginner family runs.
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And yes, some of them are very, very simple and they're very well signposted as well. You know, it clearly says that this is a green run, this is a blue, this is a red, this is a black.
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So yeah, I would say a complete beginner could, I wouldn't recommend it without a lesson and some coaching and stuff. But a complete beginner could come and ride around the mountain lakes because it's just a path around essentially like a canal path around some of the mountain lakes.
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But then once you venture up into the mountains, you do need some more advanced skills. You need to have a little bit of coaching and stuff, you know. So yeah, there's a little bit for everyone out there really.
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Speaker A: And do you need sort of a certain level of fitness, would you say, before you even attempted to do any of that?
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Speaker B: Well, I mean, to maintain your fitness? Well, to maintain a good bike ride I suppose you need, you need a base level of fitness, but actually you don't need to be able to pedal up the mountain because you hook your bike onto the back of the ski lift.
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So push it up to the ski lift, you hook it on the lift in front of you, then the lift behind you is the one that you sit on. Then the pistiers at the top, the lift people, they all take the bike off for you and give it back to you.
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So no, you don't need a huge amount of fitness. It doesn't involve massive amounts of pedalling and stuff.
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So. Yeah. And there's even trails for disabled riders that are in kind of 4x4 bikes with four wheels.
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Yeah. So yeah, and that's getting actually really, really popular. The trails are being made wider access for everyone. The lift companies will stop the lift, they'll put the kind of the quad wheeled bike on and then they'll take you up to the top.
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And it's pretty impressive. Some of the stuff those guys can get down as well.
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Speaker A: Yes. Sounds like they're very expert. So do people hire the bikes from you or do they ever bring their own or what's the situation?
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Speaker B: We have a partnership with Specialized. Specialized, one of the biggest bike brands in the world. So we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of kind of the more hardcore mountain bikes that we rent out, you know, but a lot of people fly with their bikes.
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It's 90 quid return with EasyJet and free with BA or Swissair.
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But it all depends on what level of mountain biking you want to do. If you basically want to pootle around the mountain lakes, you could get a hardtail simple bike.
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If you want to go off on huge adventures, you can rent electric E bikes as well. So yeah, there's, there's something for everyone. We rent bikes, we have our own fleet for our own clients.
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We have a mechanic on in the resort and everything. And then there's, there's so many shops because all of the ski shops that operate for skiing in the winter, they flip over to mountain bikes in the summer.
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So yeah, you've probably got 10, 12 mountain bike rental shops in Morzine as well in the French Alps.
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Speaker A: Right. Okay. And what's the real highlight of mountain biking in Morzine?
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Speaker B: I think the neighbouring town of Morzine, Les Gets, which is literally a five minute pedal, hosted the World Cup, the downhill World Cup, and I think they saw around 200,000 people visit the resort over the weekend.
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So yeah, it's the pinnacle of the sport. The Port Soleil is vast. It's part of France, Switzerland as well. Champéry in Switzerland has also hosted the World Cup and they're hosting the world championships next year.
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Les Gets's hosted the World cup multiple times. So that's probably the highlight of the mountain biking scene out there. But it's unbelievably busy in the summer months for mountain biking now; thousands and thousands of people in resort every week, really.
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Speaker A: And it's become so popular what you do and your model, hasn't it, that you've extended it to other places around the world.
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Speaker B: Yes, well, we had expanded down to Italy to the Maritime Alps where they meet the sea in a place called Finale Ligura. If you kind of fly into Nice, you travel along the coast of Monaco and just past Monaco's Finale Ligura.
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Beautiful food, awesome culture, mountain bike trails that descend down to the beach, you can have a swim in the Mediterranean. So yeah, and that's hosted the Enduro World Series, which is one of the best mountain bike events in the world as well.
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But also during COVID we had to kind of, we had to be pretty quick on our toes, to keep offering our clients something because they couldn't travel abroad. So we started mountain bike trips in Scotland, Wales, the Lake District, the Brecon Beacons.
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And now the Scottish tours are very, very popular with the Americans because they love coming over to the whisky distilleries, see the golden eagles and all that kind of stuff.
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You know, Scotland's got a lot of history linked to America. So yeah, all over the world now. Spain, Italy. Yeah, a lot of resorts. And just launched Whistler in Canada as well, which is a very popular mountain bike destination unit.
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Speaker A: Yeah, I can imagine. So, you know, how does the whole thing work? You know, somebody gets on the plane and they arrive at Geneva, I presume, is that right?
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Speaker B: And then destinations. Yep. Geneva.
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Speaker A: Do they trans, do you transfer them, do they transfer themselves or how does that work?
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Speaker B: It all depends how involved they want us to be. You know, some people want the freedom of jumping on an EasyJet, get into Geneva, having a hire car. They'll go and explore a little bit around Lake Geneva.
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They might go down to Lucerne, Montreux, then drive up to us. If they don't want to do that, they can literally get on a flight, land in Geneva. We'll have a transfer van waiting for them, pick them up, whiz them straight to their accommodation, welcome them with a nice cold beer or a glass of fizz or a soft drink.
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And then, yeah, they we have options of catered chalets where you've got a mechanic on site, you've got chefs, you've got hosts, you can have the full package or you can do a self catered apartment and we'll just be there to assist you during the week as well.
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But some of the bigger tours in Spain and Scotland, we literally do everything. So they'll arrive at the airport. And from the minute they land, we're looking after them. We'll take them to restaurants, we'll build their bike for them, we guide them during the day, we sort their lunches out.
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We do absolutely everything. We take them to the whiskey distilleries, you know. So it all depends how much involvement they want. Yeah, we offer quite a lot of.
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Speaker A: Options and that's all very flexible when they book, is it? Do they discuss that with you when they're booking what they want?
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Speaker B: So there's a lot of conversations, calls, emails and stuff, because we have our set itineraries and our set tours for all of these destinations. But a lot of groups also like to do their own thing.
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They've heard about a specific trail they want to ride, they've heard about a specific distillery they want to go to, or something. So our guides, our vehicles, our bikes, all, they're ready for them.
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And we put together custom tours for multiple groups. I mean, I think Scotland, the custom trips are outweighing the kind of scheduled trips now, you know, because there's just so much on offer.
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Speaker A: And I think also perhaps the Americans want that more tailored approach, don't they?
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Speaker B: I think the Americans, they don't get as much holiday as the Europeans. And when they travel, they travel quite big. They. They like to get a lot in and they'll kind of link it with other stuff.
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So they'll have a couple of days exploring Edinburgh, then we'll pick them up from an Edinburgh hotel. They'll be with us for a week or so and then they'll nip off to the Isle of Skye, maybe for something else.
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So, yeah, I mean, we can do it all, really. If they want to play a round of golf, I love golf, I'll play a round of golf with them, as long as they pay the green fees in Scotland, because it's pretty expensive to play golf up there.
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Speaker A: Well, there are some magnificent golf courses aren't there, so plenty to choose from.
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Now, back to Morzine. I think you've sort of intimated that you might get kind of professional bikers coming and doing things with you. So, you know, what do you offer to them?
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Because they've obviously got a much greater level of experience, haven't they? How does that work?
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Speaker B: So we get an awful lot of professional World Cup mountain bike athletes coming to stay with us because the World Cup Series is kind of North America, America, some down in, like, Australia, then most of it's in Europe.
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So they'll come and they'll stay in Europe for a prolonged period of time. So when they're not at the races.
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Because Morzine is such an amazing training ground. There's so much terrain there, so many trails. They'll come and stay with us and when they stay with us, they've got a mechanic, they've got workshops they can use, they've got good mountain bike specific accommodation with secure alarmed garages.
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So they know their bikes are safe. They've got somewhere they can wash all their equipment or, you know, so yeah, that's, that's what we offer to them. They get the kind of, the perks of what a holiday maker would get, you know, in between travelling around all these destinations in vehicles and different hotels, all that stuff, it gives them a bit of a base to film some content, relax, train and all that kind of stuff, you know.
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So yeah, we've got a lot of ambassadors, partner athletes and stuff as well.
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Speaker A: So this infrastructure sounds like it's a really good thing for them that it's all. Everything that they could possibly want is in, in exactly the right place. Yeah.
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Speaker B: Well, if you have a team from America, we have an athlete called Neko Mulally, he's starting his own bike brand and he's got a team of six riders now. So they all come over from America, they're in Europe for two or three months.
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They'll base themselves with us in Morzine. They'll travel off to Austria, Poland, Italy, Switzerland and then they'll come back to us as the base, you know. So yeah, it gives them a home from home, really.
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Speaker A: Yeah.
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Speaker C: Now moving on to the ski side.
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Speaker A: What do you offer for those who want to take to the slopes and you know, what's the attraction of Morzine for them?
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Speaker B: Well, I think Morzine is a year round village. It's got about 5,000 people that live there permanently. It wasn't built as a purpose made ski resort. Like, like for example, Flaine in France, like that's a bit of a concrete jungle.
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It was just built there to house skiers. You know. Morzine is a beautiful town. It's got rivers, it's got an Olympic indoor outdoor swimming pools, ice rink for the hockey team.
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It's got high ropes in the trees. Like it's, it's stunning.
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But Morzine sits at 1,000 meters, so it's quite low in terms of ski. But within one lift you're in Avoriaz at 1800 meters and then you have the whole port, which is over 600 km of pistes, to ski.
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And you can have breakfast in France, you can have a lunch over in Switzerland and a bit of border hopping and stuff. You know, like there's just something there for absolutely everyone.
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The kids, ski schools, they start at the bottom of the lift in Morzine, it's so easy to get to. There's a little train that takes you around the village. You know, you've got unbelievable views of Mont Blanc, you've got the mountain lakes and stuff.
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So there's just something. It's just a beautiful French village that's got something for everyone. You know, there's. There's beginner green trails from families up to like the infamous Swiss Wall, which is an unpisted black run from France down into Switzerland.
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So, yeah, and it's so close to Geneva airport as well. So it's really family friendly. You're only in the vehicles for an hour and 15 minutes or so. So, yeah, it's got a lot, a lot going for it.
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Morgan.
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Speaker A: I'm thinking James Bond now. I saw these visions of Bond going down the slopes, as you said al that.
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Speaker B: Well, you've got the James Bond Gondola over in Chamonix, which is only 45 minutes away, which was in. I can't remember what film it was in. But yeah, you've got the old famous Bond Gondola over there.
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Speaker A: Yeah. Now I think with your chalets, you've got two different options, haven't you? You've got a self catering option, but you've also got an option where you provide meals for people who are staying.
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How does that work?
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Speaker B: Yeah, we offer self cater in apartments where we can just give you like, we can do a welcome hamper for you, do your lift pass, your ski hire and stuff. Or you can come and be literally looked after from start to finish.
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So we've got professional chefs. My business partner Ben is a sommelier, his wife Tiffany, professional chef. So that's how it all kind of started.
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And you can choose. So five nights of catered food, three courses. We include really nice house wine and beer with your dinner as well.
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We also offer short stays where you can have three nights, Sunday, Thursday, Thursday, Sunday, and you get three nights or two nights of catering. So, yeah, traditional catered chalet kind of setup.
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But since breakfast it's changed quite a lot. You know, you can't really have.
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It's not your typical chalet food. Now it's been elevated, it's a bit of a higher level with professional chefs and that kind of stuff, you know. So, yeah, really, really nice experience.
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Speaker A: And what sort of meals are we talking then?
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Speaker B: Confit duck, you can have steaks, we can do stir fries. There's so many different options, you know. Yeah. The menus are quite varied and really, really nice. You know, we've kind of stepped away from the traditional big lasagnas, big tarts and flans, big beef bourguignons.
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The food's kind of a bit. A bit nicer now, a bit more elevated.
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Good. And the wine's lovely as well. So. Yeah, it's really nice. Nice experience.
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Speaker A: Yeah. Especially if you're from abroad, I guess, you know, and you're not used to that, you know, the Americans, etc must really love that. The kind of taste of the. The local area, I guess.
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Speaker B: Definitely. And our food stays the same in the summer for the mountain bikers. And the mountain bike holiday is traditionally not as kind of elevated as the ski holiday. So some of the mountain bikers come out and they're having duck and all this kind of stuff and they really.
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Yes. Opening their eyes, they're like, wow, this. This is kind of amazing, you know.
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Speaker A: And no burgers.
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Speaker B: Yeah. But two nights of the week they'll eat out in town and they'll go and have a really good burgers. And the French are renowned for having nice kind of raw burgers and stuff, you know.
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Yeah. So, yeah, it's. It's five nights catered during the week and then two eating out in the restaurants to get some local Savoiard kind of food and stuff, you know.
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Speaker A: Yeah. And looking at the chalets themselves, are they modern, are they traditional French alpine chalets or is it a mix?
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Speaker B: Yes. So the ones that are catered are nice and modern. So they've been renovated recently. They're all kind of ensuites, double or twin rooms, got balconies and things. You know, you've got big lounge areas, TVs, there's some Xboxes and Nintendo Wiis for the kids in the play areas and stuff.
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So yeah, nice modern chalets, hot tubs, saunas.
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There's a lot of more. There's some very, very beautiful old traditional chalets in Morzine as well, but ours are kind of a bit more modern, bit more contemporary, a bit.
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A bit newer, you know.
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Speaker A: And what's the smallest number of people who can book a chalet? And what's the largest that you can cater for?
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Speaker B: So we cater for quite a lot of big groups as well. Actually. One of our chalets can sleep up to 28 people over 14 rooms.
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Yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome. Three floors. But then you all eat down in the main open kitchen area. So some weeks, peak weeks, like half term, the big chalets are exclusive book only.
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New Year's Eve, they're exclusive book only. So you take the whole place. One of them is 20, you can combine it with another one upstairs, that's 28, like I said.
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But in non peak weeks we can take a booking for one person. You could book a room to yourself. You know, if there's four of you could take two rooms.
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We offer a single supplement as well. So if there's a group of three and you wanted a room each, you could all do that. So yeah, very flexible, you know.
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Speaker A: Okay.
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And you know, moving on to snow because in a sort of world of climate change that can be challenging sometimes. How does Morzine fare when it comes to snow?
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Speaker B: So Morzine sits at a thousand meters, which is quite low for a ski resort, and the piste dropped down to a thousand. But like I said, one of the lifts from Morzine is straight up to 1600 meters.
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Then another one straight up to 1800, then up to 2400. So it has its pros and cons, you know, like a low. It's not ski in, ski out, whereas Avoriaz is ski in, ski out.
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But it's not freezing cold all the time. It's not completely. It's not icy pavements and lethal for the children and stuff. You know, like if you want that, it's much better.
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But yeah, they've got great snow making machines as well. And what we do benefit from is like a bizarre little microclimate where the cold air comes down from the north, the warm air comes up from the south, but Mont Blanc kind of stops it.
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So we get. Avoriaz is one of the most snow-sure resorts in the whole of the French Alps.
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So yeah, it's, it's a really, really good destination for skiing.
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It doesn't. Your season in Morzine is not as long as some of the resorts like Tigne and Val d'Isere that are much higher up. Like we won't be running the lifts in Morzine won't be running till kind of the very end of April, mid May.
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But Avoriaz can stay open until kind of the end of April. It opened last weekend, believe it or not, on the 1st of December.
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So yeah, really, really solid five month season in Avoriaz.
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Speaker A: And apart from ski, I mean, what other winter sports are available there?
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Speaker B: Oh, there's so much of it. You can go, you can go mountain biking in the snow, you can go snowshoeing, you can go. There's ice skating, there's even kind of ice diving in the lakes, Lake Montreux You've got the cross country skiing.
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Yeah, there's loads of stuff. You can do husky sledding.
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Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on and it's, it's becoming a real destination for kind of multi activity, you know, it's not just about the skiing and I think that's because it sits at that thousand meters, you know, it allows people to go off and go on nice walks and hikes and do the horse riding, husky sledding as well and stuff.
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But that then you're straight up into the high altitude stuff of Avoriaz, where it's got the proper skiing and the off piste in the back country and all that kind of stuff as well.
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Speaker A: That sounds great because if you've got a group where somebody isn't necessarily into skiing, it sounds like they can find something to do while their partner goes off and does whatever.
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Speaker B: And because we've got the larger chalets, we're seeing like three generations coming. So it'll be like the grandparents, the parents and the kids and the grandparents would do the babysitting in the morning, then their parents would come back from skiing.
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Then the grandparents will walk around town and have a coffee, hot chocolate and go and explore, you know. So yeah, it's really nice actually. Really nice.
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Speaker A: And what about apres ski? I mean that's all important, isn't it? There's a. Plenty of opportunity to go out and enjoy yourself of an evening.
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Speaker B: Indeed. So it all starts up on the mountain at the Folies Douces in Avoriaz. So I'm sure you've heard of the famous Folie Douce bars where they have the champagne coming out across on the wires in the boxes.
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And so yeah, in Avoriaz, the Folie Deuce is absolutely, yeah, pumping. So we get a lot of people up there and then they'll make their way down the lift into Morzine town itself.
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And Morzine's got an unbelievable amount of bars like Coyote, you've got Au Chalet, you've got Bar Robinson which is very famous for its strong Mutzig drink.
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You've got the Irish bars. So yeah, there's a. There's the Cavern as well and the Opera nightclub. So yes, there's a lot of apres ski opportunities. And some people come and dump their boots at the chalet and then head straight back into town or they'll just be out all night in their boots.
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Speaker A: Sounds fantastic. If somebody hasn't brought the grandparents with them. Is there any sort of nannying service to look after the kids?
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Speaker B: Yeah, there is a lot of nanny services and some of them will actually come to the chalet and look after your children in your chalet. So we obviously have a lot of toys for kids and stuff.
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I've got two young, young girls. My business partner Ben has got kids.
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So we understand what kind of families need, you know. So there's boxes of toys and yeah, you can have a full nanny service where they'll look after them the whole day.
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You can also put your kids into ski school from, from three years old. The French ski school, it's called the Piou Piou. And they give them lunch or breakfast and they'll look after them for a half a day or a full day.
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Yeah, there's a lot of opportunities for that. And some of the, some of the nannies are paediatric nurses so they really know what they're doing. So you can trust them all English speaking, French speaking, you know.
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So yeah, there's some really, really good ones actually. That's probably one of the, one of the best things from Morzine because it is a very family orientated resort. There's a lot of those services available.
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Speaker A: Oh, that sounds great. What about business groups? Is there an option for them?
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Speaker B: So yes, we do a lot of corporate trips. We use a lot of agencies as well that kind of have connections to the corporate. So we will have a group of 30 come and stay with us for a long weekend because the corporates tend to not do full weeks.
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So they'll do like a Sunday to Thursday or a Thursday to Sunday.
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Our chalets cater perfectly for them. You know, they're your professional chef, we've got an open kitchen. Ben, my business partner is a sommelier. If they want to do like a wine tasting thing or something, they can do that as well.
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If they want to go and do an activity or rent a conference room in one of the hotels, we can do that for them. We recently hosted 75 people from an outdoor brand called Osprey for a global sales meeting which was, I mean for an outdoor brand to come and host all their kind of staff and clients in, in the mountains is what they should be doing really be, be in the environment where their products are used, I suppose.
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But yeah, you're so close to Geneva as well. You can fly from London to Geneva in an hour and then the transfer from Geneva into Morzine is an hour and 15 minutes.
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So if you've got the 6am flight, you're skiing by lunchtime. So two and a half, three days is, is completely viable, you know. Whereas other resorts like Vaujany and you've got a three hour transfer on the either side and it's.
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Yeah, it takes whole day out I suppose.
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Speaker A: And, and is it only Geneva airport or is there another one that you could.
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Speaker B: Geneva's the one. It's so close and it's an international airport and it, there's flights from all over. Every UK airport pretty much flies into, into Geneva. I mean if you were super stuck, you could do Turin, Milan, come through the Mont Blanc tunnel, you could do Grenoble, you could do Lyon.
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But yeah, Geneva's the one.
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Speaker A: Yeah.
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And you know, would you say that you have a typical customer for your mountain bike brakes and if so, does that differ from the typical customer for the ski brakes or is it just a really mixed bag?
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Speaker B: The mountain biking is a very mixed bag because they're mountain bikers, they come together as a group. So what we've managed to do over time is find everyone's kind of level ground.
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We've managed to find food that is suitable for kind of and appreciated by people who eat at very nice restaurants but then also appreciated by people that don't, you know, the level of service we provide is good enough for absolutely everyone.
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It exceeds some people's expectations by a long way and it's expected by others, you know. So the mountain bike is a real mixed bag and Covid kind of boosted that even more, you know, with, with everyone taking it up because you could get outside on your bike.
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Ski clientele have been fairly similar for quite a long time. You know, they like a slightly higher level of service. They like some good food, some good wine. But you are noticing the crossover now and kind of a more budget friendly ski holiday as well with self catered stuff and those things, you know.
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But that's where a resort like Morzine caters for all of it because you can go out and get pizza for €10, beer is €6. Whereas other places you're paying €10 for a pint and you're paying €20 for a pizza, you know.
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So yeah, it's kind of, it's a real melting pot. But the ski, ski is a more traditional clientele that's been existed for quite a long time. The mountain bikes are a real mix.
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Speaker A: Yeah, and you said that you get people from North America and across Europe, but do you get anybody from beyond that, you know, from more unusual destinations? And can they book with you as well?
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Speaker B: Yeah, of course. Well, the is Atlaskico.com is AtlasRide.com and we've had Australians, New Zealand's Norwegian. Norwegians.
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A lot of Europeans coming to Scotland as well.
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Yeah. Canadians all over the world. We've hosted kind of, kind of all of them really. I suppose that's what's pretty cool about having like a multi destination. It all started in the French Alps, but now Whistler, Spain, Scotland, all over the world, you know.
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Speaker A: Yeah. And why do you think you've been so successful? And what would you say differentiates your experiences from others that are out there?
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Speaker B: I think it's our passion for what we do, you know, like me and Ben, we are skiers, we're mountain bikers, you know, we understand exactly what people want. Every single trip we sell, we've been on ourself, we've put it together, we've tested it. Our litmus test is kind of that I'd never sell a holiday that I wouldn't pay for myself. You know, we've done the heli biking in Spain, we've done the.
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We've been in Italy, we've been all over, you know. So, yeah, I think that's the difference and I think the level of service. We do try and go above and beyond.
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Like our food is a secret weapon. People don't expect it. All of the reviews on Google are like, we come back just for the food. It's restaurant quality or better, so that's cool.
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You know, mountain bikers don't always necessarily expect that. I think it's our depth of knowledge as well, of the, of the local, of the destinations and using local guides wherever we can, you know, because that's so important, because they know everything from the best restaurant, the best sandwich, the fauna and flora, the best distillery.
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You know, they know all the little secrets and more importantly, they know how to get you out of tricky situations. For example, in Scotland, if the weather turns bad, they need to be able to get you off the mountain.
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You know, if you're in the Alps, they need to know where emergency vehicles can meet you and stuff. Like we need to get you down to the hospital if you've had an accident.
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So it's all that stuff that's so important, you know?
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Yeah, I think that's what sets us apart.
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Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, this all sounds absolutely fantastic, but, you know, I guess there's quite a lot of demand for this. So how far in advance should people be planning to book?
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You know, what is the availability like?
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Speaker B: I mean, for peak ski weeks, we tend to see when people are leaving. They will email. They'll email us within a week and book next year and put a 30% deposit down.
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You know, mountain bikers, it can be exactly the same. If they want a peak week in the middle of July, they'll do the same thing, you know, so, so most bookings come in I would say between six to nine months before they travel.
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The really eager beavers, 12 months and then you see all the last minute stuff as well. But I'd say yeah, typically six to 12, nine. Six to nine months is kind of your average.
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So we'll start to get crazy busy within the next few weeks. And everyone meets up in December for all of the summer mountain bike bookings and stuff. And we've already got a huge amount of stuff booked in already, you know.
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Speaker A: Because we always get that sort of, well, sort of peak, I suppose, after Christmas where everybody's got their Christmas money in their pocket and they're desperate to get away.
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So if somebody's in that position this year, are they going to be able to go somewhere with you this year or will it be sort of 2026?
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Speaker B: No, of course, I mean we, we will always, even if we don't have spaces left in our property properties, we work with a lot of partner hotels and stuff like that, you know, for the skiing.
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And there's always a few rooms left, there's always some last minute availability where certain groups, their numbers drop down. So a few rooms become free or spare or people's circumstances change.
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You know, someone might cancel a self catered week or something like that. So yeah, of course keep your eyes on the website and for the mountain bike stuff as well.
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The mountain bike stuff's not so weather dependent. A lot of skiers leave it to last minute to check the snow is going to be good and all that kind of stuff.
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But the mountain bikers, they'll be out there come rain or shine, you know, it doesn't really matter. So they get it, they choose where they want to go and they get it booked up.
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Speaker A: So finally, you know, you've sort of said that people should watch the website. So can you tell us what that is and how people can get on there? What's the url?
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Speaker B: So you can go to Google and just search Atlas Ride Co for the mountain bike and then you can search Atlas Ski Co for the skiing. On the websites there's a little button on the top, right, which toggles straight between ski and mountain bike.
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So you can literally just press Ski/mountain bike similar to winter summer and it'll take you to the other site if you want to check that out as well. Because a lot of our clients cross over now as well, you know.
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So yeah, Atlas Ski Co, Atlas Ride and yeah, yeah, you'll find it.
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Speaker A: That's fantastic. Thanks very much for your time, Richard. It's been wonderful to sort of hear about that. You've whetted my appetite so I might have to sort of think about planning a trip sometimes.
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But thank you very much for sharing all that with us.
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Speaker B: No worries. Thank you very much for having me.
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Speaker A: Well, there you are. All the inspiration you need if you fancy an action holiday rather than a beach vacation or a sightseeing tour.
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Poodling around Morzine sounds great fun, doesn't it? Even though I think I'd be more about the apres ski, I've never tried mountain biking. I have to admit, although I was never off my bicycle when a student at Cambridge University, I actually swore to my dad that there was no way I was taking my bike to uni.
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And then within a week I was ringing him up begging him to make an eight hour round trip to bring it to me as my feet were suffering so much with all the treks to and from lectures.
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The joy for me in this episode also lies in seeing where my travel and tourism PR takes me and meeting new people like Richard who are offering fabulous experiences.
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However, strangely enough, it was one of my insurance PR clients who made the introduction for me.
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I do hope you might take a trip with Atlas Ride co or Atlas Ski Co. If it all sounded too good to miss, I'm delighted to tell you that Richard has made that even more tempting, if it's the winter sports break that you're after, by creating an offer for Catapult PR and its Poodling Around listeners.
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The offer is a 10% discount on all remaining winter 24/25 ski holidays, so you will need to get your skates on if you want to take advantage. When booking, you will need to quote the code Catapult10 that's C A T A P U L T one zero, all as one word.
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I do hope that's going to prove useful so you can learn firsthand how Richard's clear passion translates into wonderful mountain experiences.
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That concludes this episode. So, as always, take great care of yourself, whether you are mooching around Malibu or in this case already merrily enjoying Morzine. Wherever you are, do remember my motto, that life's much more fun when you're poodling around.
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Speaker A: Hi there, Poodling Arounders.
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Today we're hitting a peak and we're talking adventures in the mountains, both on two wheels and of the winter sports variety.
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With the help of today's guest, Richard Wilford, who is a director of Atlas Ski Co and Atlas Ride Co, I'm going to whisk you off to the French Alps, to a place not too far from Geneva in Switzerland.
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Together we're going to discover the delights of a place called Morzine, exploring all that Atlas can offer to you. If you fancy whizzing across a piste or hitting a trail, you can, as we discover, be anything from beginner to pro.
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And fear not if you are more of a sporting softie, as you will also learn that there is something for everyone, even if you are just a lover of fine food.
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Regardless of where you live in the world, this episode can inspire your travels, even if you just want to explore the whisky distilleries of Scotland, as Atlas has so many resorts and different options available worldwide.
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So let's listen to what Richard has to tell us and what special offer he has also created for Catapult PR and its Poodling Around listeners.
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Hello, Richard, thanks for joining us today. I think this interview is going to be a real treat for anyone who's an outdoor adrenaline junkie or winter sports fan. And I'm very excited to find out more from you.
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But just by way of introduction, as we start this interview, could you give us the names of your adventure travel businesses and your role within them so everybody knows who you are?
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Speaker B: Yeah. Hi Jane, thank you very much for having me on today.
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So businesses are Atlas Ski Company, which is our ski company, obviously. And then we've got Atlas Ride, which is our mountain bike company, which kind of does mountain bike, bit of gravel riding as well and stuff.
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But yeah, kind of we've got the ski and the mountain bike at the moment. That's where we're at right now.
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Speaker A: Great. And which of these businesses was your first business, baby? And what does it offer?
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Speaker B: So the first one was the ski company, so moved out to the French Alps in 2000 or 8 was my first ski season and we set up a small company called Ski Season Beds, which was basically to accommodate seasonaires who had finished university.
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I had 500 people at my Bournemouth University, part of the ski, the ski asylum there. So yeah, we basically had the first company called Ski Season Beds and that basically did seasonal accommodation where you'd come stay for 5 months, get yourself a part time job or a full time job, ski as much as you could, go out, have fun.
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And yeah, that was that one, that was how it all started.
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Speaker A: Right, okay, that sounds interesting. So that's how you got into this world.
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Now your current business, both of your businesses actually, are based on a town called Morzine, aren't they? So why Morzine? Where exactly is that and what's so great about it from a mountain biking and ski perspective?
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Speaker B: So Morzine is where I did my first ski season, based out in the French Alps. You're about an hour and 15 minutes drive from Geneva. So a lot of people land into Geneva quickly, whiz up into the mountains.
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You're on the French-Swiss border as well. So basically it's part of a resort called the Port de Soleil, the Doors of the Sun, which is one of the largest linked ski areas in the world.
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12 resorts. So yeah, had a really good reputation for skiing and snowboarding and there was a lot of kind of English speaking companies operating there, transfer companies, chalet companies. So it just seemed kind of a natural, a natural place to gravitate towards for my first ski season.
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And I was a snowboarder at the time and it had some very, very good snow parks for all the jumps and the rails and stuff. But yeah, that's how, that's how I ended up there really, to be fair.
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Speaker A: And your first business there, am I right in thinking, was the mountain biking to start with?
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Speaker B: So the very first one was Ski Season Beds, where we did the seasonal accommodation and then opened up that seasonal accommodation in the summer for the mountain bikers to stay June, July and August.
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And then it all developed into kind of selling other companies ski accommodation on a weekly commission basis. Then we launched some of our own stuff and then we launched our own mountain bike catered chalets.
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So yeah, it all, it all grew from that. Kind of kind of grew together, but as separate businesses at the same time as well. Because mountain bike and ski, were quite different activities really with different clientele back then.
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They've merged a lot more now, I think Covid and all that time kind of people rode bikes a lot. It became a lot more mainstream than mountain biking, you know.
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But yeah, that's how it kind of started.
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Speaker A: Yeah. And what sort of mountain biking experience can somebody enjoy in Morzine then?
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Speaker B: So a lot of people think because it's in the Alps, they think it's all like big downhill jumps and all this kind of stuff. But you can do anything from absolute beginners up to World cup racing professionals.
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You know, if you imagine the mountain in the winter with the ski piste and you've got green pistes which are your family friendly ones which kind of traverse from side to side down the mountain and then you've got your black runs which kind of go straight down.
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So yeah, we've seen three year olds on balance bikes whizzing around on these green family friendly trails with their dad or mum following behind them.
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And then you get the likes of the World Cup racers that are doing 60, 70 foot jumps and going 50 kilometres an hour. So there's something for everyone out there, you know.
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And then there's even a lot of stuff for leisure cyclists, if you want to pedal around the gravel roads on the mountains and around the mountain lakes and all that kind of stuff.
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So yeah, we're starting to see the mountains really become a kind of a multi activity family holiday destination really.
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Speaker A: So you literally need no experience. You could just turn up and start doing something there, could you?
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Speaker B: If you can ride your bike around the park or on gravel roads and stuff in the UK and you've got fairly competent kind of mountain bike skills, you can stand up, you can go around the corner, you know, like you could come to the Alps yet, you could get a lesson or you could go up the chairlift, find the green beginner family runs.
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And yes, some of them are very, very simple and they're very well signposted as well. You know, it clearly says that this is a green run, this is a blue, this is a red, this is a black.
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So yeah, I would say a complete beginner could, I wouldn't recommend it without a lesson and some coaching and stuff. But a complete beginner could come and ride around the mountain lakes because it's just a path around essentially like a canal path around some of the mountain lakes.
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But then once you venture up into the mountains, you do need some more advanced skills. You need to have a little bit of coaching and stuff, you know. So yeah, there's a little bit for everyone out there really.
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Speaker A: And do you need sort of a certain level of fitness, would you say, before you even attempted to do any of that?
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Speaker B: Well, I mean, to maintain your fitness? Well, to maintain a good bike ride I suppose you need, you need a base level of fitness, but actually you don't need to be able to pedal up the mountain because you hook your bike onto the back of the ski lift.
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So push it up to the ski lift, you hook it on the lift in front of you, then the lift behind you is the one that you sit on. Then the pistiers at the top, the lift people, they all take the bike off for you and give it back to you.
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So no, you don't need a huge amount of fitness. It doesn't involve massive amounts of pedalling and stuff.
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So. Yeah. And there's even trails for disabled riders that are in kind of 4x4 bikes with four wheels.
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Yeah. So yeah, and that's getting actually really, really popular. The trails are being made wider access for everyone. The lift companies will stop the lift, they'll put the kind of the quad wheeled bike on and then they'll take you up to the top.
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And it's pretty impressive. Some of the stuff those guys can get down as well.
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Speaker A: Yes. Sounds like they're very expert. So do people hire the bikes from you or do they ever bring their own or what's the situation?
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Speaker B: We have a partnership with Specialized. Specialized, one of the biggest bike brands in the world. So we've got a lot of, we've got a lot of kind of the more hardcore mountain bikes that we rent out, you know, but a lot of people fly with their bikes.
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It's 90 quid return with EasyJet and free with BA or Swissair.
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But it all depends on what level of mountain biking you want to do. If you basically want to pootle around the mountain lakes, you could get a hardtail simple bike.
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If you want to go off on huge adventures, you can rent electric E bikes as well. So yeah, there's, there's something for everyone. We rent bikes, we have our own fleet for our own clients.
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We have a mechanic on in the resort and everything. And then there's, there's so many shops because all of the ski shops that operate for skiing in the winter, they flip over to mountain bikes in the summer.
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So yeah, you've probably got 10, 12 mountain bike rental shops in Morzine as well in the French Alps.
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Speaker A: Right. Okay. And what's the real highlight of mountain biking in Morzine?
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Speaker B: I think the neighbouring town of Morzine, Les Gets, which is literally a five minute pedal, hosted the World Cup, the downhill World Cup, and I think they saw around 200,000 people visit the resort over the weekend.
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So yeah, it's the pinnacle of the sport. The Port Soleil is vast. It's part of France, Switzerland as well. Champéry in Switzerland has also hosted the World Cup and they're hosting the world championships next year.
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Les Gets's hosted the World cup multiple times. So that's probably the highlight of the mountain biking scene out there. But it's unbelievably busy in the summer months for mountain biking now; thousands and thousands of people in resort every week, really.
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Speaker A: And it's become so popular what you do and your model, hasn't it, that you've extended it to other places around the world.
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Speaker B: Yes, well, we had expanded down to Italy to the Maritime Alps where they meet the sea in a place called Finale Ligura. If you kind of fly into Nice, you travel along the coast of Monaco and just past Monaco's Finale Ligura.
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Beautiful food, awesome culture, mountain bike trails that descend down to the beach, you can have a swim in the Mediterranean. So yeah, and that's hosted the Enduro World Series, which is one of the best mountain bike events in the world as well.
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But also during COVID we had to kind of, we had to be pretty quick on our toes, to keep offering our clients something because they couldn't travel abroad. So we started mountain bike trips in Scotland, Wales, the Lake District, the Brecon Beacons.
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And now the Scottish tours are very, very popular with the Americans because they love coming over to the whisky distilleries, see the golden eagles and all that kind of stuff.
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You know, Scotland's got a lot of history linked to America. So yeah, all over the world now. Spain, Italy. Yeah, a lot of resorts. And just launched Whistler in Canada as well, which is a very popular mountain bike destination unit.
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Speaker A: Yeah, I can imagine. So, you know, how does the whole thing work? You know, somebody gets on the plane and they arrive at Geneva, I presume, is that right?
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Speaker B: And then destinations. Yep. Geneva.
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Speaker A: Do they trans, do you transfer them, do they transfer themselves or how does that work?
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Speaker B: It all depends how involved they want us to be. You know, some people want the freedom of jumping on an EasyJet, get into Geneva, having a hire car. They'll go and explore a little bit around Lake Geneva.
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They might go down to Lucerne, Montreux, then drive up to us. If they don't want to do that, they can literally get on a flight, land in Geneva. We'll have a transfer van waiting for them, pick them up, whiz them straight to their accommodation, welcome them with a nice cold beer or a glass of fizz or a soft drink.
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And then, yeah, they we have options of catered chalets where you've got a mechanic on site, you've got chefs, you've got hosts, you can have the full package or you can do a self catered apartment and we'll just be there to assist you during the week as well.
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But some of the bigger tours in Spain and Scotland, we literally do everything. So they'll arrive at the airport. And from the minute they land, we're looking after them. We'll take them to restaurants, we'll build their bike for them, we guide them during the day, we sort their lunches out.
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We do absolutely everything. We take them to the whiskey distilleries, you know. So it all depends how much involvement they want. Yeah, we offer quite a lot of.
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Speaker A: Options and that's all very flexible when they book, is it? Do they discuss that with you when they're booking what they want?
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Speaker B: So there's a lot of conversations, calls, emails and stuff, because we have our set itineraries and our set tours for all of these destinations. But a lot of groups also like to do their own thing.
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They've heard about a specific trail they want to ride, they've heard about a specific distillery they want to go to, or something. So our guides, our vehicles, our bikes, all, they're ready for them.
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And we put together custom tours for multiple groups. I mean, I think Scotland, the custom trips are outweighing the kind of scheduled trips now, you know, because there's just so much on offer.
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Speaker A: And I think also perhaps the Americans want that more tailored approach, don't they?
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Speaker B: I think the Americans, they don't get as much holiday as the Europeans. And when they travel, they travel quite big. They. They like to get a lot in and they'll kind of link it with other stuff.
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So they'll have a couple of days exploring Edinburgh, then we'll pick them up from an Edinburgh hotel. They'll be with us for a week or so and then they'll nip off to the Isle of Skye, maybe for something else.
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So, yeah, I mean, we can do it all, really. If they want to play a round of golf, I love golf, I'll play a round of golf with them, as long as they pay the green fees in Scotland, because it's pretty expensive to play golf up there.
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Speaker A: Well, there are some magnificent golf courses aren't there, so plenty to choose from.
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Now, back to Morzine. I think you've sort of intimated that you might get kind of professional bikers coming and doing things with you. So, you know, what do you offer to them?
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Because they've obviously got a much greater level of experience, haven't they? How does that work?
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Speaker B: So we get an awful lot of professional World Cup mountain bike athletes coming to stay with us because the World Cup Series is kind of North America, America, some down in, like, Australia, then most of it's in Europe.
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So they'll come and they'll stay in Europe for a prolonged period of time. So when they're not at the races.
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Because Morzine is such an amazing training ground. There's so much terrain there, so many trails. They'll come and stay with us and when they stay with us, they've got a mechanic, they've got workshops they can use, they've got good mountain bike specific accommodation with secure alarmed garages.
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So they know their bikes are safe. They've got somewhere they can wash all their equipment or, you know, so yeah, that's, that's what we offer to them. They get the kind of, the perks of what a holiday maker would get, you know, in between travelling around all these destinations in vehicles and different hotels, all that stuff, it gives them a bit of a base to film some content, relax, train and all that kind of stuff, you know.
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So yeah, we've got a lot of ambassadors, partner athletes and stuff as well.
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Speaker A: So this infrastructure sounds like it's a really good thing for them that it's all. Everything that they could possibly want is in, in exactly the right place. Yeah.
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Speaker B: Well, if you have a team from America, we have an athlete called Neko Mulally, he's starting his own bike brand and he's got a team of six riders now. So they all come over from America, they're in Europe for two or three months.
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They'll base themselves with us in Morzine. They'll travel off to Austria, Poland, Italy, Switzerland and then they'll come back to us as the base, you know. So yeah, it gives them a home from home, really.
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Speaker A: Yeah.
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Speaker C: Now moving on to the ski side.
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Speaker A: What do you offer for those who want to take to the slopes and you know, what's the attraction of Morzine for them?
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Speaker B: Well, I think Morzine is a year round village. It's got about 5,000 people that live there permanently. It wasn't built as a purpose made ski resort. Like, like for example, Flaine in France, like that's a bit of a concrete jungle.
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It was just built there to house skiers. You know. Morzine is a beautiful town. It's got rivers, it's got an Olympic indoor outdoor swimming pools, ice rink for the hockey team.
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It's got high ropes in the trees. Like it's, it's stunning.
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But Morzine sits at 1,000 meters, so it's quite low in terms of ski. But within one lift you're in Avoriaz at 1800 meters and then you have the whole port, which is over 600 km of pistes, to ski.
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And you can have breakfast in France, you can have a lunch over in Switzerland and a bit of border hopping and stuff. You know, like there's just something there for absolutely everyone.
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The kids, ski schools, they start at the bottom of the lift in Morzine, it's so easy to get to. There's a little train that takes you around the village. You know, you've got unbelievable views of Mont Blanc, you've got the mountain lakes and stuff.
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So there's just something. It's just a beautiful French village that's got something for everyone. You know, there's. There's beginner green trails from families up to like the infamous Swiss Wall, which is an unpisted black run from France down into Switzerland.
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So, yeah, and it's so close to Geneva airport as well. So it's really family friendly. You're only in the vehicles for an hour and 15 minutes or so. So, yeah, it's got a lot, a lot going for it.
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Morgan.
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Speaker A: I'm thinking James Bond now. I saw these visions of Bond going down the slopes, as you said al that.
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Speaker B: Well, you've got the James Bond Gondola over in Chamonix, which is only 45 minutes away, which was in. I can't remember what film it was in. But yeah, you've got the old famous Bond Gondola over there.
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Speaker A: Yeah. Now I think with your chalets, you've got two different options, haven't you? You've got a self catering option, but you've also got an option where you provide meals for people who are staying.
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How does that work?
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Speaker B: Yeah, we offer self cater in apartments where we can just give you like, we can do a welcome hamper for you, do your lift pass, your ski hire and stuff. Or you can come and be literally looked after from start to finish.
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So we've got professional chefs. My business partner Ben is a sommelier, his wife Tiffany, professional chef. So that's how it all kind of started.
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And you can choose. So five nights of catered food, three courses. We include really nice house wine and beer with your dinner as well.
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We also offer short stays where you can have three nights, Sunday, Thursday, Thursday, Sunday, and you get three nights or two nights of catering. So, yeah, traditional catered chalet kind of setup.
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But since breakfast it's changed quite a lot. You know, you can't really have.
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It's not your typical chalet food. Now it's been elevated, it's a bit of a higher level with professional chefs and that kind of stuff, you know. So, yeah, really, really nice experience.
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Speaker A: And what sort of meals are we talking then?
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Speaker B: Confit duck, you can have steaks, we can do stir fries. There's so many different options, you know. Yeah. The menus are quite varied and really, really nice. You know, we've kind of stepped away from the traditional big lasagnas, big tarts and flans, big beef bourguignons.
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The food's kind of a bit. A bit nicer now, a bit more elevated.
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Good. And the wine's lovely as well. So. Yeah, it's really nice. Nice experience.
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Speaker A: Yeah. Especially if you're from abroad, I guess, you know, and you're not used to that, you know, the Americans, etc must really love that. The kind of taste of the. The local area, I guess.
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Speaker B: Definitely. And our food stays the same in the summer for the mountain bikers. And the mountain bike holiday is traditionally not as kind of elevated as the ski holiday. So some of the mountain bikers come out and they're having duck and all this kind of stuff and they really.
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Yes. Opening their eyes, they're like, wow, this. This is kind of amazing, you know.
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Speaker A: And no burgers.
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Speaker B: Yeah. But two nights of the week they'll eat out in town and they'll go and have a really good burgers. And the French are renowned for having nice kind of raw burgers and stuff, you know.
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Yeah. So, yeah, it's. It's five nights catered during the week and then two eating out in the restaurants to get some local Savoiard kind of food and stuff, you know.
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Speaker A: Yeah. And looking at the chalets themselves, are they modern, are they traditional French alpine chalets or is it a mix?
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Speaker B: Yes. So the ones that are catered are nice and modern. So they've been renovated recently. They're all kind of ensuites, double or twin rooms, got balconies and things. You know, you've got big lounge areas, TVs, there's some Xboxes and Nintendo Wiis for the kids in the play areas and stuff.
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So yeah, nice modern chalets, hot tubs, saunas.
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There's a lot of more. There's some very, very beautiful old traditional chalets in Morzine as well, but ours are kind of a bit more modern, bit more contemporary, a bit.
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A bit newer, you know.
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Speaker A: And what's the smallest number of people who can book a chalet? And what's the largest that you can cater for?
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Speaker B: So we cater for quite a lot of big groups as well. Actually. One of our chalets can sleep up to 28 people over 14 rooms.
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Yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome. Three floors. But then you all eat down in the main open kitchen area. So some weeks, peak weeks, like half term, the big chalets are exclusive book only.
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New Year's Eve, they're exclusive book only. So you take the whole place. One of them is 20, you can combine it with another one upstairs, that's 28, like I said.
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But in non peak weeks we can take a booking for one person. You could book a room to yourself. You know, if there's four of you could take two rooms.
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We offer a single supplement as well. So if there's a group of three and you wanted a room each, you could all do that. So yeah, very flexible, you know.
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Speaker A: Okay.
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And you know, moving on to snow because in a sort of world of climate change that can be challenging sometimes. How does Morzine fare when it comes to snow?
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Speaker B: So Morzine sits at a thousand meters, which is quite low for a ski resort, and the piste dropped down to a thousand. But like I said, one of the lifts from Morzine is straight up to 1600 meters.
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Then another one straight up to 1800, then up to 2400. So it has its pros and cons, you know, like a low. It's not ski in, ski out, whereas Avoriaz is ski in, ski out.
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But it's not freezing cold all the time. It's not completely. It's not icy pavements and lethal for the children and stuff. You know, like if you want that, it's much better.
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But yeah, they've got great snow making machines as well. And what we do benefit from is like a bizarre little microclimate where the cold air comes down from the north, the warm air comes up from the south, but Mont Blanc kind of stops it.
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So we get. Avoriaz is one of the most snow-sure resorts in the whole of the French Alps.
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So yeah, it's, it's a really, really good destination for skiing.
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It doesn't. Your season in Morzine is not as long as some of the resorts like Tigne and Val d'Isere that are much higher up. Like we won't be running the lifts in Morzine won't be running till kind of the very end of April, mid May.
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But Avoriaz can stay open until kind of the end of April. It opened last weekend, believe it or not, on the 1st of December.
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So yeah, really, really solid five month season in Avoriaz.
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Speaker A: And apart from ski, I mean, what other winter sports are available there?
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Speaker B: Oh, there's so much of it. You can go, you can go mountain biking in the snow, you can go snowshoeing, you can go. There's ice skating, there's even kind of ice diving in the lakes, Lake Montreux You've got the cross country skiing.
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Yeah, there's loads of stuff. You can do husky sledding.
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Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on and it's, it's becoming a real destination for kind of multi activity, you know, it's not just about the skiing and I think that's because it sits at that thousand meters, you know, it allows people to go off and go on nice walks and hikes and do the horse riding, husky sledding as well and stuff.
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But that then you're straight up into the high altitude stuff of Avoriaz, where it's got the proper skiing and the off piste in the back country and all that kind of stuff as well.
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Speaker A: That sounds great because if you've got a group where somebody isn't necessarily into skiing, it sounds like they can find something to do while their partner goes off and does whatever.
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Speaker B: And because we've got the larger chalets, we're seeing like three generations coming. So it'll be like the grandparents, the parents and the kids and the grandparents would do the babysitting in the morning, then their parents would come back from skiing.
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Then the grandparents will walk around town and have a coffee, hot chocolate and go and explore, you know. So yeah, it's really nice actually. Really nice.
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Speaker A: And what about apres ski? I mean that's all important, isn't it? There's a. Plenty of opportunity to go out and enjoy yourself of an evening.
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Speaker B: Indeed. So it all starts up on the mountain at the Folies Douces in Avoriaz. So I'm sure you've heard of the famous Folie Douce bars where they have the champagne coming out across on the wires in the boxes.
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And so yeah, in Avoriaz, the Folie Deuce is absolutely, yeah, pumping. So we get a lot of people up there and then they'll make their way down the lift into Morzine town itself.
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And Morzine's got an unbelievable amount of bars like Coyote, you've got Au Chalet, you've got Bar Robinson which is very famous for its strong Mutzig drink.
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You've got the Irish bars. So yeah, there's a. There's the Cavern as well and the Opera nightclub. So yes, there's a lot of apres ski opportunities. And some people come and dump their boots at the chalet and then head straight back into town or they'll just be out all night in their boots.
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Speaker A: Sounds fantastic. If somebody hasn't brought the grandparents with them. Is there any sort of nannying service to look after the kids?
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Speaker B: Yeah, there is a lot of nanny services and some of them will actually come to the chalet and look after your children in your chalet. So we obviously have a lot of toys for kids and stuff.
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I've got two young, young girls. My business partner Ben has got kids.
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So we understand what kind of families need, you know. So there's boxes of toys and yeah, you can have a full nanny service where they'll look after them the whole day.
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You can also put your kids into ski school from, from three years old. The French ski school, it's called the Piou Piou. And they give them lunch or breakfast and they'll look after them for a half a day or a full day.
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Yeah, there's a lot of opportunities for that. And some of the, some of the nannies are paediatric nurses so they really know what they're doing. So you can trust them all English speaking, French speaking, you know.
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So yeah, there's some really, really good ones actually. That's probably one of the, one of the best things from Morzine because it is a very family orientated resort. There's a lot of those services available.
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Speaker A: Oh, that sounds great. What about business groups? Is there an option for them?
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Speaker B: So yes, we do a lot of corporate trips. We use a lot of agencies as well that kind of have connections to the corporate. So we will have a group of 30 come and stay with us for a long weekend because the corporates tend to not do full weeks.
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So they'll do like a Sunday to Thursday or a Thursday to Sunday.
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Our chalets cater perfectly for them. You know, they're your professional chef, we've got an open kitchen. Ben, my business partner is a sommelier. If they want to do like a wine tasting thing or something, they can do that as well.
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If they want to go and do an activity or rent a conference room in one of the hotels, we can do that for them. We recently hosted 75 people from an outdoor brand called Osprey for a global sales meeting which was, I mean for an outdoor brand to come and host all their kind of staff and clients in, in the mountains is what they should be doing really be, be in the environment where their products are used, I suppose.
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But yeah, you're so close to Geneva as well. You can fly from London to Geneva in an hour and then the transfer from Geneva into Morzine is an hour and 15 minutes.
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So if you've got the 6am flight, you're skiing by lunchtime. So two and a half, three days is, is completely viable, you know. Whereas other resorts like Vaujany and you've got a three hour transfer on the either side and it's.
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Yeah, it takes whole day out I suppose.
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Speaker A: And, and is it only Geneva airport or is there another one that you could.
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Speaker B: Geneva's the one. It's so close and it's an international airport and it, there's flights from all over. Every UK airport pretty much flies into, into Geneva. I mean if you were super stuck, you could do Turin, Milan, come through the Mont Blanc tunnel, you could do Grenoble, you could do Lyon.
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But yeah, Geneva's the one.
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Speaker A: Yeah.
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And you know, would you say that you have a typical customer for your mountain bike brakes and if so, does that differ from the typical customer for the ski brakes or is it just a really mixed bag?
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Speaker B: The mountain biking is a very mixed bag because they're mountain bikers, they come together as a group. So what we've managed to do over time is find everyone's kind of level ground.
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We've managed to find food that is suitable for kind of and appreciated by people who eat at very nice restaurants but then also appreciated by people that don't, you know, the level of service we provide is good enough for absolutely everyone.
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It exceeds some people's expectations by a long way and it's expected by others, you know. So the mountain bike is a real mixed bag and Covid kind of boosted that even more, you know, with, with everyone taking it up because you could get outside on your bike.
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Ski clientele have been fairly similar for quite a long time. You know, they like a slightly higher level of service. They like some good food, some good wine. But you are noticing the crossover now and kind of a more budget friendly ski holiday as well with self catered stuff and those things, you know.
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But that's where a resort like Morzine caters for all of it because you can go out and get pizza for €10, beer is €6. Whereas other places you're paying €10 for a pint and you're paying €20 for a pizza, you know.
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So yeah, it's kind of, it's a real melting pot. But the ski, ski is a more traditional clientele that's been existed for quite a long time. The mountain bikes are a real mix.
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Speaker A: Yeah, and you said that you get people from North America and across Europe, but do you get anybody from beyond that, you know, from more unusual destinations? And can they book with you as well?
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Speaker B: Yeah, of course. Well, the is Atlaskico.com is AtlasRide.com and we've had Australians, New Zealand's Norwegian. Norwegians.
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A lot of Europeans coming to Scotland as well.
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Yeah. Canadians all over the world. We've hosted kind of, kind of all of them really. I suppose that's what's pretty cool about having like a multi destination. It all started in the French Alps, but now Whistler, Spain, Scotland, all over the world, you know.
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Speaker A: Yeah. And why do you think you've been so successful? And what would you say differentiates your experiences from others that are out there?
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Speaker B: I think it's our passion for what we do, you know, like me and Ben, we are skiers, we're mountain bikers, you know, we understand exactly what people want. Every single trip we sell, we've been on ourself, we've put it together, we've tested it. Our litmus test is kind of that I'd never sell a holiday that I wouldn't pay for myself. You know, we've done the heli biking in Spain, we've done the.
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We've been in Italy, we've been all over, you know. So, yeah, I think that's the difference and I think the level of service. We do try and go above and beyond.
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Like our food is a secret weapon. People don't expect it. All of the reviews on Google are like, we come back just for the food. It's restaurant quality or better, so that's cool.
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You know, mountain bikers don't always necessarily expect that. I think it's our depth of knowledge as well, of the, of the local, of the destinations and using local guides wherever we can, you know, because that's so important, because they know everything from the best restaurant, the best sandwich, the fauna and flora, the best distillery.
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You know, they know all the little secrets and more importantly, they know how to get you out of tricky situations. For example, in Scotland, if the weather turns bad, they need to be able to get you off the mountain.
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You know, if you're in the Alps, they need to know where emergency vehicles can meet you and stuff. Like we need to get you down to the hospital if you've had an accident.
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So it's all that stuff that's so important, you know?
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Yeah, I think that's what sets us apart.
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Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, this all sounds absolutely fantastic, but, you know, I guess there's quite a lot of demand for this. So how far in advance should people be planning to book?
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You know, what is the availability like?
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Speaker B: I mean, for peak ski weeks, we tend to see when people are leaving. They will email. They'll email us within a week and book next year and put a 30% deposit down.
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You know, mountain bikers, it can be exactly the same. If they want a peak week in the middle of July, they'll do the same thing, you know, so, so most bookings come in I would say between six to nine months before they travel.
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The really eager beavers, 12 months and then you see all the last minute stuff as well. But I'd say yeah, typically six to 12, nine. Six to nine months is kind of your average.
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So we'll start to get crazy busy within the next few weeks. And everyone meets up in December for all of the summer mountain bike bookings and stuff. And we've already got a huge amount of stuff booked in already, you know.
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Speaker A: Because we always get that sort of, well, sort of peak, I suppose, after Christmas where everybody's got their Christmas money in their pocket and they're desperate to get away.
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So if somebody's in that position this year, are they going to be able to go somewhere with you this year or will it be sort of 2026?
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Speaker B: No, of course, I mean we, we will always, even if we don't have spaces left in our property properties, we work with a lot of partner hotels and stuff like that, you know, for the skiing.
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And there's always a few rooms left, there's always some last minute availability where certain groups, their numbers drop down. So a few rooms become free or spare or people's circumstances change.
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You know, someone might cancel a self catered week or something like that. So yeah, of course keep your eyes on the website and for the mountain bike stuff as well.
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The mountain bike stuff's not so weather dependent. A lot of skiers leave it to last minute to check the snow is going to be good and all that kind of stuff.
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But the mountain bikers, they'll be out there come rain or shine, you know, it doesn't really matter. So they get it, they choose where they want to go and they get it booked up.
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Speaker A: So finally, you know, you've sort of said that people should watch the website. So can you tell us what that is and how people can get on there? What's the url?
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Speaker B: So you can go to Google and just search Atlas Ride Co for the mountain bike and then you can search Atlas Ski Co for the skiing. On the websites there's a little button on the top, right, which toggles straight between ski and mountain bike.
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So you can literally just press Ski/mountain bike similar to winter summer and it'll take you to the other site if you want to check that out as well. Because a lot of our clients cross over now as well, you know.
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So yeah, Atlas Ski Co, Atlas Ride and yeah, yeah, you'll find it.
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Speaker A: That's fantastic. Thanks very much for your time, Richard. It's been wonderful to sort of hear about that. You've whetted my appetite so I might have to sort of think about planning a trip sometimes.
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But thank you very much for sharing all that with us.
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Speaker B: No worries. Thank you very much for having me.
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Speaker A: Well, there you are. All the inspiration you need if you fancy an action holiday rather than a beach vacation or a sightseeing tour.
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Poodling around Morzine sounds great fun, doesn't it? Even though I think I'd be more about the apres ski, I've never tried mountain biking. I have to admit, although I was never off my bicycle when a student at Cambridge University, I actually swore to my dad that there was no way I was taking my bike to uni.
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And then within a week I was ringing him up begging him to make an eight hour round trip to bring it to me as my feet were suffering so much with all the treks to and from lectures.
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The joy for me in this episode also lies in seeing where my travel and tourism PR takes me and meeting new people like Richard who are offering fabulous experiences.
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However, strangely enough, it was one of my insurance PR clients who made the introduction for me.
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I do hope you might take a trip with Atlas Ride co or Atlas Ski Co. If it all sounded too good to miss, I'm delighted to tell you that Richard has made that even more tempting, if it's the winter sports break that you're after, by creating an offer for Catapult PR and its Poodling Around listeners.
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The offer is a 10% discount on all remaining winter 24/25 ski holidays, so you will need to get your skates on if you want to take advantage. When booking, you will need to quote the code Catapult10 that's C A T A P U L T one zero, all as one word.
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I do hope that's going to prove useful so you can learn firsthand how Richard's clear passion translates into wonderful mountain experiences.
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That concludes this episode. So, as always, take great care of yourself, whether you are mooching around Malibu or in this case already merrily enjoying Morzine. Wherever you are, do remember my motto, that life's much more fun when you're poodling around.
