Summer alpine holiday - Chamonix and Lake Maggiore?

[mazarineblue]

Just that really - we want to have a multi centre site holiday but some advice on what locations fit best would be really helpful!

we've got 7 days in Chamonix beginning of August to fit around - we can go either before or after this anywhere within reasonable driving distance (we are flying in and hiring a car - flights not sorted yet so flexible on airports). we've got 3 young teens and are trying to combine a bit of pool, toboganning, glacier type stuff for them with some chilling out, culture, restaurants and general promenading around - for us !
I'm looking at Ticino near Lake Maggiore for four days before Chamonix, then somewhere else for 4 days after - is that achievable (it looks like at least a 5 hour drive?) , or is there anywhere else that fits the bill? all advice gratefully received?

Fwiw DS1 once did a summer season in Chamonix as a ranger with Esprit & said it's completely fabulous (he had previously done a ski season with them)

thanks! yes, looking at reviews - including some zombie threads on here , Chamonix looks like a good bet - so as we've booked that, we are trying to shoehorn some other places at the beginning / end - or both of that week. Ideally i'd like somewhere in Switzerland then we can fly into /out of Geneva. Montreux looks lovely, but so do lots of places in Italy...hmmmm

We've done both , but not on same holiday! What are you looking for in your second destination? Lakes Lugano and Maggiore are easily reachable from Ch. Como only a little further.

Lake Annecy is another option.

Thanks, really looking for somewhere a contrast to chamonix,, which we have booked as the central "chunk" of our holiday. I've seen some good reviews about maggiore's villages having a more med climate? Another option we're looking at is murren/wengen. There's just too much choice, everywhere looks good-but its not easy finding places that will sleep 5 , our budget is around £3000 for 16 nights...

as a contrast, but staying in France, you could look at the Jura

we had a Eurocamp holiday split between Normandy & \link{http://www.lac-chalain.com/?lang=en\Lac de Chalain} when our kids were younger than yours. Loads to do still & amazing scenery but not nearly so much travelling