Journal · Sports

Winter hiking trips in Europe without a ski resort: a week on snowshoes from a whole house on the Jura plateau

By Robin — your host · sources at the end · 21 October 2026 · 4 min read · Our method

Winter hiking trips in Europe usually mean 1 of 2 things: a ski resort with a few groomed paths, or a southern coast where winter never arrives. The French Jura offers a third: a snowbound plateau with marked snowshoe routes, a long-distance winter trail, and a whole house at the trailhead. Here are the routes in published figures, the drives we measured, and the limits.

Why a winter hiking week, not a ski week

Hiking in winter asks for less than skiing and gives back more silence. Nobody needs a lift pass or a lesson; a pair of snowshoes turns any walker into a winter walker in an afternoon. The Jura plateau suits it because the snow lies in the villages and forests, not only on a summit reached by cable car, and because the marked routes start from car parks that are a short drive from the house. The week below assumes nobody in the group has done this before.

The 2 marked areas, with their figures

Foncine-le-Haut, which our measurement puts 10 min down the road, marks 17 snowshoe routes according to Jura Tourisme, graded and waymarked, rising to 1,260 m at the top of the site. Mouthe, 20 min from the house in the same measurement, adds 20 km of marked trails in the valley where the Doubs rises, around the village often called the coldest in France, and the prettiest in frost. Between the 2 areas a group has a different route every day of the week without repeating one.

The long trail, for the ambitious

The great crossing of the range, the GTJ, exists in a snowshoe version: Jura Tourisme gives it at about 10 days end to end, waymarked across the range. Nobody needs the whole of it. A group based at the house walks 1 or 2 of its stages as day trips with 2 cars, and sees what a winter crossing feels like without carrying a pack. Our long trails page describes the route in all its seasons.

A 5-day shape

Day 1: hire snowshoes at Foncine-le-Haut and learn the gait on a short loop. Day 2: a longer loop there, with the climb. Day 3: Mouthe, and the frost. Day 4: rest, or the flat walk around the lake near the house. Day 5: a stage of the long trail, the day the week was for. Start late, because the light comes late, and be back before it goes; in January that leaves 6 or 7 hours of walking, which is plenty on snow. The snowshoe weekend page compresses the same idea into 2 nights.

The house as trailhead

Jura 835 stands 835 m above sea level, in Foncine-le-Bas, where the snow usually waits at the door. 6 to 8 walkers fit into 3 bedrooms served by 2 bathrooms, all on 1 level. Wet gear dries overnight in the boot room by the entrance, and the long table takes the map and the soup. 1 group has the house entire, so the group has its own kitchen and its own evenings, which matters more in winter than in any other season.

Honest limits

We hire no snowshoes, poles or boots; the nordic villages nearby do, and we tell you where. Snow is likely from January to March on the plateau and never guaranteed, so check the nordic sites’ daily reports before you commit. The routes are marked, not guided; carry a map, water and a head torch, and agree a turnaround time. Days are short and cold, and the Loi Montagne season runs November through March, when a car must have snow tyres fitted or carry chains or socks. A group that wants a guide should book one through the local offices, not expect one from us.

Getting the group here

Out of Geneva airport, the drive we clocked to the house runs 1 hr 20 min, with hire cars at the terminal. Via Paris, SNCF Connect times the fastest train to Frasne at 2 hr 48 min; the road from the station to the door adds 40 min. 2 cars serve a group of 8 and let the long-trail day run point to point.

What it costs

The whole house is priced from €4,200 per week. Add the snowshoe hire, the fuel and the food you cook, and a group of 6 to 8 spends far less than a week in a resort hotel with lift passes nobody uses. Tell us the week you have in mind, how many you are and whether anyone has walked on snow before; we reply with the routes that fit and the latest snow report.