Méribel sits in the middle valley of Les 3 Vallées, which makes it the only resort with a direct run into both of the others. It is not one village but a string of them along the valley: Méribel Les Allues at 1,100 m, Méribel Village at 1,400 m, Méribel Centre at 1,450 m, Morel at 1,600 m and Méribel-Mottaret at 1,750 m. The resort was founded by the British in the 1930s and has been built ever since under a strict architectural charter of wood, stone and slate roofs.
How to get there: the nearest railway station is Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains, and the valley road runs up from there. To Moûtiers the ski area operator gives roughly 77 km from Chambéry, 107 km from Grenoble, 121 km from Geneva and 186 km from Lyon. The four nearest airports are Geneva, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, Grenoble and Chambéry, with Altibus coaches from all of them. Méribel has its own altiport.
Slopes and lifts: the Méribel valley alone has more than 150 km of marked runs, and they open into the 600 km of Les 3 Vallées, which spans 1,300 m to 3,230 m with 85 % of its terrain above 1,800 m. From Méribel the Saulire links across to Courchevel and the Mont de la Chambre to the Belleville valley, so both neighbouring valleys are reachable and returnable in a day.
Cross-country skiing: Les 3 Vallées counts 100 km of Nordic trails across the three valleys.
For families: Méribel-Mottaret at 1,750 m is the ski-in, ski-out end of the valley, where the lifts are reachable on foot from most accommodation. Free shuttles run between the villages through the season.
Where you stay: hotels, serviced chalets, residences and apartments are spread across the villages rather than concentrated in one centre, so the choice is as much about which village as about which building.
Season 2026/27: 5 December 2026 to 18 April 2027.
