Val d’Isère sits at around 1,850 m at the head of the Tarentaise valley, in Savoie. Its ski area is shared with Tignes: 300 km of marked runs stretching from 1,550 m up to 3,456 m, across 3,680 hectares.
How to get there: the nearest railway station is Bourg-Saint-Maurice, at the foot of the valley, with coaches and transfers running up the mountain road from there. The nearest airports are Geneva, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, Chambéry and Grenoble.
Slopes and lifts: the resort gives the run breakdown as 21 green, 65 blue, 41 red and 32 black. Snowmaking covers more than 65 km of them. The Bellevarde and Solaise faces rise straight out of the village, and the link to Tignes runs over the Col de Fresse and the Tovière.
Cross-country skiing: loops totalling 20 km around the resort.
Freestyle: the snowpark sits at 2,500 m on the far side of Bellevarde, in the Combe du Mont Blanc on the La Daille massif.
Where you stay: Val d’Isère is a working village that grew into a resort rather than a purpose-built one, so hotels, chalets and apartments sit along the main street and the lanes off it, most within walking distance of a lift.
Season: the Tignes – Val d’Isère ski area runs from late November to the beginning of May.
