300 km of pistes, two glaciers and a season from late November to early May. Five days across Val d'Isère and Tignes, one sector at a time.
Val d'Isère and Tignes sit at the dead end of the Tarentaise valley, and for a long time that was the whole story. Val d'Isère's first hotel opened in 1888, the road over the Col de l'Iseran opened in 1937, and the Société des Téléphériques de Val d'Isère was founded in 1938 with a plan for 34 km of slopes that could be skied without taking the same lift twice. Tignes started with a single tow in 1936. In 1952 the old village was drowned by the Chevril dam, and the resort was rebuilt on the heights above at 2,100 m. The two ski areas were joined by lifts, sold for decades as the Espace Killy, and are now marketed as one: Tignes - Val d'Isère.
It's a place for skiing, not strolling. The area runs from 1,550 m to a 3,456 m cable car, has two glaciers and opens in November for a season that ends in early May. Val d'Isère is a stone-and-wood village that has kept a village's shape; Tignes is a purpose-built modern resort at 2,100 m that doesn't pretend otherwise. Five days is enough to ski each sector once. The plan is pitched at confident intermediates and strong skiers, who get the Face de Bellevarde, the black runs on Solaise and the glacier. Beginners and first-week skiers should ski the same days at their own level: the green areas and free lifts in both resorts are real, but the Face, the Tunnel and the high glacier can wait for another year.
The plan runs one sector a day. Days one to three start in Val d'Isère (Solaise, Bellevarde and the Face, Le Fornet and the Pisaillas glacier), and days four and five cross to Tignes (the Grande Motte glacier and the lake, then the lower villages and the dam). Choose the base before you book: sleep in Val d'Isère for the first three nights, then move to Tignes for the last two, because the free shuttle doesn't reach Val Claret or Le Lac and the lifts, your only free way back, stop for the day before the evening starts. Staying in Val d'Isère all week works, but days four and five become day trips with an early finish and no evenings in Tignes. Take the whole-area pass either way: a single-resort day is only 8 EUR cheaper. It starts on a Sunday, because Saturday is changeover day and the roads are worst, and Val d'Isère itself suggests Sunday-to-Sunday stays. The first clean start is Sunday 10 January 2027, after Christmas and the World Cup weekend of 12-13 December, and it finishes before Tignes's Mountain Shaker festival (17-22 January). For another huge linked area see 5 Days in Les 3 Vallées, and for a steeper, less connected one 5 Days in Chamonix. More on the country is on the France page.
Every stop from the plan below, colored by day. Pick a day to see its route.
The Solaise gondola and its sunny runs, a red home through the larches and a raclette in the old village.
Up the underground funicular, down the Olympic downhill, and a cabaret lunch before a fondue.
The quiet end of the valley, a legend at 2,800 m, glacier skiing and a star-rated dinner.
Cross over to Tignes, ride the funicular to the glacier at 3,456 m, then the frozen lake and a pool.
The lower villages, the dam that drowned the old Tignes, crêpes by the lake and a snowpark to finish.
Tignes - Val d'Isère is one of the biggest linked ski areas in the Alps, and it is built for people who want altitude, snow into May and a lot of terrain on one pass. It suits strong intermediates and experts best, with the black Face de Bellevarde, ungroomed mogul runs and plenty of off-piste, but it also has real beginners' zones with free lifts in both resorts. Guidebooks still call it Espace Killy, the old name after Jean-Claude Killy; the operators now sell it as Tignes - Val d'Isère. For a wider comparison, see the best ski resorts in Europe.
| 1 day, adult, 12 Dec to 23 Apr | 78 EUR |
|---|---|
| 1 day, adult, 28 Nov to 11 Dec and 24 Apr to 2 May | 67 EUR |
| Afternoon (from 12:45), adult, 12 Dec to 23 Apr | 63 EUR |
| 5 days, adult, 12 Dec to 23 Apr (this plan) | 390 EUR |
| 6 days (valid 7 days), adult | 468 EUR |
| 1 day, child 8-18 or senior 65-74 | 63 EUR |
| 1 day, Val d'Isère or Tignes only, adult | 70 EUR |
The Tignes - Val d'Isère pass covers the whole linked area. A pass for one resort only costs 70 EUR a day, and a one-day Tignes pass can be extended to the whole area for 13 EUR. Children under 8 and adults aged 75 and over ski free with proof of age. Six days or more also gives free entry to Le Lagon pool in Tignes.
Source: Figures (300 km, 161 runs by color, 71 lifts) are from the Val d'Isère tourist office; the Tignes site counts 74 lifts and gives the 1,550 m to 3,456 m range. All 2026/27 prices are from the Val d'Isère pass page and the Tignes price list, dated 6 October 2026. The operators publish the number of runs (21 green, 65 blue, 41 red, 32 black), not kilometers by color; 165, 75 and 60 km are the split on skiresort.info. Checked 2026-10-12
Today is for finding your legs on the sector above the village, where the beginners' areas and the red and black runs share the same mountain. Cash desks fill up fast, so top up your card online or in the Val d'Isère Ski app and go straight to the gondola. The Tunnel black run only opens in certain conditions, so don't plan around it.
Val d'Isère's lifts began here. Work on the first cable car started in May 1939 and the Solaise cable car was completed in December 1942, in the middle of the war. Today the Solaise lift is a gondola that leaves from the Place du Rond-Point des Pistes at the edge of the centre.
Collect a reusable card from a sales point or the tourist office, then buy or top up online: the card is free, and 10 EUR to replace if lost. Five days cost 390 EUR for an adult in 2026/27. The Solaise sector has 37 slopes.
This is the corner of the area that shows how seriously the resort takes beginners. In the village centre, the Savonnette green run has three free lifts (the Savonnette tow, the Village chairlift and the Lanches tow), and parents can watch from the village. Higher up on Solaise, the ValKids fun area has an igloo, binoculars, a mini zip line and obstacles, and the P'tit Cross is a junior boardercross track. Easy Skiing slopes on Solaise and Bellevarde are gentle routes you can follow on GPS in the app.
Solaise runs from first turns to hard skiing. Intermediates can ski the Saint-Jacques run to the Cugnaï chairlift and then the Cugnaï red, which has slight bumps, is rarely busy and has a panoramic setting.
Strong skiers have the Combe Martin black, which you can reach from the Rhône-Alpes slope, used for the 2009 World Championships, or from the Rogoney chairlift. The ungroomed S black is a field of moguls that leads back to the village, and the Tunnel track (through a narrow, unlit tunnel more than 50 m long) is called the most difficult descent in Val d'Isère. It opens only at certain times, especially after an easterly storm (retour d'est).
Le Refuge sits at the top of the Solaise slopes and serves Savoyard dishes reworked with regional products, with a big sunny terrace facing the mountains. Next door, Le Petit Refuge does pizza and pasta and La Cabane du Refuge makes sandwiches, including a hot dog with a diot de Savoie (a local pork sausage) and a raclette sandwich with local cured ham.
For the way home, take the Germain Mattis red, which starts along the road toward the Col de l'Iseran and then drops into a larch forest. The tourist office calls it a hidden treasure.
At the bottom, a few metres before the Laisinant chairlift, look left for a path into the forest. This gentle, winding Laisinant traverse leads back to the centre of the resort and the Savonnette tow.
Val d'Isère got its first hotel in 1888. A visitor who fell for the place in 1929, Jacques Mouflier, met the mayor in 1931; the mayor thought a resort impossible in such a harsh, remote spot, but plans took shape anyway. Two ministers got stuck in a storm in 1937, the same year the Iseran road opened, and the village became a household name in France. Avalanche zones, which can't be built on, have kept the growth compact.
The church of Saint-Bernard-de-Menthon, a baroque building of the 18th century, is the symbol of the resort and anchors the old village. The centre around it was built or renovated in wood, stone and stone-slab roofs in the late 1980s and 1990s, so it looks older than it is. Walk it before dinner, when the shops are still open.
L'Avancher's restaurant is reported to have started life in 1958 as The Raclette, and it is known for serving raclette the old way: the cheese is melted in a big central oven and scraped onto your plate. The tourist office recommends it for a hearty raclette in a warm setting, on the Avenue du Prariond.
Order it with potatoes and cured meats, the standard way to finish a day on skis.
Bellevarde is the face of Val d'Isère, and the Olympique cable car starts right by the centre. The Face de Bellevarde hosts the World Cup each December, with the men's Critérium de la Première Neige on 12-13 December 2026, so expect closures in the weeks around it. Today also puts you on La Daille, about two kilometers from the centre, so take the free shuttle.
The Funival was built in 1987 and is the first underground funicular in France, although the first third runs outside on a viaduct of about 580 m. The rest, about 1,720 m, runs through a tunnel under the Bellevarde rock, and the slope reaches 53% near the top.
It leaves from La Daille, at 1,797 m, and brings you to a platform just under the summit near the arrivals of the Olympique cable car and the Marmottes Express, Loyes Express and Fontaine Froide chairlifts. Most of the ride is under the mountain, so it's a good way up on a windy morning.
The summit isn't at the top of the lift, it's higher. Take off your skis and climb the steps, and you'll see Mont Blanc, the village, the Tignes dam and the Grande Sassière at once. The tourist office rates it one of the five best photo spots in the resort.
The Face is a black run of about 3 km with 850 m of vertical from the top of the Olympique to the village snow front. Killy wanted it and the Swiss champion Bernhard Russi drew it, and it hosted the men's speed events at the 1992 Albertville Olympics and the 2009 World Championships. The Critérium de la Première Neige, a World Cup race, is held on it every year.
During design, tiny columbine flowers were found along the route, and the course was diverted around them: that bend is now the Passage de l'Ancolie. It's steep and narrow in places, so skip it unless you are comfortable on black runs.
Les Marmottes sits between the departure points of the Borsat and Marmottes chairlifts, in a typical mountain chalet with a fireplace, a view of Mont Blanc from the upstairs room and a large sunny terrace that is calm and sheltered from the wind. The menu is traditional family cooking and a wide choice of homemade dishes.
For a livelier lunch, Café Bellevarde does crêpes and waffles all day, plus the Smarties hot chocolate.
After lunch, take the Olympique to the Bellevarde sector, ski the Colet blue to the bottom of the Grand Pré chairlift and ride up. At the top are the giant red letters spelling VAL D'ISERE, with the peaks beyond, the most photographed spot on the mountain.
Don't take the crowded green down. Turn right for the Club des Sports blue, a smooth run you can ski at your own pace that the tourist office lists among its hidden slopes.
The Oreiller-Killy piste, called the O.K., is a red that has been a World Cup downhill course since 1968. It wraps around the rock of Bellevarde and finishes at La Daille, and World Cup stages are still held on it. It's friendlier than the Face.
Partway down, La Folie Douce stands just off the La Daille gondola. At 2,400 m, it opens daily from 28 November to 1 May, with the cabaret at 12:45 and the après-ski from 14:00 to 17:00. It has five restaurants and a lot of people dancing in ski boots. If you don't like noise, ski past it; if you do, it's the loudest après-ski on the mountain. Another option at the bottom is the Barillon at La Daille, known for English-speaking après-ski.
Fondue Factory, run by the Killy Sport shop, opened in 2015 and has a collection of vintage skis from the last 120 years, including two pairs that belonged to Jean-Claude Killy. The tourist office suggests it, along with La Luge, for a fondue after a day on the slopes.
Order the classic cheese fondue to share and go easy on the wine at altitude. The restaurant is in the middle of the village, so you can walk back.
Le Fornet is the last hamlet before the Col de l'Iseran, and the road beyond it is shut in winter, so it's the end of the valley. This is the higher, colder side of the area, with the glacier above you. Check the shuttle timetable for the ride back before you go high, and keep the evening for the village.
Take a free shuttle to Le Fornet, the old farming hamlet at the foot of the Iseran road. The lifts leave from here: a cable car, and the Vallon gondola that goes up the Iseran side.
The bar and restaurant Les Crozets at the bottom of the cable car has sun-soaked deckchairs for coming back down. Firmin Mattis, born in 1929, grew up in Le Fornet, and his parents only put on skis to get down to Sunday Mass. Skiing as transport came before skiing as a sport here.
At the top of the Vallon gondola, at around 2,800 m, an immersive space opened in December 2024 telling the story of Mont Iseran, a peak that appeared on maps for more than 250 years until explorers found that it had never existed. Old maps, objects, equipment, illustrations and audio tell the tale.
It's a rare cultural stop that you reach on skis, at 2,800 m. Allow twenty minutes and keep your boots on.
The Pisaillas glacier is the Val d'Isère side's high ground, where summer skiing was developed from 1958. The Cascade restaurant stands at its foot, and Val d'Isère's own ski area reaches 3,230 m.
At this altitude the snow stays cold and lasts, which is why the season runs into May and why the glacier is the right place for a morning when the lower slopes are soft.
René is a bistronomic restaurant set into the Mangard slope with a bird's-eye view of Le Fornet. It cooks on a charcoal oven at the center of an open kitchen, in a warm, raw design.
For a faster stop, La Cascade, at the foot of the Pisaillas glacier, serves self-service lasagne, pasta, burgers and salads.
The Leissières chairlift runs between the Solaise and Fornet sectors and follows the relief of the mountain, so the tourist office describes a dizzying ride in both directions. For the best ride, take it from Le Fornet down to Solaise. From Solaise, ride the Glaciers chairlift, go down the Plan Milet slope, and the lift appears on your right. Shoot a video, not a photo.
The village ice rink, off the Rue Noël Machet, is a gentle way to end a day on the glacier. The tourist office suggests it for the hour when daylight fades and the lights come on, for novices and confident skaters alike. tip: "Check the rink's winter hours on arrival."
La Table de l'Ours, at the Relais & Châteaux hotel Les Barmes de l'Ours, is listed by the tourist office as the resort's one-Michelin-star table. Chef Antoine Gras started in the kitchen as a porter in 2013, took over the stoves in 2017 and won the star in 2019, aged 24.
This is the splurge of the week. If it doesn't suit your budget, Le Solstice, La Mourra and Blizzard are on the same list of fine-dining addresses.
Today you change resorts on skis, with lifts that run in both directions. Sleeping in Val d'Isère, you must ski home: leave Val Claret or Le Lac by mid-afternoon, climb back over the Col de Fresse on the Tovière gondola or the Fresse chairlift, then ski down to the village, and check the last lift times in the app. The free shuttle from the Val d'Isère bus station only reaches Tignes 1800 and Les Brévières, not Val Claret or Le Lac, and its 2026/27 timetable wasn't out in October, so it is no late ride home. That makes the pool and raclette in the evening stops a Tignes-night plan; from Val d'Isère, swap them for dinner at home. The best fix is to move to Tignes for nights four and five. La Table de Jeanne closes on Tuesdays, so a Wednesday works.
The Borsat chairlift takes you from the Val d'Isère side to the Col de Fresse, the pass between the two resorts. Another way across is the Tommeuses chairlift to the Tovière summit. In the other direction, the Fresse chairlift from Val Claret and the Tovière gondola from Le Lac bring skiers back.
Tignes sits below you at 2,100 m once you've crossed.
The Perce-Neige funicular leaves from Val Claret at 2,100 m and runs entirely underground to 3,032 m at the foot of the Grande Motte glacier. It replaced two four-seat gondolas that opened in 1969, which had become too small by the late 1980s.
Funicular and cable car together reach the glacier in about seven minutes, according to the Tignes tourist office.
At the top of the funicular the cable car climbs to 3,456 m, the highest lift in the ski area; the summit of the Grande Motte itself is 3,656 m. The glacier opens in November, when national alpine and freestyle teams train on its blue, red and black runs, and it stays open into May. In July, summer skiing runs for a few weeks.
The glacier lies in the Tignes-Champagny nature reserve, created in 1963: picking plants (génépi included) is forbidden, and so are dogs, even carried, and any motor vehicle.
La Taverne des Neiges has stood at the foot of the Val Claret slopes since 1988, run by a family that has been in Tignes since 1965. It serves continuously from breakfast through the après-ski, with Savoyard specialties, pizzas, finger food and a lively bar.
If you want a mountain restaurant instead, Le Bollin stands at the top of the Bollin chairlift at 2,100 m, serves lunch until 15:00 and then runs a DJ après-ski until 17:00.
Tignes Le Lac is the center of the resort, built beside a natural lake at 2,100 m fed by water from the Grande Motte glacier. In winter it freezes, and you may have crossed its surface on foot between Le Lac and Val Claret without noticing.
The best view of the flat white sheet is from the giant #TIGNES sign at Le Lac or from the Tovière gondola. Winter activities include dog sledding, ice floating and diving under the ice.
Le Lagon is the swimming and wellness center on the central square of Tignes Le Lac, opposite the Maison de Tignes. It has a 25 m lap pool, a fun pool with a three-lane slide, waterfall, bubble bed and counter-current swim, and a paddling pool. It's open every day from 11:00 to 20:30 from 21 November 2026 to 2 May 2027, with last entry an hour before closing.
A pass of six days or more includes free entry, and the pool ticket includes free aquagym classes.
La Table de Jeanne in Val Claret is the Bouvier family's traditional table, in the spirit of a farm inn with an open kitchen. The menu lists raclette de Savoie, fondue, roast fermier reblochon and gratin de crozets (crozets are small buckwheat pasta squares). It reopens on 20 November and closes every Tuesday.
After dinner you're in Val Claret, the festive, sporty side of Tignes.
The last day goes down to the low end of the area, where the new village of Tignes 1800 and the old hamlet of Les Brévières sit at 1,800 and 1,550 m. Each has one gondola back to the main area, so mind the time of the last ride; free shuttles link the villages. From Val d'Isère this is the day to trim: ride up to Tignes 1800 for the morning, be back over the Col de Fresse by mid-afternoon, and treat the farm dinner as a Tignes-night plan. In a warm spring week the lowest runs are the first to thin out. Today is Thursday, so La Ferme des 3 Capucines, which is closed on Mondays, is open.
Tignes 1800 opened in December 2013 between Les Brévières and Tignes Le Lac, and it is the part of Tignes that feels like a village. The Boisses gondola, with eight seats, connects it to the main ski area and lets you ski back to the door.
Across Tignes, learners get four magic carpets, two tows and three chairlifts (Bollin, Almes, Rosset), all free, and Tignes 1800 has a beginners' zone of its own.
The new village of Tignes 1800 is organized around its church, a replica of the one destroyed when the old village was flooded. The parish church of Saint-Jacques, built in the 1950s, holds a lot of furniture and Baroque-style paintings.
At 1,550 m, Les Brévières is the lowest point of the ski area and the most traditional village of Tignes, at the foot of the dam. It has traditional chalets, larches and restaurants where a fondue or raclette comes with a fireplace, and it connects directly with Tignes 1800.
Come down while the snow is still firm and ride the gondola back up. A free shuttle circuit also links Les Brévières to Tignes 1800.
The Chevril dam is 180 m high, still the tallest in France, and it flooded the old village of Tignes in 1952. The 387 residents threatened with eviction tried to stop the work, huts were burned, the riot police guarded the site, and the church and houses were blown up before the water rose. President Vincent Auriol opened the dam on 4 July 1953, and the new resort began in 1956, 6 km higher.
On the dam wall, an 18,000 m2 fresco of Hercules painted in the late 1980s has faded to a dark patch, and it can be seen from the D902 road and from Les Brévières. Le Panorama, in the Maison de Tignes Le Lac, has a free virtual reality trip through 100 years of Tignes lasting 10-15 minutes.
Wanaka Crêperie is on the Promenade de Tovière in Tignes Le Lac and makes its crêpes from fresh, homemade ingredients. The menu runs from classic and flambéed crêpes to a savoury one with Savoie raw ham and Tomme de Savoie. tip: "The restaurant's own schedule is lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, lunch only on Sunday, and no service on Monday; check on the day."
Tignes has been a freestyle capital since it hosted the first Freestyle Skiing World Championships in 1986 and the moguls at the 1992 Olympics, which Edgar Grospiron won. The snowpark is free with your pass.
The green and blue modules start at the top of the Grattalu chairlift, and the red and black lines are reached from the top of the Palet drag lift. There's also a boardercross open to everyone and a chill zone with free wifi.
La Ferme des 3 Capucines is a working mountain farm, active since 1985, at the entrance to Tignes. It makes Beaufort d'alpage, tomme and raclette cheese on site, and the restaurant (a maître restaurateur since 2015) puts them in Savoyard specialties alongside dishes by the chef. It is open Tuesday to Sunday.
A final night here ties the trip to the valley's best-known cheese. Buy a wedge at the farm shop to take home.
Six places that didn't fit the five days, ordered by distance from Val d'Isère.
The town at the end of the railway is a transport hub for the Paradiski ski area, and the Arc-en-Ciel funicular links the station to Arc 1600. It's the nearest big alternative if you want a different mountain for a day.
Getting there: 30 km, about 45 minutes by road or bus; the funicular to Arc 1600 starts at the station
The host town of the 1992 Winter Olympics, where the Tarentaise road meets the plain, on the way back toward Chambéry.
Getting there: 86 km, about 1 hour 20 minutes by road
The old capital of Savoy, a city at the foot of the Alps with the Château des Ducs de Savoie at its center. If your flight is from Chambéry, an extra night here is a gentle end to the trip.
Getting there: 135 km, about 2 hours by road; its airport is the nearest to the resort
The Manchet Valley is the quiet side of the village, with snowshoe walks, cross-country trails around Lac de l'Ouillette and the yurt of L'Art des Mets, a restaurant on a south-facing terrace. The village has about 20 km of cross-country loops.
Getting there: At the edge of Val d'Isère, a few minutes by foot or shuttle
Val d'Isère sits on the edge of the Vanoise National Park. The bearded vulture, the park's emblematic bird of prey, inspired the Gypaète fun slope on Bellevarde, with its ski-through vulture tunnel.
Getting there: The village borders the park; Le Fornet is a short shuttle ride away
At 2,764 m the Col de l'Iseran is the highest paved pass in the Alps. In winter, you can only reach the Col by pistes and lifts; the road from Le Fornet is closed from early November to early June. In summer, it is a cycling classic.
Getting there: About 18 km from Val d'Isère, about 20 minutes by road in summer; closed to cars in winter
This is the food of the Tarentaise: melted cheese, potatoes and pork for people who have been outside all day, plus a bakery tradition that goes back to the 1960s. Only a few French classics belong here.
Cheese melted and scraped over potatoes and cured meats. It comes from Valais in Switzerland, but it is just as popular across the Savoie, and a raclette for two is a classic end to a ski day.
Where to try it: L'Avancher in Val d'Isère (the restaurant has served it since 1958), La Table de Jeanne in Val Claret and the farm restaurant La Ferme des 3 Capucines.
A pot of melted cheese eaten with bread on long forks. It is meant to be shared, and it is the other half of the Alpine melted-cheese pair with raclette.
Where to try it: Fondue Factory and La Luge in Val d'Isère; La Table de Jeanne in Val Claret.
Potatoes, reblochon cheese, bacon pieces and onions baked together, with white wine sometimes added. It's based on an older dish called péla and has become the après-ski classic.
Where to try it: Mountain restaurants and Savoyard menus, such as La Taverne des Neiges in Val Claret, which lists Savoyard specialties and has served since 1988.
A firm raw-milk cow's cheese produced in the Beaufortain, Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys. The summer-pasture version, beaufort d'alpage, is the one to look for.
Where to try it: La Ferme des 3 Capucines at Tignes makes Beaufort d'alpage, tomme and raclette on the farm and sells them in its shop; Maison Chevallot bakes a pavé beaufort bread.
Diots are Savoyard pork sausages, often poached in white wine. Crozets are small squares of buckwheat pasta, baked as a gratin with cheese. Together they are the stick-to-your-ribs dish of the region.
Where to try it: Le Refuge de Solaise serves a hot dog with a diot de Savoie; La Table de Jeanne lists a gratin de crozets.
The French breakfast works at 1,850 m too. Maison Chevallot, a bakery since 1965 in Val d'Isère, bakes viennoiseries, croissants and traditional loaves, and its pastry chef Patrick Chevallot was named Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 1993.
Where to try it: Maison Chevallot on the Avenue Olympique in Val d'Isère and in Val Claret; Oh Crazy Barm's in Val d'Isère.
Thin pancakes folded around ham and cheese or sugar. They're the perfect fast mountain lunch and a good sweet end to a meal.
Where to try it: Wanaka Crêperie on the Promenade de Tovière in Tignes Le Lac; Café Bellevarde on the slopes, with crêpes and waffles all day.
Hot chocolate is the main drink of the slopes. At Maison Chevallot it is made with milk from the L'Adroit farm, and the Ancolie, a raspberry and almond cake, is named for the columbine flowers that bent the Face de Bellevarde course.
Where to try it: Maison Chevallot's café in Val d'Isère; Café Bellevarde for the Smarties hot chocolate.
A herbal liqueur made from alpine wormwood, drunk neat as a digestif, with a flavor that can take getting used to. Picking the plant is forbidden in the Tignes-Champagny nature reserve around the Grande Motte, so buy a bottle instead.
Where to try it: The digestif list of any mountain restaurant or bar in the two villages.
The regional wine appellation, mostly whites from Jacquère, Altesse (Roussette) and Chardonnay grapes, with some light reds. A cold glass of Jacquère is made for fondue.
Where to try it: Restaurant lists and wine bars across both resorts.
A local beer is the usual après-ski order. Maison Chevallot's café lists Bière Mont-Blanc next to its hot chocolate, and the new Val d'Isère Café serves local beers.
Where to try it: Maison Chevallot's café and bars on both sides of the area.
Specialty coffee has arrived at altitude. Arctic Coffee in Val d'Isère turns ten this winter, La Folie Coffee opens in the village center, and the Val d'Isère Café serves organic coffee daily from 8:30 to 18:00.
Where to try it: Arctic Coffee, La Folie Coffee and Val d'Isère Café.
Val d'Isère is the base for days one to three. For days four and five, Tignes is the better bed: the shuttle from Val d'Isère doesn't reach Val Claret or Le Lac, so a Val d'Isère guest ends those days early. Booking Tignes for the whole week is the mirror image, with a long ski to the Face and Le Fornet.
Best for: Skiers who want a village, the Face and Solaise at the door and the biggest après-ski
Val d'Isère puts the Olympic run, the church, the restaurants and three sectors within reach of a free shuttle. The catch is Tignes: the Grande Motte glacier, the lake and the dam are a lift ride away, and you have to ski home before the lifts close.
Best for: Skiers who want the glacier, a modern ski-in base and the lively side of the area
Tignes is concrete and efficient, and it sits at 2,100 m, so it's the better bet for snow and for the Grande Motte at dawn. The catch is looks and distance: the Face de Bellevarde and Le Fornet are a long ski away, and the lower villages are a gondola ride from the main area.
Best for: Families and calm evenings, with a beginners' area on the doorstep
Tignes 1800 opened in 2013 and has stone-and-wood chalets, the church replica and a beginners' zone; Les Brévières, at 1,550 m, is the traditional hamlet below it. Both are linked to the main area by a single gondola each, so a late finish means a long wait or a shuttle.
Best for: Skiers who want quiet evenings and the glacier lifts at the door
Le Fornet is a small hamlet at the foot of the Iseran road with its own cable car and mountain-side restaurants. The catch is the evenings: it has few bars, and you depend on the free shuttle to reach the village for dinner.
The practical stuff that makes the first day in Val d'Isère and Tignes easier.
The whole-area pass costs 78 EUR a day for adults from 12 December to 23 April 2026/27 and 390 EUR for five days. A Val d'Isère-only or Tignes-only day is 70 EUR, and a Tignes day can be extended to the whole area for 13 EUR. Children under 8 and adults 75 and over ski free with proof of age.
The rail head is Bourg-Saint-Maurice, with Eurostar and TGV Inoui in winter; this winter's Travelski Night Express adds night trains from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels as well as Paris. From the station the S82 bus takes about 45 minutes to Val d'Isère and the S83 about an hour to Tignes (timetables change by season; the 2026/27 ones weren't published yet in October). Skis go in a labelled bag on SNCF trains, one pair per person.
Keep chains in the boot and learn to fit them. Tignes explains the two panels: équipements spéciaux obligatoires means winter tyres, chains or snow socks, and chaînes obligatoires means chains only, which the gendarmes check. Fit them in a lay-by; on the Val d'Isère road past Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise there is one at La Raie. When the RÉCITA traffic lights are on, stay on the RN90. The national winter-equipment rule runs from 1 November to 31 March in the communes each prefect lists, and Savoie has been on that list; the 2026-27 list wasn't confirmed in October, so check it before you drive. The Col de l'Iseran and the Petit-Saint-Bernard are closed in winter, so ignore a GPS that sends you over them.
Saturday is changeover day and the roads fill. Tignes advises against leaving the resort on Saturday between 9:00 and 10:00, and Val d'Isère suggests booking Sunday to Sunday. Check savoie-route.fr for traffic.
Rescue on French pistes is paid for. Tignes warns that a helicopter evacuation can cost a lot, so check your insurance or add cover when you buy your pass. The Tignes piste patrol answers every winter day from 8:30 to 17:30 on +33 4 79 06 32 00; in an emergency call 112.
The area is known for lift-served off-piste, but it's avalanche terrain. Go with a guide or instructor and carry a transceiver, probe and shovel. Several marked pistes, such as the Santons, run through avalanche zones and close when told to.
Tignes's own checklist for the slopes: a helmet, clothes for the temperature, sunscreen, sunglasses, your pass and a piste map. At 3,456 m the sun is strong and the air cold, so keep a spare layer in your bag.
France uses the euro, and carry a little cash for small places. Service is included in menu prices, so a tip is optional. The language is French, and a bonjour at the shop door helps. Plugs are the European two-pin type, 230 V.
Yes. Five days covers the main sectors, Solaise, Bellevarde, Le Fornet and the Pisaillas glacier, the Grande Motte, and the lower Tignes villages. You will not run out of new runs, but you'll know where to come back to.
Better than its reputation. Val d'Isère has the Savonnette green with three free lifts, the ValKids area and Easy Skiing slopes; Tignes has free beginners' lifts in each village. The operators count 21 green and 65 blue runs, and the glaciers are for later in the week.
It's a black run of about 3 km with 850 m of vertical, steep and narrow in parts, and it hosts a World Cup race every December. Strong intermediates can skip it and ski the Oreiller-Killy red, which also starts at the summit and ends at La Daille.
Val d'Isère is a village with a long history and the Face; Tignes is a modern resort at 2,100 m close to the glacier and the lake. Best of both: three nights in Val d'Isère, then two in Tignes. For one bed all week, pick Val d'Isère if the Face, Solaise and evenings matter, Tignes if the glacier and snow security do. From Tignes, do days four and five first, then cross for the other three.
Yes. Espace Killy is the older name, after Jean-Claude Killy, who grew up in Val d'Isère. The operators and tourist offices now call the linked area Tignes - Val d'Isère, so use that name when you look for the piste map or pass.
The full area opens 28 November 2026 and closes 2 May 2027, snow permitting, and Tignes opens progressively from 21 November. Altitude and snowmaking on more than 65 km of slopes keep the snow reliable; January is cheaper and quieter than the holidays, and April is for sun.
No. The train and bus from Bourg-Saint-Maurice reach both resorts, free shuttles run inside each, and Tignes parking is paid from 20 November to 6 May. A car helps for Albertville or Chambéry, but needs chains or winter tyres.
Direct winter buses run from Geneva and Lyon airports to both resorts, by Alpine Fleet, Altibus and Ben's Bus. By road, Val d'Isère puts Geneva at 220 km and about 3 hours, Lyon at 240 km and 3 hours, Chambéry at 135 km and 2 hours.
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