Val d'Isère & Tignes

Linked as the Espace Killy, the two French resorts offer altitude, glacier access and one of the longest reliable seasons in the Alps — a destination chosen for the skiing first and the après second.

Val d’Isère and Tignes lie at the head of the Tarentaise valley in the Savoie, close to the Vanoise National Park and the Italian border. Val d’Isère grew around a stone village and its church at 1,850 metres; Tignes was rebuilt higher on the slopes after the old village was flooded by the Chevril dam in 1952. Together they form a linked ski area of around three hundred kilometres.

The skiing is high and varied: the Face de Bellevarde, built for the 1992 Olympic downhill, the off-piste of the Col de l’Iseran, and the Grande Motte glacier above Tignes at more than 3,400 metres. Val d’Isère keeps the more traditional village and the livelier evenings; Tignes the higher, snow-sure lift base.

Val d’Isère usually opens at the end of November and closes in early May, among the longest seasons in the French Alps. Each December the Critérium de la Première Neige brings the World Cup to the Face de Bellevarde; Christmas and February are the peak weeks. January offers cold, quiet skiing; April, the warm days of spring snow.

The Grande Motte glacier in Tignes has traditionally reopened for summer skiing in early summer, and the Col de l’Iseran road, one of the highest passes in the Alps, draws cyclists in summer. Most luxury hotels in Val d’Isère open only from early December to late April, and the quietest weeks are those of January and early March, outside the French school holidays.

The luxury hotels are concentrated in Val d’Isère. Hôtel Le Blizzard, a long-established house on the main avenue a short walk from the slopes, sits at the centre of the village; Airelles Val d’Isère, formerly Les Barmes de l’Ours, stands at the foot of the Bellevarde face and reopens each December.

Neither belongs to a group programme, and LVXVRY advises on and arranges both stays directly with the hotel, as well as catered chalets in Val d’Isère and Tignes for larger parties. Both hotels open only for the winter and a short summer season, and the Christmas, New Year and February weeks are best planned well ahead.