Resort information for Val d’Isère

Val d’Isère is spread along a remote valley, which becomes a dead end in winter. The outskirts of Val proper are dreary, but as you approach the centre, wood- and stone-cladding culminates in the tasteful pedestrian-only Val Village complex. Many first-time visitors find the resort much more pleasant than they expect a high French resort to be. The main lift stations are linked by efficient free shuttle-buses; in peak periods you never have to wait more than a few minutes. But in the evening frequency plummets and dedicated après-skiers will want to be within walking distance of the centre.

Although there are wooded slopes above the village on all sectors, in practice most of the runs here are on open slopes above the tree line, and a lot of lifts can close in bad weather. Poor piste classification means that many blue and some green runs are simply too steep, narrow and even bumpy. Val d’Isère’s slopes divide into three main sectors, Bellevarde, Solaise and Col de l’Iseran, the first two reachable from the village. In years when lower resorts have suffered, Val d’Isère has rarely been short of snow. Once a big dump of snow has fallen, the resort’s height means you can almost always get back to the village. But even more important is that in each sector there are lots of lifts and runs above mid-mountain, between about 2300m and 2900m (7,550ft and 9,510ft). Many of the slopes face roughly north and there is access to glaciers and to Tignes. There are few problems with queues here.

The mountain restaurants, mainly big self-service places at the top of major lifts, are acceptable at long last. The 70-odd restaurants in the village itself offer a wide variety of cuisine, with plenty of mid-priced places. Nightlife is surprisingly energetic, given that most people have spent a hard day on the slopes. There are lots of bars, many with happy hours followed by music and dancing later on.