This is your destination guide for France.
This is your destination guide for Les Trois Vallées
📍 Part of FranceThe world's largest linked ski area — 600 km of runs across three valleys, from oligarch Courchevel to snow-sure Val Thorens, on one pass.
The reality: Les Trois Vallées — "the Three Valleys" — is, by the numbers, the largest linked ski area on earth: three valleys and eight resorts in the French Savoie, all on a single lift pass. You can click in at Courchevel, ski over two passes for lunch above Val Thorens, and be somewhere else by the afternoon without ever taking your skis off. For a skier or boarder, the sheer scale is the point.
What makes it more than a big number is how different the three valleys feel — glossy Courchevel, chalet-and-après Méribel, and high, modern, snow-sure Val Thorens. One pass, three moods, and three very different evenings and budgets.
So choose your base for the holiday you want, and use the whole area from there. This is a winter destination through and through: come to ski, ski hard, and pick the valley that fits your wallet and your idea of a good night out.
The landscape here is a ski map — three parallel valleys linked over high passes into one continuous domain, engineered so you can cross the whole thing on skis.
The scale is the headline: roughly 600 km of marked runs, from long gentle blues to steep couloirs, plus a big off-piste and ski-touring scene. The high point is Val Thorens at 2,300 m with lifts to 3,230 m on the Cime Caron — glacier-backed and snow-sure into spring, the reason the area opens early and closes late.
Classic crossings define a trip: ski from Courchevel over the Saulire to Méribel, or from Méribel over to Val Thorens and back — a full day of valley-hopping. Beyond the three headline names, linked villages like La Tania, Les Menuires and Saint-Martin-de-Belleville add character and cheaper beds.
Each valley has its own personality, and picking the right village is most of the decision.
Courchevel climbs in numbered levels — 1850 (glossy, Michelin, private-jet top), Moriond (1650), 1550 and Le Praz (1300, the wooded old-village base) — money at the top, more human further down. Méribel holds the central valley: chalet-style, tree-lined, lively après, historically the British stronghold. Val Thorens is high, modern and purpose-built — no old village, but the best snow and a big young party scene.
Down the Belleville valley, Les Menuires is the value-and-family workhorse and Saint-Martin-de-Belleville the pretty stone-village exception; Brides-les-Bains, a spa town at the bottom, is the budget gateway with a gondola in.
A winter machine — with a quieter summer side few people see.
Skiing is the whole show, but the range within it is huge, and there's a modest summer too.
The Three Valleys eats Savoyard — the great melted-cheese canon — from a slope-side self-service to some of the most expensive restaurants in the Alps.
The mountain classics are the fuel: tartiflette (potatoes, lardons, melted Reblochon), fondue savoyarde, raclette, and diots (Savoyard sausages) in white wine — the regional cheese to seek is Beaufort, alongside crozets (little square buckwheat pasta) baked with cheese.
The spread of where is the story: a sun-terrace mountain-restaurant lunch mid-ski is the ritual, while Courchevel 1850 fields a cluster of Michelin rooms. Drink a Savoie white, a génépi to finish, or a vin chaud at the big après bars — La Folie Douce is the dancing-in-ski-boots institution.
This is a ski destination, so the season is winter — with altitude buying a long, reliable one.
December to April is the season. Val Thorens opens earliest (often late November) and holds snow latest into spring, the whole appeal of a high base. February and the Christmas–New Year weeks are the busiest and priciest; mid-January and mid-March are the sweet spots — good snow, thinner crowds, better rates, long sunny terrace days.
Late-season April skiing is best up at Val Thorens; the lower Courchevel and Méribel slopes soften. In summer (roughly July–August) a limited slice reopens for hiking and biking, but most of the area is closed and quiet — this is not a year-round resort.
Getting to the Three Valleys is a transfer exercise; getting around inside it is done on skis and shuttles.
The nearest airports are Geneva, Lyon, Chambéry and Grenoble, all roughly 2–2.5 hours by road, with a wall of transfer minibuses on changeover Saturdays. By rail, take the train to Moûtiers (a Eurostar/TGV ski service runs in season) and transfer up by bus or taxi.
Once you're in resort, you barely need a car: the lifts and pistes are the transport between valleys by day, and free resort shuttles handle the evenings. Parking is expensive and the roads are snowbound — most people transfer in and leave the car behind. Buy the lift pass for the coverage you'll actually ski (single-valley vs full Three Valleys).
Base choice is the whole holiday here — valley, altitude and budget in one decision.
Courchevel — for glamour and gourmet (from limitless 1850 down to saner Le Praz and La Tania).
Méribel — the central, chalet-and-après all-rounder, shortest reach to both other valleys.
Val Thorens — the highest, most snow-sure, ski-in-ski-out modern base, with a big party scene.
Les Menuires / Saint-Martin-de-Belleville — value and family (Saint-Martin is the pretty one); Brides-les-Bains the spa-town budget gateway.
Ski-in, ski-out is worth paying for here given the scale.
Find Three Valleys stays →The Three Valleys spans the whole price spectrum in one area — Courchevel 1850 is among the most expensive resorts on the planet, while Les Menuires or Saint-Martin can be a normal French ski-week budget. The constants are the lift pass and ski hire; where it swings wildly is the room and the restaurant.
Prices in 2026 euros. A single-valley pass is cheaper than the full Three Valleys; January and March cut room rates hard versus February and Christmas.
Go if you ski or board and want the biggest linked area on earth — 600 km across three valleys, snow-sure high up, on one pass — and you'll pick the valley that fits your budget and your idea of an evening. Skip if you don't ski, you want an old village over a purpose-built resort, or Courchevel prices would ruin the trip.
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