Love Méribel? Where to go next for the family week, the skiing or the big circuit

Arosa is the closest match to Méribel we measure, anywhere, and it keeps the thing most Méribel regulars come for: an easy, happy family week. It is a gentle, sunny bowl in Switzerland, joined to Lenzerheide by a single cable car into 225 kilometres of genuinely linked skiing. And it is higher. The village sits at 1,800 metres, 350 above Méribel's, which is a real gain for snow on the doorstep.

The trade is size and steepness. 225 kilometres is a big area, but it is not the Three Valleys, and the lifts top out at 2,653 metres, about 300 below Méribel's. It is gentler too. Twenty four percent of Arosa's piste is steeper than one in four, against 31 at Méribel, and 35 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 32. Swiss and French grades are not set the same way, so trust those shares over the colours. They are built from average gradient, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, but across a border they are the best ruler there is.

For most of the family that is a gain. For the parent on the blacks, it is the trade.

If what you love about Méribel is the mountain, Lech is the closest match we measure in Austria. The village sits at exactly the same height, 1,450 metres. The mix of terrain is nearly identical: 33 percent of Lech's piste is steeper than one in four against Méribel's 31, and 31 percent is gentler than 15 percent against 32. It is a family resort too, and a snow sure one.

Then it adds something Méribel does not have. Lech has 56 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary, the second most of any resort we cover, against Méribel's 5. If anyone in your group has been looking longingly at the snow between the pistes for a few winters now, this is the place to do it properly, with a guide.

The trade is size and tone. We measure 175 kilometres of piste around Lech, and the Arlberg as a whole is not yet classified in our data, so think of it as big but not Three Valleys big. The lifts top out at 2,811 metres, 141 below Méribel's. And Lech is refined and quietly wealthy where Méribel is friendly and relaxed. Some families love that. Some feel they have to sit up straight.

Méribel's great advantage is position. It sits in the middle of the Three Valleys with the whole area in reach. Alta Badia gives you the same thing in the Dolomites. It sits on the Sellaronda, and from a base there around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift without getting on a bus. You will see 1,200 kilometres quoted. That is the Dolomiti Superski pass across twelve areas, only four of them joined together. Alta Badia's own sector is 130 kilometres.

It is warm, welcoming and family minded, and it is known for its food. The village is at 1,568 metres, a little higher than Méribel's, with lifts to 2,778.

The trade is the steep. Only 15 percent of Alta Badia's piste is steeper than one in four, less than half Méribel's share. Italian grading is gentler than French, and a red here averages 21.7 percent against 25.4 at Méribel. For a family of cruisers that is a gift. For a family with a teenager who wants the steep, it is not.