Love Val Thorens? Where to go next, depending on what you love about it
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20265 min read
Val Thorens sells itself on one number. At 2,300 metres it is the highest village of the 55 resorts we cover, which means snow outside the door from late November to early May, skiing home in April, and a week that does not hang on the forecast. Add the whole of the Three Valleys within reach and a buzzy village at the end of the day, and it is easy to see why people go back every year.
So when Val Thorens regulars want somewhere new, the honest answer is a question: what is it you love about it? Each answer points somewhere different.
First, Val Thorens measured
The surprise is in the middle of that table. The highest resort we cover is also one of the easiest to ski. Val Thorens has 134 kilometres of green and blue around the village. That is more easy running than 35 of our 55 resorts have piste of any colour. People hear altitude and assume steep. By our measurement Val Thorens is high and, for the most part, forgiving.
Of the four Three Valleys villages we cover, it is also the lively one. So "somewhere like Val Thorens" usually means three things at once: snow you can count on, a lot of easy kilometres, and a bar at the bottom. Very few places give you all three, which is why the routes below each give something up.
Tignes: if it is the altitude and the long season
- VillageVillage
- 2,100 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 3,456 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 300 km
Tignes: 130 km of piste we measure. 76 km green and blue 58%34 km red 26%21 km black 16%
Plus 14 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Tignes has the next highest village we cover, and it is not on your lift pass. Tignes le Lac sits at 2,100 metres, 200 lower than Val Thorens, and its lifts go higher, to 3,456 metres against your 3,230. The Grande Motte glacier above the village is open through the winter, and the season runs from late November to early May, the same as yours. Espace Killy, which it shares with Val d'Isère, is 300 kilometres.
What you give up is the noise. Tignes is practical rather than buzzy, spread across separate villages that each have their own, quieter evening. And it is a little firmer underfoot. By our measurement 30 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 37 at Val Thorens, and its blues average 17.6 percent against your 16.5. Nothing a Val Thorens regular cannot handle, but you will notice.
The catch is size. Over the top, Cervinia links to Zermatt for 322 kilometres, measured, but Zermatt needs the dearer International pass and the high crossing can close in wind. On the Italian side alone we measure 116 kilometres.
Les Arcs: if it is the easy cruising, on a big linked area
- VillageVillage
- 1,600 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 3,226 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 425 km
Les Arcs: 200 km of piste we measure. 117 km green and blue 58%59 km red 30%24 km black 12%
If what you love is skiing all week without repeating yourself, mostly on wide, forgiving runs, look at Les Arcs. It is half of Paradiski, linked with La Plagne, 425 kilometres in all. And 48 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, a share no resort we cover beats. Around the village we measure 117 kilometres of green and blue.
It is built for skiing in the way Val Thorens is, with doorstep skiing across four linked villages, and its lifts reach 3,226 metres, four metres short of yours.
The trade is the village. Our figure for Les Arcs is 1,600 metres, 700 below Val Thorens, and the season is December to April rather than late November to early May. The evenings are family paced. In a good winter you will barely notice the altitude. In a thin one, or at either end of the season, you will.
Sölden: if it is the nights out
- VillageVillage
- 1,368 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 3,340 m
Sölden: 135 km of piste we measure. 77 km blue and easier 57%40 km red 29%19 km black 14%
Sölden keeps the party and, unusually, the height at the top. It is lively in the evening, its lifts reach 3,340 metres across two glaciers, higher than Val Thorens's top, and its season runs from late November to May.
The trade is the village, and it is a big one. Sölden sits at 1,368 metres, almost a kilometre below Val Thorens, so the snow on the glacier is more certain than the snow outside your door. The skiing is firmer too. Thirty percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against 25 at Val Thorens, and only 26 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 37. Austrian and French grades are not set the same way, so trust those shares over the colours on the map. We measure 135 kilometres of piste around the village, a smaller week than you are used to.
So, which one
the snow is the thing you cannot give up, and you can live with quieter evenings.
you want the altitude and the long season in Italy, on gentler runs, and you treat Zermatt as a bonus.
the size and the easy cruising matter more to you than the height of the village.
It keeps the altitude, the season and a big linked area, and the only thing it really asks you to give up is the noise.