Davos or Tignes: much the same skiing, at very different heights

Altitude: Tignes is in another league

Davos is billed as the highest town in Europe, at 1,560 metres. Tignes's village is 540 metres higher, at 2,100, the second highest of the 55 resorts we cover. At the top the gap widens. Tignes's skiing reaches 3,449 metres by our measure, on the Grande Motte glacier, the highest of the 17 French resorts we cover. Davos's reaches 2,808, a difference of 641 metres.

The share of skiing up high tells the same story. At Tignes, 97 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, the joint fifth biggest share of the 55, up to 3,449. At Davos it is 78 percent, up to 2,808. Both count as snow sure on our measure, and nobody can promise snow, but half of Tignes's piste is above 2,441 metres and half of Davos's above 2,106. Tignes's season also starts earlier and ends later, late November to early May against December to April.

If your dates are at either end of the winter, or snow is the worry that keeps you from booking, this section is the answer on its own.

Size: Davos has more around the town, Tignes has it joined up

On our own measure of the piste around each village, Davos has a little more: 144.6 kilometres against 130.1, a difference of 14.5. But Davos's figure is spread across separate mountains. The Parsenn, reached by railway from Davos Dorf, is the one big linked piece at 95.5 kilometres, shared with Klosters, and its long runs down to Klosters and Küblis are a proper journey. The Jakobshorn, Rinerhorn and Pischa are separate, and getting between them means a bus, a train or a car.

At Tignes, all of it joins up, and it keeps going. The lifts link across to Val d'Isère, and Espace Killy as a whole is 300 kilometres, a figure we have checked against our own measurement. You can ski across to Val d'Isère and home again on one pass, without taking your skis off for a bus.

The skiing: much the same amount, a steeper feel at Tignes

On the measures that compare fairly across the border, the two are close. At Tignes, 25 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, at Davos 23, against 26 at a typical resort we cover. Thirty percent of Tignes's piste is gentler than 15 percent, 31 percent of Davos's. Black kilometres are level, 20.5 against 20.7, and so is the marked itinerary, 14.2 against 13.3. France and Switzerland grade their runs differently, so ignore the colour shares and trust these.

Who each one actually suits

Tignes suits people who are there to ski, and families who want the snow settled before they book. Ski in ski out is normal rather than a selling point, the beginner areas sit by Le Lac and Val Claret, and the glacier has easy runs at the top, so a mixed group can all go high. Pick the village with care: Val Claret and Le Lac are the busy heart, Le Lavachet a little quieter, and the old hamlets of Les Boisses and Les Brévières lower down have the character the high villages lack. Evenings are lively without being relentless. Off the slopes there is an aquatic centre and an ice rink out on the frozen lake. It is built for skiing, and it looks it.

Davos suits groups with a non skier, families who want a town around them, and anyone who would rather come by train from Zurich airport. It has a high street, proper supermarkets, restaurants at every level, one of the largest natural ice rinks in Europe and curling. Davos Dorf sits by the Parsenn railway, Davos Platz by the Jakobshorn, where the parks and the louder bars are. Mixed groups can split by mountain during the day and meet in town at night. It suits least the skier who wants to click in at the door and ski lift to lift all week.

The bit nobody tells you

Both resorts put 300 kilometres on the pass. Only one of those figures holds up. Espace Killy's 300 has been checked against our own measurement of the runs, and it is genuinely linked, Tignes to Val d'Isère and back.

Davos's 300 sits 34 percent above the 224 kilometres we measure across the same lift areas, and those areas are six separate mountains. Only the Parsenn is shared with Klosters by lift, and Schatzalp needs its own pass. None of that makes Davos small: there is plenty of skiing, and the variety is part of the appeal. But if you are choosing on the size printed on the pass, the two are not the same size, and only Tignes's figure is one you can ski without a bus.