Tignes or Val Thorens: which high resort is right for you?
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20265 min read
Val Thorens and Tignes are the two highest villages of the 55 resorts we cover. Both were built for skiing, both run from late November to early May, and both put snow you can count on outside the door. So this is not really a question about snow.
It is a question about which lift pass you want, who is in your group, and how loud you want the evenings to be. The numbers first, then what they mean.
The numbers, side by side
| Figure | Tignes | Val Thorens |
|---|---|---|
| Village altitude | 2,100 m at Tignes le Lac, 1,550 m at Les Brévières | 2,300 m |
| Highest lift | 3,456 m | 3,230 m |
| Linked ski area | 300 km, Espace Killy, shared with Val d'Isère | The Three Valleys, quoted at 600 km, not yet measured by us |
| Piste we measure around the village | 130 km | 211 km |
| Green and blue | 76 km, 58% of the piste | 134 km, 64% of the piste |
| Black | 21 km | 16 km |
| Marked off piste itinerary | 14 km | 8 km |
| Piste steeper than one in four | 25% | 25% |
| Piste gentler than 15% | 30% | 37% |
| Season | Late November to early May | Late November to early May |
| Nearest airport | Geneva | Geneva or Chambéry |
Two rows do most of the work. The first is the ski area. The Three Valleys is quoted at twice the size of Espace Killy. We have checked Espace Killy's 300 kilometres against our own measurement. The Three Valleys' 600 is the widely quoted figure for an area that is genuinely linked, but we have not yet measured it ourselves. The second is the steep row. It is the same at both.
Altitude: one is higher at the door, the other at the top
Val Thorens's village sits at 2,300 metres, the highest we cover and 200 metres above Tignes le Lac. Tignes's lifts go 226 metres higher, to 3,456, and it has the Grande Motte glacier above it, open through the winter.
So the height sits in different places. Val Thorens has it where you sleep, and Tignes has it at the top of the mountain. With identical season dates and both main villages above 2,000 metres, call the snow a draw.
The thing to watch at Tignes is which village you book. Tignes le Lac is at 2,100 metres, but Les Brévières, at the bottom of the area, is at 1,550. It is still Tignes, and it is 750 metres lower than Val Thorens.
Size: Val Thorens gives you more, however you count it
The quoted figures say 600 kilometres against 300. Our own measurement of the piste around each village says 211 against 130. Whichever ruler you prefer, Val Thorens puts more skiing within reach, and the gap holds on the ground as well as on paper.
That is not a knock on Espace Killy, which is big, genuinely joined up, and shared with Val d'Isère. But if your group judges a week in kilometres, and wants to still be finding new runs at the end of it, Val Thorens and the rest of the Three Valleys will keep going longer.
The skiing: the same steep, a different easy end
At each resort, 25 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, just under the 26 percent at a typical resort we cover. On the measure we trust most across resorts, neither mountain is steeper than the other.
76 km green and blue 58%34 km red 26%21 km black 16%
134 km green and blue 64%61 km red 29%16 km black 8%
Marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste totals: Tignes 14 km, Val Thorens 8 km.
What differs is the shape. Val Thorens is weighted to the easy end: 64 percent of its piste is green or blue, 134 kilometres of it, and 37 percent is gentler than 15 percent. Tignes spreads itself more evenly across the grades: 58 percent easy, 26 red and 16 black, against Val Thorens's 64, 29 and 8. On our measure of how evenly a resort's piste splits between easy, red and black, Tignes ranks 19th of the 55 we cover and Val Thorens 47th.
In a smaller area, then, Tignes has more of the serious skiing: 21 kilometres of black against 16, and 14 kilometres of marked off piste itinerary against 8. Val Thorens's blacks are fewer but measure steeper on average, 32.2 percent against 23.5, though the Tignes average leaves out its 6.6 kilometres of double black. Our terrain ratings, which score every resort for four levels of skier, have the two level for first timers, improvers and strong skiers, and put Val Thorens ahead for intermediates.
Who each one actually suits
Tignes suits people who are there to ski, first lift to last. It is practical rather than buzzy and built for skiing, with the higher lifts, the glacier, more black and nearly twice the itinerary. Its evenings are quieter and spread across separate villages, Tignes le Lac, Val Claret, Le Lavachet and Les Brévières, each with its own. That frustrates a group that wants one big night out, and suits a group that wants different things.
Val Thorens suits mixed groups, and anyone who wants the evening to be part of the holiday. It has the party scene, and of the four Three Valleys villages we cover it is the lively one. The easy kilometres mean the less confident members of the group have far more to explore, and the stronger ones still get the same share of steep.
The bit nobody tells you
Tignes has the reputation for serious skiing, and it earns it at the top of the mountain and off the piste. Where it is genuinely harder is somewhere people do not think to look: the blues. Tignes's blues average a gradient of 17.6 percent, steeper than all but six of the 55 resorts we cover. Val Thorens's average 16.5.
That is average gradient, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so treat it as a guide to how the week feels rather than a verdict on any one run. For a confident skier it hardly matters. For somebody in their first week off the nursery slopes, it is the difference between a blue that feels like a blue and one that feels like a step up. If your group has improvers in it, that matters more than anything on the black runs.
So, which one
you are going for the skiing above all else, everyone in your group is past the blue run stage, and you want the higher lifts, the Grande Motte, more black and more marked off piste. Also if your group wants different things in the evening.
you want the highest village we cover, the bigger area by any count, plenty of easy running for the less confident, and an evening with some noise in it.
It gives more skiing to more of the group, for the same share of steep. Tignes is the right answer when you already know exactly why you want it.