- The village, Tignes le LacThe second highest village of the 55 resorts we cover.
- 2,100m
- Top of the skiingThe highest top of the skiing in France, and the third highest of the 55 resorts we cover.
- 3,449m
- SeasonThe joint longest season in France. Longer than the December to April season that 42 of the 55 resorts we cover run.
- Late November to early May
Is Tignes right for you?
Tignes sits at 2,100m and shares the Tignes Val d'Isère ski area, long known as the Espace Killy, with Val d'Isère. The skiing tops out at 3,449m, and the season runs late November to early May. On the piste it is a real strength for first timers and improvers moving from blue into red. Snow-sure at 2,100m. The village is functional rather than pretty, and some people mind that more than they expect to.
Tignes at a glance
- Area
- Tignes Val d'Isère
- Best for
- Snow sure · Value for money · Mileage chasers
- Fly to
- Geneva, Lyon or Chambéry
- Transfer
- About 3h by road from Geneva
- Doorstep skiing
- Widely available
Who Tignes suits, and who it suits less
Best for
- Snow sure. Tignes le Lac sits at 2,100 metres, we measure 97 percent of the piste above 1,800 metres, and the Grande Motte glacier reaches about 3,450 metres.
- Value for money. You get the same 300 kilometre area as Val d'Isère for noticeably less money, which lets a group aim higher on the property and keep the sums sensible.
- Mileage chasers. The link with Val d'Isère puts 300 kilometres of piste and 79 lifts on one pass, from easy glacier runs to long blue and red cruising between the resorts.
- Families with young children. Lots of accommodation sits within a short walk or a gentle ski of the beginner areas around Le Lac and Val Claret, and the ski schools are well drilled.
- Groups of friends. Groups get big mileage and lively bars around Le Lac and Val Claret, at prices kinder than you might expect for a resort of this size.
Less good for
- Couples. Couples picturing a pretty Alpine village should know Val Claret and Le Lac are purpose built and practical, though Les Brévières has the charm of an old stone hamlet.
- Fine dining. Eating is honest mountain fare done well, with a handful of smarter tables, so gourmets chasing a serious tasting menu will find more choice elsewhere.
Skiing from 1,550m to 3,449m, village at 2,100m (Tignes le Lac).
Where these heights are
- Lowest skiing
- 1,550mLes Brévières.
- Village
- 2,100mTignes le Lac.
- Top of the skiing
- 3,449mOur measurement of the highest marked piste.
- 23 runs green14%
- 67 runs blue42%
- 41 runs red26%
- 29 runs black18%
Counted by the resort, covering Tignes Val d'Isère, the whole linked area. No official kilometres by colour are published.
- Black piste
- 21km, 16% of the pisteThe seventh biggest share of black of the 55 resorts we cover.
- Of which double black
- 7kmThe third most double black of the 55 resorts we cover.
- Off piste itinerary
- 14kmThe tenth most of the 55 resorts we cover. Marked routes, not pistes, and never added to the piste figures.
- Ski area
- Tignes Val d'Isère, 300km
Sources
- Village height: tignes.net
- Lowest skiing: tignes.net
- Lowest skiing: compagniedesalpes.com
- Runs by colour: valdisere.com
- Ski area: tignes.net
- Top of the skiing: our measurement of the highest marked piste
- The steep end: our measurement of the OpenStreetMap piste map
The published figures were read on 29 October 2026.
130km of graded piste, measured ourselves.
- 76km green and blue58%
- 34km red26%
- 21km black16%
Of the 76km green and blue, 17km is green.
Plus 14km of off-piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
- First timersA real strength
- Improvers, blue into redA real strength
- Confident intermediatesFine
- Strong skiersFine
The spreadSomething for everyone. It scores 0.87 for evenness, where 1 is a perfect three way split between green and blue, red and black, the 19th most even spread of the 55 resorts we cover. A mixed group should all find their level here.
Longest pisteRoute des Ruines, 2.5km of blue with 193m of vertical.
Measured from the run geometry, Tignes has 130km of graded piste: 76km green and blue, 34km red and 21km black. We do not print the resort's published kilometres until we have checked what they count.
Tignes among its French peers
Of these five, Tignes has the second highest village, 2,100m. The median across the 55 resorts we cover is 1,350m.
Who should look elsewhere
If you want a village with a heart
Val d'Isère or Méribel will suit you far better.
Know the mountain before you go.
The skiing
You can ski from the door across wide open slopes, drop over to Val d'Isère for lunch, and finish on the glacier when conditions lower down are thin. It is a strong pick for mixed groups who want mileage.
The village and the evenings
The lake side hub of Le Lac has the most going on, while Val Claret sits highest for the fastest glacier access. It is less about nightlife and more about getting the most out of the mountain.
Beyond the skiing.
Free, and worth knowing
La Banquise, Tignes le Lac. A free snow village on the lake side: an igloo village you can walk into, a curling rink, Inuit games, and a fifteen metre toboggan slope gentle enough for a two year old. All of it free, no booking, no supervision to pay for.
Snow Village, Val Claret. The second and larger free snow area, and the one most people miss. An igloo village, an oversized igloo you can go inside, Inuit games, a land art area where the resort's technical teams build ephemeral snow structures, a life size walk around snow spiral and a labyrinth. Free from half past ten in the morning until eight at night.
Four free sledging areas. One in each of Tignes le Lac, Le Lavachet, Tignes 1800 and Les Brevieres, all free, all open to everybody, and all reachable with a pushchair. Sledging is not allowed on the pistes, so these are where it happens.
Nine free beginner lifts. Four magic carpets at Claret, Centre, Boisses 1 and Boisses 2, two drag lifts at Lavachet and Grande Parei, and three chairlifts, Bollin, Almes and Rosset. No pass needed on any of them. That is nine lifts of free practice.
Two lifts that carry pedestrians for nothing. Nine lifts take pedestrians and seven of them want a pass. The Brevieres gondola and the Bollin chairlift do not. That gives somebody who is not skiing a way up the mountain and back down for free, which is unusual.
Le Panorama, the free half. Three floors above the tourist office at Tignes le Lac with a three hundred and sixty degree view, and most of what is inside costs nothing. A virtual reality headset takes you through a hundred years of Tignes history, from farming through the dam and the move up the mountain. There is an augmented reality map table with six points of interest and a game for younger children, and two augmented reality telescopes on the terraces that name the peaks.
Free guided walking tours. Two cultural walks led by a heritage guide. One starts at the church in Tignes 1800 and takes in the rebuilt Saint Jacques, the other starts at the Maison de Tignes le Lac and covers how the resort was built from the 1930s onwards. Both free.
Walking across the frozen lake. The tourist office actively recommends crossing the frozen lake on foot as the quick link between Tignes le Lac and Val Claret, and the activity operators use it as the walking access to their lakeside meeting point. It is free, it is flat, and it is a better ten minutes than the road.
Free events through the season. Opening weekend on 21 November 2026, the Yeti Race on 29 November, Christmas on the 24th and 25th, New Year's Eve, the Mountain Shaker festival from 17 to 22 January 2027, Spring Break across the last two weeks of the season and Black Shoes, the thirty fifth telemark gathering, from 23 to 25 April 2027.
Free with a pass you already hold. A snowpark on the Palet sector with a chill zone, a terrace, deckchairs and picnic tables. A twelve hundred metre boardercross with banked turns and bumps off the Col du Palet drag. A parallel slalom race track off the Palafour chairlift. And the themed family piste off the free Bollin chairlift, which needs no pass at all.
A few of the rest
Ice diving under the frozen lake. Under one to two metres of ice on the lake at Tignes le Lac. A day dive, a night dive, or a three dive ice diver qualification spread over two days. The meeting point is a cabin on the lake shore below the aquatic centre, so it is a walk from the middle of the village rather than an expedition. Over 50 euros.
Expedition Cobra. A sledge descent from the top of the Palafour chairlift, sold from a chalet at the bottom, with everything provided. Twelve euros a run makes it the cheapest paid activity on the mountain here. Under 20 euros.
Snow tubing at Val Claret. Rubber rings down a shaped course at the entrance to the Grande Motte park, half an hour or an hour, and there is a family rate. From age three, which makes it one of the very few paid mountain activities that takes a toddler. Under 20 euros.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.
19 places we would send you to
Three thousand metres at the top of the Grande Motte, and the only mountain restaurant in Tignes we would send anyone to.
A Michelin star inside the resort, with an alpine forest built into the room as well as the menu.
A lively bar downstairs with live music and a quieter restaurant above it, so it works whichever evening you are having.
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Opening times and ownership change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.
Getting there
Fly to Geneva, about three hours away, or to Lyon. Chambéry is closer, but it is small and its flights are more often diverted in bad weather. The Eurostar ski train runs to Bourg St Maurice on winter Saturdays, with a road transfer up the valley from there.
- Genevaabout 3h by road
- Lyonabout 3h30 by road
- Chambéryabout 2h30 by road