Things to do in Val d'Isère: off the skis, and often for free
There is more to it than the après, and a lot of it is free: three lifts that need no pass, six marked walks at village level and sledging on the Savonnette in the evening. For anyone not skiing, book a guided snowshoe outing, and on a bad weather day head for the Centre Aquasportif in the middle of the village.
Val d'Isère's reputation is big skiing and late nights. What gets missed is that it grew from a real mountain village, and that much of what there is to do off the snow sits in it or a free shuttle ride away. A week without skis is easy to fill.
Start with what costs nothing. Three lifts, two in the main village and one at La Daille, need no pass, so a beginner practises for free. The six marked walks are all at village level, and S8 is the one to start with, following the snowed under Iseran road out of Le Fornet to the national park gates. Any pass, a pedestrian one included, gets you into Le Lounge at the top of Solaise, and on a bad afternoon the media library has films, board games and consoles.
For anyone not skiing, book a guided snowshoe outing: it needs no ski ability, and runs from an initiation session to a snowshoe dinner. If half the group wants something harder, the Manchet icefall is at the far end of the S4 trail, so climbers and walkers share a morning. When the weather closes in, the Centre Aquasportif covers the day with pools, a lazy river, saunas, a climbing hall and a sports hall. On its roof is a small electric snowmobile circuit built purely for five to twelve year olds.
Val d'Isère is famous for its après, but not every evening has to start in a bar. The Savonnette sledging is set up in the evening with the kit handed out free, and the open air ice rink in the main village includes skate hire. Tignes shares the pass and is a free bus away. The ice climbing takes six at most, so book the guided outings before you go.
Free, and worth knowing
Six things that cost nothing extra, from lifts that need no pass to a library for a bad afternoon and sledging on the Savonnette in the evening.
Three free ski lifts
The Savonnette ski tow and the Village chairlift at the foot of the slopes in the main village, and the Lanches tow over at La Daille, are all free to use with no pass at all. Children under eight ski free across the whole Tignes and Val d'Isere area on top of that, so a family with a beginner in it has a week of practice for nothing.
After ski sledding on the Savonnette
A resort snow animator sets up on the Savonnette slope every weekday evening and hands out the toys: Snake Gliss, which is a line of sledges linked into a snow snake, Airboards, which you ride head first, and Yooners, which are the modern version of the old wooden paret. Human curling turns up in the same slot. It is free, the equipment is included, and there is nothing to book.
Savonnette slope, main village
Six marked winter walking trails
All at village level, all free, and every one of them is on the free shuttle. The pick of them is S8, which follows the buried Col de l'Iseran road out of Le Fornet to the gates of the Vanoise National Park, six kilometres there and back. S7 runs along the Isere under the larches from Le Laisinant to Le Fornet, five kilometres, and S1 walks you from La Daille into the village and back in three.
S4 goes six kilometres up the Manchet valley to an icefall at the far end, and S5 loops the same valley in four.
The museum and the media library
Both free, both in the same building on rue de la Face in the main village, along with the cinema. The media library is the better of the two on a bad afternoon: books, magazines, music, films, board games, consoles and virtual reality, plus free events through the season.
Maison de Val, 320 rue de la Face
Le Lounge and the free mountain spaces
Free with a pass you already hold. Le Lounge sits at the top of the Solaise gondola and is an indoor room with picture windows, sofas, deckchairs on a sun terrace and a cartoon corner for children. There is a second free lounge next to the gondola at La Daille, a ValKids fun zone at the top of Solaise, the Lost Village at La Daille, and picnic terraces at Bellevarde and Fontaine Froide with binoculars and orientation tables.
Three free events with dates already published
Rare this far out, and worth building a page around. First Tracks on 28 and 29 November 2026 is the opening weekend, with a free test village at the foot of the slopes where you can try the new season's skis and boards for nothing. New Year's Eve is a DJ set on the snow front from nine with fireworks at midnight. The Little Big Festival on 2 April 2027 is an amateur film evening, sixth edition.
On the mountain
Snowshoes with a guide, which need no ski ability at all, and the icefall at the head of the Manchet valley, at the far end of the S4 walk.
Snowshoeing with a guide
Five operators, and formats from an initiation session to a half day, a full day, a snowshoe dinner and a night outing. It is the cheapest guided thing on the mountain here and it needs no ski ability at all.
20 to 50 euros · Various, most start at Le Manchet
Ice climbing at the Manchet icefall
The icefall at the head of the Manchet valley is the natural venue, and it sits at the far end of the S4 walking trail, so it can be a morning for one half of a group and a walk for the other. The guides office has been running here since 1971 and takes a maximum of six.
Over 50 euros
In the village
The answer to a bad weather day, a circuit built for the five to twelves, and an open air rink with skate hire included.
Centre Aquasportif
Five thousand square metres in the middle of the village at the foot of the Face de Bellevarde, and it is the answer to almost every bad weather question here. A twenty five metre sports pool and a four hundred square metre leisure pool with a lazy river, water cannons, massage jets and bubble benches. Three jacuzzis, three saunas and a hammam. A climbing hall with routes to twelve metres, squash courts, a five hundred square metre sports hall for badminton, pickleball and indoor football, a gym looking down over the pools, and a spa.
Price on request · 370 rue de la Face, main village
Mini electric snowmobiles for children
On the same roof, an enclosed circuit with four small machines and a strict age band, five to twelve. It is the one activity here built purely for the age group that is usually too young for everything.
20 to 50 euros · Roof of the Centre Aquasportif
The open air ice rink
Open air, in the main village, and skate hire is in the price rather than bolted on top, which is not the case everywhere.
Under 20 euros · Rue Noel Machet, main village
Nearby
The neighbour on the same lift pass, a free bus from the Val d'Isère bus station or a ski over Toviere.
Tignes, over Toviere
The two resorts share a lift pass, and almost everything a guest cannot find in Val d'Isere is on the Tignes side. Ice diving and freediving under a metre or two of ice on the frozen lake at Tignes le Lac, and its winter prices are already out. Ice floating and a cold water immersion session on the same lake. Snow tubing at Val Claret. A proper eight hundred metre approved ice driving circuit down at Tignes les Brevieres.
Over 50 euros · Free bus from the Val d'Isere bus station, or over Toviere on skis
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.