Val d'Isere — France

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Val d'Isere, France. Photo © Ken Smith

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Val d'Isère is a mixture of traditional village and purpose built resort in the heart of the Espace Killy. The terrain available to ski is some of the best in the world; the resort is home to a great selection of bars and restaurants and accomodation is comporised of chalets and apartments.

Whilst Bono and Richard Branson come here all the time to enjoy 5-star chalets and fine dining, you are also just as likely to find snowboarders who live and breathe their sport. The main thing is that, whatever your preferences, it seems that once you’ve visited you’ll keep coming back! With access to over 300km of slopes, awesome off-piste and plenty of blue-sky days the Espace Killy region is one of the big hitters in European skiing.  

Where to stay

Three villages make up the resort (click here for our quick guide). La Daille is definitely not the prettiest resort you will ever stay in but the majority of the accommodation is close to the slopes, and some of the best runs end up here. There is a free bus to take you back to the other villages. Val d'Isère itself is the main village and has the most accommodation, bars, restaurants and shops. Finally, Le Fornet at the far end of the Isère valley is the most recently developed village and has retained many of the original buildings making it arguable the prettiest village of the three.

Après ski

Après ski in Val d'Isère can be as quiet or as lively as you wish and off-slope activities are everything you’d expect of a top international resort. In summary, Val d’Isère is a good old-fashioned all-rounder of a resort!