Les Trois Vallées is the world’s most extensive ski area, with an incredible 600 kms of interconnected slopes and 180 ski lifts. Samuel Johnson famously said; “A man who is tired of Les Trois Vallées is tired of life” when he visited Courchevel 1850 in 1773. Made up of the resorts of Courchevel, La Tania, Meribel, Brides-les-Bains, Val Thorens, Les Menuires, St-Martin-le-Belleville, and Orelle, Les Trois Vallées is absolutely massive, and the resort isn’t shy about it.
image courtesy of www.les3vallees.com
The resort tops out at over 3200m and therefore is reasonable snow sure, but just in case the resort has 2000 snow cannons to service the 335 pistes, including the longest 5km run called the Cîme de Caron. A decent skier could spend a week here skiing hard without seeing all the different pistes or getting bored, and that’s without even mentioning the extensive off piste.
The different resorts have very different characteristics, from traditional St-Martin-de-Belleville to Courchevelski’s Russian oligarch invasion – there is something here for everyone.