Skiing Les 3 Vallees, World’s Largest Connected Area
My favorite ski trip last season was with the 70+ Ski Club to Meribel, in the heart of Les 3 Vallees, the world’s largest ski/snowboard resort, in the French Alps.
There are more than 375 miles of groomed trails and many more miles of ungroomed that the Europeans call, simply, “off piste”. In six days, I hardly ever skied the same run or took the same lift more than once – easy to do with nearly 200 trams, gondolas and chairlifts.
Meribel bills itself as the “heart” of Les 3 Vallees, since it is in the center valley, making it easy to ski over to Courchevel on one side or Val Thorens on the other. Heart-shaped wooden sculptures polka-dot Meribel’s many trails, all of them – of course – placed at a picture postcard view for selfies, including with Mont Blanc in the distance.
Each valley is large enough to have several villages, and it’s important to remember the name of yours so you can ski back to the right one at the end of the ski day. Otherwise, it’s a long and expensive taxi ride, as much as 90 minutes and a matching number of Euros.
One of the perks of skiing in Europe is that rentals or passes cost the same for a full week as for one single day back home, which balances out the higher cost of your airline ticket. A weeklong pass for a zillion acres and non-stop scenery was around $150 for those over 70 ($450 if you are under 70), including insurance for the French version of ski patrol.
The main run in Meribel is Mont Vallon, with long – and I mean LONG – wide cruisers on either side of the lift. Everything here is supersized – one day I skied 23 miles with my guide, and that’s with stopping repeatedly for photos or to catch my breath and the hour-plus mid-day meals which are an integral part of the experience in the Alps.
The French take lunch seriously and just don’t understand the American style of grab-and-go. Maybe it’s because – unlike back home – there are dozens of mid-mountain restaurants serving gourmet fare. So I indulged – including a local beer brewed in a land better known for its wines.
Courchevel is the most famous of the three valleys, with villages named for their location in meters – 1350, 1550, 1850 – plus a couple of others with actual names. The higher you go, the more expensive the hotels get, including a Vuitton hotel and one owned and operated by the Rossignol family.
Courchevel also is where the best nightlife is. But those who know me know that I’ve been saying for at least the last 30 years that when I ski all day, my idea of nightlife is a pillow at 10pm. Maybe 9pm, now that I’m 70+. So, you’ll have to ask somebody else about nightlife in Courchevel. Or shopping.
I loved discovering trails in 1550 named for Native American tribes, along with a teepee with Native American artifacts inside – a slopeside example of Europe’s ongoing love affair with the Wild West.
Val Thorens is the highest of the three valleys, so the season usually starts earlier and finishes later then elsewhere. My favorite run here was another goes-on-forever cruiser, off the Ponte de la Masse lift to the village of Les Meniures, below the village of Val Thorens.
Val Thorens, perched at an altitude of 2,300 meters, has just been crowned “Best Ski Resort in France and the World 2025” for the tenth time in 12 years by the World Ski Awards.
There’s also a backside bowl, Orelle, that would be rated black and double-black in the USA.
Evelyn Kanter at Meribel Les 3 Vallees
Trail ratings are similar to the USA – green for beginner, red (not blue) for intermediate, and black for expert. Unlike the USA, trail markings are minimal – just poles with the color designation and a sign at an intersection with the names and direction of connecting trails.
So it’s up to you – or your guide – to know where you are, where you are going, and how to get back to your hotel later. Maybe that’s why there are more than 1,400 uniformed instructor/guides in Les 3 Vallees. Mine was originally from Scotland, who visited during college eons ago and never left.
The nearest airport is Geneva, then a 90-minute drive to your destination in one of the three valleys. I added a few days after skiing to visit Lausanne and Montreux, both hugging the shores of Lake Geneva. Several others in the 70+ Ski Club group added on Geneva, Paris or London, depending on their airline connections, before or after.
I’m ready to return, since there are still several hundred of the 375 miles of trails and 200 lifts and dozens of mid-mountain restaurants that I need to check out.
A bientot – which is French for see you soon, hopefully on the slopes.
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In January 1981 I skied an Austrian “Drei-Täler” (3-valley) area with my wife and two teenaged daughters. We were driving a Renault LeCar to Romania for my third and last research trip there. We passed through the town of St. Johann without seeing a parking spot, but in the next town, Wagrain, I pulled into a spot in front of a sporting goods store. Snow was piled high all around. I went in and asked in my best college-class German something like “Gives there here any skiing to do?” and the clerk pointed to a poster showing 44 lifts spanning three towns, the third being Flachau. He helped us find a B&B, sold us affordable 3-day passes (at low season rates) and rented us gear. We enjoyed fantastic skiing there, and if we ended up in the wrong town after the lifts stopped there was bus service back to Wagrain. At the time they had a little 3-valley card that you got stamped at each of the three main peaks, thus winning a little pin commemorating your feat. We still have the cards and the pins.
The 3 valleys is now at the top of my bucket list. I enjoyed the article very much, gives me something to dream and fantasize about while waiting for snow in California, I very much enjoy the newsletters thanks