Espace San Bernardo

Espace San Bernardo joins two resorts that face each other across the Little St Bernard pass: La Rosière, high on a sunny French balcony above the Isère valley, and La Thuile, lower and in the trees on the Italian side above the Aosta valley. The link runs over the col itself, so a day here means skiing from one country into the other and back — the pass is a real border, closed to cars in winter but open to skiers. The marketed figure is around 150 km of piste on one Espace San Bernardo lift pass, split fairly evenly between the two sides. The characters are opposites: La Rosière is open, south-facing and bright, good for progression and gentle cruising; La Thuile is shadier, steeper and forested, with the area's best snow-holding and its more serious runs. The whole thing hangs on that pass crossing, which is the appeal and, on a windy day, the catch.

The novelty is real and it earns its keep: you genuinely ski between two countries in a day, and the two sides complement rather than repeat each other. La Rosière gives you sun, space and easy intermediate mileage; La Thuile gives you the shade, the trees and the steeper, better-snow terrain — and a long Italian lunch that's part of the point. Neither resort would top a shortlist on its own, but linked over the pass they add up to a varied domain with two genuinely different moods and none of the lift queues of the bigger-name areas nearby.

Two sides that ski nothing alike. The La Rosière side is open, south-facing and sunny — broad, rolling intermediate terrain above the treeline, exposed to the light and the weather in equal measure. Cross the pass into Italy and La Thuile is the opposite: shadier aspects, runs cut through larch forest, steeper pitches and quieter slopes. You spend the day moving between the two, and the transition over the col is the day's spine. It skis as an intermediate's domain first, with real steeps and off-piste for those who cross to the Italian side to find them.