Faces north-west
Galibier-Thabor
131.2 km (OSM) 1,406–2,738 m
61% beginner 31% inter. 8% expert
- Vertical
- 1332 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 97
- Lifts
- 34
← Ski Ski area · France
Three Valleys
World's Largest Linked Domain · Eight Villages, One Pass · Snow-Sure to May
The biggest single lift pass in skiing — three parallel valleys stitched into around 600 km of piste, so you can ski all day and rarely cross your own tracks.
- 600 km Piste marketed
- 142 Lifts
- 1,110 m Base
- 3,221 m Summit
- 2,111 m Vertical
- 336 Pistes mapped
🎟 One pass: Les 3 Vallées lift pass covers every lift across the area.
Terrain & aspect
62% beginner 29% inter. 9% expert
- Novice
- Easy
- Intermediate
- Advanced
- Freeride
Slopes mostly face N — 72% on snow-holding, poleward-facing slopes.
Aspect derived from run bearings · OpenSkiStats / © OpenStreetMap (ODbL).
The area
The Three Valleys runs across three parallel Alpine valleys in the Savoie — Courchevel to the north, Méribel in the middle, and the higher Belleville valley holding Les Menuires and Val Thorens to the south — with a fourth, the Orelle side above the Maurienne, hung off the back of Val Thorens. Ridgelines and shared lifts link the lot, so a strong skier can cross the whole domain and come back in a day. The marketed figure is around 600 km of piste under one pass, which makes it the largest connected ski area in the world. Eight base villages sit at very different altitudes and prices, from the valley-floor spa town of Brides-les-Bains to Val Thorens at 2300 m — where you base changes the holiday more than which valley you ski.
Sheer connected size, and the freedom that comes with it. You are never stuck skiing the same runs, the grooming is relentless across all three valleys, and the lift network moves enough people that even a busy week rarely feels penned in. No other area lets you ski this far, this varied, without ever taking off the pass.
A properly high, north-leaning domain built for reliable cold snow and long days on piste rather than tree-line atmosphere. The skiing sits mostly between ~1300 and ~3200 m, much of it above the trees, so the character is wide, open and fast — big cruising motorways off the ridges, with steeper walls and off-piste for those who go looking. It is a piste-skier's area first; the trees that shelter a storm day are down at Courchevel and Méribel, not up top.
Best known for
Explore the villages
The pass is the same everywhere — the village you base in shapes the holiday more than the valley you ski. 8 base villages, one lift pass.
Courchevel
1,850 mPolished pistes and high-end everything
Five linked villages from 1300 to 1850, the ski world's byword for luxury — gliding, perfectly-pisted runs and a private-jet altiport above the trees.
Explore the village →Méribel
1,450 mBasing in the middle with the whole area on your doorstep
The valley in the middle, so you can drop into either side by lunch. Chalet-built and wooded, the classic all-rounder base.
Explore the village →Val Thorens
2,300 mGuaranteed snow and wide, high-altitude cruising
Europe's highest resort base at 2300 m, ringed by glaciers — snow you can count on from November to May, and the loudest after-dark in the three valleys.
Explore the village →Les Menuires
1,850 mHigh-altitude snow without the Val Thorens price tag
Val Thorens's more affordable neighbour lower down the Belleville valley — sunny, mostly ski-in/ski-out, and much of the 1970s concrete now softened by newer wood-and-stone quarters.
Explore the village →Saint-Martin-de-Belleville
1,450 mOld-village charm with lifts into the whole domain
A real Savoyard village — stone chalets, a baroque church, proper restaurants — with a gondola straight into the Belleville valley's slopes.
Explore the village →La Tania
1,400 mA quiet, wooded base between Courchevel and Méribel
Purpose-built for the 1992 Olympics but grown into a low-key, tree-sheltered village — a calmer, cheaper way into the Courchevel side.
Explore the village →Brides-les-Bains
600 mThe cheapest bed on the pass, at the price of a gondola commute
A valley-floor spa town linked to Méribel by a long gondola — the budget gateway to the domain, but you ride up and down each day rather than ski from the door.
Explore the village →Les Allues
1,100 mLiving in a working village mid-way up to Méribel
The commune Méribel technically belongs to — an old village on the gondola line, a quiet, lived-in alternative to the resort above.
Explore the village →- Val Thorens Highest and most snow-sure; lively, purpose-built, ski-in/ski-out — best if snow certainty and nightlife matter more than trees or charm.
- Courchevel Immaculate grooming and high-end everything; best if you want the polished, tree-lined side and don't mind the prices.
- Méribel Central and chalet-built; best if you want the whole area on your doorstep and a classic all-rounder base.
- Les Menuires High-altitude snow with far more affordable, mostly ski-in/ski-out lodging; best value for families.
- Saint-Martin-de-Belleville A real Savoyard village with a gondola into the domain; best for old-village calm and good food.
- La Tania Quiet, wooded and car-free at its core; best as a calmer, cheaper way into the Courchevel side.
- Brides-les-Bains Valley-floor spa town, cheapest beds; best only if budget beats the daily gondola commute.
- Les Allues A quiet working village on the Méribel gondola line; best if you want to live somewhere lived-in.
Choose the village for the trip you want, because the pass is the same everywhere. For snow certainty and ski-from-the-door convenience, base high in the Belleville valley — Val Thorens or Les Menuires. For the shortest reach into all three valleys, base central in Méribel. For polish and grooming (and to pay for it), Courchevel. For old-village calm on a budget, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville or La Tania. Brides-les-Bains is the cheapest bed on the pass, but you commit to a gondola commute up and down each day rather than skiing home.
Skiing, by level
Beginners
Genuinely good for a first week, but pick the village — beginners are far happier starting at altitude on the gentle, snow-sure greens and blues above Val Thorens, Les Menuires or Courchevel 1850 than committing to the long links between valleys, which are red-graded in places and can bottleneck.
Intermediates
This is the area's sweet spot. Confident blue and red skiers can tour all three valleys, cross a couple of ridges before lunch and pile up huge mileage on immaculate motorways — the Méribel base puts both sides within reach for exactly this.
Advanced
Plenty once you know where to look: the Courchevel couloirs off the Saulire, the steep front of La Masse above Les Menuires, and long top-to-bottom blacks. It rewards a skier who ranges rather than laps one lift.
Experts & off-piste
Not a lift-served extreme-terrain area on the scale of Chamonix, but the off-piste is broad and high — the Gebroulaz side, the back of Val Thorens toward Orelle, the Vallée des Avals from Courchevel. Take a guide for the glaciated and avalanche-exposed lines; a lot of the best is not obvious from the piste map.
Ski all three valleys in a day
The signature outing: start in one valley, cross the ridges via the shared lifts, ski down into the next and keep going. A confident intermediate can touch all three — Courchevel, Méribel and Belleville — and be home for dinner, which no other linked area really matches. Watch the last-lift times back over each col so you don't get stranded a valley from your bed.
Up the Cime Caron for the view
The cable car to the Cime Caron above Val Thorens tops out around 3200 m, with a panorama across the Vanoise glaciers to Mont Blanc and the Écrins. It's the domain's big-view set piece, and the run back down is a proper high-Alpine descent.
Afternoon at La Folie Douce
Mid-mountain above Méribel and Val Thorens, La Folie Douce turns lunchtime into an open-air club — live cabaret, a DJ and a lot of dancing in ski boots — before everyone skis (carefully) back down. Love it or route around it; either way it's part of the area's character.
Snow & how the mountain faces
Among the most snow-sure addresses in the Alps. The Belleville valley in particular — Val Thorens and Les Menuires — stays high and shaded, and Val Thorens can lean on the Péclet and Chavière glaciers, which is why the season here routinely runs into early May while lower valleys are closing. Slopes skew north and north-west (poleward share ~72%), holding what falls. The trade-off is exposure: high open bowls take the wind, and a warm spell hits the lower Courchevel and Méribel runs first.
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
On the map
The area and its base villages on the live map — pan and zoom to explore. The official piste maps are one tap away beneath it.
Legend
Run difficulty
- Novice
- Easy
- Intermediate
- Advanced / Expert
- Freeride / Extreme
- Unknown
Run types
- Downhill — groomed
- Downhill — ungroomed
- Downhill — gladed
- Nordic (groomed)
- Ski tour
- ☾Lit (night)
- △Not patrolled
- →One-way
- ❄Snowmaking
Lifts
- Operating
- Operating (private)
- Non-operating
- Lift station
Slope-gradient grading
Downhill / ski tour
- Flat<3°
- Easy3–14°
- Intermediate14–22°
- Advanced / Expert22–45°
- Freeride / Extreme>45°
Nordic
- Easy<6°
- Intermediate6–9°
- Advanced>9°
Aspect (sun exposure)
- N — least sun
- E — morning
- S — most sun
- W — afternoon
Legend after OpenSkiMap
How to get there
By air
Nearest big airports are Geneva (GVA) and Lyon (LYS), each ~approx 2.5–3 hours by road; Chambéry (CMF) and Grenoble (GNB) are closer but smaller and more seasonal.
By rail
The TGV reaches Moûtiers, at the foot of all three valleys, from Paris and (in ski season) from London via Lille or Paris; from Moûtiers it's a ~approx 30–60 min transfer up to the villages by bus, taxi or transfer service.
Transfer up
From Moûtiers the three valleys fan out on separate mountain roads — one each to the Courchevel, Méribel and Belleville (Les Menuires / Val Thorens) valleys. Once you're up, you barely need the road: the lifts are the transport between villages during the day.
Best time to go
Mid-December to April for full lift coverage, with February the busiest and priciest around school holidays. Late season — late March into April, and up top into early May — is the area's quiet secret: long days, soft afternoon snow, and the high Belleville runs still holding while lower resorts pack up. Book around the French and UK half-terms if you can.
- Season opensEarly December (Val Thorens usually opens first, from around late November)
- Season closesMid-to-late April across most of the domain; the highest Val Thorens runs into early May
- Val Thorens early openinglate November (snow-dependent)
- Peak weeksChristmas / New Year and February half-terms
- Spring skiingApril into early May on the highest runs
Good to know
Is one pass really enough for the whole area?
Yes — the Les 3 Vallées pass covers every lift across all three valleys plus the Orelle side. Cheaper single-valley passes exist if you only ever ski from your own village, but most people take the full area.
Which village should a first-timer pick?
For snow certainty and gentle high slopes, Val Thorens or Les Menuires; for a softer, tree-lined feel, Courchevel or La Tania. Avoid basing purely on price at Brides-les-Bains if you dislike a daily gondola commute.
How reliable is the snow?
Very, by Alpine standards — the high, north-facing Belleville valley and Val Thorens's glaciers keep the season running into spring most years, though the lower Courchevel and Méribel runs feel a warm spell first.
Nearby resorts & areas
Other resorts within reach if you're combining trips or comparing.
~approx 19 km away 
Faces north-west
Faces north-west Le Grand Domaine
125 km (OSM) 1,219–2,516 m
74% beginner 19% inter. 7% expert
- Vertical
- 1297 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 112
- Lifts
- 53
~approx 20 km away
~approx 22 km away
Faces north
La Plagne
191.4 km (OSM) 1,217–3,058 m
64% beginner 22% inter. 14% expert
- Vertical
- 1841 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 158
- Lifts
- 77
~approx 23 km away 
Faces north-west
Faces north-west Espace Haute Maurienne Vanoise
209.8 km (OSM) 1,306–2,948 m
60% beginner 30% inter. 8% expert
- Vertical
- 1643 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 162
- Lifts
- 79
~approx 28 km away 
Faces north-west
Faces north-west Les Arcs
203.1 km (OSM) 1,199–3,205 m
59% beginner 26% inter. 12% expert
- Vertical
- 2006 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 193
- Lifts
- 87
~approx 28 km away 
Faces east
Faces east Les Sybelles
135.7 km (OSM) 1,278–2,587 m
64% beginner 26% inter. 9% expert
- Vertical
- 1309 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 112
- Lifts
- 65
~approx 34 km away 
Faces north-east
Faces north-east Tignes - Val d'Isère
208.6 km (OSM) 1,559–3,447 m
56% beginner 33% inter. 11% expert
- Vertical
- 1888 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 169
- Lifts
- 84
~approx 44 km away
Faces north-east
Serre-Chevalier
157 km (OSM) 1,219–2,765 m
60% beginner 29% inter. 10% expert
- Vertical
- 1546 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 120
- Lifts
- 70
Getting to Three Valleys
Book an airport transfer up to the resort, or pick up a car at Lyon (LYS) — search and compare without leaving the page.
Ski data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via OpenSkiMap & Skimap.org. Basemap © OpenFreeMap / OpenMapTiles. · Weather data © Open-Meteo.com (CC-BY 4.0), ERA5 reanalysis. Village grouping & editorial: mynext.holiday. Transfers via Kiwitaxi; car hire via Travelpayouts.