Val Thorens

Val Thorens sits at the head of the Belleville valley at 2300 m — the highest of the Three Valleys' base villages and the highest in Europe — in a wide natural bowl closed off by glaciers. It is purpose-built: a compact, mostly pedestrian, mostly ski-in/ski-out resort where the lifts start at the edge of the village rather than a bus ride away. That altitude is the whole point. Snow arrives early and stays late, the season routinely runs from around late November into early May, and the top lifts reach past 3000 m onto glacier terrain. What it trades away is trees and old-village character — this is high, open, engineered mountain, not a Savoyard hamlet.

Snow certainty, altitude and convenience in one place. When lower resorts are thin, Val Thorens is usually still white top to bottom, you ski from the door without a morning bus, and you can drop over the back into the Orelle valley or across the ridges into the rest of the Three Valleys on the same pass. It has been named the world's best ski resort more than once at the World Ski Awards, and the reasons are all up here on the hill.

Cold, bright and high. Because everything sits above the treeline, Val Thorens is all wide-open bowls, fast rolling pistes and a big sky — exhilarating in sun, exposed and flat-light-prone when a storm blows through, with little tree cover to duck into. The village itself is walkable end to end in minutes and geared entirely around getting you onto snow with the least fuss; a car is a liability here, not an asset.