Ski Chalets in Tignes, France

Tignes is five villages above Bourg-Saint-Maurice, laid out for the lifts rather than around one old high street. The tourist office names Tignes les Brévières, Tignes 1800 (also called Les Boisses), Le Lavachet, Le Lac and Val Claret. Free shuttles run between them, and in winter you can walk between Le Lac and Val Claret across the frozen lake. The published advice is to leave the car in a car park and ride those shuttles.

The office calls Tignes a challenging, sports-oriented resort. It suits people who already ski with some confidence and want a full day on the area shared with Val d'Isère. A pass sold for Tignes alone does not open the Val d'Isère side; the combined pass does. Read which one you hold before you plan to cross. People who do not ski are not an afterthought on the same pages: they point to the Lagon pool, the sports hall at Tignespace, and the cinema in Val Claret.

The bed you book is the decision that changes the day. Le Lac and Val Claret sit on the upper shuttle circuit, and each has a tourist office. Le Lavachet is on that same circuit. Les Boisses and Les Brévières are lower, on the shuttles that drop down the valley, and they feel a step removed from the doors of the upper villages. A car is a clumsy answer to that last stretch. The timetable is the one the resort publishes.

Lyon, Geneva, Chambéry and Grenoble are the airports named for the flight in, and the railhead is Bourg-Saint-Maurice, with a bus up from the station. Val d'Isère, the other half of the ski area, is at /france/val-d-isere. For the rest of the French Alps, start at /france. Linked ski areas are covered on /large-skiing-area.