Why Tignes?
Tignes is one of the highest resorts in the French Alps at 2100 m. The highest point of the ski area is a massive 3500m, and you can ski all year round. We scored a great powder day in early August in 2010! It is part of the massive Espace Killy ski area, which includes the six villages of Tignes as well as Val d’Isere. Over 450km of piste, over 100 lifts and loads of snow and off-piste potential, it doesn’t get much better than this.
On top of that, it’s a very relaxed ski town. Whilst we love the likes of Val d’Isere and Verbier, Tignes rocks without the pretention. You can walk into any bar dressed in any imaginable outfit and people will welcome you in without judging you on the label on your shirt or the way you talk. It’s a very easy place to make a lot of friends and have a lot of fun, and that’s why we keep going back!
Explaining Tignes
Tignes is made up of six villages. The highest three are Tignes Le Lac, Val Claret and Tignes Le Lavachet.
Tignes Le Lavachet - 2100m, it sits just behind the tourist hub of Le Lac. It’s where almost all of the season workers live, and as a result it has some great bars and a great relaxed vibe. It’s also less than ten minutes walk into Tignes Le Lac, and it has access to some of the fastest lifts accessing the best runs on the mountain.
Tignes Le Lac – this is the tourist centre next to the lake at 2100m. It’s big and got a great feel to it. It’s also very pretty, and is one of the three major hubs of Tignes. From the centre of Tignes Le Lac depart the high-speed Palafour and Aeroski lifts, so you’ll rarely be queuing for a lift even in busy season.
Val Claret – this is the third major hub about a mile up the valley from Tignes Le Lac. It’s got great lift access and good night life and is another major destination.
Free buses run all day and all night between the three top villages – from Lavachet to Val Claret takes about ten minutes. You can hike it as well – it’s about 20 – 25 minutes on the flat from the furtheest point of Val Claret to Lavachet.
Tignes Les Brevieres (otherwise known as “Brev”) is the bottom village below the dam at 1550m. Cute and small and very nice, it’s also very quiet and just about impossible to get up the hill for a night out without some serious logistical planning to get home again.
Tignes Le Boisses is at 1850m and is also fairly quiet – really good small town community though
Tignes 1800 is a new development just next to Boisses – really it’s the same place with a new name – see above.
In short, Lavachet is the pick of the bunch. With TC’s Bar, Scotty’s Bar, Le Brassero, the Sherpa Supermarket and a great bakery (so good) and access to the high-speed lift systems but without the crowds of tourists, it simply doesn’t get much better.
