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Espace Killy |
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Europe offers some of the most extensive, extreme and beautiful skiing anywhere in the world. Tom Robbins, powderhound and deputy travel editor of the Observer newspaper, picks five of the very best Click to view Top 5 European Ski Resorts.
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Best Super-Resort ( Espace Killy, France) |
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 There are bigger ski playgrounds in Europe, but not with terrain as well linked, groomed or various as that of Espace Killy in France. Taking in the resorts of Val d'Isère and Tignes, you'll clock up more skiing time here in a week than anywhere else on the continent, whether you're a beginner or an expert.
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For some, nothing beats the prospect of mile after mile of
perfectly tended piste and in Europe you are spoilt for choice. |
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 Consider that Whistler, North America's biggest ski area, has just 37 lifts. The Trois Vallées area in France had 200 at the last count, and more than 370 miles of piste.
Espace Killy, with 90 lifts and 186 miles of piste, is not quite so big, but it more than makes up for it through the integration of its lift system. For beginners and intermediates there are huge open bowls, gently
winding trails and high altitude "motorways" to cruise. For experts there are vast off-piste playgrounds, littered with steeps, shoots, gullies, cliffs and trees. With glacier skiing at up to 3,455m snow is also guaranteed - even in August.
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Top Snow |
"Val gets top marks for snow, off-piste, shopping and bars", say Pat Sharples and Vanessa Webb in their excellent book, "50 top Ski and Snowboard Resorts in Europe". Tignes, they add, offers the "best skiing and boarding in Europe".
Unlike some super-resorts, the two resorts of Espace Killy are seamlessly joined, so you can cruise from one to the other without fear of getting caught in rush-hour queues. The round journey from Tignes Le Brévières, which sits 800m below the main resort of Tignes, to Le Fornet, an off-piste mecca at the furthest edge of Val d'Isère, would take a day or more in other resorts. Here it can be done in an afternoon, so efficient is the lift system.
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Spoilt for Choice |
 Should you stay in Tignes or Val d'Isère?
I personally prefer Tignes, despite the brutalism of its 1960s tower blocks. Val is the bigger, glossier, richer and more traditional of the two main resorts, but Tignes is cheaper, has quicker access to the slopes and its bars and restaurants are modest and unpretentious. The satellite resort of Tignes Le Brévières is cheaper still and a good option for families with children.
But in a way where you stay in Espace Killy is irrelevant. To be honest, neither Tignes or Val stand out as destinations in their own right. The area, named after Jean-Claude Killy, the champion skier who swept the
board in the 1968 winter Olympics, is a masterpiece of function over form and is all about skiing. And in that it shines brighter than any other super-resort in Europe and perhaps the world.
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Altitude: 1550-3455m [] Piste: 300km
Pros: Year-round snow; Integrated lift system; Suitable for both beginners and experts
Cons: Some may not relish the tower blocks of Tignes |
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| TYPICAL PRICE: Six-day pass: €187/£126 |
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