WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO SKI IN VAL D’ISÈRE?
PRE-CHRISTMAS IN VAL D’ISÈRE
Our chalets open on Sunday 8 December 2024, when you can book individual rooms at our chalet hotel Les Chardons, or fill any smaller chalet with a group. On both 8 December and 15 December the slopes will be very quiet, our holidays cost less than staying at home, and you’ll have time for Christmas shopping when you get back! The week 15-22 December will enable parents to get in a week of fantastic skiing with their children before the 25th, even if in-laws are coming for Christmas Day! Val d’Isère’s snow factory can make enough snow to cover Wembley stadium six inches deep every hour. So even if the real stuff doesn’t come, 45% of Val d’Isère’s slopes will be in good condition. The World Cup circuit is confident of this, and has scheduled men’s slalom and giant slalom races on the fearsome Face for 14 and 15 December.
CHRISTMAS IN VAL D’ISÈRE
A proper white Christmas, such as most British children only dream of! Our Christmas week is Sunday 22 December to Sunday 29 December 2024. You bring the presents and we provide the tree to lay them round, the log fire, turkey, Christmas pudding, mulled wine, etc. The slopes are surprisingly uncrowded, the resort is ‘en fête’ with events and processions.
NEW YEAR IN VAL D’ISÈRE
This is a wonderful time to ski, as long as you go somewhere with enough pistes and lifts to handle being busy. Val d’Isère has a vast ski area and 16 lifts from the valley floor. Revellers love the partying on 31 December. Skiers love the empty slopes a few hours later. A few very fit people enjoy both! Our New Year holiday is Sunday 29 December 2024 to Sunday 5 January 2025. Our prices are slightly lower than our Christmas week.
JANUARY IN VAL D’ISÈRE
Our favourite month. It can be fractionally colder than at other times, but this high above the clouds cold weather tends to be sunny. It can also snow every day of course, but that’s true of any month. What is certain is that the slopes are quiet (with almost no schools on holiday), the snow is the squeaky perfect stuff everyone skis well on, and our holidays are distressingly cheap.
FEBRUARY IN VAL D’ISÈRE
The classic month to go skiing. It’s logical: there will almost certainly be more snow than in January, the temperatures will be similar but the days longer and the sun stronger. People worry that with every bed and bunk full of families, the resort will be horribly crowded! It is true that there will be more actual people here than at any other time, but their total mass will be far less, since half of them will be children. And children skiing at 5mph in neat little lines behind their instructor occupy less snow than a single 15-stone adult male in a racing snowplough after a big lunch! And their parents will have repaired to the nearest café for an espresso and a Gauloise! British schools’ half-term is 16-23 February 2025 (with some schools on holiday 9-16 February), and the French holiday is split over four weeks between 9 February and 9 March 2025.
MARCH IN VAL D’ISÈRE
The sun in March is stronger than in the Med in midsummer, and Factor 60 is a must. There will be perfect winter snow on the upper runs, and the first spring snow off-piste. Towards the end of the month, the lower pistes can be soft in the afternoons, but they are groomed back to perfection every night. Long sunny lunches on the terraces of the Fruitière, Trifollet or Edelweiss aren’t great for one’s skiing or silhouette, but excellent for the morale…
APRIL IN VAL D’ISÈRE
This is when Val d’Isère stands out most from other ski resorts. The sun is incredibly powerful, but in our high, narrow, north-facing valley the snow lasts exceptionally well. April showers falling as rain lower down fall as powder here, and April sometimes brings more fresh snow than all the other months put together. Off-piste, the warmth transforms it into exhilarating spring snow, though there’s still winter snow on the glaciers. Some people stop for long lunches in the sunshine; others ski until the last lift. This winter our chalets will close on 27 April.
For a list of festivals and events, which may help you decide when to come to Val d’Isère, please see the Après-ski page. Contact us for more information on any of the above.
