Courchevel

Login or register to post comments
Permalink

Arguably France's most exclusive resort, well located in the world's largest truly inter-connected ski area (Trois Vallées) and with some of Europe's best infrastructure, Courchevel would rate in the top 10 selection of resorts around the world for most dedicated skiers. Courchevel has it's own special Charter which ensures hotels, restaurants, shops and other businesses provide the best possible service and open as advertised throughout the season. The resort is made up of four different base stations, all self-contained villages and all known by their altitudes, except for 1300 which still calls itself Le Praz. The best known is Courchevel 1850.

Arguably France's most exclusive resort, well located at the eastern end of the world's largest truly inter-connected ski area (Trois Vallées) and with some of Europe's best on and off-slope in-frastructure, Courchevel would rate in the top 10 selection of resorts around the world for most dedicated skiers. Unsurprisingly Courchevel shares the reputation of St Moritz, Aspen or Lech for exclusivity and high prices but, equally unsurprisingly, the tourist board is keen to point out that it is possible to stay at and enjoy Courchevel 'on a budget'.

The view from a distance gives little clue to the presence of exclusive boutiques, luxurious chalets and the wonderful restaurants serving dishes of high gastronomic calibre. The first winter tourists arrived in the valley in the 1930s, with the resort 'taking off' in terms of popularity in the late 1950s and the '60s, particularly with the opening of the Saulire cable car in 1950.

Today Courchevel has its own special Charter which ensures hotels, restaurants, shops and other businesses provide the best possible service and open as advertised throughout the season. The resort is made up of five different base stations, all self-contained villages and all known by their altitudes, (1300 which still calls itself Le Praz and the other authentic Savoyard village Saint Bon). The best known of the five, and the one on which the resort's reputation is based, is the highest and largest - Courchevel 1850.

Resort Runs

General Mountain Information:

Courchevel's skiing is, of course, amongst the world's best, its own valley providing 150km (nearly 100 miles) of marked trails for all standards as well as excellent off-piste opportunities with one of the many professional guides. The ski area is especially pleasant having one of the highest tree-lines in the Alps, up at 2300 metres (just over 7500 feet).

The Courchevel Valley, which is a part of the huge lift linked Trois Vallées ski circus, is itself divided in to five sec-tions, nominally at least - Loze, Biolley, Saulire, Tania and Moriond. Beginners will find long wide greens and blues above the resort, including the Jardin Alpin trail served by the gondola lift of the same name. Higher up the mountain green and blues include Plan Mugnier, Montagne Russe and The Pyramide run from the top of Roc Merlet which continue down to 1650 via the Indiens run. There are also 8 free drag lifts for beginners spread over the ski area, 3 of them at 1850, 2 at 1650, 1 at 1550, 1 at Le Prag and 1 at La Tania.

Intermediates will find probably the world's best selection of blue and red trails in the Courchevel Valley and the easily accessed additional terrain of the 3 Vallées, one of the best red runs is 'Park City', named after Courchevel's twin-resort in Utah. The runs from La Saulire are some of the most challenging, and it is here too that experts will discover some of Europe's most challenging couloirs - known as 'The Ugly Sisters' and graded black but in some cases nearly 'off the scale' in reality.

Experts have plenty besides to entertain in the Trois Vallées and around Courchevel in particular. Some of the best loved blacks in the valley in-clude the steep and mogul covered Jockeys or Jean Blanc. Another long black mogul run is accessed from the Chanrossa lift after the huge Les Creux bowl. Off piste opportunities are enormous and guides may take you to the empty expanses beneath Le Signal. Heliskiing is available through the Mountain Guides office, which is also your starting point for courses or tours in glacier skiing, off piste, powder and extreme.

Courchevel boasts one of the largest armies of ski and snowboarding instructors in the world, there are 1000 and teaching all levels of all snow sports dis-ciplines and each able to speak a number of languages. The six ski schools include three branches of the ESF (Ecole du ski Français & Supreme Ski School) at 1850, 1650 and 1550. Most unusual is the Supreme Ski School which employs British ski instruc-tors who are qualified to both British and French standards and approved by the French Ministry of Youth and Sport.

There is a floodlit slope (open until 7pm nightly) above Courchevel 1650.

Altitude - Top Lift:

2707m

Altitude - Bottom Lift:

1300m

Vertical Drop:

1400m

Glacier:

Yes

Snowmaking Cover:

43%

Resort Uplift

Uplift:

70,160 people per hour

Number of Lifts:

Number of High Capacity Lifts:

Number of Chair Lifts:

Number of Surface Lifts:

Mountain Facilities

Snowboard Information:

There are two specially created areas. The Plantrey park is exclusively for 'boarders and features half pipe, baby pipe, table, hips and "a lot of neat stuff". The Verdons canyons is open to all sliders, regardless of what you have strapped to your feet - including skis, boards, blades or Big Foot, the one and only objective is weightlessness. Less official highlights are found by the Biollay chair where a ridge called The Lip is a popular spot for getting "big air". Extreme snowboard guiding is available from the Mountain Guides office. Of course Courchevel has huge on and off-piste opportunities to offer the 'boarder also. There's also a Family Park under Verdon cable car.

Freestyle Parks:

One permanent park

Night Skiing/Riding:

Apres Ski

Number of Bars:

Number of Nightclubs:

Getting There

Nearest International Airport:

Geneva (141km)

Airport Shuttle:

Nearest Railway Station:

Moûtiers (23km)

Location

Courchevel, France

Websites:

http://www.courchevel.com | Facebook | YouTube

Western Europe Summer and Winter Operational

If you'd like to provide an update for this resort or the map location is off, then Contact the office. We welcome your contributions!

Javascript is required to view this map.

Courchevel, France

Recently added news/events for Courchevel

Chambéry Airport Upgrades

19 September 2016

Chambéry Savoie airport is located in the heart of the French Alps, making it a great alternative to Geneva for reaching many of the country’s best known ski areas. So it’s an airport that’s increasingly popular with tour operators and scheduled airlines.

BASI Snowboard Development Course

Event date: Monday 5 to Friday 9 March 2007

Location: Courchevel, France

5 Day Course
Course Fee £355

BASI Snowboard Development Course

Event date: Monday 19 to Friday 23 March 2007

Location: Courchevel, France

5 Day Course
Course Fee £355

Users who have visited >

Near this resort

Resort

Courchevel 1650

(1 miles)

Summer and Winter Resort

Resort

Courchevel 1550

(1 miles)

Summer and Winter Resort

Club Discount

New Generation , Courchevel 1800

(1 miles)

Discount: 10% off

Club Discount

RTM Snowboarding , Courchevel 1800

(1 miles)

Discount: 10% off

Club Discount

Pleisure Holidays , Courcheval

(1 miles)

Discount: 10% Off

Club Discount

Pleisure Holiday Bars , Courcheval

(1 miles)

Discount: 1 Free Drink

Resort

Courchevel 1300

(2 miles)

Summer and Winter Resort

Club Discount

Snowbound Airport Transfers , Courchevel

(2 miles)

Discount: 10% off

Resort

La Tania

(2 miles)

Winter Resort

Resort

Méribel

(4 miles)

Winter Resort

Slope/Resort Discounts >

£15
off

Snowdome

Available on Single Adult Snowdome membership

10%
off

Glencoe Mountain Resort

Available on the price of a full day lift pass

10%
off

Bearsden Ski and Snowboard Club

Available on all recreational slope time including board nights

10%
off

Southampton Snowsports Centre

Available on all products and services

Most Visited resorts >

The Snow Centre Hemel Hempstead

Indoor resort in Hertfordshire, UK

Tignes

Summer and Winter resort in France

Snozone Milton Keynes

Indoor resort in Buckinghamshire, UK

Val d'Isère

Summer and Winter resort in France

Recently Added

10%
off

Hideout Hostel

Receive 10% off accommodation booking with discount code. (This can be entered online at checkout, or quoted via email or telephone call)

Jamie Nicholls park at Hemel this week

Park is looking good for Hemel.

Ski and snowboard for free at Hemel

Hemel are currently running an offer at The Snow Centre called Ski for Free to encourage more people to invite their friends and family to learn to ski. The way the offer works is that if someone who can ski or snowboard gets their friend/family member to book onto a Beginner Group Lesson they can have a 2 Hour Lift Pass for free at the same time.

Muir delivers perfect week as McCormick retains slopestyle title

The BRITS 2018 came to a close today with the ski competitions wrapping up and it was two familiar faces which were back on top of the podium. Kirsty Muir could lay claim to being the outstanding athlete of this year’s event as she took out her third park and pipe event of the week. Not content with first place in Tuesday’s Big Air, nor yesterday’s Halfpipe victory, Muir was the outstand

Ski Olympians impress in Brits Halfpipe

Day three of The BRITS 2018 saw freestyle skiing action turn to the halfpipe where warmer-than-usual conditions greeted the field which was graced with a pair of Olympians in the men’s event. GB Park & Pipe’s Peter Speight and Alexander Glavatsky-Yeadon made their Olympic debuts in PyeongChang less than two months ago and were back in Laax, with the pair vying for the top two places for the sec

Ski cross results from The Brits

Pam Thorburn repeated some not-so-distant history while Jonathan Bingham started and ended his season on a high as the pair claimed Ski Cross victories at The BRITS today in Laax. A former alpine skier, Thorburn turned to Ski Cross in 2012 and had instant success at The BRITS, but has been unable to compete at the event since due to a slew of untimely injuries.

Picture Big Air opens window to the future

The BRITS 2018 kicked off in LAAX, Switzerland today with the Picture Organic Clothing Ski Big Air providing a glimpse into the future with six teenagers filling the overall podium places today. With increasingly windy conditions threatening to impact the standard of a Super Final, organisers instead decided to conduct a straight two-run Final after an hour of practice with competitors having l

Bily Morgan to visit Scottish resorts this weekend

Ski-Scotland is delighted to report that Winter Olympic bronze medallist Billy Morgan will visit some of Scotland’s snowsports areas this weekend 24/25 March. Billy has accepted an invitation to attend SnowFest, Ski-Scotland’s popular snow fun festival and the festival’s timings have been tweaked to fit with Billy’s tight-packed competition and training schedule.

MK parks for the rest of the month

Here are Snozone MK's park for the rest of February. They've thrown some mogul sessions in there too.

The BRITS 2018 - Aiding Success In LAAX With Picture Organic Clothing & Ritblat Endeavour Awards

With the biggest show-on-snow about to kick off, what better time to update on the forthcoming British Snowboard & Freeski Championships - an event which has played a pivotal role in identifying the 17 freestyle athletes on Team GB, which heads to PyeongChang with its largest and strongest squad ever to compete at a Winter Olympics. For more than 25 years, The BRITS has been nurturing freest

Recent Vouchers and Promos >

Voucher Code

Chain Reaction Cycles UK Voucher Code

Save £10 off £75 spend on clearance items Terms: chainreactioncycles.com/customer-service/terms-and-conditions

Voucher Code

DC Shoes discount voucher code

Sale on Sale: Extra 20% off all special offers * *Exclusive online offer valid until midnight on 25/09/2018 across all sale Summer 2018 products. Enter promo code SUMMER20 during checkout.

Voucher Code

Quiksilver discount voucher code

Sale on Sale: Extra 20% off all special offers * *Exclusive online offer valid until midnight on 25/09/2018 across all sale Summer 2018 products. Enter promo code SUMMER20 during checkout.

Voucher Code

Roxy discount voucher code

Sale on Sale: Extra 20% off all special offers * *Exclusive online offer valid until midnight on 25/09/2018 across all sale Summer 2018 products. Enter promo code SUMMER20 during checkout.

Voucher Code