⛷️ ❄️ The STW Ski and Snowboard thread : the 2024-2025 season

If Val is anything like Tignes, there is little pre-bookable parking but a lot of available on the day you arrive parking that you can then leave your car in all week so i would definately try in Val before you park in les brevieres.

We have driven up from bourg for the day quite a few times and always parked easily in La Daille in Val. More recently we have driven out for the week to Tignes many times and never pre book parking as they only offer covered expensive spots to pre-book and there aren’t many of them, There have always been spots in the public carparks. PLus the parking people will always find you a space if you have accomodation booked for the week. I would have though Val is similar since they patrol the street parking quite aggressively.

I would ask the person who owns the air BnB you are renting

You can pre-book open-air car parks in both Tignes and Val d’Isere. There are a lot of places but on some very busy days, notably New Year everything fills up if there’s good weather so if you try to book a week with those busy days in it the app will show full. Try booking just for the day you arrive or for shorter periods and see how you get on.

@ceepers & @Edukator

Thanks for the advice. The rental agency and the Tourist Office say contact the parking people. The parking people say:

Good morning,

 

I’m sorry, all online car parks are full for the requested period.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

Best regards,

Not exactly helpful or expansive. The Tourist Office said that there “may” be spaces available on the, but after a 1500 mile drive, I would like a bit of certainty. Currently I am certain I can park in Brevieres, and I am certain it will a bit of hassle. In the grand scheme of things it isn’t the end of the world, but I would currently take ANY car park in Vd’I, as I could walk back to the apartment from anywhere in the resort. Getting a relatively short local taxi ride on changeover day may well be difficult.

There’s a shuttle bus:

Edit: Oops that’s very out of date. I’ll try again:

https://public.tignes.net/TIGNES.NET/NAVETTES/NAVETTE_TIGNES_VAL_ISERE.pdf

Are you renting an Air BnB? I would message the owner if you are, they are generally really helpful and i would think its a common question!

edit: if you are parking in brevieres it’s relatively easy to ski across to Val. If you arrive in the morning you could drive straight to your apartment and unload, drive back to Brevieres and easily make it back to Val before the lifts shut.
The bus from Breivieres to Le Lac will be running even if the lifts from Breviere aren’t. From Tignes Le lac it’s basically two lifts and two runs into the middle of Val. The last lifts are quite late as people regularly ski between the two areas. If bad weather shuts the link then they put extra buses on.

Thank you @ceepers & @Edukator. I am not AirBnBing it, I have booked via a Val d’Isere based rental agency, but they can’t help (they say on their website that can, but when push comes to shove…)

I have just had a call from a very nice lady at the Tourist Office who has told me not to worry. Only 40% of the Parking spots are available for pre-booking, so I should get a space and, even if the carparks are full, I am to talk to the Police and they will tell me where to park and not ticket me. Seems almost to good to be true, although I might end up in the layby at Pont St Charles! On her advice I am to cancel the Breviere parking booking.

The main issue with Breviere parking is I can’t check in until after 5pm, by which time the lifts are closed and the bus up from Brevire to Tignes 1800 needs to dovetail with the not-very-frequent bus back the Vd’I.

We are overnighting it in Grenoble on 27th, so I will be unpopular turfing the family out of bed at 6am to make it up to Vd’I early, but needs must.

Plan is:

26th – Glasgow to Dover, cross channel, Hotel in Calais.

27th Calais to Grenoble, Supermarket, early night.

28th Grenoble to Vd’I early, aiming to ski for the day then check into apartment.

3rd Ski all day, then pack car and drive to Annecy.

4th Annecy to Ashford (Kent)

5th Drive back to Scotland

6th Back to work for a rest.

There you go! I would just trust the tourist office lady. It matches our experience in Tignes. We arrived late in Tignes Val Claret once ( 9pm) and couldn’t find a space in the main open car park. There was a parking guy waiting around who took us to a space elsewhere in the village ( & in the end closer to our apartment!)

Every other time ( all half term or Easter so busy weeks ) we have just found space in the obvious main car parks.

It’s a great area & already has good snow! Make sure you go up the Soleil side and do the “up n over” chair into the next valley. You need to experience an overpriced beer in the Folie Douce at least once also!

The last time we skied in Tignes we timed the journey to arrive at 05:00 (thus avoiding the trafic jams) and found a place in the underground car park at the Tignes chair lift. A few hours sleep in the car then up the steps to buy a forfait and off skiing. We moved to a cheaper open air car park as places started freeing off at the end of the day and left it there for the week. We left just just before New Year and the car park was full as we left.

@Troutwrestler

I live down in the valley and drive up to work in Tignes and Val d’Isere throughout the season. I have a reserved parking place in Tignes but not in Val. I have never, even at New Year or during half-term, been unable to find a space in Val. I used to park in La Daille and get the bus to meet clients in the centre, but eventually realised it wasn’t worth the hassle. The bus plus the walk from the car park to the bus stop meant leaving the house as much as 20 mins earlier while parking in the underground car park smack in the centre was only a couple € more per day.

The only exception to this was one Christmas/New Year period where there was a train strike going on so a lot of French and British tourists made last-minute decisions to drive instead and it was total chaos.

If you arrive mid-day, you may well find the car parks pretty busy. Before 9am or after 5pm you shouldn’t have any issues (i.e. when all the day workers like myself aren’t around). Definitely cancel space in Brev, you’ll be fine.

EDIT: Why are you overnighting in Grenoble though? If you have friends / family there, fair enough, otherwise it’s well out of the way. As well as being a pig to drive in/out of at busy times.

26th – Glasgow to Dover

I’ve done that journey many times but never on Boxing day. Even in the height of summer, it’s always a disaster at some point.

Good luck!

Woah, that is a lot of driving to do, good luck Trouty!

I’m excited about heading out on the 18th, 1 month to go..

Looking forward to it. I have skied Espace Killy a few times. I was there for NYE 1997, and have been back a couple of times pre-kids. The last time I was there we booked from Teletext! This is the first time with the kids.

We are driving back out at Easter for a Paradiski week followed by an Alpe d’Huez week. They really do not know that they are born. Driving out makes 2 weeks at Easter decent value, and 2 weeks makes driving out bearable. We are always on the bargain prowl. The 2 weeks at Easter combined, accom and passes is £2250 for 4 of us. Bring on the Salle Hors Sac at lunch!

Forecast looking quite nice

Make sure you go up the Soleil side and do the “up n over” chair into the next valley.

It’s a great experience. Last season I was lucky enough to be there on the day they opened the near-mythical TK3000 drag lift and the tunnel that was the original way in to the Fornet valley.

https://www.valdisere.com/en/experiences/top-5-most-engaged-ski-slopes/

Old footage:

I’ve been skiing since the millenium and first skiied Val d’Isere almost 20 years ago, but that’s the first time I’ve ever known the tunnel to open, and I can’t say the teleski has opened all that frequently either. It was a great experience, worth doing if you’re happy on a black piste

Classic standard wtap

Half cracker

Full cracker

Bag

Edit: love this forum software

Over a meter due in Tignes over the next few days, we arrive tomorrow night so getting marginally excited 😉

A colleague is heading out to Val Thorens on Saturday too, I reckon some lifts will be closed Sunday, but it looks like Monday Tuesday will be pretty epic powder days, so pictures please @jimdoubleyou!!