The 3 Valleys Ski Area is home to 8 eight different areas comprising family friendly and sporty facilities, exclusive resorts and authentic alpine villages: Courchevel, Val Thorens, La Tania, Méribel, Brides-Les-Bains, Les Menuires, Saint Martin de Belleville and Orelle are magical and renowned names in ski circles. The 3 Valleys offer 600 km of interconnected slopes served by 183 lifts, including 2 cable cars, 33 gondolas and 38 high speed detachable chair lifts that can transport 260,000 skiers per hour, plus 120 km of cross-country ski trails. Because of its size and the fact that 85 per cent of the area lies above 1800 metres, with the highest point culminating at 3230 metres, good snow is guaranteed. What's more, there are 25 accessible summits, 10 of which are in excess of 2500 metres! There's an astounding mix of terrain from fir forests to high glaciers, where both experts and beginners will be satisfied with the amount of piste dedicated to each-not to mention five terrain parks and thousands of hectares of the best off-piste.

Another benefit of size is diversity: in the 3 Valleys you will find a wealth of après-ski and international night life; an abundance of spas, wellness and beauty centres; activities such as sports centres, toboggan runs, cinemas and shopping. Plus, there are no less than six Michelin-starred restaurants in Les 3 Vallées, all accessible on skis-after all, what would some of the world's best skiing be without some of the world's best food?

For more information visit www.les3vallees.com

Take advantage of our top tips and ski the 3 Valleys for less!

Whilst at the 3 Valleys Ski Show stand, top French chef Mickael Weiss, talks through three delicious and simple single pot dishes that can be made in your apartment at the end of a day’s skiing.

On the 21st December, Courchevel will have the pleasure and privilege of hosting the slalom event of the FIS Ladies Alpine Ski World Cup. Returning after a 31 year absence, the whole resort is getting in on the action and going all out to welcome eager ski fans and the world’s best women skiers.

Find out more here: www.courchevel.com/skiworldcup/

The Feeling’s Little World Festival has unveiled the initial line-up for Meribel Live described as the world’s most beautiful festival. During the festival that runs 12 to 19 March 2011 there are over 40 separate gigs during a packed week of music in the mountains.

With an open air stage actually on the snow covered piste nestling in the Alps the festival will feature some of Europe’s biggest acts with Squeeze, Sophie Ellis Bextor, The Feeling, The Freemasons, Fictionplane, Carl Barat of Libertines fame, The Langley Sisters, Ed Harcourt and a host of other dj’s and musicians confirmed for a week of alpine music making. There will also be a number of special film screenings, speakers and a major comedy star is promised.

Méribel Little World Festival combines a week of skiing and snowboarding in the largest ski area in the world with entertainment from Europe’s biggest bands and DJ’s.

It’s the world’s only festival where you ski or snowboard by day and then party from sun set, with live gigs during the week in pubs, clubs, the town’s concert auditorium and also on the slopes for a huge FREE outdoor concert on the piste.

The Little World Festival gets bigger and better each year and 2011 promises to be the most exciting to date with more headline acts and gigs throughout the resort to be announced.

And fans can enjoy all gigs all week for only €95 (Euro’s) with a single wristband allowing entrance to all events.

For further information and ticket sales visit: 

www.littleworldfestival.com

From December, download the latest version of the 3 Vallées exclusive iPhone Application. Developed by Skiplan, this application is available on our website, www.les3vallees.com and also at Apple’s App Store.

The Les 3 Vallées application is available for skiers in 2 languages, free of charge.

There are many new features for you to discover this year:

Find your friends option: application users will be able to find their friends by sharing their locations on the ski area. If they want to arrange to meet up, they just need to send a Push message (free). This option works in conjunction with the users’ address books and with the help of the iPhone’s GPS feature. Users can of course decide whether or not they wish to be seen by their contacts.
Video player: Get the best 3 Vallées videos on your iPhone
Panorama (augmented reality): Don’t know the name of the peak up ahead of you? To find out what it’s called, nothing could be easier: open the application’s landscape option and film the peak. Its name will appear before your eyes!
iPad compatability: Get the whole application on your iPad
Improved piste map: To provide you with an enhanced service, the resolution of the piste map found in the application has been greatly improved.

And as usual:

- Piste map with skier’s geolocalisation
- Groomed runs and ski lift opening information
- Location of toilets
- Statistics of your day and the option to retrace your itinerary (performance levels)
- Ski area 7-day weather forecast
- Avalanche risk
- Snow levels
- 3 Vallées resort webcams and livecams
- Possible warning messages

Useful information for visitors from other countries: You can access the piste map and user's location, Myski, the augmented reality and X-Wing mode without connecting to the internet, avoiding a massive phone bill when you get back from your holiday.