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5 Best Club Med Ski Resorts in Europe - 2021
There are more than a dozen Club Med ski resorts in Europe. Most of them are in France, but they've also got some in Switzerland and Italy.
But which are the best ones?
We've picked out five of the best by looking at factors such as value for money, customer reviews, the range of ski slopes and facilities at the accommodation. If you'd like to see our working, here's our full guide to the best Club Med ski resorts.
Review scores and other details are correct at the time of writing.
But which are the best ones?
We've picked out five of the best by looking at factors such as value for money, customer reviews, the range of ski slopes and facilities at the accommodation. If you'd like to see our working, here's our full guide to the best Club Med ski resorts.
Review scores and other details are correct at the time of writing.
1. Club Med Les Arcs Panorama and Club Meds Val Thorens, France
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Club Med Les Arcs Panorama ticks a lot of boxes for me when looking for the best Club Med ski resort. However, there’s a caveat – it was one of the most expensive in our price comparison for a week’s holiday for a family of four.
On the plus side, customer reviews are outstanding with an average score of 4.5/5 on TripAdvisor and 4.7/5 on Google reviews at the time of writing. That makes it the highest scoring of all the Club Med ski resort hotels in Europe. It’s a large hotel with more than 400 rooms and it has a choice of restaurants depending on how formal/relaxed you want it to be. Club Med Les Arcs Panorama has other things going for it. It opened in 2018 and has a good range of facilities including indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a spa. There are kids' clubs for children and teenagers and you can ski right up to the resort, rather than wasting the first hour of the day onboard a bus. It has the option to upgrade to the poshest Club Med accommodation (‘5 tridents’) and it has more ski runs than most of the other Club Med Resorts. In all there are 425km of pistes – only Club Med Val Thorens Sensations has more. There’s a big range of mid-difficulty pistes at Les Arcs Panorama with a pretty good number of green runs (beginners) and black runs (expert). The nearest airports are not especially nearby – it’ll take about 2 hours 30 minutes to drive from Geneve or Lyon. There’s a train station much closer. Club Med Val Thorens Sensations is also worth considering at the posher end of the Club Med market. It's often voted as one of Europe's best ski resorts and has more beginner slopes than any other Club Med resort. The hotel gets very good reviews but it is quite pricey. |
Les Arcs Panorama and Val Thorens (pictured) are two of Club Med's best resorts
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2. Club Med Saint-Moritz, Switzerland
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Club Med Saint-Moritz in Switzerland was one of the cheapest Club Med ski resorts in our price comparison, despite Switzerland’s pricey reputation. It’s a famous resort which has hosted various big competitions over the years.
Club Med Saint-Moritz doesn’t score quite as highly with customers as some Club Med resorts but it gets a respectable 4/5 on TripAdvisor or 4.2/5 on Google Reviews. A plus side with this one is that Saint Moritz is one of the top 5 ski resorts in Europe according to Club Med. It was named as Europe's best ski resort in a 2020 survey by Conde Nast Traveler. It’s got a good number of pistes compared to some other ski resorts, although not quite as many as Club Med Les Arcs Panorama (St Moritz has 350km compared to 425km at Les Arcs Panorama). The Club Med hotel at Saint Moritz is another big one with more than 300 rooms, two restaurants and an indoor swimming pool. There are clubs for children and teenagers and it’s about 3 hours by coach from Zurich Airport. |
Trendy St Moritz in Switzerland is good value despite its posh reputation
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3. Club Med Peisey-Vallandry, France
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We’ve included Club Med Peisey-Vallandry as a decent mid-priced resort for those who want highly rated accommodation but don’t want to remortgage the house to pay for a skiing or snowboarding holiday.
In our price comparison, Club Med Peisey-Vallandry was right in the middle whilst it came joint second in customer reviews (it was 4.5/5 on both Google Reviews and TripAdvisor when we checked). It’s near to Club Med Les Arcs Panorama and so has the same (decent) range of 425km of ski slopes. Only Club Med Val Thorens Sensations has more and that was considerably more expensive. The accommodation at Club Med Peisey-Vallandry is more like a group of chalets than one massive hotel but there are around 300 rooms in total. That’s similar to some other Club Med resorts. It’s got indoor and outdoor swimming pools, fitness rooms and several kids' groups. There are a couple of restaurants onsite. The nearest airport at Lyon is 2 hours 20 minutes drive away but you might end up flying to Geneva which is a less appealing 4 hour drive. |
You'll definitely look as good as this on a Club Med ski holiday...
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4. Club Med Pragelato-Sestriere, Italy
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Club Med’s Italian ski resort is worth a look if you want a good-value Club Med holiday.
Pragelato-Sestriere was fourth cheapest in our price comparison but was in the top half for customer reviews (4.5/5 on TripAdvisor, 4.3/5 on Google reviews). It’s got 400km of ski runs, which again is in the top half of the Club Med resorts. That’s much higher than famous resorts such as Val D’Isere. Pragelato-Sestriere is well known in Italy and hosted some sports at the Winter Olympics in 2006. Pragelato-Sestriere has a very good range of runs with plenty of 42 black slopes, 30 green slopes and a total of 170+ red and blue slopes. For the benefit of beginners, green slopes are the easiest ones and black slopes are the sort that require a stiff drink once you get back to the hotel. The resort isn’t quite as massive as some, with about 230 rooms. However, it does have three restaurants, two bars, an indoor swimming pool and groups for children of different ages. The nearest airport is 1 hour 50 minutes away, which is one of the shorter transfer times. |
The scenery in Italy isn't so bad
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5. Club Med Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon, France
Club Med reckon that their Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon resort is in one of the top 5 ski resorts in Europe (Samoëns).
It’s certainly popular with customers and was joint second in our league table of all the Club Med resorts. At the time of writing, it scores 4.5/5 on TripAdvisor and 4.5/5 on Google Reviews.
If you go for the ‘standard’ accommodation then it came out as a mid to higher priced option in our price comparison. If you’ve recently won the lottery then it’s one of the few Club Med resorts which offers the option to upgrade to ‘5 tridents’ accommodation. That is Club Med’s equivalent of star ratings and means that you can stay in a chalet-apartment (at about twice the price when we checked).
The main downside with Club Med Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon is that it came bottom in our comparison of the total distance of ski runs at each Club Med resort. In all, there are 148km at Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon compared to about four times that amount at Club Med Val Thorens Sensations. I’d say it’s probably a bigger issue for advanced skiers as there are only 14 black runs which is much less than the 37 at Club Med Les Arcs Panorama.
However, the hotel is a good size with three restaurants and a bar as well as indoor and outdoor swimming pools and several kids’ clubs.
Another plus point is that it is only 1 hour 15 minutes by car from the nearest airport. Some resorts require you to spend two or three times that amount of time to get to the resort.
It’s certainly popular with customers and was joint second in our league table of all the Club Med resorts. At the time of writing, it scores 4.5/5 on TripAdvisor and 4.5/5 on Google Reviews.
If you go for the ‘standard’ accommodation then it came out as a mid to higher priced option in our price comparison. If you’ve recently won the lottery then it’s one of the few Club Med resorts which offers the option to upgrade to ‘5 tridents’ accommodation. That is Club Med’s equivalent of star ratings and means that you can stay in a chalet-apartment (at about twice the price when we checked).
The main downside with Club Med Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon is that it came bottom in our comparison of the total distance of ski runs at each Club Med resort. In all, there are 148km at Grand Massif Samoëns Morillon compared to about four times that amount at Club Med Val Thorens Sensations. I’d say it’s probably a bigger issue for advanced skiers as there are only 14 black runs which is much less than the 37 at Club Med Les Arcs Panorama.
However, the hotel is a good size with three restaurants and a bar as well as indoor and outdoor swimming pools and several kids’ clubs.
Another plus point is that it is only 1 hour 15 minutes by car from the nearest airport. Some resorts require you to spend two or three times that amount of time to get to the resort.
