A car-free village in the forest at 1,400 metres, one gondola from 600 km of Three Valleys skiing, and a Michelin star in the village centre. What La Tania is actually like.
La Tania exists because the world's press needed somewhere to sleep. When Albertville won the 1992 Winter Olympics, a clearing in the spruce forest between Courchevel and Méribel was picked to house the journalists and technical crews, and a brand-new village went up at the start of the 1990s: timber-clad, car-free, designed by the team behind Avoriaz to disappear into the trees rather than dominate them.
The Olympics left. The village stayed, and quietly became something its planners never quite intended: the family base of the Courchevel valley, and the best-value front door to 600 kilometres of Three Valleys skiing. Officially it is Courchevel La Tania now, part of the same commune as 1850, on the same lift pass and the same piste map. Culturally it is its own place, and that is precisely its charm.
What the village is actually like
Small, wooded and quiet. The heart of La Tania is pedestrian: cars stay in the parking areas at the edge, and children run between the shops and the snowfront without anyone flinching. The original six apartment buildings from the Olympic era still anchor the centre, with chalet-style developments added around them through the trees.
There is one short street of essentials: ski hire, a handful of restaurants and bars, a small supermarket, the ESF meeting point, the tourist office. Nobody comes here for shopping or nightlife, and the village makes no apology for it. Evenings revolve around dinner, one of two very good bars, and an early night before first lifts.
At 1,400 metres, it sits lower than Courchevel 1850 but under a canopy of spruce that makes even a grey ski day feel sheltered. The official resort literature calls it a village in a forest clearing, and for once the brochure language is simply accurate.
The skiing: one gondola from everything
La Tania's ski access is disarmingly simple. One 12-person gondola rises from the village centre to around 2,000 metres in under ten minutes. From the top, two fast chairlifts fan out: Bouc Blanc towards the Méribel side, and Dou des Lanches up towards the Col de la Loze on the Courchevel side. Courchevel 1850 and Méribel are each about two lifts away, which puts the whole Three Valleys within reach before your first coffee stop.
Coming home is the part regulars talk about. Three runs descend through the forest to the village: a green for building confidence, the long blue Folyères, which rolls through the trees like a natural roller coaster and ranks among the best blues in the Three Valleys, and a red for stronger skiers. The slopes above the village face north and hold their snow well, helped by snowmaking that, according to Ski Beat's resort guide, covers about a quarter of the local pistes.
For pass logistics, La Tania works like every other Courchevel Village: a Courchevel Valley pass covers roughly 150 kilometres locally, the full Three Valleys pass opens all 600. Our ski pass guide explains which one actually makes sense for your group. For winter 2026-27, La Tania's own lifts are scheduled to run from 5 December 2026 to 11 April 2027. Courchevel 1850 opens a day earlier on 4 December and closes a week later on 18 April, the same closing date as the full Three Valleys links, so late-April skiers should plan to start from 1850 rather than from the village gondola.
Families: the village that does the small things right
Courchevel has held the Famille Plus label since 2010, and La Tania is arguably where the label works hardest. The geography does half the job: no traffic in the centre, the snowfront a flat walk from most beds, and beginner zones right by the village.
The childcare offer is the quiet trump card. La Tanière des Croès, the municipal creche in the Grandzetta building, takes children from six months, which makes La Tania one of only two villages in the valley with proper babycare. ESF La Tania runs its Club Piou Piou with separate groups for three year olds and four to five year olds, a detail parents notice by Tuesday. We cover ages, hours and booking in our village-by-village childcare guide.
Equipment is equally painless: three hire shops in the village centre and two operators who will deliver and fit skis in your chalet, covered in detail in our La Tania and Le Praz ski hire guide. Between the creche, the ski school and a boot room that comes to you, the machinery of a family ski holiday runs smoother here than almost anywhere in the Alps at this price.
Where to eat: a Michelin star in the forest
For a village this size, the table is remarkable. The headline is Le Farçon, Julien Machet's restaurant in the village centre, which has held a Michelin star since 2006 and keeps it in the 2026 guide. Machet cooks Savoie with reach: local ingredients pulled towards Piedmont and the Mediterranean, tasting menus built around the old Duchy of Savoy. It is open Tuesday to Saturday and books out fast in peak weeks. A one-star dinner without leaving a family village is not something 1850 can undercut you on.
The Machet family also runs Bistrot Machet on the snowfront, the relaxed sibling with traditional French and Savoyard cooking. Beyond those two, the village splits along cheerful lines. Pub Le Ski Lodge is the social hub: burgers, sharing platters, happy hours and live music most nights, with a terrace that catches the afternoon sun. La Taïga, opposite the beginner slope, pairs a proper cocktail bar with good-value skier's menus. Les Marmottons and La Ferme handle the fondue, raclette and tartiflette end of the week. And at the top of the gondola, Le Bouc Blanc serves Savoyard classics with a view, an easy mountain lunch that everyone in the group can ski to.
Who La Tania suits, and who it does not
Be honest with yourself here, because the village rewards the right expectations.
La Tania is the right call for families with young children, for mixed-ability groups who want the full Three Valleys without the full Three Valleys bill, and for skiers who measure a resort by its pistes and its dinner rather than its boutiques. Accommodation and eating out cost meaningfully less than in 1850 for the same snow, the same lift system and the same season.
It is the wrong call if you want designer shopping, nightclubs and the scene. That lives up the hill in 1850, twenty minutes away by free shuttle bus, and our village comparison lays out those trade-offs across the whole valley. La Tania's idea of après is a pint on the Ski Lodge terrace while the children build snowmen in front of you. For a certain kind of holiday, that is not a compromise. It is the point.
If that sounds like your week, our La Tania chalets and apartments page shows what is actually available for your dates, from ski-in ski-out apartments to catered chalets in the trees.
Getting there and getting around
Practicalities are standard Courchevel: fly into Geneva, Lyon or Chambéry and transfer by road, or take the train to Moûtiers, the nearest rail station, and drive up in around half an hour. In winter, free shuttle buses link La Tania with Le Praz, Courchevel Village, Moriond and 1850, so a car is genuinely optional once you arrive. On skis, the links are faster than the road anyway. For places to stay, everything we list in the village is on our La Tania page.
Thirty-odd years ago this was a press village, built in a hurry so that the world could file its Olympic copy and leave. The journalists did leave, in March 1992. Look at the families queueing for the gondola on a February morning and you could argue La Tania's real story only started once they had gone.
Facts checked in August 2026 against the sources below. Season dates and prices should be reconfirmed close to travel.
Sources: courchevel.com (page officielle Courchevel La Tania, label Famille Plus, La Tanière des Croès) · mairie-courchevel.com (label Famille Plus depuis 2010, crèche) · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tania et iloveski.org (histoire, JO 1992) · peakretreats.co.uk et the3valleys.com (village construit pour la presse des JO, architectes d'Avoriaz) · latania.co.uk (remontées, pistes de retour, altitudes, forfaits) · skibeat.co.uk (orientation nord, neige de culture) · guide.michelin.com et lefarcon.fr (Le Farçon, 1 étoile depuis 2006, guide 2026) · seecourchevel.com (restaurants du village) · easytaiga.com (La Taïga) · les3vallees.com via plan Petra (dates saison 2026-27).
