discover the best restaurants, hotels and slopes in Les Menuires!
Those who like skiing have probably heard of Les Trois Vallées. The biggest ski area in the world, located in the South of France. The area exists of little smaller areas that, with good weather and similar snow conditions, are all connected. I was in Les Menuires recently. A ski town in which you’re on the slopes right as you walk out of your hotel! Les Menuires is about 2.000 meters high up in the French Alps.
One of the advantages of skiing in France is without a doubt the food. Where else can you get a steak tartar for lunch, that’s as good as if you were sitting on a terrace in Paris? And then a crêpe au sucre for dessert as well. LOVE IT! From Les Menuires you can take a ski lift and ski to Val Thorens, but also to the chic ski area, Courchevel. There’s almost no reason to take a ski life multiple times a day; you can make so many nice tours.
In this Les Menuires Travel Guide I put all of my tips in a row for restaurants, from huts to Michelin-star, ski-in/ski-out resorts and nice things to do. Happy travels!
Le Chalet Du Sunny (Les Menuires)
Restaurants in Les Menuires and the surrounding area (LES trois VALLÉES)
7 x good food in Les Menuires
Chez Pepe Nicolas: this cosy restaurant lies between les Menuires and Val Thorens and is the most popular restaurant in the area. I was there on a Tuesday evening and I really recommend it if you like good food. Every Tuesday evening you can enjoy a menu with dishes from the Saboyard region. I had delicious raclette that you can make yourself at the table (for at least two people). A real recommendation! The interior of the restaurant is also really cosy. Authentic, but with a modern twist and nice details.
Chez Pepe Nicolas
L’ours Blanc Restaurant: this restaurant is close to the “Reberty” lifts, and has a terrace with a beautiful view. This is where you need to go for a culinary lunch while you’re skiing.
La Ferme de Reberty: this gourmet restaurant is located really nicely and has a lovely, sunny terrace. You can have a culinary lunch, or dinner with escargots, steak, and more French food.
Les Cocon des Neiges: A nice spot for lunch with a huge terrace! I had a delicious steak tartar (the best from the three days that I was in Les Menuires) with a view of the mountain tops, and the lifts in Les Menuires.
Les Marmites: another restaurant by the “Bruyeres” lifts. And with nice weather you can sit on the terrace! On the menu you’ll find French specialities, but also pizzas and burgers.
Les Yourtes Des Belleville: one of the best restaurants if you’re in Les Menuires with a group is Les Yurtes des Belleville. Here you can eat a really tasty cheese fondu, and other specialties from the Savoie region. You get picked up from the hotel (provided that you’re in the area) with a snow scooter! You can reserve via your hotel by email/telephone.
L’atelier: during my ski trip in Les Menuires I stayed in the Chalet du Mont Vallon Spa Resort****. In this hotel you’ll find restaurant L’Atelier which is mentioned in the Michelin-guide of 2017. The menu has Italian influences and the Ossobuco and fresh pastas are the signature dishes. It’s very relaxing if you eat here if you’re staying in the hotel because you can go to the spa before. I was there pretty late in the season so it wasn’t very busy in the restaurant. Though the food was very good, I’d rather go to a restaurant that’s a bit more lively if I wasn’t staying in the hotel.
3 X old fashioned cosiness
These restaurants will give you the real Alps feeling and are styled very cosy, like an authentic mountain cabin (though from the outside you might not think so!). Imagine a lot of wood, vintage ski attributes, and local specialties from the region on the menu.
1. Au Vieux Grenier
2. Au Village
3. Chez Pepe Nicolas
12 X Michelin-star restaurants in the area of Les Menuires
Those of you who like to treat yourselves to food at a Michelin-star restaurant will be very happy in Les Trois Vallées. Unfortunately during my trip there wasn’t enough time for that, but if you like good food then you’ll want to know these restaurants from the Michelin-guide:
– La Bouitte*** (Saint Martin de Belleville)
– L’Ekrin by Laurent Azoulay* (Méribel)
– Pierre Gagnaire pour les Airelles** (Courchevel)
– Le Montgomerie** (Courchevel)
– Le 1947*** (Courchevel)
– Le Kintessence** (Courchevel)
– Jean Sulpice** (Val Thorens)
– Le Chabichou** (Courchevel)
– Le Farcon* (Courchevel)
– Le Strato* (Courchevel)
– Azimut* (Courchevel)
– Le Clocher des Pères* (Saint Martin)
2 X eating on the slopes
Do you want to go to a mountain cabin or a nice restaurant where you can have a bite or drink while you’re skiing? These restaurants are on the slopes:
Le Chalet Du Sunny: here they have a hot tub from 2 PM onwards and DJ. Slope: TS Sunny Express or TS Becca
Le Chalet des Neiges: this restaurant is all the way at the top if you take the Roc 1 lift. A beautiful view and tasty French dishes!
4 X BEST aprés ski in les menuires (LES trois VALLÉES)
For some serious aprés ski in Les Trois Vallées you have to go to Val Thorens. I like aprés ski if you’re with a group of friends, but if you’re alone or with your lover then I prefer to sit on the balcony in the sun to have a drink after skiing. Do you wanna go crazy? You can at these spots!
Le Chalet Du Sunny (Les Menuires): I already mentioned it earlier, see above why! They play nice house music here too!
Le Leeberty (Les Menuires): a club underneath the shopping mall at Front de Neige. I didn’t go there myself, but in the high season apparently it’s very fun.
360 bar: another well-known aprés ski bar in Val Thorens that you can ski to from Les Menuires. Keep an eye on what time the lifts close when you’re at La Folie Douce and the 360 bar. Otherwise you have to take a taxi back to Les Menuires!
La Folie Douce (Val Thorens): the most popular and the most poche club slash aprés ski bar in Val Thorens. This place has multiple locations in the ski areas in France!
La Folie Douce
3 X best ski-in / ski-out resorts in Les Menuires (LES trois VALLÉES)
Le Chalet du Mont Vallon Spa Resort: during my ski trip in Les Menuires I stayed in this four star hotel. They have hotel rooms here, but also apartments where you can sleep with six people. The hotel is located halfway between the ski lift Reberty and has a nice swimming pool, sauna, and Turkish steam bath where you can relax after skiing. Try the waffles during breakfast!
Le Chalet du Mont Vallon Spa Resort
Hotel L’ours Blanc: another hotel where you put on your ski’s on in the morning and step onto the slope straight away. This hotel has a good restaurant and a nice spa, and is said to be one of the best in Les Menuires.
Hotel L’ours Blanc
Hotel les Bruyeres: do you want to be in the middle of the town, surrounded by restaurant, and where you can take the lift straight away? Then Hotel Les Bruyeres is something for you. This modern hotel is in front of des neiges, where everything happens in Les Menuires.
Hôtel Les Bruyères
4 x winteractivities in Les Menuires (Les trois VallÉes)
Skiing and boarding: DUH! A bit of an open door, but how nice is it to go from your hotel or apartment onto the slopes and make a tour to Val Thorens or Courchevel?
Paragliding on ski’s: I really enjoyed paragliding in Cape Town, it’s so spectacular! Imagine that you don’t run down the mountain, but can paraglide on skis instead. In Les Menuires you can enjoy the view together with your instructor.
Roc ‘n Bob: Do you have good memories of riding a sled as a child? In Les Menuires you can go down the sledding track of around 4 kilometers really fast in the Roc ‘n Bob. The height difference in the track is 450 meters! Only for the real daredevils among us ;-).
Relax in the sauna: is the weather not good enough to ski? Or do you just want to relax? There are two wellness centers in Les Menuires: Centre Sportif de la Croisette and Espace Aqualudique & Wellness: one afternoon I went to the latter and it was lovely to relax in the sauna!
Dogsled: if there’s a lot of snow in Saint Martin you can make a half our ride on a dogsled. I did it once in Finish Lapland and it was fantastic! Something to remember forever.
8 X nice to know about Les Menuires (LES trois VALLÉES)
- Do you want to fly to Les Menuires? Then it’s the best to go to airport Geneva in Switzerland. From there it’s about a two hours drive to Les Menuires in the French Alps.
- Are you going by plane? Then you can take the ski bus directly to Les Menuires from the airport.
- Les Menuires is surrounded by four mountain tops that are higher than 2.430 meters. The highest top, De Mont de la Chambre, is 2.850 meters high.
- From Les Menuires you can go to Les3Vallées. This is the biggest ski area in the world with around 600 km slopes.
- Within Les Trois Vallées there are the following areas: Courchevel, La Tania, Meribel, Brides-les-Bains, Saint Martin de Belleville, Val Thorens en Les Menuires (where I went to make this guide!)
- In Les Menuires you can find 160 km slopes of which 8 are black, 24 are red, and 37 are blue slopes.
- What I like so much about Les Menuires are the restaurants that you find on the slopes. In total there are 16 where you can have a bite to eat or enjoy the sun during the day!
- You gotta love France when it comes to food. I think that’s really a plus point about skiing in France. And what makes it even better is that the restaurants have a ‘formula’ for lunch and dinner. Think of plats + starter or plats + dessert for around €21,-.
cheap flight TO Les Menuires
How to get there: from Amsterdam it’s about an 11 hour drive with the car to Les Menuires. It’s faster to fly. Like I wrote before, Geneva is the best airport to fly to. You can fly there very cheap with Easyjet!
Tip: on the website LesMenuires.com you can find all the information about the ski area.
Have fun in Les Menuires!
WITH LOVE,
ANNE
