EN
EN
Saint-Martin-de-Belleville and Les Menuires sit ten minutes apart on the same valley road, on the same lift pass, skiing the same 160 km sector of the Three Valleys. That makes this a cleaner comparison than most: the mountain is not the variable. The usual summary sets village character against value, which is true and not much help once you are down to booking. Three things do more work. Les Menuires sits 400 m higher and puts nearly every door on the snow. Saint-Martin has two lifts out of the village and nothing else. And each looks at a different half of the ski area from its doorstep. This guide compares them on terrain, passes, snow, villages, families, experts and transfers.
Choose Saint-Martin-de-Belleville for: a village that was here centuries before the lifts were, the Jérusalem blue finishing in the village square, the shortest run in from the motorway of the three Belleville resorts, and a spread of chalets and guesthouses in place of apartment blocks.
Choose Les Menuires for: ski-in, ski-out from nearly every door across four quarters, an 1,850 m base that still has snow on it in April, two separate mountains on the local pass including the quiet Pointe de la Masse, and the broadest choice of family accommodation in the valley.
| Feature | St Martin de Belleville | Les Menuires |
|---|---|---|
| Country | France | France |
| Shared ski area | Three Valleys - 600 km, the largest linked ski area in the world | Three Valleys - 600 km, the largest linked ski area in the world |
| Local pass sector | Les Menuires and Saint-Martin - 160 km, shared | Les Menuires and Saint-Martin - 160 km, shared |
| Village altitude | 1,450 m | 1,850 m at La Croisette, with quarters from 1,800 m to 2,000 m |
| Highest lift on the local pass | 2,850 m (Mont de la Chambre) | 2,850 m (Mont de la Chambre) |
| Lifts out of the village | Two - the St Martin gondola and the Saint Martin Express chair above it | Several, from two hubs at La Croisette and Les Bruyères |
| Season | Roughly early December to late April | Roughly early December to late April |
| Best for | Village atmosphere, long scenic cruising, dining | Families, ski-in ski-out, two mountains on one pass |
| Village character | A working Savoyard village below the treeline | Four purpose-built quarters along the valley side |
| Nearest airport | Chambéry (~1 hr 45 min); Geneva (~2 hr 45 min) | Chambéry (~2 hr); Geneva (~3 hr) |
Same sector, different doorstep. From Saint-Martin, two lifts - the gondola out of the village and the Saint Martin Express chair above it - take you to the Tougnète ridge at 2,437 m, and from there you drop into the Méribel valley on one side or traverse towards Les Menuires on the other. The runs home are the reason to stay down there: Jérusalem and Choucas roll for up to 7 km from the ridge to the village, and Les 3 Vallées ranks Jérusalem first among its ten legendary pistes. The catch is that those two lifts are all Saint-Martin has, so a day of high wind or high avalanche risk can leave you with very little turning.
Les Menuires works two mountains instead. East of the village, Mont de la Chambre climbs to 2,850 m and carries the links towards Méribel; facing it across the valley, Pointe de la Masse is one gondola to 2,804 m with a full 1,000 m of vertical beneath it, three black runs and a set of patrolled Liberty Ride freeride routes. Between them it holds up in weather that shuts one side down.
Who it suits: for the best run home in the valley, Saint-Martin; for two distinct mountains and somewhere to go when one of them is closed, Les Menuires.
Here is the part most comparisons of these two skip, and for once it works in your favour. The Les Menuires and Saint-Martin pass covers both villages - around 160 km, roughly 80 pistes and 30 lifts between them - so your base does not decide what you can ski. That is unusual in this valley: one stop further up, the local passes for Les Menuires and Val Thorens do not reach each other at all.
Above the local pass sit the Belleville Valley pass, which adds Val Thorens, and the full Three Valleys pass, which opens Méribel, Courchevel, La Tania and Brides-les-Bains for the full 600 km. One thing to know before buying the cheapest tier: the local pass takes you to the top of the Tougnète and Mont de la Chambre ridges, but it stops there. Drop over into Méribel and you are on the wrong pass to ride back up.
Who it suits: for a full week with confident skiers, take the Three Valleys pass from either village; for a first week, a short break or a mixed group, the local 160 km covers both bases and more skiing than most people get through.
The 400 m between the two villages is the whole snow argument, and it applies only to the bottom of the mountain. Both ride the same lifts to the same ridges, so the snow you spend the day on is identical. What differs is the last twenty minutes. Les Menuires starts at 1,850 m and its highest quarter sits at 2,000 m, so the runs to the door hold a base into April in most winters. Saint-Martin sits at 1,450 m - the same height as Méribel centre - on a flank that takes the afternoon sun, which is why it has put heavy snowmaking on Biolley and the lower Jérusalem. That carries it through the core winter comfortably. By late March the home run softens through the afternoon, and the gondola down is there on the days it does.
The one real snow advantage either village holds is Pointe de la Masse above Les Menuires, which faces north and east, away from the sun, and keeps powder for days after a storm while the rest of the valley is skiing the other way.
Who it suits: for a late-season week, or for skiing back to the door every day, Les Menuires; from January to early March there is nothing in it.
Saint-Martin is a working Savoyard village that predates the ski industry by several centuries - stone and timber houses on narrow lanes, a baroque church, a cheese-maker, and a museum covering the valley before the lifts arrived. What has been built since is low-rise and in keeping, so it reads as a village with lifts rather than a resort with a village attached. Accommodation leans towards chalets, guesthouses and a handful of hotels, and not all of it is on the snow - some sits a walk or a short shuttle from the gondola, which is worth checking before you book.
Les Menuires is four quarters rather than one village, and which you pick changes the week more than the resort name does. La Croisette at 1,850 m is the main lift hub and the 1960s architecture the resort gets teased for, largely reclad since. Reberty sits highest at 2,000 m in chalet style and holds most of the British apartment stock; Les Bruyères has the second lift hub and the Aquafun pool; Preyerand sits lowest. Nearly all of it is ski-in, ski-out, and free buses link the lot.
Who it suits: for somewhere that looks like the Alps people picture, Saint-Martin; for stepping out of the door onto snow, Les Menuires.
Neither village is where you come for a late night, and they are quiet in different ways. Les Menuires has the wider spread simply because it has more beds: sun terraces at La Croisette and Les Bruyères, a couple of bars that run on past dinner, a cinema, and enough restaurants across the four quarters to eat somewhere different every night. Saint-Martin has perhaps a dozen places and shuts early, but it carries the valley's best cooking by a distance - La Bouitte, in the hamlet of Saint-Marcel just above the village, has held three Michelin stars for years and is the reason a fair number of people book Saint-Martin at all. The free inter-village shuttle makes dinner in the other village straightforward on most evenings, though it does not usually run on the Saturday changeover.
Who it suits: for a bar to walk to after dinner and something to do on a wet afternoon, Les Menuires; for one evening worth remembering, Saint-Martin.
Les Menuires has the better case for a first family week, and the reasons are practical rather than atmospheric. Its beginner areas sit at village level at both La Croisette and Les Bruyères with free lifts and wide green runs above them, and there is no road between the accommodation and the snow. The resort holds the Famille Plus label, runs childcare for young children, and has two pools, a cinema and the Speed Mountain toboggan for the afternoons.
Saint-Martin puts two small nursery areas with magic carpets beside the gondola, backed by a good set of ski schools, and the blue Biolley and La Loy runs directly above them are an unusually gentle step up from there. What it lacks is scale: fewer lessons running, fewer children about, fewer wet-afternoon options, and a gondola to negotiate at each end of the day with equipment and small people in tow. Plenty of families read that as calm rather than as a shortage.
Who it suits: for a first week with young children, Les Menuires; for older children already skiing and a quieter village at night, Saint-Martin.
Neither village is picked for its black runs, and with a Three Valleys pass both sit within reach of the same serious terrain. On the local pass, Les Menuires has more of it. The three blacks off Pointe de la Masse are steep and quiet, the face holds powder long after the rest of the valley has been tracked out because most skiers head the other way towards Méribel, and the Liberty Ride routes are patrolled off-piste with the reassurance that brings. There is a snowpark too, which Saint-Martin has no answer to.
Saint-Martin's contribution is the Face and Bartavelle blacks on the ridge above the village, both among the harder pisted runs in the area, and the Vallée des Encombres - a long, north-west-facing off-piste descent from Pointe de la Masse that finishes in the valley below the village, with a short taxi or walk back. It wants a guide and settled conditions.
Who it suits: for quiet powder one gondola ride from the door and somewhere to ride park, Les Menuires; for a big guided descent that finishes near where you are staying, Saint-Martin.
Saint-Martin has the easier arrival, and by more than the map suggests. Both run up the Tarentaise from Moûtiers and turn into the Belleville valley on the same single road, but Saint-Martin is the first resort you reach - Les Menuires is another quarter of an hour of climbing above it, and Val Thorens beyond that. Chambéry is the closest airport at around an hour and three quarters to Saint-Martin, Geneva the usual UK gateway at around two and three quarters, with Lyon and Grenoble both workable; add fifteen to twenty minutes for Les Menuires. Moûtiers sits on the TGV line from Paris and Lyon if you would rather arrive by rail, about half an hour below Saint-Martin by coach. The stretch of road above Saint-Martin is also the first section to close when it snows hard on a changeover Saturday.
Who it suits: the gap is small enough that flights and accommodation should decide it - unless you are travelling with young children, when arriving twenty minutes sooner at the end of a long day is worth having.
WeSki insider tip: whichever village you book, ski Jérusalem before lunch. It runs west off the Tougnète ridge down to Saint-Martin, so it is firm and fast in the morning and heavy by mid-afternoon, and the same two lifts put you straight back up into the rest of the area afterwards. From Les Menuires it is a traverse across Gros Tougne and one chair, and the local pass covers the whole round trip.
Unusually for this section, the ski area is not one of the questions - the local pass covers both villages, so you can ski the same 160 km whichever you book. Three things settle where you sleep.
When are you going? Through January and February the 400 m between them barely registers. From late March, Les Menuires still has snow to the door while Saint-Martin's home run is softening by mid-afternoon. A late-season week points up the valley.
How much does the village matter in the evening? Saint-Martin is a real village with a baroque church, a dozen restaurants and one of the best kitchens in the Alps above it. Les Menuires is four purpose-built quarters that work extremely well and look like what they are. This is the question most people are actually asking.
Who is carrying the skis, and what is the forecast? Les Menuires puts nearly every door on the snow and gives you two mountains to choose from. Saint-Martin puts a gondola between you and the mountain, and only two lifts out of the village when the weather turns. With young children, or on a windy week, that difference is bigger than it sounds.
Yes, and you do not need the full Three Valleys pass to do it. The two share one sector, so the lifts connect directly. From Saint-Martin, take the gondola and the Saint Martin Express to the Tougnète ridge, then drop down towards the Les Menuires bowl on the Gros Tougne blue; the return comes back over the same ridge. It takes well under an hour in either direction, and a free shuttle bus links the two villages if the light goes or the lifts shut early.
It does, and it is the cheapest of the three tiers available. The Les Menuires and Saint-Martin pass covers around 160 km across the two villages, with roughly 80 pistes and 30 lifts between them. Above it, the Belleville Valley pass adds Val Thorens, and the Three Valleys pass opens the full 600 km with Méribel, Courchevel, La Tania and Brides-les-Bains. The local pass takes you to the top of the ridges, but you need the Three Valleys pass to ski over them and get back.
Les Menuires, by about 400 m - its quarters run from 1,800 m to 2,000 m, against 1,450 m for Saint-Martin. The part worth understanding is that this is a difference in where you sleep rather than where you ski. Both villages ride the same lifts to the same ridges, up to Mont de la Chambre at 2,850 m on the local pass. The altitude shows up in the last run of the day, and in spring it shows up clearly.
Les Menuires, on base altitude alone. Starting at 1,850 m means the runs back to the door hold a base into April, and its Pointe de la Masse sector faces away from the afternoon sun and keeps powder for days after a storm. Saint-Martin sits at 1,450 m with extensive snowmaking on its home runs, which carries it through the core winter without trouble. Late in the season the difference is real, though the gondola down is always there as a fallback.
Les Menuires, for a first family week. Its beginner areas sit at village level with free lifts, nearly all the accommodation is on the snow, and it holds the Famille Plus label with childcare, two pools and a cinema for the afternoons. Saint-Martin has two nursery areas beside the gondola, good ski schools and a calmer village in the evening, which suits families with older children who already ski. The deciding factor is usually whether you want to carry equipment to a lift each morning.
Broadly yes, and it is the type of accommodation doing it rather than the resort itself. Saint-Martin is weighted towards chalets, guesthouses and a few smart hotels in a village with limited beds, while Les Menuires holds a very large stock of self-catered apartments across its four quarters. Both sit on the same lift pass and ski the same mountain, so the difference shows up in where you sleep and where you eat rather than in what you get on the snow.
WeSki is a trading name operated by WeTrip Ltd. All the flights and flight-inclusive holidays on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. When you pay you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please ask for it and check to ensure that everything you booked (flights, hotels and other services) is listed on it. Please see our booking conditions for further information or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.caa.co.uk.
Package holidays that do not include travel by air are financially protected via ABTOT.
For the latest travel advice from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office visit www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice.
