Geneva → Tignes

Tignes cannot be summed up by one altitude. The commune, in the Haute-Tarentaise, is made of five villages spread across 550 m of vertical: Les Brévières (1,550 m) and Les Boisses (1,850 m) lower down, then Tignes le Lac, Le Lavachet and Val Claret at around 2,100 m. Between the lowest and the highest it is not the same road, not the same time, and in snow, not the same conditions. “Tignes” on its own is therefore not an arrival address: it is the first question we ask you.

The dam decides the road

From Geneva the journey follows the whole Tarentaise — Albertville, Moûtiers, then Bourg-Saint-Maurice — before climbing on the D902, the Val d’Isère road. Les Brévières and Les Boisses are reached from that road, before the Chevril dam. For Tignes le Lac, Le Lavachet and Val Claret, the D87 leaves the D902, crosses the dam and climbs above the lake. Your arrival village therefore chooses the turning, and the drop-off is decided on your exact address.

The lake the road runs along is a reservoir: the Tignes dam, filled in 1952, drowned the old village. It is the landscape you will see from the car — and the reason the modern resort is perched where it is.

What gets decided before departure

Your full address, village included. Your flight: Geneva Airport has a Terminal 1 and a Terminal 2, plus a separate French sector that leads into Haute-Savoie without passing Swiss customs — the terminal and sector change where we meet you, and we settle that from your flight number, tracked in real time. Your equipment, finally: Tignes draws parties who come to ski early and late in the season, often heavily equipped; volume decides the vehicle, not just the number of seats.

What the figures on this page are worth

The distance and journey time shown are measured on the public road network, from the Terminal 1 drop-off area at Geneva Airport to the commune’s public reference point — its town hall, at Tignes le Lac — never to your accommodation. The time is free-flowing driving, excluding winter conditions: a basis for planning, not a promise. On Saturdays the whole Tarentaise changes over in a single day, and the RN90 then the D902 carry the load: we build the timing with a margin matched to your flight and adjust it on the day.

Val d’Isère, across the dam

Tignes and Val d’Isère form a single linked ski area — “Tignes – Val d’Isère”, the former Espace Killy, more than 300 km of piste up to the Grande Motte glacier. The two resorts share the same road from Bourg-Saint-Maurice and part at the dam: a party staying on both sides travels without a detour.