Geneva to Espace Killy - Transfer from Geneva Airport

Transfers to Espace Killy

Espace Killy Transfer Service!

The French resorts of Tignes and Val d'Isere combine to make up the famous Espace Killy ski area, offering winter and summer skiing as well as a whole host of other sporting and leisure activities. Mountain Drop-offs offers private transfers to all corners of Espace Killy, be it to a hotel in the heart of Val d'Isere village, an apartment in Tignes Val Claret or your chalet in Tignes Les Boisses.

If you fly into Geneva Airport, your onward transfer to Tignes Le Lac will be around three hours (and the same for your return leg back to GVA). If you're headed to Val d'Isere from Geneva your transfer time is also around three hours.

These timings are based on average conditions into resort, so at peak school holiday times or in very snowy weather they can take a little longer, but as someone else is doing the driving, you can sit back and relax and plan your first day out on the extensive Espace Killy pistes as you leave Switzerland and head into the mountains. 

Use the booking form on the right to get a quote

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Espace Killy Destination Guide

As well as this guide to the entire Espace Killy we have individual guides to both Tignes and Val d'Isere

Which Espace Killy resort is best for you?

It may not be able to claim to be the biggest ski area (Portes du Soleil, Paradiski and the Three Valleys can fight over that one, leaving Espace Killy following close behind) but its motto of 'Le plus bel espace de ski du monde' (the most beautiful ski area in the world) certainly does ring true in this duo of resorts.

Put simply, the skiing is stunning. There is everything from hugely wide 'motorway' style pistes groomed to perfection and tree-lined cruisers, to famous steeps used in competitive alpine skiing events and even some nifty glacier skiing too. Believe us, it may feel like quite a long transfer from Geneva Airport to Espace Killy, but what you get right on your doorstep is so worth it.

In fact, if you get dropped off at night, when you open your curtains the next morning, the enormity of this snowy wonderland is sure to hit you if you're a first timer in Espace Killy. If you're in Tignes Val Claret it's a bit like waking up on another, rather snowy planet. But wait, what's that noise? Oh that's the chairlift starting up. Open the front door of your residence, pop your skis on and you're in the middle of a piste at 2100m.

If you prefer more of a traditional ski resort with pretty wooden and stone chalets, a snow front lined with little boutiques and a lively apres-ski right at the foot of the pistes, then Val d'Isere is the one for you. And whilst Tignes has traditionally been more about self-catered apartments, Val d'Isere is very much the home of catered chalets in Espace Killy.

By the late 1950s both Val d'Isere and Tignes were welcoming tourists in winter and summer and the ski resort infrastructure was growing with hotels, guest houses, ski shops and ski schools opening up. One such business was the ski shop opened by Robert Killy, a Spitfire pilot for the Free French who moved to Val d'Isere after the war with his young family - including his son Jean-Claude Killy (do you see where we're going with this?!).

The Killy connection

Having learned to ski from the age of three, it turns out Jean Claude was a natural. He apparently even managed to out-ski the local priest (who was very proficient on skis!) who would regularly chase him for skipping his religious education classes. Jean Claude went on to be triple Olympic champion winning gold medals in Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom at the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics and was six-times World Champion.

So in his honour, when Val d'Isere and Tignes officially joined forces in 1984, the latest super ski area was naturally named in his honour. And the family still has roots in the Espace Killy with Jean Claude's brother still running a ski shop in Val d'Isere. Meanwhile, Jean Claude is now retired and has transferred from life in the mountains to lakeside living in Geneva.

Not only is the skiing really rather exceptional and in a stunning setting, the stories behind the development of Val d'Isere, Tignes and ultimately the Espace Killy is fascinating and enough to get us all fired up to dig out those salopettes, book that flight to Geneva, jump on a transfer and head to Espace Killy!

Mountain Drop Offs offers private and VIP transfers from Geneva Airport and Grenoble airport to all areas of Tignes and Val d'Isere in the Espace Killy, transporting up to eight passengers in comfort and safety direct to your door. All airport transfers to Val d'Isere and Tignes are available to book through Mountain Drop-offs online.
 

FAQ's / Testimonials

Espace Killy's skiing heritage

Both Tignes and Val d'Isere existed as small alpine villages, with Val d'Isere particularly cut off from the rest of civilisation in winter. However, by 1932 an entrepreneurial Alsacien has seen the potential in Val and opened a ski school, to apparently teach the locals how to ski properly, we're not sure how that would have gone down, but it did mean the idea brought a post office, water and electricity to the village, as well as the first four hotels.

Simultaneously, Tignes was developing too, benefitting from the train arriving in Bourg st Maurice and a proper road being built right to the village. It's not where the village is today though, this is Old Tignes which was deliberately flooded when the dam and lake Chevril were built in 1952 (and apparently the last remaining residents had to be forcibly removed!).

Having been displaced, the hardy and determined Tignardes started to rebuild their Tignes 6km higher up in what is now Tignes le Lac, as skiing was already starting to be established here before WW2, even though it involved a long snowshoe just to get up there. No wonder Tignes retains its reputation as a very sporty resort even today!

Espace Killy the facts and figures:

* Over 300km of pistes over 10000 hectares of land including 44km of cross country trails

* A total of 156 pistes including 23 green, 66 blue, 40 reds and 27 black and two snowparks

* A total of 1930m of vertical drop

* A total of 89 ski lifts (including 10 free ones)

* A fleet of 821 snow cannons to keep Espace Killy snow sure

* Two glaciers - (Grande Motte above Tignes and Pissaillas above Val d'Isere)

* The Montets T-bar takes you to the highest point in Val d'Isere's ski area on the Pissaillas glacier at 3197m

* The Grande Motte cable car whisks you to Tignes's highest point in the ski area at 3456m

* Tignes is linked to Val d'Isere via Fresse, Toviere, Tufs and Combe Folle lifts

* Val d'Isere is inked to Tignes via Borsat and Tommeuses lifts

And our top tip for Espace Killy skiers - make sure you check the last lift times to get back to Tignes or Val d'Isere, else it'll be an expensive taxi ride or a long 'navette' mini bus journey all the way back down and round the mountain!

Mountain Drop-offs offers private and VIP transfers from Geneva Airport and Grenoble airport to all areas of Tignes and Val d'Isere in the Espace Killy, transporting up to eight passengers in comfort and safety direct to your door. All airport transfers to Val d'Isere and Tignes are available to book through Mountain Drop-offs online.

FAQ's / Testimonials