La Tania - Resort Guide
New aerial photo interactive map of La Tania here
History
La Tania ski resort officially opened on 22nd December 1990 financed on the back of the 1992 Winter Olympics centred in Albertville. It was used as an accommodation base for ice hockey players and journalists but now La Tania has grown
into a resort in its own right, still retaining a village like atmosphere but linking in
to the massive Three Valleys ski area and is situated between the large resorts of Méribel and Courchevel in the massive 3 Valleys ski area.
La Tagna (pronounced as La Tania and meaning bears' dwelling) was the original name
for this area but it was renamed La Tania so visitors would pronounce it correctly!
The use of natural materials and lots of wood in the building of apartments and chalets was laid down by the architect
Jacques Labro and the resort is situated in a beautiful Christmas tree forest.
There's a real community feeling in La Tania and it's still small enough for everyone to know everyone.
It's often called a small family resort which could put some people off - however there's a lot
more to it and the nightlife can really kick off with live music most nights and plenty of parties to keep most night owls happy, while night clubs until 4am can be found in Méribel and Courchevel for the truly dedicated.
About the resort
It is traffic free and has great facilities for children & beginners.
We have 4 ski hire shops, a tourist office, post office, bakery, tabac, newsagent,
supermarket, 6 bars and 8 restaurants (with 4 mountain restaurants above the resort), plus a great delicatessen and
pizza takeaways.
There is live music most nights somewhere in the resort along with drinks promotions, aprés-ski happy hours and theme night parties taking place throughout the ski season.
Ski instruction with crèches are based in resort and the lift company ticket
office is situated at the La Tania gondola (they take credit cards and all speak English - note that photos are now only needed for season passes and the lift office take them webcam style. Passes can now be bought on-line in advance). New for 2013 is a left luggage room with showers and an emergency medical centre.
The official La Tania Winter Brochure for 2009/10 is now here (5MB PDF and downloadable).
An on-line version of the Winter 2013 Brochure is available here
Accommodation
This consists of 8 self catering apartment blocks of various
sizes, 2 hotels, a chalet style hotels and a large amount of traditional chalets
set in the woods above the resort. Most of the chalets are modern with en-suite facilities and
usually guests can have ski & boot fittings, lift passes and lessons all sorted out from
the chalet.
Cash
The cash machine has now returned to La Tania (situated on the corner next to the Tourist Office) and is regularly maintained during the Winter season. There are also machines in Courchevel 1850 (in the main gondola station building that you ski down to -
La Croisette) and in the centre of Méribel and Mottaret plus all the other resort villages. In addition
the Post Office in La Tania has a Bureau de Change and all the restaurants, bars, hire
shops, ski schools, lift pass office and supermarket take plastic.
Getting around
A free ski bus (a ski pass is now no longer required) runs about every hour to Le Praz,
Courchevel 1550, 1650 and finally 1850 (takes about 30 mins to 1850). This runs all
day until around 10pm at night - timetable here. New from Winter 2007 is a service to Méribel Village 3 or 4 times a day (operating at peak Christmas and Half Term Holiday times only) although taxis and lifts are easy to come by - the journey time to Méribel
Village is only around 10 minutes with clear roads.
Skiing
The skiing links in to the massive 3 Valleys system - you're 2 lifts away from either
Méribel or Courchevel 1850. The stats are massive - nearly 200 lifts with a capacity to carry 260,000
skiers per hour, 2500 hectares of groomed pistes some 600km in length with 293 marked
runs and 130km of cross country tracks. There's also 1500 snow cannons, 70 piste bashers,
320 ski patrollers and over 1500 instructors to keep everyone happy.
There are
now 3 runs down into the resort, a roller coaster blue straight down through the forest in to the resort, a wide
red run with a consistent gradient down to the bottom gondola station plus a new green run winding down through the forest from the top gondola station in to the resort, a great skier/boarder cross track on a first run down in the morning!
The blue Folyères run from the top gondola station is now helped by 38
snow cannons and it's own snow making reservoir which were installed for the 2001/02 season along the entire
length of the run - this has kept it open from the start to the end of the season ever since except for 1 year. New for 2008/9 were snow cannons on the Bouc Blanc (red) and Boulevard des Arolles (blue) pistes above the gondola thus guaranteeing this link from 1850 and more investment in cannons on the green run is continuing too.
There's a free drag lift and a short run for absolute beginners in the heart of the resort.
For intermediate skiers, a day's skiing / riding to Val Thorens and experiencing
the whole Three Valleys is a must - only 6 lifts away. Check out the lift
passes and ski/ride
guide pages.
Non Skiing
Check out the Tourist Office in La Tania, Méribel and Courchevel for details of snow-shoe
walks, paragliding, indoor climbing, ice skating, 10-pin bowling, ice karting*, dog-sledding
etc etc. In Summer there's loads to do and some of the ski lifts are open for walkers and mountain bikers during July and August. More at Summer Life in La Tania.
More...
*The ice karting track is on the site of the new muli-million euro Aqua Park being constructed near Courchevel 1550 - no news yet of if it will be relocated.
Page last updated 05/09/12
