Courchevel

Courchevel has a reputation for luxury that is accurate but misses the point: 197 lifts, skiing between 1,260 and 3,230 metres, and a place in Les 3 Vallées, the largest linked ski area in the world. The run breakdown tells the rest: 56 greens and 115 blues, so learning here is genuinely comfortable, and 37 blacks for anyone past needing advice. It spreads across several levels, from Le Praz up to 1850, so there is a Courchevel for most budgets.