Boutique Hotels in La Thuile

La Thuile is really a cluster of old stone hamlets rather than a purpose-built resort. The mining past shows in its plainness, and the village has resisted the chalet-boom sprawl of bigger names. Bars and restaurants are local in scale and price. The lifts rise from the modern quarter at the village edge, where Montana Lodge & Spa stands a short walk or free shuttle from the gondola: a 55-room contemporary lodge in Valdostan timber and silver birch, with an indoor pool behind full-height mountain glass and chef Giuseppe Falcone's Bistro Alpino cooking the valley's food with a light hand.

Two lifts climb from the village to Les Suches, where the skiing splits. Stay on the Italian side for sheltered, north-facing reds through larch forest, with snow that survives warm spells better than almost anywhere nearby. Cross the Belvédère ridge and you are in France: La Rosière's broad, sunny slopes, lunch in another country, and an easy run home on the same pass. Experts get the Franco Berthod's 73 per cent gradient and serious freeride terrain off the Chaz Dura ridge; heli-skiing operates locally, as Aosta Valley rules allow. Beginners and intermediates have most of the map to themselves.

The Little St Bernard Pass opens in summer and turns La Thuile into a cycling base, with the climb a regular feature of the Giro. Walkers head for the three Rutor waterfalls, an hour's path from the hamlet of La Joux, and on to the Rutor glacier basin beyond. Rafting runs on the Dora di La Thuile, and the lifts carry mountain bikes to a well-regarded downhill circuit.

The lifts run from early December to mid-April, and the season finishes strong: altitude and aspect keep the snow late. January is the quiet bargain; February brings the World Cup circus and the school crowds; March suits long lunches on the French side. Summer runs from late June to mid-September. Between the seasons the village largely closes, hotels included, so confirm dates for May, October and November.