Méribel Bike Park

Méribel Bike Park sits in the heart of Les 3 Vallées in the French Alps, with nearly 200km of marked, lift-served riding spread across the Méribel valley. It runs to ten downhill trails graded from green to a double black World Cup track, nine enduro routes (two blue, three red and four black), six e-MTB loops and two cross-country trails, plus a pump track and a beginner Ludizone at La Chaudanne in the resort centre. The trails themselves are free to ride, and a summer MTB lift pass also covers the lifts in the neighbouring Courchevel and Belleville valleys, making it an easy week-long trip from the UK through Geneva, Chambéry, Lyon or Grenoble airports.

The Trails

The downhill trails add up to more than 35km of pure descent, reached from the Tougnète lifts above La Chaudanne and the Pas du Lac gondola from Méribel-Mottaret. They are for bikes only and are looked after by the bike patrol throughout the season. The green Bike Slope (DH1) is the place to start, with Bellevue (DH2), a long, varied run with big views over the valley, Blue Line (DH3), with views to Mont Blanc, and Woodstocked (DH9), an easy forest trail with wooden features, making up the blue trails.

On the red trails, Tougnète Rocket (DH4) is all slope and flow, Forest Jump (DH5) is a technical forest trail with plenty of jumps and variations, and Motta-Red (DH6) and Red-Line (DH11) are both fast lines built around big jumps. The black trail La 7 (DH7) is a proper DH race-training track, and at the top of the scale G-Force (DH10), the 2017 World Cup track, is graded double black. Both start from the Plan de l'Homme lake and finish at La Chaudanne.

The enduro routes run to more than 100km and head well away from the lifts. Les Villages (E2) and Les Combes (E3) are the two blues, passing mountain hamlets and chapels and the Tuéda nature reserve. Top Down (E4) runs for almost 20km from the top of the Pas du Lac gondola to Brides-les-Bains, dropping nearly 2,500m, and Les Crêtes (E7) and Le Creux de la Stetta (E9) follow the ridge facing Mont Blanc. The black routes Brides-les-Bains (E5), Mergollaz (E6), La Dégage-à-Moûtiers (E8) and La Corbassière (E10) take in technical forest singletrack and long natural descents to the villages below, the longest of them dropping more than 2,400m to Brides-les-Bains.

For a gentler ride there are six waymarked e-MTB loops, from the green Boucle de Tuéda to the Col de la Loze loop linking Méribel and Courchevel, and two cross-country trails: L'Ours (XC4), a blue loop in the Tuéda nature reserve, and the red Adret (XC3). Down at La Chaudanne, the pump track is a closed loop of rollers and berms that anyone can ride without pedalling, and the Ludizone is a small downhill circuit of steps and bumps for trying out mountain biking safely.

Trails are graded on the French colour scale from green through blue, red and black to double black, and the downhill trails are built to the French mountain bike trail standard. Some enduro and cross-country routes are shared with walkers, so give way and ride at a sensible speed. The bike park stays open in moderate rain, but trails close temporarily during thunderstorms.

Admission and Prices

The trails are free to ride, but the lifts need a summer MTB pass. Standard adult prices run from €18 for three hours to €26.70 for a day, €59.50 for three days, €94.50 for seven days and €314 for the season, with a €13.50 three-hour or €20 one-day child pass, and a €20 per person Familyflex day rate for groups of three or more. The passes cover the lifts open to bikes in the Belleville, Méribel and Courchevel valleys, subject to each resort's own opening schedule. Prices are correct as of September 2026 but subject to change, so check current rates on the Méribel website before you book.

Beyond the Bike Park

From the top of Tougnète and Saulire, the summer lifts connect into other sectors of Les 3 Vallées, including Courchevel, Les Menuires and Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, so a multi-day pass opens up a much bigger area than Méribel alone. Not every lift in the wider area takes bikes, so check the lift status before you plan a route across the valleys. In Méribel itself, there are bike wash stations at Les Allues, La Chaudanne (next to the skatepark) and at the Pas du Lac gondola station in Méribel-Mottaret, and several shops in the resort hire and service bikes, including e-MTBs. Accredited mountain bike schools run lessons and guided rides for all levels.

Getting There from the UK

Four airports serve Méribel. Chambéry is the closest, at around an hour and a quarter by road, while Geneva, Lyon Saint-Exupéry and Grenoble are all around two hours away. Geneva and Lyon have the widest choice of flights from the UK. Shared and private transfers run from all four, and Altibus coaches connect the airports and Moûtiers station with the resort, though summer timetables are thinner than in winter, so check before you book.

By rail, take the Eurostar to Paris or Lille and a TGV towards the Alps. The direct Eurostar Snow train to Moûtiers runs in winter only, and in summer most journeys change at Chambéry for a regional train on to Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains, with direct Paris to Moûtiers TGVs only on some peak days. From Moûtiers it is around 18km up the valley to Méribel by bus or taxi. Bikes need planning on the high-speed legs: Eurostar and TGV each have limited bike spaces or require the bike to be bagged, so reserve a space or pack your bike before you travel. Regional TER trains take bikes free, space permitting.

Driving from Calais or the Channel Tunnel is around 960km, roughly nine and a half hours on toll motorways via Reims and Dijon towards Albertville, then the N90 to Moûtiers and the D90 up to Méribel. Having a car makes it easy to bring your own bikes and kit, and to reach the other valleys and bike parks in the Tarentaise.

Once in Méribel, the main access point is La Chaudanne in the centre of the resort, at the foot of the Tougnète lifts, where you will also find the ticket office, bike hire, the pump track and the Ludizone. Riders staying in Méribel-Mottaret can start from the Pas du Lac gondola instead.

When to Go

The lift-served season is short: roughly the first week of July to the end of August, with the lifts running seven days a week in that window. Outside it the lifts are closed, so a bike park trip here means booking inside those dates. The whole season falls within the French school summer holidays, and the resort is at its busiest from mid-July to mid-August, around the 14 July and 15 August public holidays. The first and last weeks of the season are usually the better bet for quieter lift queues and trails.

The top lifts reach well over 2,000m, so it can be cool and windy up high even on a hot day in the valley, and conditions can change quickly. Summer thunderstorms, which in the mountains tend to build through the afternoon, close the trails and lifts temporarily, so start early, carry a waterproof layer and check the forecast each morning. The lifts and trails stay open in moderate rain.

Where to Stay

Méribel centre is the natural base for the bike park: La Chaudanne sits in the middle of the resort, with the Tougnète lifts, the pump track, the ticket office and bike hire all in one place. Méribel-Mottaret, higher up the valley, puts you at the Pas du Lac gondola to Saulire, next to the Lac de Tuéda nature reserve and the cross-country loops, and is a good choice for riders who want quick access to the links into Courchevel. The village of Les Allues, below Méribel, is quieter and has its own bike wash. Brides-les-Bains, down at the valley floor near Moûtiers, is where several of the long enduro routes finish, and the Olympe gondola links it with Méribel at weekends through most of the summer, carrying bikes for MTB pass holders.

Accommodation runs from catered and self-catered chalets to hotels, apartment residences and mountain refuges. Méribel's summer activity card, the Pass Explorateur, covers foot-passenger lifts in the Méribel valley and more than 20 activities, which suits non-riding family members, but it does not replace an MTB lift pass.

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