Claviere

✈️ By air - Turin Caselle (TRN) is the closest airport, roughly 90 km and around 1h20 by road. Milan Malpensa (MXP) is around 240 km / 2h45. Both have winter transfer services in season.

🚗 By car - From Turin take the A32 towards Oulx and continue up the SS24 through Cesana Torinese to Claviere, right on the French border. Winter tyres or chains are legally required in season.

🚆 By train + bus - The nearest station is Oulx-Cesana-Claviere-Sestriere on the Turin-Bardonecchia line, with onward buses to Claviere in around 30 minutes. Total journey time from Turin Porta Nuova is roughly 2 hours.

🚶 Without a car - The village is small and easy to get around on foot, with lifts close to the centre, so a car is not needed once you arrive.

Claviere sits at 1,760m in the upper Val di Susa, right on the border with France - the village marks the point where the Italian and French halves of the Vialattea meet, with the ski run from Montgenèvre crossing the frontier directly onto Claviere's slopes. It has long been a border town, historically a customs post on the road over the Montgenèvre pass, and that low-key, in-between character still shapes it today.

Compared to its Vialattea neighbours, Claviere is small and unhurried: the skiing is mostly gentle and open, and the resort is as well known locally for its cross-country trails as for its downhill pistes. It suits families, beginners and anyone who would rather ski quiet slopes in the morning and ride the lifts into busier parts of the Vialattea in the afternoon.

The village itself is compact, with a handful of hotels, shops and restaurants strung along the road that continues over the border into France. There's little of the nightlife found in Sauze d'Oulx, and evenings are correspondingly low-key - most visitors treat Claviere as a peaceful base rather than a destination in itself.

Because it sits directly on the pass, Claviere has also long been a stop for cross-border day trips, and shops on the French side in Montgenèvre are a short ski or drive away.

🎫 Passes - The Vialattea pass covers Claviere and the rest of the linked area, including Montgenèvre in France; buy the international version and carry ID if you plan to ski across the border.

📅 When to go - Claviere sits a little higher than Sauze d'Oulx, so January and February tend to be most reliable; the gentle, open terrain also suits early- and late-season visits.

📆 Weekends - Quieter than Sestriere or Sauze d'Oulx most of the week, though it does pick up with day-trippers from Turin at weekends.

🎿 Nordic skiing - If you or your group cross-country ski, Claviere's trails are among the best maintained in the Vialattea - worth asking about at the ski school even if downhill is your main focus.