LES ARCS
Ski & Snowboard Resort Review
The high altitude resort of Les Arcs, FRANCE combines with the neighbouring resorts of La Plagne and Peisey-Vallandry to make up the area known as 'Paradiski' one of the largest skiing and snowboarding areas in the world.
Les Arcs Skiing and Snowboarding Terrain
The Les Arcs skiing and snowboarding terrain is on wide linked trails, powder bowls, open fields, fast tree lined steep pistes, hair raising moguls, cliff drops and chutes all set amongst stunning scenery. Les Arcs is famous for off piste skiing and snowboarding, it is the type of resort where you could spend weeks at and not cover all the terrain.
Advanced Skiing and Snowboarding
Advanced skiers and snowboarders are in 7th heaven at Les Arcs! Every type of terrain can be found from powder bowls to extreme steeps as well as fast groomed trails.
For off piste skiing and snowboarding, the wide expansive terrain under the Plan Bois Lift is fantastic, as is the open steep extreme bowl terrain to the right of the Transarc Cable Car in the Col D'Entreporte area.
From the top of the Aiguille Rouge choose either the hair raising off piste route down to Arc 2000 or stick to the groomed pistes for fast giant GS turns. There are also great carving pistes leading back down into the Arc 1800 Village.
One of the longest and most challenging mogul runs in Europe is to the left of the TC DU Varet Gondola from Arc 2000.
Intermediate Skiing and Snowboarding
Intermediates can enjoy Les Arcs as much as the advanced skiers and snowboarders do with almost every lift, in Les Arcs and the Paradiski, having at least 1 (some have 3 or 4) intermediate trails leading down from it.
Catch the Transarc Cable Car from Arc 1800 to gain access to the terrain of Arc 1950 and Arc 2000. Once at the top enjoy the long groomed trails leading all the way down past the village of Arc 1950 to the base of the Pre St Esprit Lift.
There are daily grooming maps available at the ticket office showing all the pistes that have been groomed overnight.
Beginner Skiing and Snowboarding
There is beginner terrain at all 4 altitude Villages, however the best beginner terrain is above the village of Arc 1800. The Chantel Lift services the beginner only area at Arc 1800 and once confidence grows beginners should head to the linked wide trails under the Charmettoger Lift.
Beginners who do not want to access the Paradiski area can purchase a ski pass to just the Les Arcs terrain which is slightly cheaper than the normal ski pass covering the entire Paradiski area.
The Paradiski Terrain
Les Arcs combines with the neighbouring resorts of La Plagne and Peisey-Vallandry to form the immense Paradiski area. In total Paradiski covers 425 kilometres of pistes with 152 beginner trails, 79 intermediate and 22 advanced trails. The ultra modern Vanoise Express Cable Car connects Les Arcs and La Plagne together in four minutes.
Les Arcs Terrain Park
Les Arcs free riding terrain is so good the well maintained Apocalypse Snow Park stays relatively uncrowded. Located on the left hand side of the Clair Blanc Lift it has good size kickers, tabletops, rails and jumps.
The fast boardercross course, located at the bottom of Bosses Lift, is popular when it hasn’t snowed for a few days.
Halfpipes are built throughout the season for competitions and international events like the Quiksilver Slopestyle Pro.
Other Activities at Les Arcs
The Olympic Speed Skiing course, located above Arc 2000, is 1700 meters long with a gradient of 70%. Frequent world speed records are set every year in the World Speed Skiing Championships where competitors wear specially designed aerodynamic speed suits and reach up 250km per hour!
The public can pay to have a supervised run on the speed course with a helmet and goggles provided by the Les Arcs Sports Club. If you survive the run you receive a diploma and a medal confirming your speed!
Off the slopes there are many activities available from ice skating to cross country skiing, tobogganing, snow shoeing, paragliding, snow mobiling and dog sledding, plus indoor bowling, squash and two movie cinemas.
Restaurants at Arc 1800 Les Arcs
In the evenings the village is really busy; it is the focal point of all 4 villages. There are many restaurants ranging from casual fast food, to lovely traditional French restaurants like the candle lit Le Plante d'Baton.There are also Italian restaurants, pizzerias and cheese and fondue restaurants.
Nightlife at Arc 1800 Les Arcs
After dinner the choice of what to do next is up to you, go bowling, visit a wine bar, go to the Blue Bar for some jazz, sing karaoke in the Sing Island cafe, or go to the Red Hot Saloon for live music, dancing and international clientele!
Shopping at Arc 1950 Les Arcs
Ogier Sports has all your skiing requirements covered with rental and specialist equipment, snowboarders head to the Concept Board shop for the largest selection of snowboarding equipment on the mountain.
Restaurants at Arc 1950 at Les Arcs
There are Italian and pizzeria restaurants, French restaurants like Hemingway's Cafe and Chez Anne which are Savoyard specialist as well as Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and even a pancake restaurant!
Nightlife at Arc 1950 Les Arcs
For a small village the nightlife is great, Les Belles Pintes is an Irish bar with live music, pool tables and darts, Le Chalet de Luigi is packed for après ski and the crowds only get bigger after dinner as people head to the nightclub Le Club (in Le Chalet de Luigi) for all night dancing!
Restaurants at Arc 2000 Les Arcs
Traditional French restaurants with fondue and raclette are popular for dining in the village, as is the Red Rock Cafe which serves burgers, ribs and pizzas, El Latino Loco specialises in great South American cuisine and strong drinks and stays open really late every night!
New for 2007/2008 at Les Arcs
In Peisey-Vallandry a new six seater chairlift, The Derby has replaced the old Plan Bois chairlift. The new chairlift is much faster than the old one enabling easy access from Vallandry to Arc 1800.
More About Les Arcs
Your Les Arcs Ski & Snowboard Resort Reviews
Emma Colloway, UK. March 2006 Amazing snow, amazing pistes, even more amazing extreme off piste. Les Arcs is the best mountain around, it has reliable snow, and later in the season lots of sunny days and the shared apartment accomodation at 1800 makes for a really fun holiday. Skiing wise standing at the top of the Aiguille Rouge and looking down is breath taking, you can chose a groomed piste, you can throw yourself off the edge, whatever you like! In my opinion I think Les Arcs has some of the steepest most challenging pistes in France, the boulder lined chutes leading down to the speed skiing area would be closed permantly if they were any where else, the moguls on the edge of the speed track are as high as they are wide. Now the Paradiski linked area triples the ski area. A downside is the nightlife isn't booming like in Val d'Isere or Meribel but there's still some fun to be found.
John Adduck, UK. Feb 2006 Les Arcs is terrific. It was a little tricky figuring out where to stay, there are about 5 different altitudes, we ended up at 1800 which is the main village but next time I go back, with my family, I think I will stay at 1950. 1800 was fine, we enjoyed the freedom of home cooking as well as restaurants, however the new 1950 would be a little more stylish and new. I would also like my children to experience staying quite literary on the mountain. Overall the resort is really well run and the ski school caters very well for young children and made the learning to ski experience really fun for my children. The amount of varied pistes makes the overall ski area very suitable for family skiing. I also found the ease of flying direct to Geneva then catching a bus to the village of 1800 very easy.
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