Les Arc 1950 family ski holiday

A snowHead

Sell Les Arcs 1950 to me for a family ski holiday. 2 families. Kids aged 4, 8, 10 and 12.

A snowHead

@philhitch, depends what sort of skiing, ambience, activities, accommodation, eating, time of year and costs you prefer.

G’i’s a few clues.

Suggest include any ‘musts’ along with any particular definite needs if any individual in your group.

If you have a long list of ‘wants’, which are most important and which expendable if compromising different needs of about 8 people?
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@philhitch, I’d say the biggest selling point is the ambience and the convenience. The designers did a great job of designing a village that looks and works superbly. Out of your doorstep straight onto the slopes for a ski down to any one of 4 high speed, high capacity lifts that will each link you to a different part of the ski area.

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This is based on a visit 10 years ago so some things may have gotten better/others worse:

+ Looks quite nice.
+ Usual purpose built resort undergound parking/traffic free 'roads'.
+ Everything one degree of ski in/ski out or another.
+ Good connection into the lift and piste system.

- Resort restaurants were very average (not an issue is self catering though).
- Very lacking for any looking for even light apres (not an issue if you're going to be 'drinking in' though).
- Short on soul (it may have avoided the '1950s Russian forced labour camp' vibe but has a bit of a 'Disney fake' one instead).

Given the group profile you've given I'd guess you're looking at more 'ski/home/stay there' than 'ski/apres/restaurant' so it should hit the spot quite nicely.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@philhitch, If you need someone to sell Arc1950 to you then I suggest you don't go.

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- Attractive village in a Disney kind of way
- Everything you need is a stone's throw away
- Good ski school
- Doorstep skiing
- Decent quality of accommodation built by Intrawest to Canadian standards

but

- Is expensive
- Restaurants get booked out quickly (or did when I was there)
- It is small, quiet and bijou (which might be an advantage)

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All of the above and I'd like to add:

+ expensive, but quite good value (except for parking which is a robbery!)
+ very well connected to the whole Paradiski area: only 1 lift to reach Vanoise Express and only 2 on your way back!

- if your 4 year old is an absolute beginner, I would probably reconsider. True beginner slopes are located outside Arc 2000. Getting there from 1950 includes a fair amount of faffing. If you plan to teach yourself, you should know that afair there is only one magic carpet up there which is really free for public use. And that one is mainly a bring-back for the upper parts of 2000. So there is constant traffic going through and the run is a little bit too steep and a little bit too narrow and doesn't end in an immediate flat.

After all it is free

As someone with a declared interest (we own an apartment), having been there for at least 3 weeks a season for the past 17 years (this year being an exception thanks to the Great Unpleasantness), and watching MiniRoll grow from a 3yo first learning to ski, through to her time now as a devil-may-care, ubercool, piste runner, I thought I add some thoughts to the above.

Advantages: (Setting aside access to the Greatest Terrain in the World and , as above, all within a couple of lifts: and the layout, designed to give you top-notch vistas down every street)

- The apartments are pretty large by French standards, and have ample wardrobe / shelf space - but admittedly being matched now by more recent builds. Our place - 2 bedroom, sleep 4 in comfort, is 56sqm with an 18sqm balcony.
- Everywhere, and I mean everywhere, is within 100 m of your front door. Pistes are even closer, since they run through the village. When they say "ski to the shops" they mean it. This means ski school dropoffs/ pickups are so convenient, so easy, and access to home comforts straightforward if eating in the apt. is your thing. Or at any of the terrace facilities next to the pickup zones.
- 2 set of ski schools to chose from, and a range of hire shops - but with easy access to 2000 via a pedestrian lift for a wider range of options / prices - of bars, restaurants and for e.g. bowling alley.
- Free street entertainment throughout the season, for all ages, every early evening. Holiday specials and theme weeks keep it fresh for the old hands, first time visitors love it too. https://www.arc1950.com/en/winter-in-arc-1950.html
- Traffic free means its safe to let the kids roam - from about the age of 6 / 7 we were happy sending out Mini unaccompanied to get the morning croissants fresh from the bakery.
- Village supermarket (Huit a Cool

is well-stocked - slight premium on prices over the valley as you might expect - but is often busy with people from 2000 coming to do their shopping there.

the downsides
- This truly is the definition of "ski in, ski out" , and anywhere else afterwards will be a letdown. Some friends we introduced to the village now won't go anywhere else
- The restaurants are not all 5* however much they'd like to think they are and charging accordingly - you will struggle to eat out more than twice in a week without feeling a little let down (although there are a couple of places I would recommend)
- It ain't the cheapest.
- It is quiet for teenagers - but that's probably not a problem looking at your OP - but should they need to get away, again, there are more lively joints in 2000
- It is coming up for 19 years old, and some of the exteriors are beginning to show their age. There is a constant stream of renovations and repairs going on, but its hard up in the mountains.
- ref the in-village nursey slopes - there are 3 in-village jardins des enfants, which suffice for the first couple of days, but after that they are usually out on the pistes - one particular area of blues served by a beginner chairlift, St Jacques (there are no greens in Les Arcs). I agree with @Tristero that the final run home from there can be a little daunting, but there is always the option of the Cabriolet lift from 2000, which many instructors use in the first few days.

Is it Disney on snow? Yeah, pretty much. Do I regret going every year? Nope. 50 weeks plus, the place kinda grows on you. Do we stay elsewhere for comparison? Yes - Tignes, Alpe D'Huez, Ischgl, in the past three years for example. Skied in multiple other resorts too - but none of them have made me regret basing ourselves in 1950.

1950 is undeniably pretty and it is very well connected.
Personally, however, having taken the family there and having a few boys trips to Les Arcs, I don't think it offers as much as 1800 or 2000 for a good trip. Those places are ugly but they have more facilities, are less of a money trap and easier returns from Arpette and Folies, if some afternoon apres was desired

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@Yellow Snow, To be honest I don't care whether the resort is pretty or not. It is all in the eye of the beholder and I imagine in 20 years time 1800 will have presevation orders all over it but 1950 will not (I think there are already in place for 1600). It is the mountains that I look to and they are undeniably beautiful. The main benefit in 1950 is its convenience. Much of the accomodation in 1800 is situated well below the lifts and needs a bit of a trek uphill to start the day whereas in 1950 you put your skis on at the door and ski back to the door. Though I have very little experience of Arc 1950 from the snippets of conversation I've heard skiing through the village I suspect English is much more widely spoken there than in the rest of Les Arcs.

Sadly an apres ski drink at the Arpette before returning home is no longer as pleasureable as it was. The last season we were there, Jan 2020, they were playing terrible musak at very high volumes. My friends refused to go in. The Altiport is now a better place to go for a drink before skiing down in the setting sun. Evening meals and a ski down in the dark from the Arpette is still a fantasic experience.

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One thing I forgot to mention is, that there is only one single pool for the whole 1950! Been there with the kids on a sunny afternoon in april. Can't say that I've seen the water though. Shocked

They have a spa in town. But it's quite expensive and they are obviously not keen on children.

The apartments are great, especially the "comfort" ones. I beg to disagree a little bit with Arctic Roll. It's not "the greatest terrain in the world". That would be 3V. And that's the reason why 3V costs twice as much. Paradiski is great for intermediates and freeriders. Plus the first class touring option Mont Pourri which is truely outstanding. But it's lacking on challenges for advanced piste skiers and is overall by far not as varied or even beautiful as 3V or EK.

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Depends where you stay on the walk uphill in 1800 - I have stayed in the apartments by the Carolley lift and they are great.
The one thing that all these threads reveal is that ski trips are deeply personal and subjective and everyone thinks differently.

You know it makes sense.

@Tristero, it was said slightly tongue in cheek. But I’m with JohnE, there’s plenty of challenge, you just need to know where to look.

There are in fact three pools in The village (Manoir, Prince de Cimes and Auberge Jérôme) but you are restricted to those whose costs are shared by your residence. So yes, you can only use 1 pool, but it doesn’t serve the whole 700 apts.
This is on top of the ‘pay for ‘ spa.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I’ve booked for next Easter.
Ski in ski out is easy, apartment is nice and big (2 proper bedrooms rather than sofa bed) and the arc bowl is great for young kids before they progress up the mountain.
Bolle/bulle is a great little bar/restaurant and always surprises me with how good value it is

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Thanks for all the posts everyone. We booked for Easter ‘22 a couple of weeks ago for Princes des Cimes. We’ve skied Les Arcs before - Peisey and 2000 so we know the skiing is good. It was the resort we were more interested to find out about.
A couple of more specific questions. What are the ski school options in 1950? Is the car parking really that expensive?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

The Ski School was excellent when my kids used it, although that was well over a decade ago.

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@philhitch, car park is ~ €100 for the week - but then it is underground, and hence snow free.

Two ski schools, Spirit (aka evolution2 = https://www.spirit1950.com/en/ ) and ESF . MiniRoll spent her pre-teen and early teens with Spirit (in those days ESF was only in 2000) and loved it. Now she just beats the hell out of her old man...

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

In 2019 we paid €117 for 7.5 days (saturday morning - saturday evening).

After all it is free

@philhitch, with easter being pretty late in 2022 Arc1950 is a good choice. I was looking at the webcams yeasterday and there is still almost complete snow coverage above 2000. In June!

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@mountainaddict, I beleive it costs money to build indoor parking spaces.

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Les Arc 1950 family ski holiday

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