 Poster: A snowHead
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Resort: Les Arcs 2000
Date: 9-16th Feb 2013
Our holiday: 5*20/30s couples - all skiers.
Tour Operator: SkiWorld
Flights: Monarch were good outbound, reasonable legroom. Not so good return (30mins delay + less legroom) but nothing major and grenoble was being remarkably cooperative - especially considering it was a peak week, normal size queues, announcements that made sense, food available in cafe, seats in departures - all very surprising. Gatwick was great, no queues either way and speedy luggage delivery. 8/10
Transfers: Skiworld reps all present and correct and we we off pretty smartly. Rep (James) was very good - we were especially impressed by his ability to invert the fx rate in his head  Booked passes and settled in to wait for arrival, and wait, and erm wait...man that's a long transfer 4 hours door to door  Driver did well at avoiding queues though, was evidently a local! After leaving some folks at 1800 we were dropped off in the central car park to walk 500m or so to the various chalets. Should be a pain, but was actually fine, nice to see town/stretch your legs and meet the various hosts/reps 5/10
Operator: Skiworld - we were really impressed with all the staff we met, seemed a little more mature than usual. Our chalet girls were friendly, able to string a sentence together and really pretty good cooks - great food. The reps were noticeably more present than is usual, around morning and evening and very chatty with no hard sell at all. Would definitely use again. 9/10
Chalet: Chalet L'Arc (in The Chalet d'Neiges complex) was an overall positive mixed bag. 3rd floor with no lifts or lockers but somehow after day1 no one seemed to have a problem toting gear up and down stairs. That said probably not good with teenies, or knackered first weekers. Decor is pretty good and the chalet doesn't feel cheap but be aware it's not fully en-suite, shared toilets in the hallway (bring pajamas!) and the squeakiest stairs and doors we've seen in a while (not great with the late night hall-toilet visits!). Also note the chalet is upside down, so you come in by your bedrooms and go UP to the lounge. This actually works really well - encourages you to dump extra gear in your rooms before heading up to cake which leads to less chaos in the lounge and less people going to get changed and never reappearing till dinner. Room 5 is the best imo, big with a bath and shower. After that 4 is good value, as is 7 if you don't mind being next to the kitchen (it is the only room on the lounge floor) as both are pretty big. Then 2 which is not huge but feels big enough and has a balcony. 1 and 3 are all a bit small and 6 only has an internal window - avoid if you get the choice. Big dining table, plenty of seating, open fire and lovely views out up the slopes - we were pretty happy with it as our home from home for the week. Slope access is easy - drag from right outside, or up a elevator in the building opposite and in the evening you can ski right to the bottom of the stairs. Getting into town on foot is a bit wierd, up a lift in the building opposite, then walk along, up a small flight of external stairs and then DOWN the lift in another building - wierd, but quick enough, I never did work out if 'town' was above or below me! 7/10
Ski Hire: We used Les Gentianes twinner for ski hire in arc 2000 who were great and dished out bandit s80s and similar mid-waists to everyone with cheery friendliness and excellent english for just E70 for the week. No one had any problems with settings/sizing/suitability etc and equipment, while last seasons, was in decent shape. Was nice to see they were trying to give everyone mid or fat skis (given the snow-every-day-conditions) without arguing these were 'premium' or 'upgrade'. Only one of us needed hire boots, but the selection was good and she was happy with fit. I can also recommend skiset anywhere in resort - we had pre-booked with twinner, but the skiset IN the chalet d'neige and the one up by the icerink were both super-helpful with finding me matching goggles and helmet, equipment looked good and they were super-friendly - we were sorry we hadn't used the one in our building for hire would have been very handy. 9/10
Weather: Amazing - snow every day, powder everywhere  Never had better! 10/10
Runs: We didn't really need the expensive paradiski area pass, a les arcs only would have been absolutely sufficient in the snowy conditions - we only made it to la plagne twice and that was more out of sheer stubbornness. We spent a lot of time near-piste rather than on-piste - grand col and plagnettes lifts provide access to reassuringly easy to bail out of near-piste of decent steepness and length and there is a surprising amount of fun to be had in the trees near several of the blues into all the villages. Aguille Rouge first thing top to bottom is always worthwhile and not very black really (although one day the red below lanchettes had grown ENORMOUS moguls which nearly caused tears to some of our party - luckily they were able to escape down the lys blue).
A few things to look out for - the vallee d'larc at the top of the varet is uphill then flat switchback - the red is ok, but in general I'd avoid the varet lift unless heading to aguille - instead go down to marmottes/bois d'ours which don't queue up and offer faster acces to better lifts/pistes. Piste grading is a bit 'artistic' - Equireils black could easily be red (you can bypass the steep moguls at the end), while clair blanc could easily by black (though there was some debate as to whether it might be offcially closed/naturide). Some blues are flat, some rather steep and some reds could easily be blue (especially in vallandry). Avoid dropping into 1800 if you can, even in a week of powder it was busy and icy-scraped pistes for the last 100-200m. Everywhere else is great fun, I'd forgotten how varied and exciting an area it is, as we improve there is always something new to do! 9/10
Lifts: Some super slow ones still out there, up from villaroger, comborciere, charmottegger and Pre St Espirit are the most obvious although top marks goes to inversens in la Plagne, I have never been so cold or so bored on a lift before! No major queues though and long lifts at least give you a bit of recovery time! Feels like they might be struggling to pay off the vanoise and savign pennies on all the other lifts as best they can 6/10
Mountain Food: We struggled at times as the villages are all below the lifts for them, so while getting down to lunch is easy, getting out again is a hike uphill  We liked the bar in 1600 on the Mont Blanc side - nice inside, and not more expensive than others.
Evening Food: We didn't go out much but can heartily recommend the table de lys in arc 1950 - high end, and a little pricey (E45 for wine, E29 for mains) but amazing free appetizer with smoking dry ice sauce set the scene for a lovely, well presented and cooked dinner. 1950 is cute, but the other restaurants all looked a bit pizza hut, bar '1950' at the radisson.
Other: One standout was how friendly all the locals were, staff at bars, restaurants, pisteurs, hire shop etc were all notably friendly compared to other places - worth bearing in mind if you like to actually feel welcome on holiday!
I'm sure I've missed loads out but already very long so will leave it there and hope someone finds it useful! Let me know any questions I'll do my best to answer.
aj xx
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Tue 19-02-13 23:18; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Very Good review. I have a few comments.
To me the local area pass is the one covering only the Arc 1600 - Vallandry side of the mountain what you are talking about is a full Les Arcs Pass. The other is a paradiski pass or a daily extension to La Plagne. Personally I ski about 20 days a year in Les Arcs and only rarely bother to go over to La Plagne.
Clair Blanc is a Nutur piste. Though it can be a difficult entrance I have never known it closed. Its twin, Froide Blanc, is a black, but is often easier. These "Nautur" pistes in Les Arc are a real plus point to the resort. Many of us get fed up with all the pistes in a resort being bashed all the time. Did you try Malgovert?
I completely disagree about the Varet lift. It serves a number of really excellent pistes such as Cretes. It also offers a quicker way to the Grand Col area than the Arcabulle.
Having gone to Italy a few weeks ago I really missed the general friendliness of the people in Les Arcs
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| a.j. wrote: |
| Our chalet girls were friendly, able to string a sentence together and really pretty |
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Malgovert is one of my favourite pistes in Les Arcs, it's just a shame that the only way to get to it is up that awfully slow chair
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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a.j., very good report - super useful to anyone thinking of going there. You must be mistaken about the friendliness of the locals, though - we are assured in thread after thread that the French are surly and unhelpful
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Great first post - good that some people take the time and trouble to do a thorough write up. Always things that others see different, but that's the point of forums.
Others mention Clair Blanc - it has not been shown as nature on the piste maps for at least three years. BUT, I have always seen the warning (I think it says "non dammé" or similar) notice at the top just after getting off the Arpette lift.
Couple of other tricky (or tricky sometimes) red pistes - these do not have warnings - Petit Renard and Golf. Petit Renard can be seen from the lift going up, so you can see what it's like before you try it. Golf can be a shock to people used to the many comfortable reds in Les Arcs. These runs change from year to year, and even week to week.
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They have changed the grading of some runs over the years in Les Arcs, for example Roulles used to be red and Reche used to be black. The route directly down from the Col de Frette (either golf or Vagere) used to be black and is now red, but that happened when they removed the piste designation from the top steep section completely. Oh and some pistes have disappeared completely.
AndrewsPeppers, I must look at a new piste map sometime. Since I have been down comborciere after it has been pisted, it is, to my amazement, not a Nutur piste
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Interesting to know that Reches used to be black - I find there is a small section in the link to the TransArc middle station that is often nasty for a red. And it is always busy as it's an important link when going from Piesey/Vallandry to Arc1800/Arc1600.
I mentioned this to some Brits when I got to the transarc middle station recently and they said they use the easy blue - Access Transarc - obvious when you know.
As to Comborciere, too much for me, although I did it two years ago when skiing with someone keener than me.
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comborciere gets pisted? Who knew  I've never seen it as anything other than top to bottom moguls!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
comborciere gets pisted? Who knew Very Happy I've never seen it as anything other than top to bottom moguls!
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I think about once every alternative season. Nowhere near as much fun after pisting;
just another fast cruising red. Comborciere is one of the classic Les Arcs pistes
AndrewsPeppers, I have never used Reches as a link between Vallandry to 1800, but I did try to cycle down it once. I think think the terms "cor blimey, this is steep" or similar were those that sprang to mind.
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FAQ
We wondered if it was closed as at the top the little sign did have HALF a 'ferme' box loaded into it (you know the ones that slide in and out to show ouvert/ferme?) but no roping off etc (we didn't even notice the sign till day3!). Yup did do malgovert - used to terrify me, but much more manageable nowadays, although a little more vis would have been helpful 
not sure how much of it we were actually on the piste for! I agree that the natur pistes are a terrific idea - hope more resorts pick them up.
