Alta Badia or Les Arcs: the long lunch or the bigger mountain
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20266 min read
Alta Badia and Les Arcs end up on the same shortlist more often than you would guess. One is a valley of Ladin villages under the pale towers of the Dolomites, the other a set of purpose built villages in the French Alps, and our matching engine still puts Alta Badia closer to Les Arcs than any other resort we cover. The villages sit 32 metres apart in height, both are built around families, and both have some of the gentlest piste of the 55 resorts we cover.
So the real question is what kind of week you want. Italian, slow and built around lunch and the Sella Ronda, or French, bigger and higher, with your skis on at the door. The numbers first.
The numbers, side by side
| Figure | Alta Badia | Les Arcs |
|---|---|---|
| Village altitude | 1,568 m | 1,600 m |
| Top of the skiing, measured | 2,509 m | 3,208 m |
| Linked ski area | 130 km of its own, about 500 km in reach by lift on the Sella Ronda | 425 km, Paradiski, shared with La Plagne |
| Lift pass | Dolomiti Superski, 1,200 km across twelve areas, not all linked | Paradiski |
| Piste we measure around the village | 124.5 km | 200 km |
| Easy piste | 76 km blue and easier, 61% of the piste | 117 km green and blue, 58% of the piste |
| Black | 7.5 km | 24 km |
| Marked off piste itinerary | 0.6 km | 1.7 km |
| Piste steeper than one in four | 15% | 26% |
| Piste gentler than 15% | 40% | 48% |
| Piste at or above 1,800 m | 65% | 73% |
| Season | December to April | December to April |
| Nearest airport | Venice or Innsbruck | Geneva or Chambéry |
Look at the steep and gentle rows together. Les Arcs has more piste at both ends of the scale. Alta Badia has less at either end, and more in the middle.
Size: Les Arcs has more at the door, the wider areas are closer
Measured from the run geometry ourselves, Les Arcs has 200 kilometres of piste around its villages, the sixth most of the 55 resorts we cover. Alta Badia has 124.5. That is the difference between a week where the less adventurous members of the group keep finding new runs and one where they start to repeat a few.
Further out, it is closer. Paradiski, which Les Arcs shares with La Plagne across the Vanoise Express, is 425 kilometres, a figure we have checked against our own measurement. From a base on the Sella Ronda, around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift without a bus. Dolomiti Superski does not publish that figure; it is our own sum of measured kilometres, so treat it as approximate. The 1,200 kilometres on the pass is not a linked area at all. It covers twelve areas, and only four are joined by lift.
So if your group will roam, call the reach a draw. If most of the week happens near home, Les Arcs has much more of it.
Altitude: level at the door, Les Arcs higher above it
At 1,568 and 1,600 metres, the villages are as good as level. The skiing above them is not. Les Arcs reaches 3,208 metres by our measure, the fourth highest top of the 17 French resorts we cover. Alta Badia's skiing tops out at 2,509.
The difference shows all the way down. Over half of Les Arcs's piste, 55 percent, is above 2,000 metres. At Alta Badia it is 22 percent. Half of Les Arcs's piste sits above 2,045 metres; half of Alta Badia's above 1,880.
Both count as snow sure on our measure. At Alta Badia, 65 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,509 metres. At Les Arcs it is 73 percent, up to 3,208 metres. Nobody can promise snow, but Les Arcs has more of its skiing well clear of that line, which counts for most in a thin December or a warm April.
The skiing: Les Arcs has more of both ends, Alta Badia fewer sharp edges
At the easy end, Les Arcs is the bigger resort by some way: 117 kilometres of green and blue against Alta Badia's 76, which is itself the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. Forty eight percent of Les Arcs's piste is gentler than 15 percent, and no resort we cover has a bigger share. Alta Badia's 40 percent is the joint fourth biggest of the 55 resorts we cover.
76 km blue and easier 61%41 km red 33%8 km black 6%
117 km blue and easier 58%59 km red 30%24 km black 12%
Marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste totals: Les Arcs 1.7 km.
At the other end, the two part company. Les Arcs has 24 kilometres of black, the joint seventh most of the 55 resorts we cover, and 26 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, exactly what a typical resort we cover has. Alta Badia has 7.5 kilometres of black and 15 percent steeper than one in four. Its stiffest test is the Gran Risa above La Villa, a pitched red used for World Cup giant slalom. Neither has much marked off piste itinerary.
Grade labels do not travel well between France and Italy, so the fair way to compare is the measured gradient. These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so read them as a guide to how the week feels. Alta Badia's reds average 21.7 percent against 24.3 at Les Arcs, and its blacks 28.5 against 30.3. Less steep everywhere, then, except in one place.
Who each one actually suits
Alta Badia suits families, couples, food lovers and anyone who measures a day by how it felt rather than how far it went. The pistes are wide and beautifully groomed, the confident can set off round the Sella Ronda, and lunch is an event: Ladin cooking in the huts and a gourmet ski safari between mountain restaurants. Evenings are calm. Corvara is the biggest village and has the most bars, Colfosco is quieter and close to the Sella Ronda, La Villa is small and good for families, and San Cassiano is the polished one, known for fine dining. A group of experts chasing steep terrain will find it gentle.
Les Arcs suits families who want the skis on at the door, and mixed groups where someone is a first timer and someone else wants the high terrain under the Aiguille Rouge. The higher villages are largely car free. Arc 1800 is the liveliest, with a sociable rather than wild après; Vallandry and Peisey are quieter, among the trees, and the tree runs there are what you want on a flat light day. You can also arrive by train, with a funicular from Bourg Saint Maurice up to Arc 1600. What it does not offer is the Dolomites or the long Italian lunch, and its purpose built villages are practical rather than pretty.
The bit nobody tells you
The gentle blues are in France. Les Arcs's blues average a gradient of 12.6 percent, gentler than all but two of the 55 resorts we cover, and well under the 16.2 percent of a typical French blue. Alta Badia's blues average 14.4, exactly the Italian average.
That changes the advice for one kind of skier. Someone in their first week off the nursery slopes, who will spend most of it on blue, is better served at Les Arcs. A nervous intermediate who will spend the week on red is better served at Alta Badia, where the reds are softer and far less of the mountain is steep. Work out which colour your least confident skier lives on, and you have most of your answer.
So, which one
the week is as much about the food, the scenery and the Sella Ronda as the skiing, your group lives on red runs and would rather not meet a steep pitch, and you want quiet evenings in a Ladin village.
you want the most skiing from the door, the higher snow, ski in ski out and room for every level from first timer to strong skier, or you would rather arrive by train.
It has more easy piste, gentler blues, 24 kilometres of black against 7.5 and more of its skiing up high, so it gives more to everyone in the group. Alta Badia is the right answer when lunch and the view are part of the point, and for plenty of people they are.