Love Les Arcs? Where to go next for the gentle blues, the scale or the family week
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20268 min read
Les Arcs is the resort people choose because the week simply works. Skis on at the door, a funicular up from the railway at Bourg Saint Maurice, a handful of villages with quite different moods, and the rest of Paradiski across the valley when you want more. Families love it, and so do groups who would rather spend the week skiing than getting to the skiing.
Ask Les Arcs regulars what they would miss, though, and the answers split. Some mean the convenience. Some mean the scale. And a good many of them, without quite knowing it, mean the blues, which are gentler than almost anywhere else we measure. That last one matters more than it sounds once you start looking elsewhere.
Les Arcs, measured
The line to look at is the blue. Les Arcs's blues average 12.6 percent, the gentlest of the 17 French resorts we cover and the third gentlest of all 55. A typical French blue averages 16.2. Nearly half the piste here, 48 percent, is gentler than 15 percent, and no resort we cover has a bigger share; Verbier equals it.
Now look at what sits above those blues. The reds average 24.3 percent, exactly a typical French red. Twenty six percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, bang on the median. And there are 24 kilometres of black, the joint seventh most of the 55 we cover, 6.4 kilometres of it tagged double black. So Les Arcs is not a gentle resort. It is a resort with unusually gentle blues and an entirely typical red and black above them, and the average gradient nearly doubles when you step from blue to red.
That is all average gradient, measured per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch. But it changes how you should shop. If your family's confidence was built on Les Arcs blues, most blues elsewhere will feel steeper. Only two resorts we cover have gentler ones, and both are on this page.
Snow is not the reason to leave. Seventy three percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 3,208, so on our measure Les Arcs is already snow sure.
Sestriere: if it is the gentle blues, higher up
- VillageVillage
- 2,035 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,840 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 305 km
Sestriere: 160 km of piste we measure. 50 km blue and easier 31%92 km red 58%18 km black 11%
Plus 11 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Sestriere is purpose built, as the Arcs villages are, and it is high. The village sits at 2,035 metres, 435 above our figure for Les Arcs and the fourth highest of the 55 resorts we cover. Ninety one percent of its piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 73. It sits on the Via Lattea, the Milky Way, an area that crosses the border into France.
The blues are why it is here. They average 12.0 percent, gentler than Les Arcs's 12.6 and the second gentlest of the 55. The piste map will not look like it: there are 50 kilometres of blue and easier against your 117, because Italian grading paints more of the mountain red. Those reds average 21.1 percent, kinder than Les Arcs's 24.3. Overall it is a touch steeper, with 30 percent of the piste steeper than one in four against your 26, so read the gradients rather than the colours, and remember they are averages.
On size, we measure 160 kilometres around Sestriere, the most of the ten Italian resorts we cover, against 200 around Les Arcs. The Via Lattea is marketed at 400 kilometres, but that includes Montgenèvre, which needs the International pass. On the standard pass it is nearer 305, our own subtraction, since nobody publishes an Italy only figure.
The trade is the family feel and the top. We class Les Arcs as a family resort and Sestriere as high and practical, known for snow and value. Its skiing stops at 2,788 metres by our measurement, 420 below your 3,208, and there is less black, 18 kilometres against 24. You fly to Turin.
Courchevel: if it is the scale, without leaving France
- VillageVillage
- 1,747 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,738 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 600 km quoted
Courchevel: 296 km of piste we measure. 179 km green and blue 60%85 km red 29%32 km black 11%
If what you love is the sense that a week is not long enough to ski it all, Courchevel gives you more of that than anywhere we cover. We measure 296 kilometres of piste around it, the most of the 55, against 200 around Les Arcs, and 178.5 kilometres of that is green or blue, also the most. It is the polished heart of the Three Valleys, quoted at 600 kilometres against Paradiski's 425, though that is a figure we have not measured ourselves.
It shares two practical things with Les Arcs. It is known for skiing in the trees, which matters on a flat light day, and you fly to the same airports, Geneva or Chambéry. Its longest piste, Levasset, is a blue that runs 4.7 kilometres and drops 748 metres. And the stronger skiers get more to do: 32 kilometres of black, the second most of the 55, against your 24.
The trade is the blues and the tone. Courchevel's blues average 17.5 percent, the joint eighth steepest of the 55 we cover, against your 12.6, and only 35 percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 48. For a family raised on Les Arcs blues that is a real change, and it is the first thing to warn the nervous skier about. Courchevel is also glossy and upmarket, with luxury and gourmet dining on its list, where Les Arcs is modern and easy. The skiing tops out lower, at 2,697 metres by our measurement, though 71 percent of it is still at or above 1,800, which makes it snow sure on our measure too.
Alta Badia: if it is the family week, with the food at the centre
- VillageVillage
- 1,568 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,778 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 500 km about, our sum
Alta Badia: 125 km of piste we measure. 76 km blue and easier 61%41 km red 33%8 km black 6%
On our numbers, the closest match to Les Arcs anywhere is in the Dolomites. Alta Badia's village is at 1,568 metres, just 32 below our figure for Les Arcs, and it is a family resort, warm and welcoming, where the mountain food is a reason to go in its own right.
The skiing is easy in a different way. Les Arcs is gentle blues with honest reds above them; Alta Badia is gentle nearly everywhere. Only 15 percent of its piste is steeper than one in four, against your 26, and 40 percent is gentler than 15 percent, the joint fourth biggest share of the 55 we cover. Its blues average 14.4 percent, steeper than yours at 12.6 but still kinder than a typical French blue. There are 76 kilometres of blue and easier, the most of the ten Italian resorts we cover.
Size works differently too. We measure 124.5 kilometres around Alta Badia, and its own sector is 130. But it sits on the Sellaronda, and from a base there around 500 kilometres can be reached by lift, which is more than Paradiski. That is our own rough sum across the joined areas, not a published figure. The 1,200 kilometres on the Dolomiti Superski pass is no guide to a week: it spans twelve areas, and only four of them connect.
The trade is the top and the hard end. The skiing reaches 2,509 metres by our measurement, 699 below your 3,208, though 65 percent of the piste is still at or above 1,800. And there are 7.5 kilometres of black against your 24, so the strong skier who lives for the Aiguille Rouge will find little like it. You fly to Venice or Innsbruck.
So, which one
the gentle blues are what you love, you would like the village higher, and you can give up the family label and a little of the size.
the group is mostly capable adults, the easy blues still matter, and someone wants the off piste.
it is the scale you love, you want the same airports, and your family is ready for steeper blues.
the family week and the food are the point, and nobody needs much black.
Of the two places we cover with gentler blues than Les Arcs, it is the one built the way Les Arcs is built, and it puts the village 435 metres higher. You give up some size and the family feel. You keep the thing Les Arcs does better than almost anywhere, and the blues get gentler still.