Things to do in Les Arcs: free at the top, fondue in an igloo
Practical rather than showy, and a lot of the best is free at the door once a lift has got you there, so a pedestrian pass is the first thing to sort for anyone not skiing. The two toboggan runs are the family thing to do, the Igloo Village is the evening, and the Vallandry cinema adds screenings when the weather turns.
Les Arcs was built so you step out of the door onto a lift, and off the skis it is practical rather than showy. The thing to know is that much of the best sits at the top of a lift, free at the door with a pass to get there. For anybody not skiing, sort a pedestrian pass first: it also makes the funicular from Bourg-Saint-Maurice free, which brings the town and its big pool into range.
Some of it needs nothing at all. The escape game trails in Arc 1600, Arc 1800 and Arc 2000 want a booklet from the tourist office and a pen, and a strong walker can spend four hours on the route out of Nancroix, past the old mine, to the frozen waterfall at Lanches. With a pass, the Transarc mid station makes a morning, with a minerals gallery, a warm room to meet in and, later in the season, a snow maze.
The paid thing to do first is one of the two toboggan runs. Both can be reached on foot, so nobody has to ski to join in, and Luge 2000 is the long one. Have everybody's pass numbers to hand when you book online, because the discount depends on them. Children from five can drive small electric snowmobiles at Arc 2000. The pool at Arc 1800 has a lazy river and a splash pad for toddlers, and the Vallandry cinema adds screenings when the weather turns.
Evenings are low key, and most people ski hard and turn in early. The best of them are up the hill: look round the Igloo Village in the day, then go back for the fondue dinner, with a guide there and back. In Peisey-Vallandry, ask about the night snowshoe walk with the reindeer. And if you can choose your week, the free Christmas programme is a reason to choose that one.
Free, and worth knowing
Twelve free things. The escape trails and winter walks need nothing at all, and most of the rest are free at the door, with a pass to reach them.
Three escape game trails, one per village
Collect a booklet from the tourist office, bring a pen, and follow the clues around the village on foot. Arc 1600 has A Spy at the Academy from Place du Soleil, Arc 1800 has The Shadow of the Summits in five puzzles with booklets at Les Villards and Le Charvet, and Arc 2000 has The Attack of the Mekatron from Place Olympique.
No travel on the ski slopes is required, so it costs nothing and needs nothing. Answer sheets sit behind the desk at the tourist office if a family gets properly stuck.
Place du Soleil at Arc 1600, Les Villards and Le Charvet at Arc 1800, Place Olympique at Arc 2000
The Palais de la Mine trail at Nancroix
An open air heritage trail across three hectares at Pont Baudin, freely accessible all year round and costing nothing to walk. What is left of the lead and silver works is still standing, the washing and smelting remains, the tomb of Knight Rosenberg, and the Mine Palace itself at the end of an avenue of larches. Peisey was the headquarters of the French School of Mines from 1802 to 1814, which is why a building like that is sitting in a hamlet like this.
Pont Baudin, Nancroix, Peisey-Vallandry
The Christmas and New Year programme
Every village runs a free programme across the last ten days of December, and it is a real reason to take that week here rather than another one. Last season Arc 1800 sent ski instructors down the Chantel slope by torchlight at half five on Christmas Day, onto the Vagere snowfront, with a DJ and free hot drinks waiting at the bottom. Arc 1600 had Santa through the streets on the twenty fourth with chocolate handed out at the Christmas Village on Place du Soleil, Arc 1950 had a brass band and an enchanted parade, and Arc 2000 closed the year with a laser show at quarter past five and fireworks over Place Olympique.
Bourg-Saint-Maurice publishes its own and heads it as a programme of free events: a Christmas market over three days on the Town Hall square and Rue Desserteaux, an elf treasure hunt, giant wooden games, mulled wine and musical parades. The year finishes with La Nuit des Glaces on the thirty first, cosmic wooden games and a light and music show, with fireworks at half six on Haut-Bourg Square.
The funicular, free with any pass
About seven minutes from beside the railway station at Bourg-Saint-Maurice up to Arc 1600, and anybody holding a valid ski or pedestrian pass rides it for nothing. The tourist office puts it plainly: with a valid pass you do not need to buy a funicular ascent or descent. That is what brings the town into range for a non skier, and the town is where the big pool, the market and the second cinema are.
Beside the SNCF station, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, up to Arc 1600
Two free pedestrian lifts
Dahu and Cabriolet carry pedestrians with no pass at all, and both work as village to village transport rather than as a trip up the mountain. Dahu ran until ten at night last summer, which makes it the way home after dinner rather than a daytime lift. Villards, Jardin Alpin and Lonzagne are also listed as free to pedestrians, and we would treat those three as likely rather than settled.
Twenty kilometres of marked winter walking
The tourist office signposts around twenty kilometres of winter footpath and snowshoe itinerary and publishes a pedestrian guide to go with them, and the trails themselves cost nothing. On the Arcs side they are short and villagey: the Courbaton loop out of Arc 1600, the Sentier des Sapins and the chapel walk to Notre Dame des Vernettes from Arc 1800, and two small snowshoe routes up at Arc 2000.
The Peisey-Vallandry routes are the ones published with walking times. The four hour walk from Nancroix past the Palais de la Mine to the frozen waterfall at Lanches is the one to point a strong walker at.
The Minerals Gallery, Transarc mid station
An immersive walk through from flint to asteroids, built into the Transarc mid station above Arc 1800, and there is nothing to pay at the door. Beside it is a new relaxation area with ski lockers, a picnic space and hot drinks, which makes the mid station the obvious meeting point for a group that splits up in the morning. Entry is free, the gondola is not, so a pedestrian needs a pass to get up to it.
Transarc mid station, Arc 1800
The Illuminated Murals of the Aiguille Rouge
A five hundred square metre cable car garage at the top of the Varet gondola, turned into a sound and light installation: a triptych of worlds built around the seasons. It has been running since winter 2022 and entry is free. Free at the door again, though, so a pass or a pair of skis is what actually gets somebody up to 2,730 m to see it.
Top of the Varet gondola, Arc 2000
Eight panoramic terraces
Eight signed viewpoints spread across the area, all free to walk onto once you are up there. The Balcony in the Clouds at 2,540 m at the top of the Transarc is the one to send people to: two terraces with tables and benches, binoculars, metal hammocks slung out above the slopes, a photo point, and toilets with a ceiling of stars. The Vanoise Balcony above Vallandry at 2,189 m has a carved bearded vulture on it, and the Varet terrace at 2,730 m is the highest of the set.
Top of the Transarc, the Vallandry gondola and the Varet gondola
The Snow Maze
A maze cut into the snow at the Transarc mid station, beside the minerals gallery, free to walk into and good for half an hour with children who have had enough of skiing. It is a late season thing, carved once there is enough snow to carve, and it sits a few steps from the warm room and the hot drinks.
Transarc mid station, Arc 1800
The Malgovert Giants
Three wooden giants over seven metres tall standing in the forest on the Mont-Blanc blue run above Arc 1600, and you climb inside them as well as over them. There are walls, secret doors, tree platforms, footbridges, rope nests and a giant game of Mikado laid out among them. It costs nothing to play in, but it is on a piste, so this is a ski access thing rather than a walk out of the village.
Mont-Blanc run, Arc 1600
Ice stock at Sommet Vallandry
Bavarian ice stock, which is curling with a handle on the stone, laid out at the top of Vallandry and run by the lift company. Playing costs nothing and there is nothing to book. The listing has the right wording for it: free entry but a transport fee applies, which is the honest way of saying that the game costs nothing and the ride up does.
Sommet Vallandry, Peisey-Vallandry
On the mountain
Toboggan runs you can reach on foot, snowmobiles built for children, fondue in an igloo, and a night walk alongside reindeer in Peisey-Vallandry.
The two toboggan runs
The strongest paid family thing in the resort, and both runs are reachable on foot as well as on skis, which is the part that matters for a mixed group. Luge 1800 is nine hundred metres from the top of the Villards telecabine. Luge 2000 is three kilometres from the top of the Arcabulle chairlift and it is the one people talk about at dinner. Both are groomed and made safe by the piste crew like any other run.
Under 20 euros · Villards telecabine at Arc 1800, Arcabulle chairlift at Arc 2000 · Their page
The Igloo Village
Two hundred and fifty square metres of ice cave, an igloo bar, rooms, dining areas and a dancefloor, above 2,000 m and reached on the Arcabulle chairlift. It is billed as the largest igloo village in the French Alps, and a look round costs two euros a head, the same for adults and children. It is rebuilt to a new theme each winter and last season's was an enchanted forest.
Under 20 euros · Arc 2000, via the Arcabulle chairlift · Their page
Electric snowmobiles for children
Purpose built children's snowmobiles on a fenced, supervised track, fifteen minutes a go, for five to sixteen year olds. Arc 2000 runs it on Place Olympique through the afternoon and into the evening. Helmets come with disposable liners, so bring your own helmet if you have one, and children need goggles and gloves of their own.
20 to 50 euros · Place Olympique, Arc 2000 · Their page
Reindeer sleighs, and walking with reindeer
Au Baudet Malin runs sleigh rides at Arc 1800. Over in Peisey-Vallandry there are three versions: a straight sleigh ride, a ride that finishes with Savoyard fondue in an alpine chalet, and a guided night snowshoe outing in the mid mountain walking alongside the reindeer, which is the one to ask about first. None of the three publishes a price.
Price on request · Arc 1800, and across Peisey-Vallandry · Their page
In the village
A pool in the middle of Arc 1800 with a grotto and a lazy river, and a cinema at Vallandry that lends out booster seats for children.
The Pool, Arc 1800
Three thousand eight hundred square metres in the heart of Arc 1800, open for both the winter and the summer season. The water side has massaging jets, a grotto, whirlpools, bubble massage beds, a lazy river, a pentagliss and a splash pad with jets for toddlers. The wellness side is two steam rooms, two saunas, a cold water bucket, a relaxation room and a herbal tea room.
Price on request · Arc 1800 · Their page
Cinema L'Eterlou, and the screen in town
A hundred and fifty seats and digital projection, with extra screenings laid on when the weather turns, which is exactly when a family wants them. Nine euros in, or seven fifty on an Essential or Premium pass, and there is a ten session card at sixty euros for a group settling in for the week. The projectionist keeps a small stack of child booster seats behind the booth and lends them out free. There is a second screen down in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, the Coeur d'Or, which publishes neither prices nor a programme.
Under 20 euros · Vallandry, Peisey-Vallandry · Their page
These are our own picks, not paid placements. Prices and opening times change, so it is always worth checking before you set off.