Any Les Arcs / La Plagne experts out there? please can I ask you some Qs?

[Inti]

we are looking to go next year and i have no idea on the different areas of the region - we have found a great chalet in Peisey but I am worried
1 - where is the children's ski school in relation to this?
2 - will there be snow on the children's ski area (it is not as high as some of the resorts in the region)

If you were skiing with 6 children aged 4 - 11 where would you base yourself in this area? We are going 30 March 2013 so we are going to this area as it is high - we are 4 adults. Once I know the village I can source a chalet.
We want to be near a lift so we can move the children and their gear easily - we also need to be near ski school
many thanks if you can help

Hi got back today! It was fab! We were in Plagne Soleil, in Grange du Soleil booked with Erna Lowe and friends were in Pierre Vacance. There are ski schools in all the La Plagne/Les Arc areas but I can highly recommend Soleil which is central. We were ski in/out, 2 mins to ski school meeting place, ski hire in the accommodation, excellent restaurants, a blue run goes thru the area so you ski down it and then up a chair to where ever else you want to go.

The ski area is huge, we skied hard while the dcs were in ski school and then again with them in the afternoons and there were still loads of areas we didn't get to. I spend the drive home working out where I would have gone today if we didn't have to come home!

We went across to Les Arcs on the amazing Vanoise Express and the skiing was lovely. You can get a pass that covers both areas or as we did, a La Plagne pass with one day in Les Arcs.

Not sure how much more to tell you but do pm me if I can be of any further help.

xx

Haven't been to Plan Peisey but have been to Les Arcs and Belle Plagne. We just came back from BP last weekend. Although the snow was fab in resort (at 2050m) Montchavin and Les Coches were not looking so great - which I believe is a similar height to Peisey.

Are you really set on Peisey for that time of year? Belle Plagne is a great resort and gives access to a huge ski area plus being higher gives a better chance of good snow coverage into early April.

In the last 5 years, we have gone to BP 4 times and Les Arcs once. We have never bothered getting the entire Paradiski pass as there is more than enough skiing to keep you busy on whichever side of the Vanoise Express you stay :)

We stayed self-catering with Mountain Crush this year in BP (having stayed with Esprit before that). We were literally on the doorstep of ski school and a perfect ski in-out location.

Peisey is fab, ski lift is a short and I mean really short walk from the chalets. The great thing about peisey his you can ski either side very easily.

Kids ski slope tends to be them going up the chair lift on the les arcs side and there are gentle greens and blues at the top.

There's no nightlife in peisey really, but I'd you like a nice chalet, great skiing etc...all fab.

Which chalets are you looking at?

I'd say Peisey is too low for sure snow at that time of year... Although I think it's still looking good this year, that's not always the case.

We ski in Les Arcs and stay in 1950 - we too tend to ski the week leading up to Easter (9 days and counting!), and the snow has always been good for us there - the thing that matters most to me is being able to ski in and out and although Peisey/Vallandry is well connected with lifts, you may have to walk to them,rather than ski -and I'm so lazy I hate that--

A live snow report from les Arcs, if it's helpful!

Great snow all the way down to 1800 but patchy down to 1600. Lifts up from 1600 are fine but skiing the back routes down are variable.

So if it's like this next year, I'd say you'll be fine basing yourself anywhere.....so long as you can get a lift up and out, you need no more.

Just off to ski over to Vallandry for the day......

Another one who would recommend Belle Plagne for kids. We have spent the last 4 years going to BP and the kids loved it. The resort is very small and virtually everything is ski in ski out (you can rent lots of very cheap apartments right on the slope so that it is literally 30 secs to ski school drop off).

We are off to 1800 next year for a change but will miss BP.

I love Plan Peisey - is it the Esprit chalets you're looking at? They're very nice. Only skiied in Jan though so no idea what the snow would be like that late.

Have taken older kids there and they've been taken straight out on the blues/greens above Peisy and then over to Les Arcs by the end of the week. I don't know where the little tots ski. But if you have a look on the Esprit website (even if not skiing with them) it will probably give you an idea of where it is.

Certainly in Jan I think that Peisey is a better location than Les Arcs or La Plagne as its more central. You can ski over to Les Arcs one day and the next take the big cable car over to La Plagne and ski that side.

Saying that I have stayed in Belle Plagne before and skiied over to Les Arcs easily, took about an hour skiing there and probably a bit quicker skiing back.