How busy is Les Arcs 2000 during Easter holiday week?

[Newmummy9]

Is anybody is Les Arcs 2000 this Easter week, 4th-11th April? I would be interested to know how busy it is as it’s first week of the school holidays and also Easter week? Any ideas? What are lift queues like and the pistes?
Thanks so much in advance

I wasn’t there this year but have been in the past at this time. I would say it was still busy ish by my standards but then I tend to avoid anywhere that majors on English and German and Dutch mass ski tourism. Generally Easter weeks arent as busy as February ones, as the French seem to holiday mostly earlier in the season. You can get a good idea of likely business by looking at proxy measures like the price of hotels or other accommodation relative to earlier peak weeks.

If you are looking for quiet slopes and plentiful accommodation, I can strongly recommend Italian resorts in Italian speaking areas of Italy (as opposed to Sudtirol). They just never seem to have those Easter crowds. Although might not be practical for driving from the UK…

Thanks for your message. Are you able to recommend any Italian resorts that would be high enough for early April skiing?

Hi, good candidates for high and snow sure would be Passo Tonale, La Thuile and Cervinia. Cervinia is the most popular out of those and there will definitely be people, but it really wasn’t very busy the Easters I have been there - not compared to French mega resorts. It is poor in bad weather though and prone to wind closures so it is useful to have a car to be able to go down to more sheltered and tree lined resorts Like Valtournenche, Torgnon, etc.

what level skiers are you and what else is important to you in a holiday resort?

We've been two years running during the Easter holidays and it wasn't very busy at all. The quietest week to go in the week after Easter, when the snow can still be fantastic, if you're lucky.

I have just realised you are talking about the second week of the Easter holidays. I think Cervinia is the obvious candidate and you could also make use of the lift pass offer to get 30% off if you stay in the linked accommodation (there is a large selection). Cervinia is open until May, and even Valtournenche (linked, quiet, really nice wide open slopes) is usually fully open until 15 April or so.

DH and DS2 have just come back from Les Arcs on Saturday (last week was the first week of the holidays for schools in our area). They stayed mostly around the Peisey-Vallandry side, as the kids were all on beginners' passes, but they've had a great time - incredible conditions for Easter and not crazy busy.

I’m unsure about this week but have skied the first week of the holidays a few times there now. Always surprised by the lack of lift queues (we have fast pass but rarely use it and when we do it’s usually of no more benefit than slightly less far to go to the barrier). We’ve been to far busier places outside of school holidays than Les arcs in the holidays.

They do a fast pass?!? I have never heard of that! Wow.

Cervinia is wonderful

Do you know what it's like at New Year and Feb half-term? Is it horribly busy?

We are intermediates. Children are on blue runs. Looking for nice wide open, cruise blues. Not fussed about nightlife but we like some nice mountain restaurants and like to be high so have less worries about snow- fun for children to go sledging etc in the evenings. Ski in/ski out also important
We did Arc 2000 this year but were able to do 28th March to 4th April, not all schools had broken up. It wasn’t too busy- rarely had to queue in a lift like. Next year Easter is 28th March so we’ll be there over Easter.

We’ve just been to a near by resort( left Sat) but skied in the Les Arcs ski area and it was fantastic- amazing snow and not too busy. I think the longest lift queue was 5 mins or a little more.

I’m in Cervinia now, it’s lovely here. It’s supposed to be a busy weekend but there’s been hardly any queues and often have a section of the slope all to myself.

I found Cervinia pretty disappointing. South facing slopes were either boiler plate or slush, old lifts and pretty boring samey runs. I haven’t been to Les Arcs but I’d take any of the other French mega resorts I’ve visited over Cervinia anyday.

I was in Les Arc 1800 last week, where the pistes were uncrowded , yet there were enough people to give the resort a lively atmosphere. I’m considering returning next Easter