We are planning our first alpine trip. For the two of us a weeks guided is just too expensive when we can use the money to have a longer (2.5-3 week) holiday. As a result we are thinking of taking the van with the tents and sorting it ourselves. We are used to using guide books etc. We know guided would be ideal but this is the only way we can really do it this year. As a result we can also be flexible. The other slight challenge is the earliest we can get there is around 19th August due to holiday allowances. Know this potentially creates some lift challenges. Initially Portes de Soleil appealed but having done some reading the more singletrack options of Les Arcs and Finale appealed. I guess I am looking for some advice as too whether this would work that late in the season or whether there are other options? We’d want to stay in the euro zone for the exchange rate (Switzerland is too expensive).

Has anyone any campsite recommendations in either areas? How far in advance do we need to book? Any other tips?

I see the lifts in Les Arcs stop at the end of August, so we’d be better to go to Finale for the second half. How easy is it to get about Finale? We did Zona Zero in Spain a couple of years ago and those sort of loops worked really well.

Advice for Alpine virgins welcome (well I have been quite a few times in family walking holidays, just not with the bikes).

Many thanks.

Check out Camping Tahiti in Finale – just 5 mins out of town, great place!

We go to Les Arcs a lot and have always fancied Finale, but it would mean an enoooooormous drive home at the end of the holiday and that’s put us off thus far – if you have a three week break available then this won’t bother you. Finale accommodation has also seemed quite pricey so I’m keen to see how this thread develops.

Back in Les Arcs I can highly recommend Le Versoyen campsite – just a few minutes ride from the funicular and across the road from the supermarche. Great location and nice clean campsite. http://www.camping-bourgsaintmaurice.com/ete/ (I will say though that it appears to have been bought by a big company since we last stayed there but I’m sure it’s still great!).

Thanks both for the campsite recommendations. Very helpful.

Agree that Finale is a bit epic but kind of decided if we are doing 985 miles to get to Les Arcs, 1145 miles home wasn’t much further….!!! Might regret that!

If you’ve got three weeks it’ll be fine – just stop somewhere on the way home!

Aye that’s what we did when we came back from Zona Zero and then we only had about 12 days. Similar sort of distance and then only had the estate car!

(I will say though that it appears to have been bought by a big company since we last stayed there but I’m sure it’s still great!).

Yes, Jean Francois retired last year. End of a very long era 😥
Lets hope it will be run be an equally friendly management team.

I wonder if the lovely Audrey is still there. We are staying in a chalet up the mountain this year instead.

What are people using for trail maps? Standard OS equivalent maps?

Yep – we use IGN maps. You can get them in Stanfords over here.

http://www.stanfords.co.uk/Cities/Arras/Maps–Atlases/France-IGN-25K-TOP25Srie-Bleue-Topographic-Survey-Maps_SI00000376.htm

I think Les Arcs is 3532.

Edit – you can also buy them in French supermarkets.

Finale is worth the little extra drive from Les Arcs, I’m down that way for the winter and there is not just Finale to ride, Molini/Sanremo/Dolceacqua/ Calizzano and the Maritime Alps is not far away.
This is one of the newer places to ride http://www.super-natural.it well I say newer but it not so well known.
Cannot help with the camping tho.
http://www.1001sentiers.fr
http://www.molinifreeride.com
http://www.mtbsanremo.it/en/

Some great links, keeping an eye on this as after two weeks with Bike Verbier we are looking at driving down to Finale for a third week. Cant wait for the camper to arrive

Les Arcs is a superb base if you’re driving- you’ve got tons of riding around you (and I’ve heard the Italian resorts stay open slightly later?) I’ve been lucky enough to have top guides, I think it could be pretty hard to get the best out of it without a bit of local knowledge- the best Les Arcs trails aren’t on the official maps frinstance, Sainte Foy I think is basically unnavigable if you don’t understand the uplift bus’s foibles… But over the hill you’ve got La Thuile and Pila which are just phenomenal. And easy to navigate too, I don’t think I’ve ridden anything there that’s not got a big arrow.

Thanks all. Those Finale links are really useful. Thanks for the La Thuile and Pila heads up.

Oh, should have said- when you look at the road times, you might think Pila isn’t worth the drive, but you would definitely be wrong. It’s almost worth driving from Scotland 😀

You’ll need to check that finale places will be open – Peak summer holiday time in Italy so half the country shuts down. You’d want uplift there for me but it’s relatively reasonable price wise – 45euros perday per person with final freeride for instance. Uplift is all vans/trailers not ski lifts.

90% of the trails in Sainte foy are on the IGN map and the better trails in Les Arcs are too you just need to look carefully as they don’t all look like they are footpaths.
Sainte foy is best with local up lifts search Sainte foy Vtt
And for free online IGN maps just zoom in on here http://m.geoportail.fr/#

Will be doing a day in Pila on our way down, it would be a shame to drive past without a couple of runs from the top down to the valley. Will also be looking for uplifts and guiding once we are down there.

Tignes isn’t far from Bourg too – probably about 30-45 mins drive when we did it the other week. The ski lifts had loads of photos of some cool looking MTB trails (I jealously thought of you guys!). Not sure when their lifts are open till, but I think they are free in the summer.

Aye, they are free in the summer.

Great, thank you all very much. Maybe it is worth a few days in Les Arcs, a few days in Pila and then a few days in Finale (if it is open), we are pretty used to breaking camp. We could do a day trip to Tignes. Sounds like even without a guide we arent going to get bored!

Getting excited now (we have Afan, BPW and the Quantocks first in April – its looking like a good year!).

Just had a peek – Tahiti in Finale definitely is open.

Home

Skip tignes…. It’s free and so is Val D’isere and while the trails are improving you’ll be disappointed compared to the other places on the list.

I enjoyed Tignes, it’s not a patch on the other venues around there in terms of quality but it’s different enough to still work I think. I reckon it’s much more like a UK trail centre in feel, with its simpler trail system and the way the trails are built (no transferring from lift to lift or planning how to get around the mountain like at arcs). Se we had a nice brain-out easy day there which gave a nice variety from a week of harder guided stuff.

Lake jump is good for a laugh

Definitely worth hitting Pila and La Thuile, we’re spending a few days in Pila, we wanted to try Finale Ligure but the thought of the long drive home is too much in a 40 year old car.

Obligitory video of Pila
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obOZd9uS48k[/video]

We did a great back country ride with trail addiction opposite tignes the other year.probably my favorite ever day in the saddle.

Two vert different places, Finale will be a nightmare in the main town as most of Italy closes and heads to the coast for their month holiday…. Even we close in August (we run Rivierabike in Molini). There are shuttle companies in finale that may be open, but most close in August.

I would head off to Les Arcs, some amazing stuff in and around there, aalso good if you are DIY you can take advantage of the lifts and not rely on shuttles..

Finale will be a nightmare in the main town as most of Italy closes and heads to the coast for their month holiday…. Even we close in August (we run Rivierabike in Molini). There are shuttle companies in finale that may be open, but most close in August.

Hummmm ok. Thanks nasher – sounds very useful advice. The Les Arcs lifts shut at the end of August, but the Pila lifts continue till 7th Sept (we need to start heading home by the end of that week anyway). Maybe best to leave Finale for another time.

Thanks for the video Milkie – nice one! Assume full face not compulsory (depending on what you ride of course!)?

How does Pila compare to La Thuile? I did the EWS stages at La Thuile last year (not the actual race, the stages were still taped out the week afterwards) and they were brilliant! An amazing combo of fast and flowy yet interspersed with tight techy steep stuff 😉

Quite different- I reckon La Thuile’s the better venue, once you’re in the woods it’s just ridiculously good, I could spend days there. Quite a bit of Pila’s bike park I thought was just dull, and not really very well done, though that’s pretty harsh as there is still some very good stuff.

But then Pila has the best trail I’ve ever ridden, down to Aosta. Properly hallucinogenically good. Once I’d ridden it once I just sacked off the upper chairlift entirely and did lap after lap of that one, different options every time.

Have to agree the best part of Pila is the Aosta run, don’t think I took the same bits all day. The top part is like any other bike park.

Up top Alex took me off down some daft rooty megaleithen thing, while everyone else was pissing about on the blues 😆 That was good, I’d totally ride those again. But the EPIC BRAKING BUMPS at the end of the upper runs, aargh.

Pila has 3 sections which most folk dont realise, get off the second lift, turn right and roll down the fire road for a couple of miles and you pick up a other lift that takes you all the way to the top where you will find a super death ridge. This gives one hell of a descent a d misses out the mid section in the woods picking up the Aosta run in the village.

There’s more in pila, hard to find though, but on the other side of the road up the hill.

La thuile is superb, don’t bother with Tignes or Val D’Isere. You can also ride from the top of the col du petit Saint Bernard down into la thuile and also from above la rosiere back to bourg.

HEIDI is a cracking ride, from the highest road col in Europe, the col D’Isere back to bourg. That really needs at least one uplift, two ideally.

Also riding over to bozel in the tarentaise valley via la plagne then dropping down to Moutiers for the train back is a good day out.

That’s before you hit up all that les arcs has to offer!

Half the fun is in the planning. If you just turn up without doing any homework you will enjoy yourself, do your homework and it becomes something else. If you have never been just stick to local trails, pila, la thuile and maybe la plagne. That will keep you busy and give you a feel for the place so when you study the map for the following year it will all make sense and come alive!

Enjoy

Wow…thanks bland (your user name doenst do you justice 😛 ) – especially writing all that at 6.30 am! More than happy to spend a few months planning (I’m an academic, I cant help myself!). Sounds like we have lots to go at.

Do people think it is worth hiring a guide for a day in Les Arcs? If so, do the likes of Whiteroom etc do that, or do we need to look elsewhere? Cheers.

I will be in Pila from the 29th August for a few days, staying at Hotel Chacaril right next to the Pila Chamole lift. If you see us, give us a shout. 😉

The Couis Lift that takes you to the ridge run is closed from the 25th August. 😐

La Thuile – Steep singletrack
Pila – Fast flowy bermy jumpy trails

I wouldn’t bother with Tignes, so much better riding around there. A guide would be a very good idea if you want some awesome Singletrack.

Steveo from white rooms will be able to hook you up with a guide on a wed or Friday no doubt, we did Heidi with him a few yrs back on a wed. Trail addiction don’t leave the les arcs are so you could have a fun day with them but a lot can be found on maps, some you won’t find but they tend to steer clear if the really tech stuff. Best chat to folk in the campsite or a bar in town and go with a map and highlighter in hand.

Thanks, might drop them a note. Not looking for super tech, just lots of fun singletrack. Sounds like that isnt going to be a problem. Sounds like a plan is forming (and welcome distraction for a long Friday).

Damn to that lift shutting (thanks for the link Milkie – that was for 2013, it closes on the 24th this year 🙁 )