After our returning from our second trip to Les Gets / Morzine…. Already thinking about 2010

Fancying somewhere a bit different so Les Arcs is up for discussion

Anyone been to both and able to comment on the benefits / pitfalls of either regarding riding

I've been to Les Arcs twice now over summer and whilst it is great for XC, it's not so good for DH. My fairer half preferred it and found there were more routes she could enjoyably handle. Les Arcs only has one competition DH track and fun as it is, there's only so many times in a month I could ride it! As Les Arcs is comprised of stations it can also be a little soulless compared to Morzine and to a lesser extent Les Gets. If you want more authentic village/town life stay at Bourg St Maurice at the bottom of the hill (there's a "funiculaire" which takes you up to the lower 1600 station and from there you can get lifts). It's also cheaper and you can return en velo anyhow. I had a great time as I was working (writing academic stuff) as well as biking so I worked evenings and rode daytime so the nightlife was not so much of an issue, although food was expensive in the 1800 station supermarket. Super U in BSM is your friend!

Morzine + : Better nightlife, more DH trails
Morzine – : Crowds, braking bumps, mud, mud, mud

Les Arcs +: Endless singletrack, empty trails. No mud, ever!
Les Arcs -: Night life poor in Les Arcs, good in BSM.

Looking at the wider Tarentaise rather than just Les Arcs (hire a car or stay with us!) the riding is just limitless. Having Tignes just up the valley adds a whole lot more DH style riding. Sainte Foy and La Thuile in Italy add loads of brilliant, empty singletrack plus there's loads more riding which is way outside the resorts.

For me, Les Arcs every time. Far fewer DH tracks, so a lot quieter than Morzine, but there's endless top notch supertechnical singletrack, which is exactly my cup of tea.

Nightlife isn't high on my agenda, – a quiet village pub is all I need, so I can't comment too much there, but we had a lot of fun with the Trailaddiction guys last year, so are going back out again next month.

Les Arcs for me too.
Endless amazing singletrack, quiet trails, no huge packs of Brit DHer's shouting about how rad they are.
Still got ski lift access to a lot of the trails.

I've been out there with Bike Village who were excellent, Trail addiciton also operate in more or less the same area.

Courchevel – not geared up for full on DH scene yet – but mile upon mile of sweet singletrack accessed via free bus uplifts and massive ski lift system. You get the hill to yourself and brake bumps are non-existent.

Nightlife-wise there wasn't as much as choice but how many pubs full of othr bikrs do you want to spend your time in? And it was cheaper that Morzine for booze.

Thing about Morzine, once you're 10 minutes off the Super or Pleney, and away from the DH runs, you effectively have the trails to yourself anyway, certainly I've never found the more off piste parts of the PDS massively crowded.

be nice to try a different resort though

I think Morzine is awesome! I have been there for 6 or 7 (forgotten now!) years in a row and bar 1 year of rain we have had briliant and fantastic weather each year, hence not had much problem with rain. Yes there are breaking bumps but then the guys are out and about digging up the trail getting rid of the breaking bumps great!

I have never had a problem with over crowding on the trails either, there are just some awesome trails there. The XC is there as well if you want you don't necessarily have to ride pure DH all week.

Loads of awesome chalets, the fantastic 50 metre swimming pool. Nightlife isn't high on my agenda either but I just love the atmosphere of Morzine and the restaurants.

Not been to Les Arcs though so couldn't comment.

If you are finding Morzine a bit stale take some time to look at some if the posts on http://www.ridemorzine.org, it's mostly XC/AM riding, some of the rides are the "old favorites" but a fair number are well away from the crowds, earlier this week we did this ride http://www.ridemorzine.org/2009/07/les-grandes-platieres-from-morzine/ which definitely counts as "out there".

Can certainly vouch for Stevomcd above. We (8 of us) stayed with him just a few weeks ago and had an awesome time.

Anyone tried to play Scrabble yet Steve?