[Closed] Stringing together French Alps resorts?

the 3 valley's area around courcheval and la tania is a fantastic area for riding.
on a long day out you can ride over to the la plange area in the tarantaise valley, which is also a good riding area, then the les arcs area is available without too much fuss, and then the area around tignes.

plenty of riding for a few weeks i reckon.

That's interesting beta Ton. I know a guy who ran a trip to La Tania years ago - apparently it was very good.

How did you find your way around, Courchevel in particular - were you just freestyling it or did you have a guidebook (even just a walkers' guidebook), a local or a guide?

My only advice to the OP is to be wary of biting off more than you can chew - make your plan and reduce it by a third. Just because you *can* fit in another trail in a day, doesn't mean you necessarily should - that's when ribs get broken...

Oh balls, what am I saying. Bite off more than you can chew, get totally out of your depth and then post pics of the whole thing here.

I don't know about the area you write about but there are many options for routes linking Morzine, Les Gets, Samoens, Sixt fer a Cheval, Flaine, Chamonix, Verbier and (probably via the tunnel) Courmayeur...you could do a huge loop connecting some of these places with your bike and a tent or something...lots of hiking though.
Cheers

The resorts you want to go to are pretty much all ace but I think for two weeks without your own transport it would be too much, you will spend too many days travelling. Better to stick to one area possibly.

You could ride for two weeks in Deuz alpes/Vaujany/Alp d'huez/Os en Oisans and if you got bored head back towards Grenoble and do a few days round Les 7 Laux and Chamrousse (close to the city)

You could go to the Tarentaise and ride Tigne/3 Vallees/Les arc (bit of a drag from grenoble though but there is a train to Bourg st Maurice at least). Tigne has free lifts so thats a winner 🙂

Alternatively you could fly to Turin and do the alpi bike parks (Sestriere/Bardonecchia/Sauze D'Olx and Montgenevre. There is a train from Turin to Bardonecchia for sure.

There is likely to be buses from bourg d'oisans to Briancon but I am not sure if they take bikes. And then you will need to get from Briancon to Montgenevre which is another 15k or so.

Edit: If it was me, I wouldnt do that road trip without my own transport.

jhw, 1st time i went, i bought the top25 maps and strung a few loops together off there. the gr paths tend to be quite wide tho.
we went again and got a guide, and this was fantastic, no time waisted looking for trails.
the last time i went, me and my son got the wife to drop us off at belle plagne, and we made our way back to courcheval (well below it realy). it was a long day out, but the riding was very nice.

I know this link is for Italy, but it may give you some ideas.
http://www.summitdown.com/

Thanks for the input guys lots of possibilities to explore there, there seems to be a correlation between the hardest resorts to get to and them being the hidden gems! I'm from manchester and it looks like theres no flights to Grenoble from Manchester, you have to fly from Liverpool and similarly Turin, theres only flights from Gatwick.

@Ianv thanks for your thoughts, my idea was to cram in a lot as you don't know when you'll be back. Looks as though a tough decision has to be made between Deuz alpes/Vaujany/Alp d'huez/Os en Oisans and Sestriere/Bardonecchia/Sauze D'Olx and Montgenevre.

Is there much to be said for easing yourself into the difficulty of the resorts. I'm by no means a novice but being used to riding the Peaks,Glentress and Innerleithen level stuff, is it wise to hit Alp Huez day one!? Sauze D'Oulx sounds like a fun place to ride without getting super tech straight away.

From what you say I would do the Deux alpes/Alp d'huez option. Head first to Venosc (easier to get to than deux alpes but there is a lift up to the resort) and camp there for a bit. Ride deux alpes, there are loads of easier (but good) runs to get started on. Then head to Vaujany (easiest of the other resorts to get to but with linked to Oz by a cable car and you can ride over and back to/from alp d'huez). The lift pass is for all 3 resorts so you can move around as you wish.

On the way back to Grenoble you can check out the others.

One thought though, 9-11th July is the Mondiale du Vtt at deuz alpes and I think the mega is the weekend before. They will be busy.

Alp D'Huez isn't particularly tech / difficult, none of the main French bike parks are. There's some big (optional) stuff at a few of the bike parks but there's nowhere I can think of that doesn't have a few straightforward easy trails.

I've done a trip doing a week at Alp D'Huez for the Mega and then a week of touring around some other places. It's quite possible to do a day's riding then move on to the next resort. That way you can ride some of the smaller resorts which are less popular / braking-bumped/rutted like Portes Du Soleil is. If you stay for a week in one place you're kind of obliged to go to one of the bigger resorts which are OK but perhaps not as exciting. Portes Du Soleil in particular is quite dull - a few decent DH trails and a lot of long motorways with horrendous braking bumps.

I make it sound like PDS is a waste of time. It's not at all. Compare the current conditions in the Peak to dry dusty trails with chairlifts in the sun. Ahhhh

GRG - I did a similar trip in 2010 but over 3 weeks and with transport. Difference was we extended from Sauze D'Olx and drove past Turin to Lake Garda (amazing riding, and scenary, but a long, hot drive). Also took in Chamonix for 4 days.

So your plan isnt impossible, but without transport that makes it harder.

I liked Sauze D'Olx and the Italian riding scene (aka long lunches with sunbathing and BBQs). It was mostly in the tree line, but not necessarily any easier than the other resorts. I would second Venosc as a good starting point. It's near Grenoble, cheap campsite and "easy" blue runs up in the resort. 5 minute pedal to the lift in Venosc and an amazing final black run to the village at the end of the day. Good via ferrata route too if you like that sort of thing.

We did Valloire on route between Venosc and Les Arcs, doable in a day

If you're just riding the waymarked ski-runs, then a day or two at most resorts is enough I reckon, but it's obviously worth exploring more. Personally, I wouldnt miss Chamonix on a trip to that area.

If you're looking at distances on the map, and estimating drive times, be prepared to add 50% for the narrows roads and passes on most journeys. But the drives over the Cols are part of the trip, enjoy them.

We're going for 6 weeks this year, cant wait!

@ianv Thanks for the info really useful. Again I think i've underestimated the distance you can cover on the cable car network. That site is helpful for the piste maps. Completely forgot about events at the resorts. Just checked and theres quite a lot going on in July found this - "the new dh1 pro series kicks off in alpe d’huez on the 7th july before transfering over to Les Deux Alpes on the 10th july. Then over the wekend of the 14th and 15th of july we have the Mountain of hell in les deux alpes followed by the megavalanche week back in alpe d’huez ending on the 22nd july. "

As much as I like to see the pro's fly down, do these events limit the riding you can actually do yourself?

@Superficial Yeah I've done my research for this trip using Rowan Sorrells book called Mountain Biking Europe. He seems to think PDS is the European mecca for riders but that has the drawbacks of hordes of riders doing it! I'm not really bothered about nightlife or the like just decent riding.

@agentdagnamit Dam 6 weeks yeah thats the way to do it! Reading your post I'm thinking it might be worth stumping up for a hire car. Lake Garda does look immense by all accounts. Cheers for your thoughts.

Dh1 series has been pulled I think.

Deffo rent a car if you can, it would make everything easier and let you ride all the resorts you wanted and more.

At Alpe D'Huez you can get a bus up to Oz from Allemont at 700m. That should save some laden climbing.

A car is a huge plus for this sort of trip, without one doing more than 3 or 4 places is likely to become a chore. I'm planning a "grand alps tour" this year but I'll be driving out. I'm mixing a couple of week long bike holidays with a few other highlights in between. If you have a car you can stay in one place and day trip to other resorts, just needs a little planing.

The one thing I'd say is that the Swiss railway network is fantastic with services direct to many resorts and an efficient bus service to link things up. For example you can get a train direct to town below Verbier, mountain railways to places like Zermatt and Davos. STW started a "swiss road trip" in Arosa where lifts are free and there are some trails which link up with mountain railway or trails to Lenzerheide (has a good mtb setup) to Davos. Possibly budget wise you may find it a little expensive and it isn't as known to Brits, depends whether you think that's a problem. I'd also give another massive thumbs up to Lake Garda.

If you're just doing days in a resort there are a few which you can take cheeky Telepheriqes up the hill and save an hour of driving each way. E.g. Bourg-St-Mauritz is directly under Les Arc 1800, and there's a similar setup for Verbier.