Had a brilliant biking holiday based in Bourg St Maurice last year and we are looking for somewhere different to go this year. I know there are stacks of MTB parks all over Europe but we particularly liked the off piste stuff at Les Arcs and the naturalness of La Thuile and the fact that it was all lift serviced.

What other locations are there that have most of the below and/or are similar to Les Arcs
* Great lift serviced off piste (I spent all year pedalling up hills, so on holiday I want to get a lift up!)
* A good base town/village to camp at
* Other resorts/areas near by

Cheers

Last year did Bourg, la Thuile, Aosta/Pila, livigno, St moritz, lenzerheide.

Bourg remains an amazing option. La Thuile is on my list of unfinished business because I arrived there with a broken bike and working through getting the replacement bike set up robbed my confidence when I needed it most on challenging terrain.

Aosta has a good bunch of people running van uplift as well as the pila bike park. The bike park is limited (very good for what it is) by being just a park off one lift. However the return run to Aosta was amazing – think of it as an interweaving set of Black 8 alternatives but half as long again.

Livigno has an exceptional park using a lot of the mountain. Did some big days but again a mix of van and pedal power for the off piste.

St moritz is a fake biking destination. Some of the big mountain routes are amazing but they are ten to fifteen years behind and the prices (single espresso 4.5chf) are a bad joke.

Lenzerheide has a deal with neighbouring Arosa and Chur. You can get a day pass for an 80km loop using 10 lifts but it is a pretty prescribed route and less off piste than you might hope for. Still brilliant and a fave from the trip. Also you get to share Strava leaderboards with Nino Schurter, and the odd Wildhaber.

For absolute best weeks on the bike, guided hols have always been best for me. Trail addiction, as was both in Bourg and Beaufort. Slovenia a few years back was amazing either with Bike Nomad (ews hosts) or Jon in Luce.

Going to big mountains and having lift system access to interlinked off piste is tough to do without tapping into local knowledge IME. Bourg Les Arcs has the benefit of operators having been active there for many years and the park has a good approach without being a PDS-alike refuge for the gnar-bro park rats.

Tignes for a day was a dust fest and the trail system felt under maintained but I’ve got a mate who keeps an apartment there who loves it. The lift pass system was a bureaucratic joke wasting hours for no reason like they didn’t want visitors to have a good time.

La Thuile is one of my favourite places to ride. Hand shaped trails. None of these silly big jumps shaped with a digger.

Not many places that can compare in the Austrian /Italian alps.

Someone might come along and recommend Saalbach, but they’re wrong.

Canazei and Alta Badia is fun. Big mountains. Big network of trails with a good mix of natural and shaped.

Kronplatz in South Tirol is fun, but only for a weekend. Also three main trails and a different lift for each is a bit of a pain.

Lake Garda is almost 100% natural, but it’s either pedal up or shuttle.

Finale is kinda similar to La Thuile, but again, no cable cars. Pedal or shuttle. But it’s **** good.

Beaufort is great. Amazing big mountain scenery, Lovely village and some great riding. Not much bike park – just a few of those trails. But some great natural singletrack which is easy to find as you can pick up a bike map from the local tourist information and the trails are all marked (mainly the whole way down to the bottom! ). The only issue is that the natural trails (non bike-park) are bus shuttles and you can spend 45 mins-1hr to get to the top of the hill so its gard to link them together but the descents are long and the buses are free (or just a few €€€).

Alpin

Whats wrong with Saalbach? Its on our shortlist for this summer so interested to hear why you didnt like it

Have a look at cervina in Italy, it’s not far from Aosta so could be linked with Pila and La Thuile and there’s definitely a couple of days riding there. A mix of lift assisted DH style trails and big long lift assisted all mountain trails, similar to the natural trails around bourg. Not great in early season if there has been a lot of winter snow as it’s slow to melt. It can be linked up with the mtb trails in zermatt but don’t miss the last cable car to the top as it’s a very expensive taxi back. Always very quiet though getting busier now the maxiavalanche is becoming more popular. Also Italy is a bit like France so you can ride on the footpaths with no issues.

Will keep an eye on this.

We’re heading to PDS at the end of August, could easily pop through the tunnel in to Italy 🙂

Alpin

Whats wrong with Saalbach? Its on our shortlist for this summer so interested to hear why you didnt like it

Alpine is correct. Saalbach is poor compared to other places for mtb

Basically about 8 plummet routes and 500km of fire road hell.

Search my posting history if you can be bothered.

As the General says…

One trail that stands out is the Hackelberg, but that invoices a silly steep push of ~150 vertical metres. It does however mean that it’s not crowded.

Aside from that there are a handful of dedicated bike trails. Enough fun for a day or two, but kinda limited. Pretty much a separate lift for each trail so not that easy to link everything up.

It says on their website that there are hundreds of km of bike routes. However,
German and Austrian authorities are still stuck with an idea that Mountainbiking is xc bikes riding up silly steep climbs on forestry roads and back down the way you rode up.

On top of that, the joker card no longer covers all the lifts. So you’ll have to buy your lift ticket on top of the joker card. A day ticket now costs 44€.

La Thuile we paid 21€. There is a shed load more riding from just one lift than in the whole of Saalbach. Plus the food and coffee is better (and cheaper!) and Italians are generally nicer and more laid back than Austrians. Also more places to park the van for the night than in Saalbach (essentially zero).

I live in Munich and not one of our group bother with Saalbach.

As much as I get wound up when in Switzerland because of the prices (27€ for a shitty pizza last week in Davos…!) they are quite clued up and easy going when it comes to biking.

A friend often goes to Davos in summer for a long weekend. 60F (about 58€) for hotel with breakfast including lift tickets.

Big mountain riding.

Reschensee is worth a long weekend. Again, big mountain riding with lifts. Not really bike park style.

Lots of places to park up. Worth doing if you’re doing an alpine road trip.

Thanks for the info alpin

Plus one for Beaufort- trail addictions destination x if you remember that!

I went with them and it was sodding fantastic. Natural trails with rock tech sections and switchbacks all over the place. Also did and overnight at a refuge which was incredible. A couple of the ex trail addiction guides look to have set themselves up round there

Riding life

alpin,

What lifts are no longer covered on the Joker card in Saalbach? Was there last summer and other than the change due to a lift being rebuilt the same lifts were included?

La Thuile is the best single place I’ve ever ridden, it’s MEGAINNERLEITHEN basically. And Pila has the best trail I’ve ever ridden. Those 2 things make me want to go back to the aosta valley and I’m sure there’s tons more (not to mention that both times I’ve gone over there, we’ve been living near Bourg so all those options are open too)

Molini shuttles, not ski lifts, but some of the best natural and hand cut trails you will ever ride

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