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We've narrowed it down to these two. Anyone been to both? All advice appreciated?
Haven't been to both. Les Arcs is good as a location and does have some excellent riding but it's mostly good as a hub imo if you have transport, there's better riding all around it. La Thuile and Pila are out of this world. So do bear that in mind
If you like natural trails Les Arcs, absolutely no contest. Deux Alpes is fun for a day or two and some of the jumpy tracks are an absolute hoot, but it gets samey and there's no shortage of braking bumps. Les Arcs has some great natural trails, and plenty of them, plus a few jumpy downhill ones.
Les Arcs with the unlifted surrounding area for me.
Have been to both, LDA kept me entertained for a day, Les arcs for a couple of weeks. LDA just doesn't have the volume of trails and those we rode weren't that great.
Cheers all. Les Arcs seems the clear favourite. Only issue is that not all the lifts are open when we are going.
If you include Alpe D'Huez in with LDH, then there is certainly enough for 1 week. The trails at ADH are more DH orientated than LA. LA and surrounding area will keep you entertained for longer, but if its just a week then its more down to your type of riding
you'll get more fun out of the non-lift accessible stuff in LA IME anyway... I've done approx 30 weeks in the valley over the past 10 years and yet to ride all that's there.
We are going end of June and ADH isn't open... We like fast jumpy runs the most but a bit of variety is always good.
If you like fast jumpy runs then les arcs may not be the thing you are looking for, there is some but its the main marked up stuff and id class it as crap by comparison to the natural trails that are there for the finding. You may want to spend a day at tignes, thats more like a trail centre, also La Thuile is awesome.
Why not drive to 2alpes one day and hit up the venosc (you will like that) and some other stuff? About 2 hrs ish each way.
Lots and lots of braking bumps at Tignes last year; they don't charge for the lifts, so the trails don't get as much maintenance...
Base yourself in Peisey rather than Les Arcs and accommodation may be cheaper. Contact Matt & Sarah at Whitebeam to see what they have on offer this summer: http://www.whitebeamchalets.co.uk/summer-accommodation/
Meribel never get a mention yet it is as close to les Arcs (BSM) as La Thuile and has some hidden gems as well as a World Cup DH track.
We did Tignes last year. I enjoyed it but I did feel the trails were a bit samey. I really fancided La Thuile but sadly it isn't open that week. I will check out Meribel though.
I have done, 2 days at L2A, 1 at each of Tignes, Les Arcs, La Thuile, Pila (and ADH though alas you say it's closed for you). Admittedly that's not loads of time in any one place, so I can't comment on what would entertain me for a whole week. Personally I liked Les Deux Alpes more than Les Arcs, for the rocky runs in the high mountain landscape above the vegetation line. Of all those listed here it's the one I'd go back to first. I did however only do built trails in Les Arcs; it's supposed to be much better if you hire a guide to show you the off piste stuff.
+1 for going to Tignes if you like fast artificial jump trails.
Thuile and Pila seemed fairly limited in terms of official trail network though I loved the enduro style run from the summit of Pila.
Another +1 for basing yourself at Les Arcs (or better in a van) and driving to visit all these places.
Meribel isn't open either but Pila is.
That's really sad to hear about Tignes. The trails aren't to my taste but whenever we've been in previous years there were always lads out with spades looking after the soil.
There will be 4 lifts open in Les Arcs during the last 2 weekends of June.
I was at Tignes in July last year and didn't think braking bumps too much of a problem, except on the trail with the wooden dropoffs that comes right into the resort. This on a 140mm 26er as well. Maybe a different time in the season?
I think the place is much maligned by the its-free-so-it-can't-be-good crowd. As a modern resort it's presumably held by a small group of landowners so they can raise trail funds from rent just as well as lift passes. Summer passes everywhere are already half the price of winter ones, all Tignes did was discount them twice as much.
Samey? Yes but so are all resorts, biking or skiing, up to a point. I noticed some really interesting all mountain riding there I didn't get a chance to do.
Anyway this is irrelevant as the OP has already been, has their own impression of it which is undeniably true to them, and quite rightly wants to explore somewhere else 🙂
Summer passes everywhere are already half the price of winter ones...
Largely because you're not paying for piste-bashing in the summer, and also supply/demand I guess...
I didn't visit tignes last year but enjoyed it the year before- it's pretty different to the other resorts in the area, tbh the feel of the place is very UK trail centre- simple, straightforward, fun riding. we went up on our rest day and it made a nice change in a week of gnarz.
On balance, yep it is worse than the others but it's still got a place imo. It's a poke of chips in a week of fine dining.
Lots and lots of braking bumps at Tignes last year; they don't charge for the lifts, so the trails don't get as much maintenance...
I'm not a huge fan of the riding at Tignes, but that's just not true.
The trails at Tignes down to Val d'isere don't have braking bumps.
What I really love is that a lot of people slate Tinges trails when they are so much like Antur stiniog in Wales but longer, Antur stiniog is used in the BDS the UK national down hill series. Tinges is not my cup of tea but fun riding and the lifts are free, the French national enduro series seem to find good stages to race there in August.
I'm not a huge fan of the riding at Tignes, but that's just not true.
It's what I was told by my contact in Peisey, but he may have been biased.
The trails at Tignes down to Val d'isere don't have braking bumps.
Yes, I rode "Into The Wild" I think it is which is largely on access tracks to the summer pastures, pretty enjoyable and semi-natural for much of its length, i.e. not manufactured for bikes. Many of the trails I rode on just weren't surfaced in the same way that UK trail centre trails are, so you're basically riding on dirt rather than a prepared surface. I didn't do anything red as I don't really indulge in artificial jumps and drops.
What I did enjoy at Tignes was the Wonderboisses trail down to Les Boisses, a fantastic flowing trail showing off French trail riding at its best.
To be honest, though, I had more fun further south. I did a couple of afternoon / evening XC loops out of Barcelonette and Apt with around 700m climbing apiece before fantastic natural wooded and/or rocky downhill payback back into the valley. Also spent a day doing Enduro uplift with Greg Germain of 1001Sentiers to get a taste of the vast library of trails that the Alpes-Maritimes have to offer. If you want proper away from it all backcounty riding on superb natural trails, that's where I'd be heading...