Paradiski Ski Guide: Les Arcs, La Plagne, Vanoise Express

Paradiski is two big resorts -- Les Arcs and La Plagne, plus Peisey-Vallandry in the middle -- stitched into a single 425 km ski area by one cable car. That cable car, the Vanoise Express, is the whole proposition. When it runs you have one of the largest linked domains in France on a single pass. When it stops, you have two very good but separate resorts that happen to share a lift ticket. Understanding that distinction is the first thing to get right about a Paradiski trip.

How the link actually works

The Vanoise Express spans the Ponthurin valley between the Plan-Peisey side of Les Arcs and the Montchavin-Les Coches side of La Plagne. It is a genuine piece of engineering: two double-decker cabins, 200 people each, crossing more than 1,800 m of cable with no support tower in the middle, at around 45 km/h. The trip takes under four minutes. It opened in December 2003, so the two resorts have only been "one" area for a bit over twenty years, which is worth remembering when older guidebooks treat them separately.

Here is the catch nobody puts on the poster. The Vanoise Express is the only way across on skis. There is no piste link, no chain of chairlifts around the valley head. If high wind shuts the cable car -- and it does close in serious weather -- you are staying on whichever side you woke up on. So do not book a hotel in La Plagne on the strength of a lift you plan to ride to Les Arcs every day, and check the morning status before you commit to crossing, because you also have to get the last cabin home.

Even when it runs, the far side is a long way away. From deep in one resort to deep in the other is a real cross-country push, not a casual afternoon jaunt.

Skiing across in a day

You can ski from one resort to the other and back, and it is one of the best day-trips in the Alps, but treat it as an expedition rather than a stroll. The workable version: start early, aim to be riding the Vanoise Express by mid-morning, spend the core of the day exploring the far resort's marquee terrain, and start your return with plenty of margin -- an hour before the last connecting lifts, not five minutes. Both resorts are large in their own right, so the temptation is to over-reach and then find yourself sprinting for the final cabin as the light goes flat.

If your base is on the Les Arcs side, Plan-Peisey and Vallandry put you closest to the crossing. From La Plagne, it is Montchavin and Les Coches. Staying near the link cuts a good chunk off the round trip and is the single biggest lever on whether the cross-resort day feels relaxed or frantic.

La Plagne: a constellation, not a village

La Plagne is not one place. It is eleven, spread across a broad high basin, and the character of your holiday depends heavily on which one you pick.

The high, snow-sure, purpose-built cluster sits up top: Plagne Centre at around 1,970 m, Belle Plagne at roughly 2,050 m, Plagne Soleil, Plagne Villages, and the unmistakable Aime 2000 -- a single monolithic 1970s megastructure at about 2,100 m that people either love for its ski-in ski-out convenience or find frankly brutalist. These are the reliable-snow, roll-out-of-bed-onto-a-piste options, and they are why La Plagne is such an easy sell for families who do not want to think about buses.

Lower down sit the traditional villages: Montchavin, Montalbert, Champagny-en-Vanoise and Plagne 1800. They are prettier, more sheltered, better for a wood-fire-and-real-village feel, and warmer in late season -- but the snow on the links up to the main bowl is the first to suffer in a thin year. It is the classic altitude trade: charm low down, certainty up high.

La Plagne's terrain is famously gentle and huge, a rolling playground of blues that connect for miles, which is exactly why intermediates and cautious families thrive here. The counterweight is the Bellecôte glacier, reachable by a cable car that climbs toward 3,000 m and gives the resort a proper high-altitude top and a long, serious descent for stronger skiers. The glacier does not always open on demand -- it is weather- and wind-sensitive -- so do not build the week around it, but on a clear day it is the best skiing La Plagne owns.

Les Arcs: villages numbered by height

Les Arcs names its villages after their altitude in metres, which is the most useful naming convention in the Alps once you know it. Arc 1600 sits in the trees and is the one the funicular reaches; Arc 1800 is the biggest and liveliest, with the most lodging and the most après; Arc 1950 is the newest, a smart pedestrian village built to look the part; and Arc 2000 is the highest, plainest and closest to the serious terrain. The number tells you the snow reliability and roughly the atmosphere in one figure.

The reason strong skiers come to Les Arcs is the Aiguille Rouge. The cable car tops out at 3,226 m, and from there you can drop all the way to the hamlet of Villaroger far below -- close to 2,000 m of vertical in one continuous descent, one of the biggest lift-served drops in the Alps. It takes a competent skier a solid half hour, it thins out from wide open snowfields to woodland paths at the bottom, and it is genuinely one of the great runs in France. Les Arcs also has a deserved reputation for accessible off-piste and a steeper, more committing feel than its neighbour. For the full picture, the dedicated Les Arcs resort guide goes deeper on sectors, lifts and where to stay within each numbered village.

Why it works for families and mixed groups

Paradiski is one of the strongest picks in the Alps for a group that does not all ski the same. The logic is simple: La Plagne supplies the gentle, sprawling, confidence-building blue terrain and the ski-in ski-out convenience that keeps small children and nervous beginners happy, while Les Arcs supplies the Aiguille Rouge, the off-piste and the vertical that keeps the experts from getting bored. You do not have to compromise on one resort's weakness because the pass covers both.

Within a single day you can split at breakfast -- beginners to the nursery slopes and green runs, experts to the steeps -- and still regroup for lunch, because both resorts have enough terrain that nobody has to travel far to find their level. That is a harder trick than it sounds, and plenty of "famous" resorts fail it. If family suitability is your main filter, our best family ski resorts in the Alps guide puts Paradiski in context against the other contenders.

The honest caveat: the two halves are far apart, so a family based on one side treats the other as an occasional big day out, not a daily commute. Pick your base for the resort you will actually ski most.

Getting there by train

This is where Paradiski quietly wins. TGV runs to Bourg-Saint-Maurice at the foot of the valley, and in winter the direct Eurostar from London reaches the same station. From the platform, a funicular railway -- renovated in 2019 -- climbs to Arc 1600 in about seven minutes, so you can go from a London terminal to a Les Arcs lift base without ever touching a car or a transfer coach. For La Plagne, Bourg-Saint-Maurice is also the rail arrival point, with a bus transfer up to the villages.

Neither Peisey nor Bourg-Saint-Maurice is a resort in its own right on this site, but both matter to the logistics, and the funicular in particular makes Les Arcs one of the most car-free-friendly major resorts in the Alps. If you are weighing up the whole rail approach, the ski trip by train guide covers the routes and the trade-offs.

Where to stay

For most people, the choice is not "Les Arcs or La Plagne" in the abstract -- it is which village, and how much you value snow reliability against charm.

On the La Plagne side, Belle Plagne and Plagne Soleil are the sweet spot for families: high enough for reliable snow, genuinely ski-in ski-out, and quieter than Plagne Centre. Aime 2000 is the maximum-convenience, minimum-charm option -- you ski from the door but you sleep in a concrete liner. Montchavin and Les Coches are the picks if you want a warmer, more village-like base and easy access to the Vanoise Express, at the cost of lower-altitude snow. Champagny is the prettiest and the most tucked-away.

On the Les Arcs side, let the number guide you: 1800 for life and lodging choice, 1950 for polish, 2000 for the fastest access to the Aiguille Rouge, 1600 for trees and the funicular. Whichever resort you choose, base yourself near the Vanoise Express only if crossing to the other half is a real priority -- otherwise base for your home mountain and treat the far side as a bonus.

If Paradiski is the wrong shape

Paradiski sits in the Tarentaise valley, which packs more world-class skiing into one drive than anywhere on earth, so the alternatives are close and the comparison is worth making. If you want higher, snow-surer and more relentlessly steep, Tignes and Val d'Isère up the valley trade Paradiski's family-friendliness for altitude and attitude. If you want the biggest linked domain of all, the Three Valleys is next door.

The short version: Paradiski is the pick when your group's abilities are all over the map and you want gentle blues and a monster vertical on the same pass. It is a weaker pick if everyone in your party charges hard, in which case the higher, steeper neighbours will suit you better. Check the Vanoise Express is running before you plan a cross-resort day, and base yourself for the resort you will actually ski.