The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
‘It would be impossible for even the best skiers to tire of this place’
A British-run operator has brought a new sense of luxury to package-holiday favourite Les Arcs in France, says Abigail Butcher
Snow takes on a different quality at 2,000 metres (6,500ft): it is colder, dryer and more plentiful. It is guaranteed even as the season wears on, when sunny days turn snow at lower altitudes to ice and slush.
Stepping out of my ski-in/ski-out hotel in Arc 1950, part of the vast Paradiski area in the Tarentaise Valley, I barely had time to register my surroundings before instructor Fabrice from Ecole de Ski Français (ESF) urged, “OK, let’s go” and pushed off, eager to make the most of the day.
Lift after lift, we wove our way from Arc 1950 on one side of the ski area to Arc 1600 on the other, finding fresh tracks between the pistes in light, billowy powder. Sometimes we would dip on to the wide, corduroy pistes for a couple of turns before zipping off to ski deftly between trees, whose boughs heaved under the weight of the previous week’s snowfalls. Fabrice kept finding the goods, never once stopping for a breather or a coffee, eager to get on the next lift and do another run.
I’d never before been drawn to ski Les Arcs. It’s a longer transfer from Geneva than some other resorts (three to four hours) and without any proper research I’d assumed it was a series of featureless satellite villages with modern, concrete apartment blocks – the utilitarian accommodation that sprung up all over the French Alps during the 1960s and 1970s. I thought the vast 425km (264 miles) Paradiski area shared between Les Arcs and neighbouring La Plagne would be too big, busy and full of lengthy lift queues.
Needless to say, I was wrong – and bringing an entirely new, and luxurious, tone to the area is the attractive wood-and-stone Bear Lodge from British-run operator VIP Ski, which sits happily beside the blue Baptiste Giabiconi piste in Arc 1950.
Initially conceived seven years ago, this chalet-cum-hotel is the first property VIP Ski has built from scratch, using every bit of owner Andy Sturt’s 30 years’ experience running catered chalets in the Alps. With 30 hotel rooms and 12 fully catered chalets, which sleep families and groups of up to 14 people, every taste and option is covered. There’s a dining room (the hotel is full chalet board, including afternoon tea and three-course evening meals seven days a week), as well as a bar, cinema room, gym and wellness centre and children’s play areas that are open to all residents. beds that are configured as twins or super kings, most with heavenly, comfortable mattresses and quality white linen. Bathrooms are functional but also built around space – some have tubs, others rainwater showers.
It’s quite a comeback for the company that declared itself bankrupt in autumn 2020; the most high-profile ski industry crash of the Covid pandemic. Sturt says the support and encouragement of long-time customers and friends were key to his decision to start again – brushing off any suggestion that the “brutal” process was anything other than a “horror story”.
Sturt is continuing with a “leaner and keener” team, having halved VIP Ski’s offering and put the main focus on high, ski-in/ski-out resorts.
Bear Lodge is the flagship, a beacon of light for the company – and this area. While the British and French have at times enjoyed a rather fractious relationship in the Alps, Arc 1950 is delighted with the arrival of VIP. The village was built by the now defunct US developer Intrawest, and retains a distinctly North American vibe – small and perfectly formed but, until now, with only self-catering apartment accommodation.
We skied through lunch then stopped with tired legs for an afternoon feast at the Folie Douce
Bear Lodge is a game changer, boosting Arc 1950’s 3,000 beds by an extra 200 and pulling in extra revenue for the area. VIP has an agreement with the local ESF, which will provide tuition for guests, along with a free twice-weekly tour of the area guided by a ski instructor.
But it’s not just Bear Lodge that is transforming the resort. Peisey-Vallandry, the lowest of Les Arcs satellites, has a spanking new 10-seater gondola, speeding the journey from the village to 2,138m in just six minutes – and opening up Les Arcs’ new step-by-step progression area reserved entirely for beginners without the pressure of others around.
The Paradiski area is huge, and dramatic. Linked to La Plagne in 2003 by the Vanoise Express, it would be impossible for even good skiers staying in Les Arcs to get bored here. After a long morning of ripping around the slopes, we skied through lunch (always a good ploy) before stopping with tired legs for an early afternoon feast at the Folie Douce above Arc 1800, finishing up with 10 minutes of energetic skiboot dancing before catching the last lift home to the luxury of Bear Lodge.
The French government has been jumpy about letting Brits back in to the mountains, but with testing for the fully vaccinated a thing of the past and the days getting longer and sunnier, it’s time to head to the slopes once more.
Seven nights with VIP Ski (0330 041 5964; vip-chalets.com) at Bear Lodge costs £1,129pp with two sharing. Price excludes flights and transfers but VIP offers three free transfers every Sunday from Geneva Airport. Flights cost from £23 one-way with easyJet (easyjet.com)
Covid rules All arrivals over 12 must present proof of full vaccination and complete a “sworn statement” (déclaration sur l’honneur) saying they are symptom-free. Unvaccinated children aged 12 to 17 may enter in the company of vaccinated adults with a negative test (LFT 48 hours before or PCR 72 hours before) and a declaration form