La Plagne Ski Resort France
La Plagne is one of several mega ski resorts in the Tarentaise valley, France. One of the most popular ski resorts in the world (based on visitor numbers), La Plagne has broad appeal for most lovers of skiing & snowboarding on endless piste trails. Linked to Les Arcs by the 'double-decker' Vanoise Express cable car, together they form the gargantuan Paradiski area, adding to its appeal. The multitude of villages from valley to mountain should satisfy everyone’s tastes & requirements.
Pros & Cons for La Plagne Ski Resort
Pros
- Huge skiable vertical of around 1,850m.
- Loads of perfect piste trails for beginners & lower intermediates.
- Long, long ski trails all over the resort.
- Masses of child-friendly lifts, terrain & facilities.
- Incredible views & landscapes.
- Multitudes of ski-in ski-out accommodation options.
- Great quality & challenging off-piste terrain.
- Majority of ski terrain above 2,000m elevation & on a north-aspect.
- Tree skiing & high alpine freeride options.
- Extensive sheltered skiing & snowboarding available below the tree-line.
Cons
- Can be incredibly busy.
- Limited challenging on-piste terrain.
- Many long, flat piste trails (snowboarders beware!).
- Skiing from the lower villages requires five or six convoluted lift connections before getting high enough in the resort.
- Expensive accommodation in the upper mountain villages.
Pro or Con (depending on your perspective!)
- Numerous villages with no single centre for après, services & restaurants.
- Villages vary greatly in style & location. Some of the upper mountain resort villages are visually quite polarising - one may love them, hate them or not care either way as long as the skiing is good, and you get a nice night's sleep!
- In 2019, La Plagne was the second most visited ski area in the world, after Ski Arlberg in Austria - St Anton, Lech, Zurs & Warth Schröcken combined! Thats is the perfect example of something that is either a pro or con depending on your perspective.
Skiing & Snowboarding, Lifts & Terrain
La Plagne is a ski area of massive proportions. Over 225km of piste trails, 1,850m of skiable vertical, 74 lifts, a longest run of over 10km and wide-ranging off-piste terrain kind of gives one the impression that the link to Les Arcs is more of a publicity stunt than a necessary extension of the ski area.
Check out the ski trail map for La Plagne below.
The nearly 60% of on-piste trails rated as beginner give a correct impression of skiing at La Plagne. Lots & lots of low angle, long groomers, often heaving with people. The mountain is generally not friendly to snowboarders for this reason. Even the addition of a disco ski tunnel through the mountain struggled to get our juices going (although admittedly we did a bit of boogie on the way through). But it is popular for a reason. Ski lifts are efficient, there are loads of villages to visit on skis (which is always fun) & there are a few cracking groomed trails with fun names like Kamikaze. Another positive in the ski area, something missing from many French ski resorts, is the numerous ski trails below the tree line allowing for safe skiing during storms & low visibility.
La Plagne does have some ‘beefy’ off-piste freeride terrain too. The alpine bowls & couloirs of Bellecôte & off the side of Roche de Mio are certainly interesting and deserving of a visit in fresh snow & safe avalanche conditions.
The biggest recent change to the ski lifts & trails at La Plagne occurred in season 23/24 and centred on the Bellecôte. Once a nostalgic ride in an ancient clunker of a gondola, the ride up is now in a pristine new 10-seater gondola, called Glaciers 2, that goes higher than the previous iteration, all the way to the height of the old Traversée chairlift. With the diminishment of the glacier on Bellecote and the subsequent cessation of summer skiing some years ago, the number of the lifts in the zone has steadily decreased. The installation of the Glaciers 2 gondola saw the removal of the old gondola, the Traversée chairlift, and the Glacier chairlift. Removing the Glacier chair meant the skiable vertical in the resort (from the ski lifts) has decreased by around 100m. An old double chair, important to link back into the upper ski area, the Chalet de Bellecôte, was replaced in the sector with a quad chair at the same time. It’s not often a ski area reduces its skiable vertical, but there you are!
Interlinked with Les Arcs (Paradiski)
La Plagne is also 'interconnected' with neighbouring Les Arcs - Peisey Vallandry to form the mega ski resort of Paradiski, nearly doubling the ski terrain & lifts available. The term 'interconnected' is a bit of an illusion though. A double-decker cable car links the two resort areas across the valley, but it is not possible to ski to the other resort. Simply due to the area’s size, skiing both resorts to any extent in one day is not really an option either.
If considering skiing Les Arcs & you have already purchased a multi-day lift pass for La Plagne, a €20 (ish) extension/day can be sought to include it. Given the distances involved & the lack of ski trail interconnection, the more expensive Paradiski lift pass is generally a waste of money on a short-stay snow holiday!
Where is La Plagne France?
Part of the Legendary Tarentaise valley in the French Alps, La Plagne ski resort is perched high above the towns of Aime & Champagny en Vanoise. By road, the lift base at Champagny is only 19km (25min) east of the closest major town of Moûtiers. The largest resort village at Plagne Centre is 34km (1hr) east of Moutiers via a tortuous 24 hairpin bend road that is ‘white knuckle’ driving when a steady procession of oncoming buses is heading down the hill!
Gateway airports are Lyon (LYS) & Geneva (GVA) with Paris (CDG) & London in play by virtue of the train connections to Moûtiers, Aime & Bourg St Maurice. Both Geneva & Lyon are around 2&frac;hr by road from Plagne Centre via Albertville.
Search & book train tickets to Moûtiers.
Due to the diversity of villages at La Plagne, we recommend looking at a private transfer either direct to your hotel/lodgings from the airport or from either train station at Moutiers, Bourg St Maurice or Aime. Private transfers can be incredibly efficient time-wise & cost effective if in a group of 3 or more people.
Search & book all airport transfers to Champagny or La Plagne.
La Plagne Accommodation
The ski resort of La Plagne is an amalgam of villages spread between 2 valleys & seemingly randomly on the mountain. Choosing where to stay has no simple answer! In the north, the town of Aime is the main entry point to the ski resort by rail & road. Aime is not lift connected to the ski area and requires a car or bus ride to get up the hill. The lower villages (1,250m to 1,450m) of Montalbert, Montchavin & Les Coches are all lift connected to La Plagne. Montchavin is one of the few original villages on the mountainside & like Montalbert, maintains a more traditional, low-rise, architectural style than the upper mountain villages which were all conceived in the late 1960s, 70s & early 80s.
Above 1,800m altitude on the road from Aime are a nest of seven alpine villages, each with varying shades of visually challenging architecture! All have ski-in ski-out accommodations with the beautifully integrated lift system. From the main village at Plagne Centre, there is also Plagne Villages, Plagne 1800, Plagne Soleil, Plagne Bellecote, Belle Plagne, & Plagne Aime 2000 (which is ironically at 2,100m!) Choosing one will depend on your taste & the size of your wallet. In our view, the best of the villages is Belle Plagne. Its low rise, chalet style design, perfect ski-in ski-out convenience & lifts integrated directly into the village in a prime alpine location put it well ahead of the others.
Search & book all La Plagne ski accommodation.
On the southern side of the resort, the village of Champagny en Vanoise in many ways is the best place to stay when skiing La Plagne. It holds the sunniest position in the resort and access to the ski area is via its gondola, craftily integrated into the upper village. Champagny overlooks the valley to Courchevel & is convenient to the Pralognan la Vanoise & 3 Vallees ski areas. Unlike the other ski villages at La Plagne, Champagny is best accessed from Moûtiers & Bozel, both of which can provide affordable off-mountain lodgings.
For detailed info & recommendations on the best places to stay, see our Where to Stay in La Plagne page.
Ski Rentals, Lessons, & Guiding
Ski rentals are available in all the La Plagne villages with our partners at Skiset. Receive a discount when you search & book via our La Plagne Ski & Snowboard Rentals page.
The Paradiski area has a mind-bending range and number of mountain guides & ski/board instructors. If wanting to explore the long freeride descents from the Bellecôte or other less obvious zones but are unsure about your abilities; off-piste ski lessons & guiding can make all the difference. For more information & options, see our La Plagne Ski Lessons & Guiding page.
Review
The Powderhounds visited La Plagne in 2020 & overall were left a little underwhelmed. It epitomises the notion of big is not always better for powder hounds, but as La Plagne is one of the most popular ski resorts in the world for a reason, it will appeal to anyone wanting a French Alps intermediate mega-resort ski experience. We should go back and re-assess one day. Click on the review link in the left column (or top of the page if on a mobile) to read the latest inciteful & droll postulations!
See how La Plagne compares to other French ski resorts on the France ski resort ratings page, and to the rest of the European ski resorts on the Europe ski resort ratings page.
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