Skiing has never been so good. (La Plagne)

Member Name: Andy_83

Product:	La Plagne
Date:	15/01/02 (532 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant Apres Ski, Nice Weather, Snow guaranteed

Disadvantages: Queues

I visited La Plagne, not this Christmas but the Christmas before, it was our first Christmas away from home, and i was a little aprehensive about wether it would detract from the Christmas season, but i was happily surprised.

The La Plagne resort is one of the biggest resorts in France by way of lifts and skiiable terrain, and is looking to further expand its terrain by joining up with Les Arcs. It is fairly high up, which pretty much guarantees skiing practically all the season, even at Christmas when we visited.

In January it is very cold, gets down to -25 C pretty much every night and would peak at around -5 during the day so if you have kids who are likely to whinge go in March it is much warmer then. We went in December and it too is pretty cold, surprisingly it is not as cold as January, as December is the start of the skiing season.

A time to avoid visiting La Plagne or any resort in France is February. February is the time the French have school holidays, so avoid this month. March is the beginning of Spring weather and has longer days, warmer skiing conditions without being hot (peaking around 2-3 C). Skiing continues right through April until months end with the usual spring skiing conditions.

January can be a little dodgy lower down in the trees around Montalbert and Montchavin, be careful with learner skiiers it can get quite hard and in patches icy. Save these places for days straight after snowfalls. Otherwise the snow quality is exceptional even without it snowing for 3 weeks like what happened when we were there.

They groom their runs very well, the piste bashers are out all night on all the main runs, ensuring excellent skiing the following morning. Most runs get alot of sun so the initial icy conditions every morning are soon lost. If it gets really cold, as in around -10 to -12 then head to Champagny via the new gondola, La Grande Rochette. It faces directly into the sun and offer
s reasonably long runs.

La Plagne is located about 3 hours from Lyon, the nearest main airport, with regular flights from all major airports in the United Kingdom. Alternatively you could take the snow train from Calais through to Bourg St. Maurice and get a coach up to the resort.

When it comes to accomodation, i personally stayed in a chalet with my family, this can be quite expensive espeicially if you want a chalet on the slopes which you can ski to like we did, next time we go we are going to try a youth hostel, this is excellent value as it is around £250 for a week, with food included and lift passes and evening entertainment.

Theres plenty of restraunts with the traditional local cuisines such as raclets and Fondues as well as plenty of disco's, nightclub's, pubs and bars. The village itself is much nicer than similar resorts such as Tignes and Val Thorens as it has a nicer, closer atmsophere, father christmas even came round giving out sweets, good huh!

I thoroughly recommed La Plagne to almost every skier, it has excellent apres ski, brilliant runs, many blues and reds, but some of the reds are black standard if you see what i mean. Overall La Plagne was a superb holiday and i really enjoyed myself.

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