Next season is always just around the corner & a true skier or snowboarders heart is always turned at least a little toward the mountains. So in these summer months we find ourselves thinking about the next season & each in our own way we start to fashion our idea of what next season will be about.
We all have resorts we love & yet are often very much rewarded when we try something new, in this article we introduce you to or remind you of the incredible resort cluster of La Plagne and what it has to offer. La Plagne is a huge resort made of 11 villages with lovely catered ski chalets and great self catered apartments and absolutely loads to do and see. If you’d like to get the sense of the resort in detail, why not try our article La Plagne, the ski variety pack, today we’re going to give you 5 great reasons to book your ski holiday in La Plagne next season.
5 Reasons to book a ski holiday in La Plagne
1. It’s the most popular ski resort in the world
Estimates show La Plagne attracts more visitors than any ski area on the planet with 2.5 million visits a year. With so much space, so many villages & so much to do in La Plagne it’s easy to see why.
The fact that so many people visit means that the resort invests in plenty of events, attractions & activities for visitors to enjoy and develops and updates the lift system.
The popularity of La Plagne drives its success as a huge resort with lots to offer and so keeps the people coming back year on year. To be great it needs to be popular and to be popular it needs to be great.
The pistes can get busy during half term but the mountains are by no means crowded and there are more than enough pistes to explore, see the next point for more about those.
2. Enormous ski area
Paradiski is the largest ski area in the world by some measures, 13,600 hectares of skiable area vs 3 Valleys 11,800 hectares. However when you compare by km of piste, the 3 Valleys comes out on top. The La Plagne ski area truly has it all, winding runs through the trees down to Montalbert and Les Coches, a high altitude glacier and powder fields galore between the pistes in the ridges and rolls above Belle Plagne. You can easily spend an entire week exploring just the La Plagne area and be perfectly satisfied but that’s only half of the story.
The Vanoise Express is or at least was when it was built, the biggest ski lift in the world with a huge capacity & travelling at 80 kph it makes it easy to leave the La Plagne side of Paradiski & explore the other half of the ski area of Les Arcs where you’ll find all new snow-parks, powder fields and lodges and some smashing black & red runs down from Aiguille Rouge to Arc 2000.
The variety and size of the Paradiski area has to be one of the best reasons to choose La Plagne.
3. High altitude, long season skiing
Snow conditions can be a concern when choosing a ski resort particularly near the beginning or end of a ski season. La Plagne’s highest point is 3250 meters above Bellecote where the Glacier de la Chiaupe starts its crawl down the mountain.
Piste skiing starts as high as 3170m with a ski down the mogul field of the glacier itself and the potential of a super long run all the way back to Belle Plagne. The ski area has a lot of piste over 2000m which helps it attract snow early and keep it late into the season, spring skiing in La Plagne is always a good bet, it’s not unusual for snow to fall right into May on the higher pistes.
Off piste skiing opportunities in La Plagne are enormous, there are fantastic areas to explore for skiers & snowboarders of all levels. It’s essential to have specific and expert knowledge of what you’re about to do off piste and all the right ski safety equipment. If you don’t have that yourself, you’ll need a place to get a qualified guide & rent any equipment you’ll be needing to stay safe, we recommend Oxygene for lessons, hire & guiding in La Plagne.
4. So much to do apart from skiing and snowboarding
La Plagne isn’t just a great place to hit the pistes, it may well be the best ski resort in the world not to ski. There’s so much to do we can’t mention them all here, for more information check out our article all about things to do in La Plagne, here’s just a few of the attractions.
Ice climbing wall near Vanoise national park
Bobsleigh track – built in 1992 for the winter olympics, now open to the thrill seeking public
Magic Pool – A heated outdoor pool in Plagne Bellecote, offering free swim sessions, classes and lessons
Ski bikes and other alternative snow transport vehicles available for rental
Restaurants – Too many to mention so here’s 2 of the best, Le Refuge, the oldest in La Plagne serving traditional alpine food and the restaurant of the Hotel Carlina with an exciting fusion of traditional French cuisine and the imagination of chef Thibault Schach. La Plagne may not be a billionaires playground but the food can be first rate.
Apres ski – La Plagne manages to truly have something for everyone. You can go clubbing right into the early hours or you can have a quiet beer in lovely surroundings. Some ‘party town’ ski resorts become a little unsettling for families or have little for those who want a quiet beer. In La Plagne it’s easy to get the atmosphere you want by choosing which village to head to in the evening.
5. Events & attractions
La Plagne is a hive of activity all year round but in the ski season it attracts an incredible line up of diverse events, shows and attractions.
Every year there are fantastic Christmas celebrations with Santa, dog sleighs and torch lit skiing in the evenings, the New Year celebrations are a massive night out with fireworks and all the popular night spots putting on a special party.
You’ll also find a a range of scheduled events throughout the season, these have included;
Nordic marathon – 5th Mar 2017
X Speed Paradiski Tour – 20th Feb 2017
Ice Climbing word championship – 4th & 5th Feb 17
SubliCimes – an end of season festival like no other – 5th – 18th April
6. Great value ski accommodation
We couldn’t resist making a final point, Mountain Heaven offer more accommodation in La Plagne than any other ski area.With us you can book self catered apartments in the village of Montalbert and enjoy a great value, family friendly ski experience and this year, take advantage of the new Les Envers chairlift that’ll make getting out of the trees and onto the peaks even quicker.
We also offer a range of catered chalets in the lovely resort of La Plagne 1800. Just below the treeline with a little nightlife and close to the other resorts it’s one of our favourite La Plagne villages (not least for the good beer at Bar La Mine).
Our catered chalets are all close to the lifts & pistes and come with the warm welcome of Mountain Heaven chalet hosts and the delicious food from our catered service.
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