Les Arcs 1950

As a whole, the Les Arcs ski area offers a magnitude of skiing for every ability and whilst many of the surrounding villages are quite stark, 1950 has been developed to contradict this and offers much more attractive surroundings. The village of 1950 was completed in 2008 and was developed by the Intrawest group which also developed such resorts as Whistler and Mont Tremblant in Canada. It is linked (during the day till late evening) to Arc 2000 by a free pedestrian accessible gondola Cabriolet.

The architecture of Arc 1950 is striking as it clearly moves away from the standard concrete blocks of the mega resorts of the period. Instead it is lavishly fitted out and heavily influenced by the local Alpine history and architecture. 1950 has several commercial, apartment and hotel buildings of different sizes, colours and shapes. It has a wide variety of shops and for a mountain resort, a huge variety of eateries including Italian, Mexican, French, Savoyarde, creperie and American restaurants.

The ski area is vast and extends even further if you take the option to ski the Paradiski area, which is linked by the Vanoise Express cable-car giving a total area of 425 kms of pisted runs.

Expert skiers will be kept busy on great black runs and superb off-piste especially above Arc 2000. Intermediates will find a huge variety of pistes and the mileage hungry piste bashers will love the extent of the Paradiski area. 

Beginners may not find many green runs, but once away from the nursery slopes they will be able to progress to a variety of easy blue runs quite easily.

The area has always been popular with boarders as there are few flats and even fewer drag lifts. There is some excellent boarder terrain in the back bowls of 2000.

The apres ski in 1950 is busy and animated and there are a few good bars in which to enjoy after ski fun.