A Week in La Plagne with a Mixed Ability Group

We went to La Plagne as a group of six. Two experienced skiers (me and my friend James, who has been skiing since before I have and still claims to be better, which is debatable), two solid intermediates, and two beginners on their first proper Alps trip. Getting six people with three different skiing levels to the same resort and back without a logistical disaster counts, in my experience, as a success in its own right.

La Plagne handled it well.

Getting there

Flights from Birmingham Airport to Chambéry with Jet2. The Chambéry route is the one I’d always recommend for Tarentaise resorts (La Plagne, Les Arcs, Tignes, Val d’Isère). It’s closer than Geneva and the transfer is shorter. We paid around £95 per person each way, booked about four months in advance. The same flight a month later was £140.

Transfer to Belle Plagne with a coach operator I’d pre-booked in spring. About 90 minutes, straightforward, bags handled correctly. About £55 per person each way. Worth booking early: the same journey booked the week before travel was £75.

One note: the coach picks up in a slightly confusing car park outside the arrivals hall at Chambéry. There are several operators picking up at the same time. Make sure you’re standing under the right sign.

Why Belle Plagne, not the lower villages

La Plagne is a collection of villages at different altitudes, from Plagne Villages at around 1,800m up to Bellecôte at 1,930m and Belle Plagne at 2,050m. We stayed in Belle Plagne and I’d make the same choice again.

Higher altitude means better snow on the lower runs, and in a week with mixed conditions (we had three excellent days, two mediocre ones, and two that were fine) the upper villages held snow that had disappeared lower down. The lower villages look cheaper in the brochure but if the snow on the blue runs to the village is icy or closed, you’re taking a gondola or shuttle down at the end of every day, which gets old quickly.

The gondola from Belle Plagne into the main Paradiski area is about a five-minute walk from the apartment. That matters at 8:15am.

The accommodation

Four-bedroom apartment. Adequate kitchen, working oven (always check reviews for this, as the oven situation in ski apartments is frequently a lottery), a living room with a sofa that had clearly been there since the resort opened, and a south-facing balcony that was genuinely usable on the two sunny afternoons.

Four nights out of seven we cooked in. Pasta, mostly, with various attempts at something more ambitious. The supermarket at Belle Plagne is small but has everything you need. Factor in a supermarket run on arrival day before the shops close, as everything shuts early in French ski resorts and arriving on a Sunday evening with six hungry people and no food in the apartment is a situation I’ve been in before and won’t repeat.

The apartment itself: fine. Not luxury. Completely adequate. I wasn’t expecting a boutique hotel and I’d recommend managing expectations similarly. French ski apartments are functional. The view from the balcony was the Alps. The sofa was thirty years old. Both are fine.

Ski school

We booked the two beginners into ESF group lessons for three days (morning sessions, nine until midday). Book as early as you can. We booked about six weeks out and the morning slots were already limited. The afternoon sessions were still available, but morning works better: better light, less tired legs, and you have the afternoon to practise what you’ve learned rather than going straight to dinner.

By the end of day three, both beginners were confidently on blue runs. One of them, my colleague Sarah who had been certain she was going to be terrible, got down an easy red on the final day and was insufferably pleased with herself about it. Correctly so.

The ESF instructors were organised, English instruction was easy to arrange at booking, and the group size was about six people, which felt right. Not so small that you have nowhere to hide when you fall over, not so large that you don’t get any attention.

The skiing

La Plagne’s strength is range. The resort itself has roughly 225km of piste, and once you factor in the Paradiski link to Les Arcs via the Vanoise Express cable car, you’re looking at 425km across the full area. For a week with experienced and intermediate skiers, you will not run out of terrain.

The highlights of the week:

The Bellecôte glacier. We did this on the third day, which was the clearest of the week. Up to around 3,250m on a cold, bright morning, wide piste skiing back down with views across to Mont Blanc on the left. The kind of day that explains why people spend money on ski trips. Book the early gondola.

The lower blues around the village. Quieter than the main mountain, well-groomed, and genuinely pleasant for the intermediates who wanted to build confidence without traffic. We found a run called the Colosses that was consistently good condition and used it as our default warm-up.

Les Arcs via the Vanoise Express. We crossed to Les Arcs for one day. The cable car itself (a double-decker gondola between two mountain valleys) is worth doing just to say you’ve done it. Les Arcs has a different feel to La Plagne: slightly wilder terrain, different crowd. We’d run out of week to fully explore it.

What I’d avoid: the main boulevard run into Plagne Centre on a busy afternoon. It gets crowded and icy from about 3pm onwards. Use the gondola instead.

The one excellent local restaurant

Restaurant Les Verdons in Plagne Centre. I am not a food writer and I’m not going to attempt to be one here. What I will say: it’s a small, family-run restaurant that gets full early, takes reservations, and produces food that is noticeably better than the resort average. We went twice. The raclette on the second visit was the best meal of the trip. Go at least once. Book a table.

For the other evenings: self-catered or the pizza place near the gondola at Belle Plagne, which is entirely serviceable and open when everything else is closed.

What I’d do differently

Book ski school earlier. Six weeks out was too late for the morning slots. Eight to ten weeks before travel is the right window.

Arrive earlier on the first day. We landed at Chambéry at 2pm and were at the apartment by 4:30. By the time we’d unpacked and sorted equipment, dinner was the priority. An earlier flight (there’s a 7am departure from Birmingham that I have consistently refused to consider and probably should reconsider) means you get half a day on skis on the day you arrive.

Check the apartment oven reviews. I said this already. I mean it.

Use the Paradiski link more. We did Les Arcs for one day and it deserved more. If you have a full week, try to spend two days on the Les Arcs side.

Summary

La Plagne is a genuinely good choice for a mixed ability group. Large enough that experienced skiers are occupied all week, well-organised enough that beginners have good instruction and appropriate terrain, and the Paradiski link adds variety when you want it. Belle Plagne as a base is the right call. The ESF is solid. Restaurant Les Verdons: go twice.

We’d go back, possibly to Les Arcs next time to see the other side of the valley properly.