Short answer. La Plagne and Les Arcs are the two halves of Paradiski, joined by the Vanoise Express cable car. La Plagne has 225 km of piste on 135 runs across eleven villages — wider, gentler, higher, and the better choice for families, beginners and mixed-ability groups. Les Arcs has around 200 km with steeper pitches, more vertical and proper tree skiing, plus a funicular that reaches it from the Bourg-Saint-Maurice train station in seven minutes. One Paradiski pass — about €401 for six adult days in 2025/26 — covers both.
Go to La Plagne if you are travelling with beginners or children, want ski-in ski-out convenience at altitude, or need a resort where a group of very different abilities can still meet for lunch. Go to Les Arcs if you are a confident intermediate or better, care about vertical drop and tree runs, or are arriving by train and want to be on snow the same afternoon.
| La Plagne | Les Arcs | |
|---|---|---|
| Own pistes | 225 km, 135 runs, 73 lifts | about 200 km |
| Villages | 11, from 1,250 m to 2,100 m | Arc 1600 / 1800 / 1950 / 2000, plus Peisey-Vallandry and Villaroger |
| Highest point | Bellecôte glacier, 3,250 m | Aiguille Rouge, 3,226 m |
| Signature run | Glacier descents off Roche de Mio (2,700 m) | Aiguille Rouge to Villaroger — 7 km and 2,000 m of vertical |
| Tree skiing | Montchavin–Les Coches, Montalbert, Champagny | Peisey-Vallandry, Villaroger |
| Rail access | Bus up from Aime or Bourg-Saint-Maurice, 30–45 min | Funicular from Bourg-Saint-Maurice, 7 min |
| Best for | Beginners, families, mixed groups | Intermediates and up, vertical hunters, train travellers |
This is the part the kilometre counts hide. La Plagne is a broad, open bowl system: most of its skiing sits above the treeline between 2,000 m and 2,700 m, the runs are wide and rolling, and you can cover a lot of ground without ever pointing your skis down anything intimidating. That is why it has a reputation as a beginner and family mountain — and why strong skiers sometimes call it bland after three days.
Les Arcs is built on a single long mountain face, and the numbers show it: the Aiguille Rouge at 3,226 m drops 2,000 vertical metres in one 7 km run down to Villaroger. There is more pitch, more genuine off-piste on the flanks and, on the Peisey-Vallandry and Villaroger sides, real forested runs that stay skiable when the high mountain flattens out in cloud.
Both have a glacier. La Plagne's Bellecôte reaches 3,250 m; Les Arcs tops out 24 m lower at the Aiguille Rouge. In practice neither is your everyday skiing — they are the snow-security card each resort plays in a warm season.
Both resorts are collections of villages rather than single towns, and the choice within a resort changes your week more than the choice between them.
In La Plagne, the high purpose-built villages — Belle Plagne, Bellecôte, Aime 2000, roughly 1,930 to 2,100 m — are properly ski-in ski-out and best if you want to walk nowhere. The lower villages — Montchavin, Les Coches, Champagny, Montalbert at 1,250 to 1,350 m — look like real Savoyard villages, cost less and have the trees, at the price of riding a lift up each morning.
In Les Arcs, Arc 1950 is the polished, purpose-built option; Arc 1800 is the largest and liveliest; Arc 1600 sits at the top of the funicular and is the obvious pick if you arrive by train; Peisey-Vallandry is the quiet, wooded end of the domain and the closest to the Vanoise Express.
| Pass | 2025/26 price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Paradiski, 6 adult days (20 Dec – 18 Apr) | €401 | All 425 km, both resorts |
| Paradiski, 6 adult days (13–19 Dec) | €341 | Early-season rate |
| Vanoise Express day extension | €26 per adult per day | Added to a single-resort pass |
| La Plagne day pass, adult | €56 | La Plagne only |
| Beginner "Cool Ski" pass | €38 per day | Limited beginner lifts |
The decision is simpler than it looks. If you will cross the valley once or twice in a week, buy the single-resort pass and pay €26 on the days you actually cross. If you plan to ski both sides regularly, the full Paradiski pass wins. For a first-timer sticking to the learner lifts, the beginner pass at €38 a day undercuts everything else.
The link between the two resorts is a genuine piece of engineering: two double-decker cabins carrying 200 people each, 2,000 people an hour in each direction, spanning 1,800 m across the valley some 380 m above the floor. The crossing takes four minutes.
The practical advice is about timing, not the ride. Cross early — before 10:00 — and start back by 16:00. The cabins queue at both ends in the middle of the day, and the last crossing is earlier than most people assume; missing it means a long, expensive taxi round the valley. If a day on the far side is the plan, ski the far resort's high ground first and work back toward the cable car through the afternoon rather than leaving the return as an afterthought.
Bourg-Saint-Maurice is on the TGV and Eurostar ski-train network. From the station, the funicular climbs to Arc 1600 in seven minutes; for the 2025/26 season it runs from 13 December to 26 April. That makes Les Arcs one of the few big Alpine resorts you can reach from London or Paris without touching a road transfer.
La Plagne has no equivalent. From Aime-la-Plagne or Bourg-Saint-Maurice you take a bus up to your village, 30 to 45 minutes depending on which of the eleven you booked. By air both are roughly 2 hours from Chambéry, 3 hours from Geneva and 3 hours from Lyon — and both sit on the Tarentaise valley road, which is one of the busiest transfer routes in Europe on a Saturday.
Rental follows the same village logic as accommodation: rent where you sleep, because moving skis between villages is the one avoidable hassle in either resort. La Plagne has shops at the snow front of every village, from Plagne Centre and Belle Plagne to Montalbert and Champagny — our guide to ski rental in La Plagne maps them village by village with prices and the walking distance to each lift, and the Les Arcs rental guide does the same for Arc 1600, 1800, 1950 and 2000, Peisey-Vallandry and the cheaper shops down in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Prices sit broadly level across the two resorts: about €20–25 a day for a beginner set, €30–35 for all-mountain gear, and 25–40% less if you book online rather than at the counter on changeover Saturday.
If you are still choosing a resort altogether, our ski rental hub compares shops and prices across the Alps.
Neither is better outright. La Plagne suits beginners, families and mixed groups with its 225 km of wide, high, open pistes. Les Arcs suits confident intermediates and above, with more vertical, steeper terrain and tree skiing. Both are on the same lift pass, so the honest answer is to pick by group ability and by how you are travelling.
Yes — the Paradiski pass covers both resorts and about 425 km of piste, at roughly €401 for six adult days in 2025/26. You can also buy a single-resort pass and add a Vanoise Express day extension for about €26 whenever you want to cross.
Four minutes. Two double-decker cabins carry 200 people each, moving up to 2,000 people an hour in each direction across an 1,800 m span, 380 m above the valley floor.
Les Arcs, clearly. The funicular from Bourg-Saint-Maurice station reaches Arc 1600 in seven minutes, running from 13 December to 26 April in 2025/26. La Plagne requires a bus of 30–45 minutes from Aime-la-Plagne or Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
La Plagne, on balance. Its beginner terrain is spread across every village rather than concentrated in one area, the gradients are gentler, and the €38 "Cool Ski" beginner pass keeps first-week costs down. Les Arcs is far from unsuitable — Arc 1800 and Peisey-Vallandry both work well — but La Plagne makes it easier.
For ski-in ski-out convenience, Belle Plagne or Aime 2000 in La Plagne, or Arc 1950 and Arc 2000 in Les Arcs. For charm and lower prices, Montchavin, Les Coches or Champagny on the La Plagne side and Peisey-Vallandry on the Les Arcs side. For arriving by train, Arc 1600 at the top of the funicular.
Piste, run and lift counts for La Plagne come from the resort's own figures (225 km, 135 runs, 73 lifts) published on en.la-plagne.com, along with the day-pass and beginner-pass prices. Funicular timetable and journey time are from the official Les Arcs / Peisey-Vallandry site. Vanoise Express capacity, span and crossing time are from the operators' published specifications. Lift-pass prices are for the 2025/26 season and should be checked for your dates before booking.
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