Many people believe France is the world’s best ski destination. Certainly more Brits head there than anywhere else, and not just because it’s the closest ski nation.
Off the slopes you can find charming villages with a traditional ambience that makes them a delight to visit, or you can find high-altitude resorts with no-hassle skiing on your doorstep.
And what skiing! The world’s biggest ski areas, huge lift-served verticals, something for all abilities – every box ticked on the wish list.
But then there are the detractors, particularly of those giant high-altitude ski resorts, saying that they lack soul and that famous French ambience; that they are just seasonal money-making machines where you feel you are part of a city on the slopes, paying inflated prices but getting lacklustre service like you are trapped in a motorway services for the week.
Over the years I have enjoyed some of my best ski trips in France, but I have also endured some of the worst. Through trial and error I’ve discovered I love the big areas, but am one of those that doesn’t much like the big city feel of some resorts, so I had mixed feelings when I headed out to one of the country’s top resorts (in several respects), Alpe d’Huez.
Alpe d’Huez sits somewhere between those big resorts that have been built at altitude since the 1960s and those traditional villages down nearer 1,000m. It is an altitude resort, and it has been largely built for skiing above a traditional village, but it dates back the best part of a century so has bags of character as well as a snow-sure altitude and a huge ski area. Triple prizes. The resort was first developed in the 1920s and its first lift, opened in 1936, was one of the first in France (or anywhere).
Besides its spectacular skiing, Alpe d’Huez is famed as a key stop on the Tour de France, thanks to its famous (or infamous) 13.8km-long hill climb up to the resort with an average gradient of 8.1% and 21 hairpin bends – it’s much easier in a comfortable transfer by coach, car or taxi.
The skiing above (and below) Alpe d’Huez is quite special. The resort lies at the heart of the Grand Rousses area which also contains smaller traditional villages below including Vaujany and Oz-en-Oisans, a truly vast ski region with some 250km of fully inter-linked pistes, including, most famously, the remarkable Sarenne run, officially the world’s longest black run and certainly a glorious descent whether you feel it is steep enough for its black grading or not. It descends 16 km from the top to bottom of the slopes, a lift-served vertical of 2,230m (that’s world top five, no less, for size-of-vert) – crowned by snow-sure glacier skiing and one of the very biggest in the world.
But the Sarenne run is one of many different long, long runs that are possible, and most are accessed by fast, modern lifts. Many options take you down through those little villages on long blue or red runs where you might stop for a beer or for lunch before heading back up.
There are plenty of black options too, with 17 marked trails along with endless off-piste routes that a guide would be happy to take you to. The ominously named “Tunnel” is the most infamous pisted descent (although it only has that name because you access it through a tunnel), but there are many more.
At the base of the slopes there is also a vast beginners’ area in a huge area of gentle slopes served by multiple lifts. The full featured terrain park and a fun sliding zone with toboggan runs is also here.
The resort of Alpe d’Huez itself is built on a gentle slope and in a roughly triangular shape with the hub of the lifts up at the apex, but with pistes and lifts running along each side of the triangle so you can ski down or get a lift up from most accommodation.
The village, which has grown up above the old village of Huez, is relatively compact with everything within walking distance, although it is also one of the bigger resorts so there’s a regular shuttle service to get you to the slopes or around the resort if you don’t want to walk at all.
“Vibrant” and “eclectic” could be used to describe the atmosphere and the ambience. There’s a swimming pool and ice rink in the heart of the resort surrounded by shops, bars, cafés and restaurants. There’s a big choice in all categories and, although most are locally run, you’ll find sushi bars and a modern supermarket alongside those traditional boulangeries and patisseries we love, plus plenty of crêperies and traditional Savoyard restaurants (even though this is actually the Dauphiné – Isère region).
Whilst some of the better-known French resorts have been adding 5★ hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants with prices to match, Alpe d’Huez has been busy keeping it real and keeping it affordable.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of great places to eat …
Accommodation is mostly in 1–3★ hotels and apartments, but Alpe d’Huez does now have a nice 4★ apartment complex option, Le Cristal de l’Alpe, about 100m from the nearest lift and right on the edge of the resort centre.
Along with spacious, well-equipped apartments which also boast an excellent wi-fi signal (how can we live without that?), there’s an excellent swimming pool area complete with sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi, as well as a separate spa centre – Le Centre Ô des Cimes – where you can sign in for a relaxing post-ski massage or just take a day off and indulge in the full spa menu.
One more box tick for Alpe d’Huez is how painless it is to get there. If you fly in to Grenoble (a pleasantly uncrowded airport compared to most options for the French Alps), you can expect to be in resort in little over an hour on a good day, perhaps 75 minutes on average – it’s less than 40 miles away.
It all adds up to the complete picture of Alpe d’Huez as a very “real” snowsports destination boasting both a true ski heritage and relaxed atmosphere that help you get in the holiday mood and really enjoy the best of French skiing without any of those possible downsides.
Alpe d’Huez
250km piste, 135 runs, 79 lifts
1,860m altitude, 3,330m highest lift, vertical 2,230m
0844 576 0175, skicollection.co.uk
