Where are the busiest areas in La Plagne?
La Plagne Paradiski is the world’s third-largest ski area with a mammoth 225km of pistes locally in La Plagne itself and 425km across the collective Paradiski domain (including Les Arcs).
La Plagne is the world’s most popular ski area
With terrain ranging from 1250m to over 3000m and a total ski area size of around 35,000 acres, you would think queues would be rare here. However, La Plagne also holds the title of being the world’s most popular and most visited ski area so, despite the size of the area, it can still get busy – particularly during the busier holiday periods. If you happen to be on holiday here in these times, you’ll no doubt ask yourself where are the busiest areas in La Plagne? Read on to learn more.
Note: To avoid the worst of the queues, take a look at our European school holidays feature. If possible, try to holiday outside the typical busy periods – Christmas / New Year, Easter and the dreaded February mid-term holidays.
Where are La Plagne’s busiest areas?
La Plagne tends to attract mostly beginner / intermediate skiers and snowboarders – plus families. This demographic is most comfortable riding blue runs close to their accommodation. Also these runs happen to be favoured by the ski schools – for obvious reasons. If that describes your level of riding and you’re new to La Plagne, check our newbie beginner guide to La Plagne. It would also be worth reading our tips for when La Plagne is busy feature.
If you’re a more advanced skier or snowboarder, these are the runs you should try to avoid.
Champagny busy pistes
The Champagny pistes in the upper section are gloriously wide open so, even when it’s busy, the sheer width of the runs helps reduce bottlenecks in most places. However, one run – the long Levasset blue piste – can suffer from crowds. This is one of La Plagne’s longest runs and remains popular any time of day – especially as it forms part of one of La Plagne’s best combination routes from Roche de Mio down the upper station of Champagny with return by the Borseliers chair, Rossa chair and Carella chair.
Glacier busy pistes
As mentioned above, La Plagne tends to mostly attract families and beginners / intermediates. The Glacier pistes in La Plagne are mostly red and black so they tend to stay quiet – despite the top area frequently getting busier with pedestrians who take the new Télécabine des Glaciers up for sightseeing.
Plagne Aime 2000 busy pistes (Biolley sector)
Aime 2000 sits next to many of the Aime 2000 pistes. The busiest runs in this area include the various pistes off the Golf chair. This high plateau offers perfect beginner / early intermediate terrain and is favoured by ski schools. The majority of other pistes here are long enough and wide enough to mostly disperse the crowds – the exception being the lower half of the Pavane blue run back down to Centre.
Plagne Bellecôte / Belle Plagne busy pistes
In general, all the pistes in the lower sectors of Plagne Bellecôte and Belle Plagne will remain busy all day – particularly those served by the Arpette chairlift. The picture at the top of this page is of a ski school making its way down close to Bellecôte. Of course, this advice is also largely dependent on the time of year – but the Bellecôte bowl is always popular.
Plagne Centre busy pistes (Grande Rochette sector)
The same theory applies in Plagne Centre where you’ll find the lower runs are much busier than those higher up. In general, the lower runs are also narrower than the high mountain pistes which only serves to make them feel more cramped. In particular, the Écartée blue piste can get hectic (this run is served by the equally busy Bergerie chair) while the runs off the Colorado chair in Centre are also normally very busy. Also the steeper top section of the Mira blue run often gets very cramped with beginners struggling to pick their way down (this track should really be graded as one of La Plagne’s red runs)
Plagne Montalbert busy pistes
Of all the areas in La Plagne, the Montalbert sector is by far the quietest. Apart from the lower beginner runs near the resort (and one up high near the 360 restaurant), this area is almost always very quiet – due mainly to its rather remote location, far right of the La Plagne piste map. The one disadvantage of Montalbert is its height. The lower sections of runs here have suffered in recent years due to lack of snow.
Plagne Montchavin busy pistes
Similarly, the runs in the Montchavin sector tend to be way less busy – again, due mainly to its seemingly remote location. The exception to this rule can be the early mornings and late afternoons as the traffic from riders going to Les Arcs from La Plagne and back can increase. Also, the Mont Blanc blue (which is also La Plagne’s longest piste) can remain busy any time of day. One advantage of this part of La Plagne is the highly efficient lift network (apart from Salla and Dos Rond).
All resorts have hub lifts
No matter what ski resort you look at, all resorts have hub lifts that are guaranteed to suffer from queues. Typically you’ll find these at the base of the ski area – and they’re normally the lifts that give access out of the busiest villages. Whether it be Tignes’ Grande Motte funicular, Bansko’s access gondola or Méribel’s Rhodos gondola, all resorts have arterial lifts that suffer from queues.
In the case of La Plagne, these key lifts tend to be located at the base of Plagne Centre, Plagne Villages, Plagne Soleil and especially Plagne Bellecôte. You can find more details about these lifts in our La Plagne lifts to avoid article.
Unfortunately, there’s very little you can do to avoid taking these lifts – although you can mitigate the chances of getting stuck in queues if you arrive early in the day. As a guide, you should aim to take these lifts before the ski schools begin i.e. before 10am.
Note – this information becomes even more pertinent if you intend doing a season in La Plagne. It’s also based on multiple years spent in the resort. Also, while you should always ensure you have La Plagne holiday insurance, it becomes even more important when the pistes are busy. In particular, the February midterms always see accidents – usually caused by riders who have ideas way beyond their actual skill threshold. Click this link for the best ski / snowboard insurance at a great price.
La Plagne video guides through the season
Take a look at the iRide YouTube channel for more La Plagne videos produced by the team behind LaPlagne360. These videos show multiple facets of the resort filmed through winter over multiple seasons spent in the resort.
FB: La Plagne Facebook guide
T/X: La Plagne Twitter guide
YT: La Plagne video guides
