By Matt W. · Last updated June 2026
Fast, open singletrack plus loads of natural trails through the trees
Rocky terrain means you need to carry spare tubes
Elevation
Summit
Vertical Drop
Base
Lift
Total
Cable-Cars
Chairlifts
MTB Trail Highlights
XC
Downhill
eMTB
Total Riding
Bike Park
Bike Wash
Beginner Trails
Intermediate Trails
Advanced Trails
Expert Trails
Plan Your Trip
Everything you need to book your Les Arcs mountain biking trip — bike-friendly accommodation, the gear to pack, how to get there, and activities to book.
Practical Information
Opening times
Resort prices
Nearest airport
Tourist Office
Les Arcs Accommodation
Which village you pick matters more here than in most French bike resorts, because Les Arcs isn’t one lift base — it’s four, stacked up the same mountainside, and the wrong choice means driving or funicular-hopping to reach the trails every morning. Arc 1600 sits right by the Cachette chairlift and the funicular up from Bourg-Saint-Maurice, which makes it the pick if you want the shortest possible hop from bed to lift and don’t mind a smaller, quieter village in the evenings. Arc 1800 is the biggest and busiest base, sitting at the foot of the Transarc and Arcabulle lifts that serve most of the park’s blues and reds — stay here for the widest choice of restaurants and bars within walking distance of the riding. Arc 1950 is the newer, car-free, pedestrian village a level up, ski-in-ski-out in winter and a calmer, more polished base in summer, good if you want quiet evenings without sacrificing lift proximity. Arc 2000 sits highest and closest to the Aiguille Rouge cable car, worth it only if the high-altitude advanced terrain is the whole point of your trip — it’s the most exposed and the least convenient for restaurants. Down at Peisey-Vallandry, you trade some altitude and nightlife for a quieter, more villagey base with its own lift into the network and easier access if you’re driving in via the valley.
Choose Arc 1800 if you want a lively vibe and easy access to the main bike park lifts. Choose Arc 1600 if you prefer peace, direct access to long enduro trails, and quicker transit to the valley town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
Down in the valley, Bourg-Saint-Maurice is worth a look too — cheaper accommodation, more restaurants and shops, and none of the single-resort premium, with the funicular whisking you up to Les Arcs in just seven minutes. It’s a genuine option if you’d rather spend the savings on riding than on ski-in/ski-out convenience.
Whichever village you choose, prioritise places set up for bikes, not just skiers: secure, lockable storage and a hose or jet wash are the non-negotiables, since you’ll be wheeling a muddy bike in and out twice a day. Families should lean toward Arc 1800 or Arc 1950, both close to green trails, with the Peisey-Vallandry learner area a short lift-and-drive away; riders chasing the Villaroger and Aiguille Rouge terrain should weight their choice toward Arc 1950 or Arc 2000 to cut the daily transfer.
Use the live map below to compare prices and find places to stay in Arc 1800, from hotels near the lifts to self-catered apartments and chalets.
Les Arcs Guide
Les Arcs is a stack of villages up one mountainside, not a single town, and that shapes the whole trip. A road (and, at the bottom, a funicular from Bourg-Saint-Maurice) climbs through Arc 1600, Arc 1800, Arc 1950 and Arc 2000, each one a separate lift base with its own character, plus the quieter satellite of Peisey-Vallandry lower down the eastern flank. The bike park — branded Les Arcs / Peisey-Vallandry Bike Park — spans all of it: around 150km of marked trails across DH, enduro, cross-country and eMTB routes, served by 12 lifts running from the valley floor at Bourg-Saint-Maurice (840m) up to the Aiguille Rouge cable car’s top station at 3,226m. Few bike parks in France give you a lift-served descent from a glacier-adjacent 3,226m down through open alpine bowls, larch forest and finally the wooded switchbacks above Bourg — one continuous mountain, ridden in stages.
Trails are graded like a ski map: green, blue, red and black, with enduro-marked itineraries layered on top that mix singletrack with the odd pedal section. The core DH trails hang off the mid-mountain sectors — Arc 1600 (the Cachette chairlift), Arc 1800 (Transarc/Arcabulle) and Peisey-Vallandry (Vallandry) — while the wilder, higher terrain toward Villaroger and the Aiguille Rouge sector is where the long, remote descents live. Plan your trip around the whole lift network rather than one village: warm up on Arc 1600 flow in the morning, lap the Arc 1800 reds after lunch, and save a day for the Aiguille Rouge run down to Villaroger when your legs and the weather line up. Whatever else you pack for Les Arcs, make sure your travel insurance covers mountain biking — see our travel insurance guide for what to check before you go.
The Riding in Les Arcs
Beginner
Start at Arc 1600, not up the mountain. The Cachette chairlift out of the village serves Easy Rider, a green trail built specifically to ease newcomers in — a mellow, varied line through meadow and forest edge with none of the exposure of the higher sectors. Up at the top of the Transarc gondola (2,545m), La Trank’s and Kid Rock are the other two greens, both dropping back down to the base of the Arcabulle chairlift; they’re wider and more open than Easy Rider, good for carrying speed once you’ve found your feet. Down in Peisey-Vallandry, Country Kids is the shortest, gentlest trail in the whole park — under a kilometre, built for exactly what the name says — and it sits next to the resort’s dedicated learner area and free pumptrack, where you can drill cornering and small rollers with zero consequence before committing to a lift-served run. Lap the greens until the berms feel automatic, then step up to a blue on the same lift. If you’re new to this, book a morning with one of the Bourg-Saint-Maurice schools and spend the rest of the day on what you’ve drilled.
Intermediate
This is where the bike park earns its size. Three blues do the heavy lifting: Woodstock, Legend and Marsupilami, all dropping through the forest around Arc 1800 with the flowy, banked turns and tabletops you’d expect from purpose-built park trails — session all three off the Transarc/Arcabulle lifts and you’ve got a full day of laps without repeating a line twice. When the blues stop feeling like work, Rock N’Arolles and Yellow Stone are the reds to graduate onto: proper singletrack starting from 2,545m at the top of Transarc, with more roots, tighter turns and real elevation to burn before you’re back at the lift.
For distance over laps, Route 66 is the ride to build a day around: a 33km waymarked blue that starts at 2,545m from the top of the Transarc gondola, threads down through Arc 1950 and the forest, crosses to Villaroger, then follows the valley back to the bottom of the funicular. It’s less a single trail than a point-to-point tour of the whole resort, and it’s the run that turns a bike-park day into something closer to an adventure — pack food, because you won’t be back at a lift for hours.
Advanced
The DH trails cluster around Arc 1600 and Arc 1800, and La Cachette is the one to know: the resort’s sole black DH, dropping from the top of the Cachette chairlift with table-tops, a wall ride and technical sections through the woods, sharp enough that it hosts the Arcadienne, a round of the Rhône-Alpes DH Cup, most summers. Black 8 is the other serious test, a black-graded run that drops around 800m of vertical through forest back down to the funicular at the valley floor — a long, sustained hit rather than a short, technical burst.
The bigger, wilder terrain sits up at Villaroger and the Aiguille Rouge sector, reached via the Aiguille Rouge cable car at 3,226m — the highest bike-accessible point in the network and, by altitude and remoteness alone, the gnarliest place to ride in Les Arcs. Riding down off the top mixes exposed alpine terrain with a long drop into the trees above Villaroger, and it’s a different proposition from the manicured Arc 1800 park trails: fewer riders, rougher ground, and a genuine mountain feel. Treat it as a ride-it-when-you’re-ready outing — session the Arc 1800 reds first, check the Aiguille Rouge lift is running that day (it’s weather-dependent at that altitude), and don’t drop in cold.
eMTB
Les Arcs suits an e-bike well, because the vertical range that makes the resort special — 840m at the valley floor to 3,226m at the Aiguille Rouge — is exactly what a motor lets you exploit without spending the whole day queuing for lifts. The bike park marks six dedicated eMTB/cross-country routes alongside the DH and enduro network, and the shops in Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Arc 1800 stock current e-MTBs for hire, so you don’t need to bring your own. An e-bike also makes the Route 66 point-to-point and the Villaroger valley floor genuinely explorable in an afternoon rather than a full-day commitment, and it flattens the climb back up if you ever want to lap a section without waiting for a lift.
The Trails & Facilities for Mountain Bikers
Beyond the graded runs, the Les Arcs / Peisey-Vallandry bike park packs in a wide spread of marked trails and rider facilities across its villages and lift network. Here’s what you’ll find on the mountain:
- Ride around 150km of marked DH, enduro, cross-country and eMTB trails across the Les Arcs / Peisey-Vallandry Bike Park.
- Lap 12 lifts running from the valley floor at Bourg-Saint-Maurice (840m) up to the Aiguille Rouge cable car’s top station at 3,226m.
- Session the sole black DH, La Cachette, which hosts the Arcadienne round of the Rhône-Alpes DH Cup most summers.
- Ride Route 66, a 33km waymarked blue point-to-point linking Transarc, Arc 1950, Villaroger and the funicular base.
- Use the free pumptrack and dedicated learner area at Peisey-Vallandry to drill skills before a lift-served run.
- Carry bikes on the Vanoise Express cable car for a limited, Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri link across to La Plagne’s own trails — a bonus option rather than a reliable daily day trip.
Facilities are spread across the villages rather than concentrated in one spot, so plan your base around what matters most to you:
- Bike-friendly lodging with secure storage and a hose or jet wash in most villages — ask before you book, since not every property is set up for it.
- A funicular linking Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Arc 1600, plus road access up through Arc 1800, Arc 1950 and Arc 2000.
- Six dedicated eMTB/cross-country routes alongside the DH and enduro network, with e-bike hire available in Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Arc 1800.
- A cluster of hire and repair shops concentrated around Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Arc 1800, with overnight servicing available.
Bike Hire & Repairs
You don’t need to bring your own bike to ride Les Arcs well — Bourg-Saint-Maurice and the villages above it run a solid cluster of hire and repair shops, most stocking everything from hardtails to full-suspension DH rigs with servicing done overnight.
- GRAVITYLAB — the valley’s dedicated bike specialist, with a year-round shop plus a second rental point about 100m from the funicular up to the bike park. Best for a proper fitting and workshop backup if something breaks mid-trip. (84 Rue de l’Edelweiss, ZAC des Alpins, 73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice — main shop; 297 Avenue du Maréchal Leclerc, 73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice — rental point, ~100m from the funicular.)
- Arc Mountain Bike (Arc MTB) — the specialist up at altitude, based in Arc 1800 with rental, lessons and sales. Best for hiring right at the lift base if you’re staying in 1800. (Arc 1800, 73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice.)
- Startline MTB — sits at the foot of the funicular that runs straight up to Arc 1600 and the bike park. Best for grabbing a rental the moment you arrive off the train or the road. (Foot of the funicular, Bourg-Saint-Maurice.)
- INTERSPORT Bourg-Saint-Maurice — two locations, one by the Super U retail park and one at the funicular departure point, renting everything from hybrid VTC to enduro full-suspension and e-bikes. Best for a wide range of bike types and price points under one roof. (Zone Commerciale Super U, 73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice — main store; funicular departure point — second outlet.)
Food, Après & Events
You climb a lot of vertical in Les Arcs, one way or another, so the food leans hearty. Savoyard cooking dominates — think tartiflette, fondue and reblochon everywhere — but there’s enough pizza, burgers and bistro cooking spread across the four villages to avoid a week of nothing but cheese.
Down at the valley base, Allez Café Vélo in Bourg-Saint-Maurice is the natural stop for cyclists — a coffee-and-food spot built around the biking crowd, easy to find at the foot of the funicular. Up in Arc 1600, Chez Fifine sits right at the funicular arrival, doing seasonal dishes, pizzas and pastas on a terrace with wide mountain views — a five-minute walk from parking in summer. Both are safe, reliably open picks whenever you land.
In Arc 1800, La Folie Douce is the big winter après institution, sitting at the top of the Villards gondola with several kitchens under one roof — La Fruitière for a sit-down modern-Savoyard meal, La Petite Cuisine for canteen-style local cooking, and The Butcher for pizza, burgers and waffles. Up at Arc 1950, Chalet de Luigi does bar-and-restaurant duty on a 400 square-metre south-facing terrace next to the Marmottes slope. Both are documented mainly as winter venues, so it’s worth checking they’re running before you plan around them in summer.
For a straightforward pizza night, Le Cairn is one of the better-regarded options on the mountain, serving generous Italian and Savoyard plates, and in Arc 1600 Le Sanglier Qui Fume pairs a piste-side terrace with a roaring fire for when the weather turns.
Vélo Vert Festival 2026
The big date on the calendar is the Vélo Vert Festival, running 12–14 June 2026 in Les Arcs / Bourg-Saint-Maurice — its 17th edition and a new venue for the event. It’s a free-entry mountain bike trade show and test event, billed as one of the largest MTB test grounds in the world: brands and manufacturers set up demo fleets across roughly ten courses covering every discipline, so you can try bikes you’d never otherwise get your hands on before committing to a hire or a purchase. It also lines up with the start of the bike park’s preview-season opening, so expect the lifts and village to be busier than a normal June week — book accommodation early if you want to be there for it.
Les Arcs MTB Video
Les Arcs Mountain Biking FAQs
The Les Arcs bike park is open from 14 June to 14 September. Lifts generally run 9:00am – 17:00pm. Dates shift each year, so check the resort’s official site before you book.
Lift pass prices at Les Arcs are around Day pass: 30 € | Seaon Pass: 220 €. They change each season, so confirm on the official resort site before you travel.
The nearest airport to Les Arcs is Chambéry (1 hour 40 mins). Shared and private transfers run from the airport, and most will carry your bike for a small fee.
Les Arcs rides from a base around 800m up to 2600m, giving roughly 1800m of vertical drop.
Les Arcs has 8 bike-carrying lifts, so you can lap the descents without the climb back up.
Yes — Les Arcs has a lift-served bike park, so you can session the jumps and berms and lap the descents all day.
Les Arcs has 4 dedicated beginner trails plus easier blue runs, so newcomers can find their feet — but a lot of the riding suits confident intermediates and above, so build up gradually.
Bring a capable bike: a 150mm-travel enduro bike is a sensible minimum for Les Arcs’s descents, ideally on tough dual-ply tyres, with full downhill bikes at home in the bike park. The long, rough descents are hard on brakes and tyres, so arrive with everything in good order.
Les Arcs is a summer-only bike destination, open across roughly 14 June to 14 September. Late June and late August into early September are usually quieter and better value than the mid-July to mid-August peak.
Yes — check your policy explicitly covers mountain biking and downhill riding, as many standard travel policies exclude them. It is cheap protection against an expensive mountain rescue.
Please leave a comment below if you need specific advice for your mountain biking holiday to Les Arcs, or if you have any recommendations to help us improve this guide. Happy holidays!
