Resort Information

Les 2 Alpes is a friendly resort in spite of being one of the largest. Contrary to popular belief it's not a purpose built resort, and has developed in a rather eclectic way. Visitors usually find a warm welcome here, and most of the shop and barkeepers do their best to be helpful although their English might not be fluent. The lifties smile and hold the chairs, and the ski-ing has something for everyone.

For beginners, the perfect flat areas and small, easy lifts in the village make it ideal during the winter season, and there are also several easy descents for those first forays up the mountain. For expert and/or experienced skiers, there are many blacks, most of which are steep. Many of the black runs are left unpisted , in addition to the many official off piste descents, AND there is easy access to La Grave. For intermediate skiers, there are some interesting runs, but care should be taken with the blues for, although many are easy some of them would be classed as red in other resorts!If in any doubt whatsoever, ask someone who knows.

Nightlife is lively and varied with reasonable facilities for children. The restaurants are numerous and I recommend: La Petite Marmite for a really nice special meal; Chalet Mounier if you really want to push the boat out; L'Abri and Il Caminetto for pizzas, and L'Igloo for a good cheap lunch in resort. There are a great variety of other restaurants including TexMex, a good Thai is Le Bangkok, with a rather idiosyncratic owner (he cooks well though!)

Bars are also very varied: "British" bars are: Smokey Joes; The Secret;The Red Frog and The Board Room (which is more international and is next door to Ski Extreme - see ski shops). ; The Dutch up in the "Village" area is fun; Le Pressoir is a very French piano bar, and Le Saxo is a lively, young French bar.  Many of the bars have Eurosport and Sky Sports, so you can keep up with the latest football and rugby. The bars are mostly open until 2am. My personal favourites are quiet French bars with no obvious tourist attraction such as Le Club and L'Igloo. No English spoken in these at all!

Le Brasilien is a bar/disco brilliant for music and dancing, at bar prices, but often very crowded after 10.30pm. It's open until 02.00 and is my favourite night spot.

There are three discos in town: "L'Opéra" in the "Village" area focusing on "club" music;and the pricey, not so friendly, close to the centre L'Avalanche . At the entrance to the resort you'll find La Casa, which is large and has been gaining a following in the last year or two.

Supermarkets are OK, the cheapest is Marche U on the main street, and probably has the biggest selection. There are also two Casinos . Prices are reasonable.

Sports shops are plentiful, I work extensively with Ski Extreme, (carving and freeride skis, good boots, and run by Jutta who speaks fluent English.) In addition I recommend Sport Emotion (Twinner near the entrance to the resort) , a well run shop with a good, selection of equipment and very friendly staff who speak good english. I also find Jacques Sports (where Cedric the best boot man in LDA hangs out) very helpful and well placed at the bottom of the nursery lifts. They have lockers (bookable in advance) for storing your gear overnight in winter.

The above are my personal opinions and favourites, so should be taken as such. Full listed information  is on the Les 2 Alpes website which you can access from my links page.