Les Arcs 1800 Ski in Ski out Holiday Apartment, Bourg-St-Maurice, French Alps Reviews

I booked this apartment in the "older" Arc 1800 village, partly due to what I felt was a reasonable price for a UK school holiday period, and partly because I thought the modern Arc 1950/2000 villages would be busier & noisier. I'm 60, but with a teenage daughter who's not yet interested in night-life/après-ski life, and more into books than x-boxes! It was very quiet, no evening noise at all.

The location is excellent....you can see the chairlift's base station from the apartment block door....it's 10 metres from door to chair, so on doubtful weather days, you can wait until it starts up before leaving. There was never a queue, so it's simply clothes on, boots on, out the door, skis on, on the chair & away....and as mentioned in other reviews, this lift lets you bypass some lengthier queues & gives you a choice of big lifts to ski down to, to start your day. There is a decent red/blue area just above the apartment block, so beginners are well catered for locally.

On two of the days, the weather wasn't great, and the upper lifts closed early, leaving hundreds of Arc 1950/2000 residents with a very long queue for buses back up to their apartments. The apartment door is fairly close to the exit door, so it's perfect for a "quick start" or an exhausted return! With a ski pass office a few yards away, along with a ski hire shop (we took our own skis), and a nice wee baker/grocer shop with freshly-baked parisienne baguettes, or pizzas in the evening, you could survive without even a supermarket or restaurant outing.

The apartment's facilities are fine for a week, it's comfortable, warm, well equipped, and certainly ideal for a small family or group....my only experience of apartments in France, so I can't compare. The flat-screen TV in the lounge shows only French freeview channels, so I took along our 12 yr old portable DVD player, which promptly died the first day, so if TV/films are important for you (eg to entertain kids), taking some portable media player may be a good idea.

We didn't visit any of the Arc 1800 restaurants, but did visit the superb Café du Chocolat!....more than once!! Fantastic hot chocolates & cakes, and plenty of "take-away" goodies :0)

We used the excellent "Cool Bus" private hire from/to Geneva airport, quite expensive for 2 people, but the same price if there are 6 of you, very flexible & helpful drivers....took us via a wee supermarket on the way, for essentials for the first day.