Holiday Structure, Bookings and Payments
The Riding
In short: mind-blowing. The only reason we set up in Savoie many years ago after 8 years of biking all over the Alps is that we couldn’t find better trails and more varied terrain anywhere! Don’t just take our word for it – see what the magazines and our past guests have to say!
The trails vary from fairly challenging to extremely challenging and technical. Anyone of intermediate level and above, looking for a different kind of rush, will find what they’re looking for in Les Arcs. If your a regular at “man-made trail centres” and ride the red/black routes comfortably, the riding will be right up your street. However, those who prefer bigger off-the-map adventures in natural terrain can rest assured that we have something to challenge anyone of any standard. That said, the trailAddiction philosophy is never to thrill by scaring people, but by the sheer quality, length and fast, flowing nature of the trails we can show you. We’ll only put you with riders of a the same standard as yourself, but this is why it’s really important to tell us your riding preferences at the same time of enquiring about dates and availability . (see The Guiding). Take a look at our technical skill and fitness level guide to see how we’d assess your own riding level versus the holidays we offer. If you’re in any doubt, we’d strongly suggest booking on one of our Alpine Improvers Coaching Weeks, just in case.
Kit & Holiday Preparation
- Bike – We generally use bikes that have around 5-7″ (125 – 180mm) of front and rear travel, although some of our hardier guides prefer to use solidly-build hard-tails. Its really a matter of personal preference. Strength over lightness and a relaxed (slack head-angle) is ideal. Super-long enduro style bikes are great for straight line stability, but you will lose out in our very tight alpine switchbacks. (eg 26″ ‘aint dead, in our humble opinion!)
- Tyres – at least 2.3″, (2.5″ or more is recommended) DUAL-PLY / DH / DOUBLE-DOWN / ENDURO+ reinforced sidewalls & casing are absolutely essential otherwise we guarantee you will be fixing flats every run (and will quickly become the least-favourite person in your group if we all have to wait for you!) . Better still, if possible, tubeless with some kind of rim-protection-insert, at least for the rear wheel if you are a heavier rider.
- Brakes – 5000m+ a day is hard on the brakes! No brake is “too much”, and your screaming forearms will thank you for a decent investment in your braking setup. Most importantly, make sure your brakes are freshly-bled with new fluid, and new pads, before your trip. Large brake rotors are a superb upgrade (min 200mm front and rear for the average weight adult male rider).
- Spare Brake Pads – At least 1 complete (front and rear) set, but be safe and bring two complete sets if you can! And ALWAYS go for sintered pads since they handle the heat of long descents so much better.
- Spare Tubes – DH tubes for our lift accessed weeks, please bring at least “all mountain” tubes for backcountry weeks – we still do a lot of decending!
- Spare Mech Hanger – if it breaks during your stay, your bike will be effectively useless without a replacement
- CamelBak / BackPack with usual riding spares (pump, multitool etc), large enough to carry a jacket, water, and packed lunch.
- Packable Waterproof jacket.
- Usual summer riding clothes and shoes (i.e. shorts, short or mid-sleeved jersey).
- Extra base layers for cold days
- Relaxed / comfy clothes for the evening
- Earplugs – essential for your Mountain Refuge if you are a light sleeper
- Helmet – for our lift accessed weeks either a full-face or a half-lid is fine, its really a case of what you feel comfortable in using, but we’d certainly recommend upgrading to a removeable-chin-bar model if you don’t have one already. For our backcountry / Trans-Savoie weeks if you are bringing a full-face please also bring a half-lid as well for the days where we pedal – you’ll overheat quickly on the climbs, if you don’t!
- Gloves and any desired body armour – at least knee pads for both backcountry or lift accessed weeks.
- Riding sunglasses or Goggles for protection against both the sun and foreign objects – this is important since you are riding in a group and often eating the dust of the rider in front of you.
- Some kind of splash-guard or front mini–mud-guard is very useful if you want to keep mud and water out of your face and eyes.
You will need to take out specific insurance for a mountain biking holiday. The key thing to check in any policy is that they cover you for accident / emergency recovery. If the worst happens and a helicopter is required the bill could be well over £10,000. We often ride on paths and trails in the “backcountry”, i.e. away from the marked, dedicated mountain bike trails (kind of like “off-piste” skiing). Although these are all marked as “paths” – and in France, you ARE allowed to ride on them – check you are covered for this. We require all riders to be insured when riding with a host, for the sake of your own safety. Unfortunately, we can’t go as far as recommending any particular product since ultimately it is your choice as to which provider will give the right level of cover that you wish to take. Its advisable to arrange this at the time of booking (well before your holiday) – in the event that you are injured or ill and unable to attend your holiday, your insurance should cover the holiday cost if you need to cancel at the last minute.
Yes! All of our chalets have limited washing facilities. A small charge will have your clothes returned clean and fresh direct to your room. However this service is subject to staff availability so may not be available all the time. On Trans-Savoie Tours, since we move location most days, this service becomes difficult/impractical but we will try and help, if you are really desperate.
In our opinion, a chin-guard and arm / leg pads are worth wearing if you have them. The philosiphy is simple – if you fall off (and lets face it, you just never know when that might happen no matter how easy the trail) its going to hurt less if you are padded-up! Since we use the lifts to do most of the hard work for us, then its no real pain to wear/carry the armour, and it does help with confidence levels too. That way you can more freely enjoy the trails, with less worry about how much the gravel rash would sting if the worse was to happen! To put it in perspective, on xc-bias days we generally dump the full-face in favour of a half-lid, and leave the pads at home. The descents may be the same difficulty as before – but we ride them more slowly and more cautiously without the extra protection of the armour. If you dont want to invest (understandably), we can usually loan you a set for free – just ask us at the start of your week in the resort. Alternatively we have a selection of our favourite Knee and Elbow armour for sale at extremely competitive prices, at our Les Arcs Chalets. In summary, don’t be put off by some of our photos if body armour is not your style – many of our guests are body armour first-timers too!
If you have your own ‘Enduro-Style’ or ‘Aggresive Trail-Style’ bike that is suitable for Alpine riding (powerful disk brakes, strong wheels & tyres, relaxed geometry) we’d always recommend to bring that if you can, rather than rent something you are not used to riding.
trailAddiction can help to put you in contact with our most reliable local suppliers, but you’ll need to contact them directly to discuss your exact requirements and to arrange collecting and returning the bike yourself.
There are additional logistical problems in renting, depending on your own travel plans (for example, if you don’t have a car to collect / return the bike to the shop).
On our point-to-point tours or refuge trips, if anything goes wrong with your rental bike during the week, you are likely to be a very long way from the hire shop (ie too far to take it back there) in order to have it serviced if needed.
In summary, it’s not impossible, and we’ve made it work in the past – but it just takes a little extra planning and effort. But you must be aware that if something goes wrong with your hire bike during the week, we can’t guarantee that we can arrange to get you back to the hire shop. (If you take your own bike, then we can visit the nearest bike shop to our current location each day, which is of course easier to arrange, around the riding plans for the rest of the group).
Travel / Location / Weather
However here’s a guideline as to the flight times to aim for, to minimise your waiting time at the airport if you plan to share with other trailAddiction riders arriving on the same tour.
Arrival / Inbound: Latest recommended flight arrival to Geneva = 14h00.
Please note, its not only about the transfer – arriving too late means you won’t have time to properly enjoy your first meal, unpack, build bikes and get a decent rest before your first day on the trails!
For your outbound journey, we recommend an earliest flight departure from Geneva of 13:00.
Check out train times and costs on www.thetrainlline.com
This location is our base (our home!) in the Alps and we have limited workshop tools available here.
This is the same meeting point if you are coming by car or via an airport transfer service. If you are taking the train – see above – we can pick you up, its not far.
Please plan to arrive no earlier than 15:00 on your arrival Saturday – we need time to see out the previous week’s guests, and clean & prepare our equipment for the following week.
If you need to kill some time, we’d suggest chilling out at the tourist’s lake here, visiting the Medieval town of Moutiers (15 minutes before the meeting point), or buying any supplies you might need at the local supermarket and Decathlon outdoor superstore – there’s a restaurant and beer terrace there too.
Once you arrive, you can build your bike and have a cold or hot drink and snacks in our communal area or relax and meet the rest of your group out on our sunny terrace, before we transfer up to your first night’s hotel at around 17h30 or as soon as everyone has arrived and is ready to go. Dinner is at 19h00 and it is a 30 minute transfer to the hotel, but you’ll also need to check in, find your room, take a shower etc.
Please don’t plan to arrive late (NOT after 18h00) – it is difficult for us to transfer you to the hotel in time to check in for dinner.
If you are delayed, please call or message us and we can give you directions to go directly to the Day 1 hotel location. However, this means you will need to recover or move your car on Day 1 and will probably mean you will miss up to half a day of riding, depending on logistics and the exact riding plans of the rest of the group.
Yes. There is free parking available in a safe, quiet, carpark directly next to our meeting point. You can leave your car here all week and we will arrange to return you to your car at the end of the tour.
If you are really in a hurry, you can leave on Friday evening….but of course we’d recommend staying, if you can!
Accommodation & Food
All of our rooms are either twin or triple rooms, with ensuites. For larger single-sex groups, we also have one very spacious Quad room available. We allocate roomings based on group composition, any indicated preference at the time of booking, and to best accommodate every guest on a given week. In some situations we may need to split your group to suit the roomings available. For example: if a group of 4 makes a booking, but we only have one twin and one triple room available (i.e. 5 spaces), we would split the group into two groups of two guests. However, we cannot guarantee the remaining bed would be left vacant unless an additional “under-occupancy” surcharge is paid at the time of booking (i.e. it may be filled with a customer travelling alone, although this would be very unlikely!). This allocation arrangement is applied in rare cases, and in reasonable circumstances only, i.e. we would never enforce mixed-sex room sharing, and couples are always guaranteed a private room to themselves!
Yes, although we have limited availability and a surcharge will apply. Ask us for details.
Yes. Our professional catering staff have many years of experience and vegetarian / wheat free / anti-allergy options are par for the course and so much more than the same as everyone else but with something missing. However due to the limited preparation facilities, extreme allergies eg nuts, may not be possible to accommodate. If in doubt, please ask us!
Check out train times and costs on www.thetrainlline.com
This location is our base (our home!) in the Alps and we have limited workshop tools available here.
This is the same meeting point if you are coming by car or via an airport transfer service. If you are taking the train – see above – we can pick you up, its not far.
Please plan to arrive no earlier than 15:00 on your arrival Saturday – we need time to see out the previous week’s guests, and clean & prepare our equipment for the following week.
If you need to kill some time, we’d suggest chilling out at the tourist’s lake here, visiting the Medieval town of Moutiers (15 minutes before the meeting point), or buying any supplies you might need at the local supermarket and Decathlon outdoor superstore – there’s a restaurant and beer terrace there too.
Once you arrive, you can build your bike and have a cold or hot drink and snacks in our communal area or relax and meet the rest of your group out on our sunny terrace, before we transfer up to your first night’s hotel at around 17h30 or as soon as everyone has arrived and is ready to go. Dinner is at 19h00 and it is a 30 minute transfer to the hotel, but you’ll also need to check in, find your room, take a shower etc.
Please don’t plan to arrive late (NOT after 18h00) – it is difficult for us to transfer you to the hotel in time to check in for dinner.
If you are delayed, please call or message us and we can give you directions to go directly to the Day 1 hotel location. However, this means you will need to recover or move your car on Day 1 and will probably mean you will miss up to half a day of riding, depending on logistics and the exact riding plans of the rest of the group.
Yes. There is free parking available in a safe, quiet, carpark directly next to our meeting point. You can leave your car here all week and we will arrange to return you to your car at the end of the tour.
If you are really in a hurry, you can leave on Friday evening….but of course we’d recommend staying, if you can!