Les Deux Alpes Family Holidays & Breaks

Overview

Together with Alpe d'Huez known as the Grandes Alpes, Les Deux Alpes offers plenty of easy and intermediate terrain over 225km of piste, all a pleasingly short (hour-long) transfer from Grenoble airport.

As a place for family holidays, it does have its drawbacks – there are some very gentle nursery slopes below, but the ski-school meeting place is a gondola ride up at the Crêtes area, and there’s morning mayhem as you try to get the kids there on time. Then the easiest lifts are chocka for most of the day, and there’s only one easy run back to town – a snaking path that’s like the M25 at rush hour. You can head all the way up to the glacier, but it gets crowded, and the skiing back down is narrow and busy. But if you can deal with these drawbacks, you will have fun: there’s lots of good off-piste, especially the runs down to La Grave off the back of the glacier.

A real town, Les Deux Alpes is also France's second-oldest ski resort. And in summer, it opens up for all kinds of fun and organised activities, from pétanque to paragliding.

Things to do with kids in Les Deux Alpes

Take youngsters to the easy and readily accessible Pied Moutet area. There's also a crèche, a kindergarten and a children's ski school (ESF).

Head for the freestyle snowpark, one of Europe's biggest and best, with beginners', intermediate and advanced areas, new features added every season and plenty of competitions.

Enjoy the good toboganning terrain, the ice-rink, the kids’ quad bikes, the indoor pool and the bowling alley.

Visit the pretty village of Venosc, accessible by gondola, and take a scenic helicopter ride to Alpe d'Huez.

In summer, do watersports on the Lac du Buissonière at the entrance to the resort. Seasonal activities in and around Les Deux Alpes also includes mini-golf, geocaching, fishing, horse-riding, volleyball, mountain-biking, treetop adventures, via ferrata, canyoning, canoeing/kayaking, hydrospeeding and hot-air ballooning. You can also ski or walk on the glacier and visit its ice caves.

Pascal Bulgakov © Tourist Office of Les 2 Alpes

Les Deux Alpes centre in winter.

Eat

Les Deux Alpes has several good-value crêperies among its 50-or-so restaurants. The mountain restaurants are rather run-of-the-mill. For more on eating in the region, see our French Alps destination guide.

Bruno Longo © Tourist Office of Les 2 Alpes

The summer luge in Les Deux Alpes.

When to go to Les Deux Alpes

The ski season in Isère lasts from December to April, but Les Deux Alpes is one of the last resorts where you can ski in summer too, on Europe's biggest skiable glacier (lifts open mid-June to end of August and some dates in October in addition to the main ski season).

In summer, come in July or August for the best range of activities, although bear in mind that with the French holidaying en masse in August, it will be busier then.

Pascal Bulgakov © Tourist Office of Les 2 Alpes