Ski more, travel less: the ultimate shortcut to the French Alps

Words: Angelina Villa-Clarke

We have take-off

This season, it couldn’t be easier to take off to a snow-capped landscape to soak up some wonderful, winter-time activities. British Airways’ flights to Grenoble, located in the French Alps and a gateway to some of Europe’s finest ski resorts, depart Thursday to Sunday from Gatwick and return to the UK Sunday to Thursday. In short, this means you can leave London in the morning and be on the slopes by the afternoon.

A weekend just waiting to happen

You’ll arrive at Grenoble Alpes Isère Airport, an easy-access airport located near the magnificent northern French Alps. One of its major advantages is the regular shuttle bus that operates between the airport and Grenoble train station – taking just 30 minutes. A shuttle also whisks you to the ski resorts of Les 2 Alpes and Alpe d’Huez, taking just two hours. These easy and quick transfers remove the hassle of complicated and overly long journeys to your resort. Factor in British Airways’ convenient flight times, and it also means that you can hop across for a long weekend of exploring the French Alps.

Incredible Isère

With a varied terrain, and no fewer than 21 ski resorts, the department of Isère offers something for everyone – whether you want to plunge down a long-piste descent or embrace the great outdoors with sledding, ice climbing or tobogganing. Divided across four massifs – Belledonne, Chartreuse, Vercors and Oisans – is a wide range of sports and activities to enjoy for all levels, whether you want to try Nordic skiing in a fairy-tale forest or snowshoeing across a silent, white-powdered landscape. While there are plenty of village resorts to discover, the largest resorts of Alpe d’Huez and Les 2 Alpes offer the greatest variety of slopes, including the longest vertical drops in the world.

Mountain highs in Les 2 Alpes

Its high altitude terrain, making for a long-season experience and snow guarantee (not to mention recent upgrades to lifts and cable cars) means that Les 2 Alpes is one of France’s premier ski destinations. Among its major attractions are its spellbinding vertical drops, with slopes climbing from 1,550m to a 3,600m summit. While advanced skiers can enjoy an impressive vertical drop of up to 2,300m and off-piste skiing, the resort also offers plenty of gentle descents. With its upside-down configuration, many of the easier runs are found towards the top of the mountain, with the steeper slopes nearer the bottom.

From plenty of green and blue slopes for beginners and families to the state-of-the-art lifts, gliding down the slopes is naturally a major attraction of Les 2 Alpes. But the area also offers a vast wealth of other activities to be savoured – whether that means exploring the ice cave, ice skating or visiting one of the Alpine villages.

Amazing Alpe d’Huez

Also within easy reach of Grenoble Airport is the charming resort of Alpe d’Huez, which sits on a fully south-facing plateau and delivers an average of 300 days of sunshine a year. Few resorts are able to match its variety of terrain, which caters to beginners, intermediates and advanced skiers. Stretching across 250km, the slopes climb from 1,860m to a heady 3,330m at the highest point of the Pic Blanc summit. The variety will keep everyone happy, especially daredevils keen to tackle the 16 black runs on offer. It also offers adaptive ski options for those with accessibility needs.

Cross-country skiing – with 30km of trails – is an inspiring way to discover this idyllic area, which stretches across five resort villages. There’s even an exceptional playground of fun slopes and zones dedicated to beginner and leisure skiers, where children will love the colourful themed attractions of Marcel’s Farm, Les Bergers and Les Bûcherons as well as the sledge on rails. For those who want to push themselves to the limit, Sarenne is the world’s longest black run, stretching for an impressive 16km, while The Tunnel is a legendary run that’s strictly for experts. Emerging from a dark tunnel on to a steep, mogul-filled slope, it has a gradient of up to 35° for a real butterflies-in-the-tummy effect.

Whether you’re a newbie, a powder hound, an old timer, a child – or a child at heart – your new favourite ski resort is closer than you think. 

Take off to Grenoble