Les Arcs MTB Guide: Paradiski Bike Park, Trails & Lifts

From the steep black gradients of Rock N'Arolles to the long alpine descent off the Transarc cable car, Les Arcs offers one of the highest-altitude lift-served bike parks in the French Alps, all reachable by train.

By the IMPT Travel desk · Published 2026-05-30

The opening 90 seconds of Rock N'Arolles drop riders through 550 metres of vertical down a black-graded ribbon of roots and rock that sits well above the treeline. That single descent — one of seven dedicated downhill trails in the Les Arcs Bike Park — captures what makes this corner of the Tarentaise different from the lower-altitude parks further north: lifts that top out near 2,600 metres, alpine meadow above the forest, and a vertical drop close to 1,800 metres from summit to valley floor.

Les Arcs sits inside the Paradiski domain, the same lift-connected playground that swallows La Plagne across the valley via the Vanoise Express. In summer the network shrinks but the riding terrain remains substantial: roughly 180 kilometres of marked bike trails spread across the slopes above Bourg-Saint-Maurice, served by a handful of chairs and cable cars repurposed for two wheels between mid-June and mid-September.

Signature Trails

The park breaks down into seven downhill runs, eight enduro itineraries and a growing cross-country and e-MTB network. Standouts include:

• Woodstock — 5.7 km, 515 m of descent. A flowing red-graded mid-mountain run that is often cited as the most repeatable lap in the park.
• Rock N'Arolles — 4.3 km, 550 m descent. Steeper, rockier and graded for experienced riders only.
• La trank's — 5 km, 360 m descent. Jump-heavy and machine-built, used as a warm-up for the bigger black runs.
• Legend — 4.6 km, 380 m descent. A natural-feeling line through the larch forest below Arc 1800.
• La 8 — a black-graded enduro descent that strings together off-piste-style switchbacks and is the trail most regularly featured in rider POV edits.

Lower down, the Easy Rider and Kids Rock trails plus the Marais pumptrack in Bourg-Saint-Maurice give families and first-timers somewhere to build confidence without committing to a full mountain lap.

Bike Park Structure and Lifts

The lift backbone for mountain bikes is the Cachette chairlift out of Arc 1600 (the chair that opens first at season pre-opening), the Transarc cable car from Arc 1800 up to the Col de la Chal, and the Vagère chairlift, which feeds riders into the mid-mountain trail network above Arc 1800. From the top of Transarc, a single descent can run almost the full 1,700 metres of vertical back to the valley, mixing high-mountain rocky track, alpine meadow traverse and flowing singletrack through the forest.

The park grades sit roughly at four beginner trails, four intermediate, nine advanced and four expert — a structure weighted toward riders who already know how to brake on steep terrain.

Getting There Without Flying

Les Arcs is one of the most rail-accessible high-altitude bike parks in the Alps. Bourg-Saint-Maurice station sits at the end of the line from Paris-Gare de Lyon, with TGV services in around 4 hours 30 minutes and a direct Eurostar from London and Brussels during the winter season. From the station, the fully electric Arcs Express funicular climbs to Arc 1600 in roughly 7 minutes, with bikes accepted in summer.

For travellers who do fly, Chambéry is the closest airport at about 1 hour 40 minutes by road, with Geneva, Lyon and Grenoble also within transfer range. The carbon delta between a London-Paris-Bourg rail itinerary and a fly-and-drive option is substantial, and the funicular last mile removes the need for a hire car on resort.

Shoulder vs Peak Season

The lifts run from 14 June through 14 September in a typical year, with a phased opening: only the Cachette chairlift and a handful of pedestrian-friendly trails operate on the first three weekends, before the full park comes online in early July. July and August deliver the most lifts and the busiest events calendar, but they also bring the heaviest queues at Transarc.

Early September offers the cleanest compromise — full lift access, drier loam after the August traffic has bedded the berms in, and quieter chairs. Late June carries weather risk above 2,000 metres, with snow patches sometimes lingering on the upper Arpette sector.

Events and Racing

Les Arcs hosts stops on the iXS European Downhill Cup and rounds of the French DH Cup, drawing a strong regional racing crowd without the scale of a UCI World Cup weekend. The Enduro World Cup itself has stayed elsewhere in France — Loudenvielle and Haute-Savoie venues such as Morillon and Les Gets have carried the recent international rounds — which means Les Arcs feels less circus-like in peak weeks than its bigger-name neighbours.

Where to Stay

The four resort villages each suit a different rider. Arc 1600 sits at the top of the funicular and is the most car-free, train-friendly base. Arc 1800 is the largest, with direct access to the Transarc and Vagère lifts and the deepest restaurant choice. Arc 1950 is a purpose-built pedestrian village close to the higher-altitude trails, while Bourg-Saint-Maurice at 850 metres offers cheaper accommodation, the pumptrack, and same-day return on the funicular for riders happy to commute up the mountain.

A trail-by-trail POV tour of Les Arcs Bike Park covering the main descents from Arc 1600 up to Arpette.