Les 2 Alpes, UCPA, 4 days 3 nights

Les 2 Alpes, UCPA, 4 days 3 nights 

01. Summary
This post introduces a ski trip of 5 people to the Les 2 Alpes in the southern part of the French Alpes in December, 2017.

keywords: ski trip, multiple people, France, southern Alps, UCPA


02. Introdcution

Our schedule is listed as below:
12-20 Stuttgart to Paris, Paris to Lyon, Lyon to Grenoble
12-21 Grenoble to Les 2 Alpes at Venosc
12-21 to 12-24 UCPA at Venosc, skiing
12-24 Les 2 Alpes at Venosc to Grenoble
12-25 Grenoble to Lyon, Lyon to Paris, Paris to Stuttgart

03. Transportation

We didn't plan for five people at the beginning so we booked public transportation from Stuttgart to Les 2 Alpes. It may be more reasonable and cheaper to rent a car for five people and drive for the whole trip.

Airplane: We booked tickets from Air France because it is the cheapest airline when we were booking. The flight ticket costs about 180 euro for a round trip. The flight tickets we bought include a transfer at Paris. I was also lucky to have a nice sunset view from the back journey on the airplane.

Flixbus: the ticket from Lyon to Grenoble is very cheap costing only 5 euro/person one-way. [Screenshot of the booking webset]

Shuttle bus VFD: the ticket costs 12 euro/person one-way, it needs to be booked early. [Should have been very careful on the bus station and schedule]

Taxi: because we didn't book the VFD bus early we have to book a taxi to Les 2 Alpes at Venosc. We called a taxi company called "Taxis Transoisans" before departure and it costed 180 euros (170 euros and 10 euros as tips) for 5 people with luggages. There are also other taxi companies potentially.


04. Staying at UCPA at Venosc
UCPA is an outdoor sport organization for young people. The one we went is

UCPA - 15, Place de l'Alpe Venosc 
38860 Les Deux Alpes 
Tel. : 04 76 80 52 83 
E-mail: 2alpes-venosc@ucpa.asso.fr

04.0 Summary of package
The package we booked (375 euros, 4 days 3 nights break) includes a ski set (ski board, ski shoes, poles), a four-day ski pass, food for 4 days, accommodation for 3 nights.

04.1. Routine
The procedure is first checking in at the front desk on the zero floor of the UCPA's main building. The receptionist will give you the ski pass with a receipt in case that the ski pass is lost. She/he will also give you a piece of paper where there is the information of food, password for entering the main building, the room for snow instruments, and our own rooms. We then go to choose the ski set of our size with the help from the staff. Everyone has to deposit 5 euro for the ski pass.

04.2. Food
All the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are at 1st floor of the main building of UCPA. They provide very good food including a variety of meat such as beef, chicken, fish, pork, etc. Fruits, deserts, bread, yogurt, etc are also available every day.

A lunch pack is possible if you write down your name and number of desired lunch packs for the next day and the lunch pack can be picked next morning in the kitchen.

04.3. Accommodation
The room is like a hostel with several single-person bed, a shared shower in the room, and a toilet shared by 3 rooms. Our room has a nice view of the mountains.

04.4. Location of rooms

The bathroom is in our own room. The toilet is shared among three rooms. Extra toilets are on the 1st and 0th floor. The dinning room is at 1st floor. Same for the sauna and hot tub room.

04.5. Leisure things to do

UCPA has a hot tub and sauna available at a cost of 10 euros and reservation one hour earlier. There is a site just behind the UCPA building where people can watch starry sky at night. A place for bowling, pool, and other games is right in front of the UCPA building. There are also plenty of shops, restaurants and bars in the small village. We went to a bar for drinking on the third night. An old man is so nice that he treated Xin an Oysters.

The French Christmas market is very small but is also beautiful.

We went for hot tub and sauna at 12-23 night at a place called "Aqua Center" recommended by the officer at the Les 2 Alpes tourist center. It costs 20 euro/person without time limit until 8 pm. They have two hot tubes with waves and two sauna rooms of which one is dry and the other is wet.

During night, there is a platform for watching the starry sky just behind the UCPA building.

05. Les 2 Alpes ski resort
05.1. Resort map

There is a free shuttle bus escorting people every 30 mins in case you don't want to walk with ski boards. However, if living in UCPA the best route to access the ski area is first go to the Diable lift and then ski along the Cretes or Jandri to the base to take Jandri Express to the top area.

05.2. Ski routes live information

05.3. Sceneries

05.4. Skiing experience

• Snow park is interesting with bumpers.
• The route Jandri is a 10km long trail from 3200m to the village.
• There is a magic blanket for beginners at the beginning of Jandri 1 and can be access by taking the lift OEUFS BLANCS.

5. Ski school

06. Summary
Total expense:
Transportation: 303 euro [driving may be cheaper for group with more than 5 people]
UCPA: 378 euro (ski, living, food)
Other food and drinks: 80 euro