The Club Med Arcs Extreme 2000 |
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| Day and night FreeStyle - February 2004 |
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One of the first FreeStyle clubs.... |
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| The Extreme Arcs village is one of the three first Montagne villages to try out a new concept: the FreeStyle village. Its recipe is simple: a special environment, a lot of animation and an open bar (completely free) until 5 am.... The mix is explosive and works seamlessly... |
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The Club package's perks |
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| For those who want to enjoy their holidays as much as possible, the package has many perks: ski passes available upon arrival, ski equipment rental and signing up for ski lessons on the premises, foot-of-the-runs area to keep your skis.... No time's wasted queuing up or going from one place to another : once arrived in the village, you are immediately ready to start exploring the resort's pistes.
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| What's more, the Club offers other activities: health club, dance lessons..
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| The gym.... mostly used when the weather's bad... > |
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A high level of comfort |
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| The Arcs 2000 Extreme village is a "3 tridents" on a scale from 2 to 4. It has a high level of comfort, even if the rooms are slightly less comfortable than the common areas... The rooms remain nonetheless spacious and are all equipped with cable TV. You probably won't be spending much time there anyways, considering the busy schedule that awaiting you! |
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| A high standard of quality and variety of food await you, as usual with the Club Med. You can have your meals in the main room (various buffets) or reserve a table in the restaurant, which serves Savoy specialities such as, depending on the days, raclette, fondue or tartiflette. Drinks and snacks are also often available. In the evening, the aperitif is a time of day you won't want to miss....
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| < A shot of Genepi (a local alcohol) before returning to the pistes for an afternoon of skiing? |
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Constant entertainment |
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| No being bored! The village offers constant entertainment: sketches and jokes abound, there is music band in the early evening, a time-honoured show after dinner and parties are organised (usually involving alchohol) in the night club....It's quite an intense rhythm...The entertainment is of high quality and the atmosphere is as good as one would expect it to be. |
| The time-honoured show is very well executed : all the GOs work hard on it, including the head of the village, whom you can see here in the front of the picture....>
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| The parties are extremely animated, go on for a long time.... and are always a success! The atmosphere is great and whether you are a party animal or prefer lively discussions while sipping mulled wine, you'll find your heart's content.
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| < A band enlivens the beginning of the night...
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The open bar: the heart of the village
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| An open bar is not something you'll find often offered in the mountain tourism industry! Congratulations to the Club Med which successfully managed to transplant this mostly English idea to our Alpine lands. The principle is extremely simple : all the drinks (except for the "higher-end" alcohols such as champagne, V.S.O.P Cognacs, etc) are free.
More importantly, the bar is the place where everybody comes together, where you discuss weather conditions, past ski trip throughout the world, where you make friends. The atmosphere is laid back and friendly, without any of the excesses you might expect to encounter. Later during the night, the night owls will take advantage of the night club and its free flow of alcohol... |
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An exceptional playground |
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| The Arcs' skiing domain, which includes, Arcs 2000, Arcs 1800, Arcs 1600 and Peisey Vallandry is, according to us, one of the best skiing domains in Europe. |
| View of the Aiguille Rouge summit (ft)...> |
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| The variety of the pistes, exposures and altitudes make this domain an extraordinary play ground. Its link with La Plagne's skiing domain also makes it one of the largest: together they compose Paradiski which has 264 miles of runs.... |
| < The domain has a stunning view on the Mont-Blanc |
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| The ESF is the organism that provides the ski lessons thus ensuring lessons of a good quality. The lessons are organised per level (of course) : Beginner,1, 2, 3, Expert... |
| The meeting point for the ski lessons...> |
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| Please note there are no ski lessons on Sundays (arrival and departure days) and on Wednesday mornings (the monitors get a half day off)...which will be greatly appreciated by those feeling sore because of the physical efforts or because they had a couple too many shooters the night before. |
| < If you are part of a Expert or 3A ski group, you'll probably get a chance to discover the resort's extraordinary off-piste domain. |
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Practical tips |
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Don't forget the club is perched 2000m high, it can get very cold up there...
If you wish to drive up to the club, you'll have to park your car in the paying parking lot (10 euros/night for the covered parking lot). What's more, if it's snowing, you absolutely have to use snow chains in the last part of the ascent (the local police will make sure you do). The more practical and cheaper way of going to the club is therefore to park your car at the bottom (free parking lot and there is a shuttle to take you to the resort). |
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Our opinion |
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| For those who want to mix sports and partying we strongly recommend this resort: the FreeStyle package (and the open bar!), the Club package's many perks, the superior quality of the skiing domain are the Club Arcs Extreme's strong points... It is obvious that with such a you won't have time to be bored (or to rest, for that matter!). A warning though : Partying all night long and then skiing the next day is not something everybody can do. We suggest you make sure you'll have time for several breaks during the week... or plan on taking a day or two off to rest before going back to work! |
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Links |
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