How La Plagne became the coolest ski resort for millennials this season
Tiptoeing along the corridor in my pyjamas, I grab a quick shower in the unisex bathroom and wriggle into my salopettes.
When I step outside, a handful of stars are still twinkling in the sky.
I meet my guide, Nans, at the bottom of the slopes, he hands me a head torch and attaches strips of material called skins to the base of my skis.
“This will help them grip the snow for our ascent,” he explains.
I follow him up the slope using a cross-country gliding motion. Skiing uphill is surprisingly easy and I soon find a rhythm as we tour up empty pistes. As we climb, the sun rises with us, and the inky sky fades to fuchsia pink. “Fox,” Nans whispers as a silhouette scurries across the snow.
I’m in La Plagne – a ski resort in the French Alps which, until now, has catered mostly to the family market. But this winter, it’s upping its appeal to millennial visitors with a new concept in hostel accommodation, ho36. With beds from €18 a night, the option to self-cater and cheap beers at the bar (pale ale from €2.90), you can save on accommodation and spend most of your holiday budget on Instagrammable experiences, like sunrise ski touring, instead.
Located in Plagne Centre – the largest of the resort’s 10 interconnected villages – ho36 emanates urban cool. The decor is all filament light bulbs, corrugated panelling and retro tiles. It’s completely flexible too: while traditional chalet holidays restrict you to a full week’s stay, at ho36 you can arrive any day of the week, and stay as short or long as you like in a shared dorm or private room.
When I visit in January, the open-plan bar/restaurant becomes my lounge. The wifi’s fast and there’s always someone to chat to or play a board game with in the chillout area. Failing that, Titi the cat is reliably good company. Inside, ho36 feels like a sociable city hub – but instead of skyscrapers, the views are of soaring peaks, frosted forests and the cloud-topped hulk of Mont Blanc itself (4,810m).
And the millennial appeal doesn’t stop at trendy digs.
“Sixty kilometres an hour? I can beat that,” I jibe my friend Lizzie as we track each other on Yuge – a free app that monitors your speed, mileage and overall performance as you whiz around the Paradiski area. It also acts as a virtual guide, giving GPS ski itineraries and lunch recommendations which, in a ski area with 475 pistes, 160 lifts and around 200 bars and restaurants, is handy.
Paradiski’s slopes range from pretty tree-lined trails to exposed faces that descend from the 3,250m-high glacier lift. It’s the abundance of easy blue and green pistes that give the resort its family-friendly rep. But there’s plenty for the more advanced to sink their skis into: choose from 115 red and black slopes; challenging off-piste couloirs; long descents to the traditional villages of Plagne Montalbert (1,350m) and Montchavin (1,250m); or day-long adventures across to neighbouring resort Les Arcs.
When the clock strikes apres o’clock, us hip young things schuss to new craft ale pub, Le Brix, before sipping cucumber gin cocktails and flat whites at the new Ice Floe cafe. For DJs and dancing, we park our skis outside La Bergerie, and then head to seasonaire hangout Scotty’s. The final stop is Le Saloon in Plagne Bellecote, which keeps going until 4am – thankfully come closing time guests at ho36 are taxied back for free.
Other activities to keep guests busy off the slopes include an Escape Room with two games to pick from and the new Deep Nature Spa.
For my final night, I join two other girls from the hostel in trying something different – the Land Rover Shelters. Modelled on an Arctic research base, this new glamping experience sits at 1,600m on the edge of a larch forest. Taking our overnight bags to a pod of remote cabins, we each pick a bed in the sleeping huts, then set to work making dinner in the kitchen hut. I feel like I’m starring in the film Into the Wild, trying to survive in the wilderness (except I’m stirring a fondue, glugging beaujolais and eyeing-up a bar of Swiss chocolate for pudding, rather than hunting and gathering).
I wake early the next morning for my second sunrise of the trip. When I creak open the door of my cabin, the dawn light is casting an ethereal blue glow across the snow and flakes are falling from the sky. It feels like a real adventure which, like sunrise ski touring, I couldn’t have justified if I’d forked out for a week in an expensive chalet. Save on accommodation and splurge on adventure: I could get used to this kind of ski trip.
Travel essentials
Getting there
EasyJet flies from London Gatwick to Geneva from £42 return. Transfers from Geneva take two hours.
Staying there
Rooms at ho36 start at €18 per night for a dorm room, and from €90 per night for a double room.
More information
A “First Tracks” sunrise ski touring experience can be arranged through Oxygene Ski and costs from €49pp.
A night in the Land Rover Shelter costs from €60pp based on six sharing, B&B.
