Skier & Snowboarder-Submitted Reviews for Saint Sorlin d'Arves
Planning a ski trip to Saint Sorlin d'Arves? Browse our collection of visitor-generated reviews that rank the mountain and ski town on a scale of one to five stars in the following categories: Overall Rating, All-Mountain Terrain, Nightlife, Terrain Park and Family Friendly. See how Saint Sorlin d'Arves stacks up to others in terms of skiing and après, and read up on pros, cons and comments from fellow skiers and snowboarders. Don't forget to submit your own Saint Sorlin d'Arves review! Scroll to the bottom of this page to let other travelers know about your ski area experience.
Skier & Snowboarder-Submitted Reviews for Saint Sorlin d'Arves
Total (3.2)
A ski resort's overall star rating displayed here is not calculated based on a simple average but takes several factors, including the age of a review, into account.
A beautiful Hidden Gem of a resort. As a late starter it has been the perfect place to learn to ski. The nursery slopes are a brilliant place to learn and the green/blue slopes, kind for the next step. I've not yet ventured
to the other resorts which are assessable. The village itself is beautiful, the locals kind and friendly. You could not be dissapointed here..........go on book it !!
Jack Russel
Stayed in Saint Sorlin last week, we have been skiiing for 35 years and had never heard of this resort. We were really impressed, The runs are really long, and the lift system is well laid out. meaning you dont have to go through each individual resort on sybelles to get from one end of Sybelles to the other.
clark suzanne
I have been doing self drive skis holidays for over 25 years with children and now also with grandchildren so am used to mountain roads. I found the drive up to this resort trying! It was perfect weather conditions in daylight. The access road is narrow with a lot of blind switchback bends (yes I appreciate its a mountain road!). At one particular point near the bottom of the road there is a problem as the road is narrow and you may have to reverse to let coaches through - it happened to us on the way up and on the way down so it was obviously not a one off and it caused a traffic jam - I hate to think how it would have been in snow. I have scanned loads of reviews and cannot see any mention of poor access. The resort is lovely with a family feel. As the grandkids were in ski school we didn't get chance to ski any of the other connecting resorts. We had picked a residence at the top end of the resort near ski school meeting point but the ski school meeting point was moved to the lower part of the resort which meant either a bus ride or ski down so check before you book the accommodation! The group kids lessons are only two hours which means there isn't much time to do much skiing before heading off to pick them up. The skiing I managed to get in was great - although it was end of March there was plenty on snow on the pistes and it was well groomed although obviously was soft early afternoon so we went bowling and did a bit of snowshoeing.
Vivienne Law
This is a lovely village from which to base a week or so skiing. Very picturesque and none of the look that purpose built ski resorts give. Very friendly locals who are beginning to speak English (that is both good and bad!). Extremely family friendly as we have been going for 8 years now starting the children in the crèche at age 4 and now both experts having been taught through the ski school.
We stay in a great self catering apt right near the centre of the village and main chair lift which means once we have unloaded we don't need the car again until we leave. All very convenient.
Lots of variety re pistes for all stages of skiing both in the St Sorlin bowl and across the Les Sybelles. It does lack on piste blacks and challenging slopes but it is very easy to get to safe off piste areas. Expert skiers like my son can therefore do their own thing.
Nightlife in St So is limited but still has a bowling alley, bars and 2 discos as well as some restaurants. Enough variety for 2 weeks though.
Highly recommended at all levels
Simon Greenwood
St Sorlin within the larger Les Sybelles linked area is an absolute hidden gem. I almost hate to say it because I'd rather it didn't get popular, but it really is. The wider area, Les Sybelles, covers about 310km of pisted runs, but what makes Les Sybelles special is the wide array of accessible off piste opportunities. I've been snowboarding six weeks in total now, and this was the first time I really spent a lot of time playing about in off piste areas; it was amazing! It's all really accessible so you don't have to do much (or any) hiking to access the off piste, it's often just there begging to be ridden as you get off a chair lift. Fortunately what makes Les Sybelles even more special currently is the lack of crowds. Lift queues are non-existent in out-of-season times (we went end of Jan 2012) and the slopes don't get crowded, particularly the higher slopes where there aren't groups of beginners. The area of St Sorlin links to the other two main areas, La Toussuire and Le Corbier, pretty easily via a fast six man chairlift and then a couple of easy drag lifts (yes, unfortunately to get across to the other areas you have to go on at least one drag lift). Although as a snowboarder using drags is a bit of a pain, fortunately you were allowed two feet in which makes things tons easier. One thing this area used to get heavily criticised because of was the lack of chairs and the over-abundance of drags. In a whole week's snowboarder (and we basically covered the whole region), we only went on about five drag lifts. There are so many chairlifts, if you're concerned about other (older) reviews saying there are too many drags, don't be worried because you'll be fine. All the long ascents are now catered for with chair lifts rather than drags (in the past), so this is a huge improvement for the region. Overall, Les Sybelles is a brilliant resort. it probably won't challenge skiers are boarders who enjoy difficult red and black pistes but if you're into off piste, I definitely recommend coming here. The pistes are generally all good (only one was a bit of a mogul/ice field - the red Rocher at St Sorlin), and great for fast cruising, and there's enough slopes to enjoy spending a week here, but the greatness of the region simply comes from its off piste, and if you're into this, it shouldn't be missed.
Chris Miller
The French ski resort of St Jean d'Arves (in Savoie) is part of the Les Sybelles Ski Area with access to 127 individual pistes. In addition to the skiing in St Jean d'Arves itself (20km of pisted ski runs), the appropriate ski Lift Pass will allow you to ski or snowboard in the other Les Sybelles ski resorts of Albiez Montrond, La Toussuire, Le Corbier, Les Bottières, St Colomban des Villards and St Sorlin d'Arves.
The ski resort itself is above 1500m, so skiing or boarding back to the resort is usually possible. With skiing above 2000 metres, snow cover is generally reliable.
There are three airports within two hours drive, so ski weekends, snowboard breaks and short ski holidays to St Jean d'Arves are perfectly feasible. Chambery Airport is just one hours drive away, in good driving conditions, so you can be on the piste quickly.
We visited St Sorlin in March 2008 and found it to be an amazing place to ski / board. St Sorlin first introduction to ski brochures was in 2008 and so we knew it would be extremely quite with not many Brits about and that why we choose this.
St Sorlin is a beautiful little village containing a few bars and restaurants with a great French feel to it. We stayed on the mountain side so we were able to ski virtually to our apartment door.
At the start of the 2008 season they commissioned ski lifts and runs connecting St Sorlin up with 5 other resorts. We made a habit of skiing to a different resort every day to have lunch and sample the different runs.
I personally found the run to La Corbier very enjoyable.
I class myself I an Intermediate / Advanced skier and beginner / Intermediate snowboarder and my wife a beginner / Intermediate skier and we found the ski area to challenge us both. We tried to ski every run in the 6 days but only achieved about 80%. The slopes were very quite and the snow quality was top class.
The resort itself was nice, consisting of a few bars and restaurants. We staying in a self catering apartment so we tended to go out straight from the slopes and have a few beers at the bars by the mountain side then get takeaway.
I would recommend St Sorlin to everyone who wants to go and ski / snowboard for the whole duration, but if you’re looking for nightlife I would book either Le Corbier, Les Bottierer or La Toussuire. These resorts are much larger with good bars.
Summary
St Sorlin is a hidden gem and is a great ski resort. It will challenge any skiing / snowboarder. The runs are endless and the snow quality is the best I’ve ever experienced.
I would be happy to go skiing here every year.
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