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There are 5 ski areas around Argentiere and the Chamonix Valley, one of which, Les Grands Montets, is located in the village of Argentiere. Each of the ski areas has its own character. Although they are not joined up by skiing, they are joined up by the local resort busses. Each ski area has plenty of scope for a good full days skiing, with each resort offering different types of terrain to ensure that wherever you ski, it is a bit different than the resort you went to the previous day.

Brevant – accessible from the town centre, and with a shiny new access lift this year.  Generally quite wide slopes with beginner and intermediate grades, along with a couple of good steep runs suitable for off-piste & advanced skiers.  The ski area faces south so is excellent for sun early season, but late season can get a wee bit slushy in the afternoons.
Flegere – accessible from Le Praz and also linked to Brevant.  Wide slopes, with quite a few grades – nice reds, blues & greens.  Lots of possibilities to ski in amongst the trees, so an excellent place for advanced / off-piste skiers in bad weather.  Scene of chest deep powder skiing during 2007/8 season!  The cable car access can get quite crowded so it is well worth getting there before 09:00 in the morning.  South facing so good for sun, but high enough that snow stays really quite good.  Access to some great ski touring in the Aiguilles Rouge via the Index lift.
La Tour (La Balme) – offers a huge area, great for all levels. There are good beginners slopes at the very bottom as well as high up.  Intermediates appreciate the wide open runs – cruisy blues & reds.  Advanced skiers have access to some excellent off-piste, although some areas are highly avalanche prone.
The area links into Vallorcine, with some really nice tree runs on that side.
Grands Montets – if probably the best off-piste skiing in Europe, possibly the World.  There are huge areas accessible from the Bochard Lift (Lavancher Bowl) and of course from the Grands Montets top lift skiing down the Grand Mur or onto the Argentiere Glacier.  Many parts of this area are on glaciers and / or have significant avalanche risk.
Within the marked & patrolled pistes there are excellent reds & blacks well suited to intermediate & advanced skiers.
Les Houches – last year was included in the Mont Blanc Unlimited pass and is excellent for beginners & intermediates.  Generally wide, open pistes, with plenty of green, blue & red slopes.  Also home to the Kandahar Downhill course – easy enough to ski with plenty of turns, but straight line after it has been iced for the race it is best just to spectate ! 

Beginners - there are several dedicated beginners areas (Planards, Les Chosalet), and also beginners slopes in all the ski areas other than Grands Montets

Intermediates - will enjoy the La Tour, Flegere and Brevant areas with good blue and red runs - you might find the red runs a bit steeper than reds in other resorts.

Experts - will love the vast off-piste areas of Grands Montets as well as excellent routes on the Flegere side. There is a good snowpark at Grand Montets for freestyle.

Piste Maps Here

Summary
Argentiere is a compact village with just a few hundred permanent residents. In the winter and summer seasons it becomes vibrant & busy with a reasonable selection of shops, bars & restaurants for a small village. If you are in need of a bigger town experience and fun, Chamonix is just a 15 min bus ride away. The main advantage to Argentiere is that the Grands Montets ski area is just a short walk away.

History
Argentiere has been a popular destination for the period of "modern skiing" over the last 50 or so years. Previously it was popular as an alpine retreat within a rural farming community.

Nightlife
Argentiere offers a few fun bars:

Rusticana – Pop your skis/ boards onto the back patio and warm up inside into a relaxed and chilled environment with great staff and food. Posh John and Jerome will take care of all your beverage needs!

The Office Bar - Popular après-ski venue also does "gastro" pub grub. It usually has live sports on two, large screen TV’s and offers live music a few nights a week.

The Stone Bar – Italian restaurant and bar, great place for a hand tossed pizza and homemade pasta sauces. They have a pool table and darts in the back.

Savoy Bar- A small, lively bar that hosts a fabulous après-ski on a daily basis.

Argentiere has a great après-ski but not much of a busy nightlife so if you would like a busier night out, just pop onto one of the buses to get down into Chamonix. Night buses run till fairly late, and a taxi can always take you back if you’ve found yourself in Les Choucas and are very late!

Other Things To Do
Indoor swimming pool, indoor climbing wall, hiking, snow shoeing, bowling, gym.
 

Lift Passes

UCPA All-Inclusive Holidays include a full area ski pass - Chamonix le Pass plus Les Houche & Aiguille du Midi - saving you €235 !

Chamonix Le Pass - 6 days €190

Mont Blanc Unlimited - 6 days €235

Kit Hire

UCPA All-Inclusive Holidays - ski / board hire is included, 50% of the equipment is renewed every year so is all in very good condition. Off-Piste safety packs are provided to all those on Off-Piste courses (Avalanche transceiver, Shovel, Probe, Rucksac) - saving you more than €90 !

For other holidays we use Riquier (Intersport) for Ski / Board Hire and Sanglard Sports for Off-Piste Packs & Ski Touring Equipment

The must do in Argentiere/Chamonix is to ski the Vallee Blanche - it's a 22 km off-piste run all the way from the top of Aiguille du Midi, which is at 3842 meters. It’s a 2800 meter climb up from the valley floor, fortunately, all you have to do it pop onto to the telepherique to reach the top. The run is all off-piste on a snow covered glaciers with crevasses so it's essential to ski with a guide. It's accessible to most strong intermediate skiers and above.

Even if you don't want to ski the Vallee Blanche it's well worth going up the Aiguille du Midi lift just for the amazing views over the glacier, down onto Chamonix and up onto Mont Blanc. If you fancy popping over to Italy for a coffee, you can take the Helbronner ski lift from the top of the Aiguille over and down into Courmayer.
 

By Air

Geneva (96km) - approximately 1hr by airport transfer, car or taxi or 1hr 45mins by bus. 

Turin (85km) and Lyon (220km) from which car hire or taxi are the only options to get to Argentiere.

Airport transfers from Geneva can easily be arranged with Action Outdoors.

Coach

Action Outdoors / Snow Express coach from London. The Snow Express coach is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to get to the Alps.

Train

The station is 50 metres away and is a 45 minute train journey from St Gervais, the nearest TGV Station. It is also worth looking at taking the train to Geneva, then booking a transfer to Argentiere - this is quicker and often cheaper.

Self-drive 

Very easy as the motorway runs nearly all the way to Chamonix, there is plenty of parking at UCPA Argentiere.