Selections
From Courchevel to Val d’Isère to Megève, the grandeur of Les Airelles, the quiet restraint of Aman Le Mélézin, and the seven hotels that define the region.
The French Alps do not do luxury by halves. Courchevel 1850 alone holds five of France’s thirty-three Palace-rated hotels, Megève has been the elegant answer to St. Moritz since Noémie de Rothschild began building it in the 1920s, and Val d’Isère has grown a quiet confidence of its own. Across the valleys, a handful of hotels stand apart. These are the seven worth booking.
An Oetker palace of 53 rooms and suites in the Jardin Alpin, the wooded enclave at the top of Courchevel 1850, built on the site of the resort’s former ski jump. The original interiors were designed by India Mahdavi and Joseph Dirand, Kelly Wearstler redesigned the lounge, bar, and dining rooms in December 2025, including the Beefbar restaurant, and the spa is by La Prairie. Ski-in, ski-out, from the door. Open in winter only.
Book through Oetker Hotels.
An Aman since 1992, and still the quietest address in Courchevel 1850. Its 28 rooms, suites, and apartments sit directly on the Bellecôte piste, the spa fills two floors of the hotel around a 14-meter pool, and Akari serves Aman’s Japanese cooking at altitude. Open in winter only.
From €3,150 a night. Book through Aman.
The newest of the Airelles mountain hotels, opened in December 2019 at the foot of the Val d’Isère slopes. It brought the full Airelles production to a resort that had never had a hotel like it, and gave the village its definitive address overnight. There are 41 rooms and suites, a Guerlain spa, a Matsuhisa, and ski-in, ski-out access. It reopens in December.
Book through Airelles.
The original, and still the most theatrical hotel in the Alps. A storybook castle in the Jardin Alpin, built in the style of a nineteenth-century Austro-Hungarian palace, where the staff outnumber the guests, nothing is too much, and the restaurants range from Matsuhisa to Le Coin Savoyard. If Courchevel is a stage, this is its palace. It reopens in December.
Book through Airelles.
On the Rothschild family’s Mont d’Arbois estate above the village, with the mountains framed from every balcony. It has one of the largest spas in the French Alps and heated pools indoors and out, and it now holds France’s Palace distinction.
Book through Four Seasons.
The Sibuet family’s lodge in the center of the village, remade in 2025 from 49 rooms into 29 suites and rooms, laid out like private residences. The suites have fireplaces, dark marble bathrooms, and Nordic baths on their balconies, and the new Longevity Spa, the first of its kind in the region, is set around a 12-meter pool. The antlers and leather remain, now beside Ralph Lauren fabrics. Smaller and more personal than the palaces, it is the one to book when the village matters as much as the mountain.
Book through Maisons & Hôtels Sibuet.
A village palace of chalets and suites cascading along the Cospillot piste, built by the Capezzone family and run like a family home at palace scale, with a Goji Spa by Nescens below and a run of private chalets alongside. Distinctly Courchevel: discreet from the road, extravagant within.
Book through Le K2 Collections.
Seven hotels, three resorts, one mountain range. In the French Alps the hotel is never just a place to sleep. It is half the reason to come. All of them reopen in December, and the holiday weeks are the first to book up.
Explore more of our stays in the Alps.
