Courchevel, Chamonix, Val d’Isère… When it comes to ski trips, many of the big-hitter resorts are in the French Alps – jostling for your attention with piste-lengths laid out by the kilometre, World-Cup-circuit credentials flaunted, and altitude proffered as snow guarantee. Which is all peachy if you’re a powder nerd. For those of us who take to the slopes for only a handful of days each year, however, there are other considerations: is it far to schlep to the lifts? Where can I revive slope-weary muscles? Are there enough decent restaurants in limping distance?
Rest assured: we have intel. Not only have we made sure we’ve covered all sybaritic bases but we’ve bolstered our collection beyond the big hitters. We’ve found new hotels that’ll give you access to much-loved ski areas you’ve heard of (Evasion Mont-Blanc, Espace Killy, Three Valleys) and hope to surprise you with lesser-known destinations, too. So grab your gear, here’s our pick of the best ski hotels in the French Alps…
M LODGE
Saint-Martin-de-Belleville
The Three Valleys ski area (France’s largest) presents a conundrum: from which resort should you access its vast snowy playground? Méribel and Courchevel are its keystones, with Val Thorens a worthy purpose-built challenger. However, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville – a postcard-pretty cluster of hamlets with a stellar gastronomic reputation – is easily a contender, too.
Near the télécabine that takes you to the pistes, you’ll find new addition M Lodge – a boutique lodge of balconied rooms and suites that are a tactile treat of rustic timbers, cool slate, velvet, cowhide and shearling. Look beyond the Arpin fabrics, Tom Dixon lighting and Eichholtz furniture and you’ll find practicality, too, with split-level two bedroom suites and family options.
Table du M is the hotel’s contemporary all-day restaurant, where you can dine on anything from sushi to tapas to afternoon tea. And it’s not the only gourmet ticket in town… Culinary alchemists René and Maxime Meilleur (chef father and son) have two restaurants locally – the famed La Bouitte and its bistrot offshoot Simple et Meilleur, mere minutes from your luxurious lodgings.
Snow report Savour bluebird days swooshing down 600km (nerdian slip) of linked pistes across the Three Valleys. Saint-Martin’s tree line is your slope-sheltering ally on inclement days; neighbouring Les Menuires offers easy pickings closer to home and without leaving the valley you can try anything from dog sledding to luge runs to ice skating.
Après-ski style If M Lodge were a slogan tee it would say ‘Feast well, sleep well’. Mountain time and mealtimes are held in equal esteem by Saint-Martin-de-Belleville devotees – but none of them are here for the clubs.
Find out more about M Lodge
ARMANCETTE HÔTEL, CHALETS & SPA
Saint Gervais Les Bains
Couples, hang in there – pitting this new-build hotel and chalets in the hamlet of St Nicolas de Véroce as family friendly is not to the exclusion of Smiths à deux. Whatever your set-up, you’ll appreciate Armancette’s contemporary Alpine interiors dressed with Italian flair and its timbered spa with peeks at peaks from the pool.
There’s fine food and drink, day and night, too: choose from two restaurants, pick up pastries and petits cafés at the hotel bakery, and make a regular date with Le Mont Joly wine bar, where there is a cool 800 bottles in the racks.
First-class chalets, family and duplex rooms are the catnip for those with little Smiths in tow (each of the chalets comes with concierge service, free shuttles and use of a chalet spa area). Then there’s the location – St Nicolas de Véroce offers the same access to the Evasion Mont-Blanc ski area as you’ll find in nearby Megève, only in a quieter spot away from the designer stores and refined restaurants of its flashier neighbour. You’re just up the road from the thermal waters at Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains, too.
Snow report The Chattrix chairlift takes you up to the Evasion Mont-Blanc ski area – linked to the intermediate-friendly slopes of Megève and Saint-Gervais. Away from the pistes, a wintry smorgasbord of outdoors pursuits awaits: dog sledding, snowshoeing or biathlon – plus the hotel has fat-bikes for moonlit tours with a difference.
Après-ski style For nights out, Saint-Gervais-Les-Bains has a choice of restaurants or bars, but trying to out-class the stellar Savoyard fare, fine wines and finessed French plates you’ll find at either hotel restaurant is a tall order: this is a place to revel in the gastronomic goodness chez vous.
Find out more about Armancette Hôtel, Chalets & Spa
LA MOURRA HÔTEL VILLAGE
Val d’Isère
It’s surely an act of treason to suggest staying indoors in ski-bunny heaven Val d’Isère. And yet at La Mourra Hôtel Village, you really can hole up. Its eight suites are cocooned in the main hotel; five chalets are linked by underground tunnels that take you from your top-notch Alpine lodgings to the capacious Clarins spa (marble-edged pool, mosaic-tiled hammam) without encountering so much as a snowflake. This is also your route to arriving unruffled for champagne cocktails and Japanese-fusion plates at the hotel’s cosily dressed restaurant and bar.
The set-up at La Mourra is the love child of a chalet stay and a luxury hotel: suites come with chalet-generous proportions and space to lounge; chalet guests get all the privacy you’d expect from an exclusive-use stay and all the hotel trappings – including a private chef, butler and free shuttles – you wouldn’t.
Snow report You can spy infamous black run Face de Bellevarde from the hotel – but if get outdoors you must (ahem), then La Mourra’s centre-ville address puts you close to the lifts in a resort that has pistes for all abilities as well as feted back-country terrain. Adrenaline thrills abound, too, with speed riding, snowmobiling, snow-kiting and ice climbing all ready to test your mettle.
Après-ski style Something for everyone… Redress any hermit tendencies by making the most of your close-to-town locale: dine out on French-Italian fare beneath boughs of faux blossom at LouLou; sister hotel Le Blizzard has two restaurants – one upscale, the other a Savoyard cheese-fest. Up at Le Fornet, you’ll find lauded plates by Benoit Vidal at L’Atelier d’Edmond. Ostensibly a restaurant, La Baraque has a calendar of live music till late, too.
Find out more about La Mourra Hôtel Village
COEUR DE MEGÈVE
Megève
Megève is a winter resort with a stellar reputation that’s well earned, sporting the kind of timbered chalets and scenic squares that are so integral to the Alpine aesthetic we ski lovers so prize. Overlooking its main square, recent boutique addition Coeur de Megève puts you in pole position to admire the village’s Heidi-cute looks.
Seemingly traditional on the outside, it’s a built-from-scratch hotel with a contemporary Savoyard restaurant and cocktail bar – both of which open onto the street, attracting locals as well as guests.
Sybille de Margerie’s interiors play with traditional Savoyard tropes, too, switching honeyed pine for brushed walnut, layering tactile soft furnishings, and enlivening a warm colour palette with acid-bright accents; its 39 rooms and suites are Alpine but not as you know it. A timbered spa, wood-burner-warmed lounge spaces and a cushion-strewn terrace bar cater affably to restorative downtime and provide a fitting antidote to the hotel’s lively locale.
Snow report Megève is at the heart of the Evasion Mont-Blanc ski area. If you’re not skiing or snowboarding, there’s so much else you can do. We’re drawn to the gentility of a hot-air balloon trip, perhaps a horse-drawn carriage ride snuggled under blankets, or a guided snowshoe tour into snow-carpeted forest.
Après-ski style Reputable restaurants line up to expand your waistline – many of them walkable from Coeur de Megève: Le Prieuré on Place de l’Eglise; Le Bistrot de Megève; Le Traditionnel du Fer à Cheval… And yet Vincenzo Regine’s artily presented plates at Le Coeur easily compete with this roll call of culinary wonders.
Find out more about Coeur de Megève
CHALET HIBOU
Le Miroir
Le where? Le Miroir is unlikely to be on your mountain radar, although this panoramic hamlet in the Tarentaise is only a short drive from several well known winter resorts.
It’s home to a pair of stone-and-timber chalets (available for buy-out) where the hospitality is fine-tuned for taking group get-togethers to the next level. Chalet Pelerin was the first of the pair to turn Smith’s head and now sister stay Chalet Hibou is part of our collection, too.
‘High spec’ doesn’t begin to cover it… A gym with a view, hot tub on the terrace (cold plunge pool, optional), sauna and steam room are on hand to top and tail days spent on the mountain (anything from resort shuttles to lessons to guiding can be arranged). Six rooms and suites are dressed in classic Alpine decor and the addition of children’s bunkroom takes the headcount to 16. Everything from breakfast to après-ski bakes to apéritifs to dinner is thrown in with your stay, too.
Snow report Chalet Hibou’s hamlet setting means it’s not a great option for non-skiers. For the rest of us, however, Sainte-Foy, Les Arcs and La Rosière are all in reach. Beginners should make a beeline for Sainte-Foy; those with backcountry skills can get the inside track on the freshest powder from chalet staff, who can arrange guided off-piste skiing as well as heli-skiing over the Italian border.
Après-ski style Book the whole chalet and the cherry on top is access to an off-grid shepherd’s hut where you can enjoy an exclusive candlelit dinner on the mountain. Nights-in at Chalet Hibou are sociable, too: a basement après-ski bar and wine cellar set the tone for conviviality.
Take the revelry upstairs for champagne and canapés washed down with mountain views from the terrace before sitting down to polished plates of mountain fare. With an honesty bar in the living room and guitars to borrow – apart from full and happy, who knows how the evening might end?
Find out more about Chalet Hibou
— Now explore our complete collection of ski hotels —