Courchevel

Why go

The largest linked ski area in the world — the Trois Vallées, six hundred kilometres of piste on one pass. An altiport on the slope — a 537-metre runway at 2,008 metres, with an eighteen per cent gradient. French state planning in ski form — the resort was designed from nothing in 1946, runs before buildings. A number in the address — 1300, 1550, 1650, 1850; the altitude is also the price scale.

The character

Courchevel was the first purpose-built ski resort in France, planned in 1946 by the Savoie authorities as post-war economic development: an architect laid out the pistes first, then placed the villages to serve them, then built the roads. That inversion is why the skiing works so well and why the resort has no old core — there was no village here, only summer pasture.

The four villages are stacked up the mountain by altitude and, unmistakably, by price. Courchevel 1850 at the top is the address the world means: the highest concentration of Michelin stars in any ski resort, boutiques that open only in season, and a helipad that is busier than most regional airports on a February Saturday. Below it, 1650 and 1550 are family resorts with the same lift pass and a third of the cost. Almost uniquely, the mountain does not care: everyone rides the same Trois Vallées network, and the skiing above the tree line is genuinely world-class regardless of which village you slept in.

Places of character

The altiport — watch light aircraft land uphill on a runway that ends in a cliff; there is a bar beside it. Saulire — the cable car to 2,738 metres, and the point where the Trois Vallées opens in three directions. Le Praz (1300) — the original hamlet with wooden chalets and the Olympic ski jump from 1992. A mountain restaurant at lunch — this is where the resort's money is genuinely visible, more than in the shops. Vallée des Avals — the off-piste valley behind the resort, taken with a guide, silent and empty. Méribel and Val Thorens — the neighbouring valleys, reachable on skis, each with a different character.

The way to do it

Buy the full Trois Vallées pass and use it: staying on Courchevel's own slopes is missing the point. Ski early, lunch late and long, and take one afternoon off the piste entirely. Sleep in 1650 if you want the mountain without the spectacle, in 1850 if the spectacle is the reason you came. And book restaurants before you arrive — in February there is nothing left.

One perfect day

First lift to Saulire before the valleys fill, then over into Méribel on empty groomers while the light is still flat and blue. Mid-morning coffee at a mountain hut on the sunny side. Ski down into the third valley and back — the Trois Vallées loop is a full day's touring on piste and the finest thing here. Long lunch on a terrace at two, when the sun is high and nobody is in a hurry. Afternoon runs home through the trees to Le Praz as the light goes gold. Sauna, then dinner: a fondue in 1550 or a tasting menu in 1850, both defensible.

Grand hotels

Les Airelles — a fairy-tale Austro-Hungarian pastiche at the foot of the piste in 1850; excessive by design and entirely committed to it. Le Cheval Blanc — LVMH's first hotel, opened here in 2006, and the reason the group is now in hospitality at all.

When to go

Best expression: late January and early February — reliable snow, long days, before the school holidays peak. Consider: mid-March, spring skiing with terrace lunches and lower prices. Avoid if possible: the French February holidays and Christmas week, when prices triple and the lifts queue.

The frame

Ideal stay 6–7 nights · Minimum 3 nights · Best arrival fly to Geneva or Chambéry, then two hours by road · Airport GVA 150 km, or the altiport itself · Walkability within each village · Best without a car yes, transfers and free shuttles