Skiing and Luxury: A Review of Ski Resorts in France and Switzerland

France
The most famous ski resort in France is Courchevel. Part of the world's largest ski area, the Three Valleys, it is associated with luxury holidays: there are more five-star hotels here than anywhere else on the planet, 4 of them are of the highest Palace category, and private chalets have full-fledged spa complexes. The resort also leads in the number of Michelin stars. All this is complemented by unlimited opportunities for skiing and active recreation. The black Eclipse track is equal in difficulty to Streif and Stelvio, the ski school teaches 10 disciplines; there is a three-kilometer toboggan run with a vertical drop of 450 m and 8 tunnels, and the Aquamotion water entertainment center even offers surfing. Val Thorens, the highest resort in the Three Valleys, was named the best ski resort in the world by the World Ski Awards 2023. From November to May, there is excellent snow cover. Val Thorens is home to the longest toboggan run in France - the six-kilometre Cosmojet - and an 1,800-kilometre zipline that takes you down the mountains at an altitude of 65 m. Here you can enjoy excursions on ultralight aircraft and paragliding flights, climbs on icy waterfalls, evenings in a yurt and fondue in the highest igloo village in Europe.
The family resort of Meribel in the heart of the Three Valleys is considered one of the safest places to ski. It offers excellent conditions for beginners and intermediate skiers. The resort is so popular with the British that it is called “Little England”. At the resort of Brides-les-Bains, part of the “Three Valleys”, you can improve your health in one of the largest thermal spas in France – The Grand Spa Thermal.

The legendary slope of Fas de Bellevarde in Val d'Isere hosted the downhill competitions during the 1992 Winter Olympics. In addition to skiing, here they offer biathlon, driving lessons on snow and ice, climbing frozen waterfalls, a rope park, swimming and floating in an ice hole, paragliding, swimming in pools and sports in the Aquasporif complex. At an altitude of 2551 m is the secluded hotel Le Refuge de Solaise, which is reached by the Solaise cable car. There they offer spa rituals in a bubble tent with transparent walls and aqua aerobics in a pool with 25-meter lanes. The Alpe d'Huez resort is home to the longest black run on the planet, the 16 km Sarenne. In winter, the resort offers a heated outdoor pool (27 degrees), an evening on the ice rink, a break at La Folie Douce and Eight Bar - Les Caves, an annual electronic music festival Tomorrowland Winter, and a view of a fifth of France from the top station of the ski lift.

The world capital of winter sports and the venue for the first Winter Olympics, Chamonix offers 900 km of runs (along with neighboring Courmayeur) at altitudes from 995 to 4809 m. Visit the local Alpine Museum, which houses 15 thousand exhibits dating back to the 18th century, climb to an altitude of 3777 m, where there are terraces with panoramic views of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps, and on a clear day the Mediterranean can be seen. From there, the lift takes you to the top (3842 m) with the best view of Mont Blanc. There is also the Step into the Void attraction - a cube with transparent walls and floor and 1000 meters of abyss underfoot - and the highest Ice Palace in Europe.
Megeve owes its development in the 20s of the last century to Baroness Noémie de Rothschild. At the resort, you can practice any winter sports: skiing and snowboarding, freestyle, freeride, telemark, northern disciplines, skiing, biathlon.
At the Les Deux Alpes resort, you can ski even in summer, as the largest glacier in Europe is located there. The modernized Jandri Express lift takes you to a height of 3600 m in 17 minutes. For a holiday away from the crowds, Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and its family-run Armancette Hotel (The Leading Hotels of the World) with 19 rooms overlooking Mont Blanc are a great option. In addition to the usual pastime, they offer paragliding, hot air ballooning, helicopter and ultralight flights.

Switzerland
Swiss ski resorts offer excellent skiing conditions, developed infrastructure and a reputation as favorite resorts for celebrities.
Most celebrities choose Verbier, the most famous resort of the “4 Valleys.” This is where members of the British royal family vacation. Verbier has an incredible selection of extreme entertainment: from climbing icy waterfalls and the highest and longest (1,400 m) Alpine zipline, the Mont-Fort Zipline, to skydiving and paragliding from the top of a mountain, where a helicopter delivers.
St. Moritz will delight you with a rich program of events: the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup, another one for snow polo, horse racing on ice White Turf St. Moritz, an international gastronomic festival. The oldest and only bobsleigh track in the world with natural ice, the Olympia Bob Run, is located here. Not only professional racers, but also ordinary tourists can hone their skills. The whole family will enjoy the Muotas Muragl toboggan run, which is 4.2 km long, has a vertical drop of 718 m and 20 turns. St. Moritz also offers night horse-drawn sleigh rides, glacier skiing, curling and paragliding. And why not try yoga on the snow and swimming in an icy lake? There is also a vertical spa: the 5-storey The Mineralbad & Spa Samedan with steam rooms, bathing areas and a rooftop pool to complete the ritual. Film screenings at the legendary Scala, tea gatherings at the Hanselmann café and patisserie, where Audrey Hepburn and Coco Chanel loved to hang out, one of the most beautiful Christmas markets in Europe and centuries-old hotels, which, like the Suvretta House, even have their own huge ice rink – you will find all this here.
Zermatt is the only ski resort in Europe where you can ski all year round. The ski area “Matterhorn Glacier Paradise” at an altitude of 3883 m offers views of 38 four-thousanders and 14 glaciers in Switzerland, France and Italy. Here is the highest observation deck in Europe and the highest restaurant, as well as the Ice Palace. From here you can descend the longest piste on the planet – 25 km to the town of Zermatt (1620 m) – or, accompanied by a guide, climb the Breithorn mountain – for many, this is the first four-thousander in their life. The Gornergrat railway leads to the highest hotel in the Swiss Alps – 3100 Kulmhotel Gornergrat. Its observatory is a research center of the University of Bern and the University of Geneva.

Air Zermatt organizes panoramic helicopter excursions to the Matterhorn, the largest glacier in the Alps – the Aletsch Glacier – and the Jungfraujoch mountain pass with an astronomical observatory at an altitude of 3571 m.
By cable car in an hour and a half you can get from Zermatt to Cervinia (Italy), seeing the Small Matterhorn, gorges and picturesque lakes on both sides of the border.
Among the best hotels in Zermatt is CERVO, whose spa center presents the traditions of Japan, Bhutan, Mongolia. In the city center is Mont Cervin Palace Zermatt with signature massages and rejuvenating treatments from Nescens.
Gstaad, one of the most expensive and exclusive ski resorts in the world, has its own airport, which has been serving private aviation since 1946. Here, in traditional Alpine chalets, there are boutiques of Graff, Bulgari, Cervin Blanc, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Loro Piana. The choice of hotels corresponds to the resort.

The family hotel Gstaad Palace remembers Princess Diana, Roger Moore and Sean Connery, Madonna, members of the royal families of Belgium, the Netherlands, Monaco, African and Eastern countries. This hotel in the style of a royal castle has an outdoor Olympic heated pool.
The most spacious and luxurious chalet in the resort is the new Ultima Gstaad Promenade.
On one of its four floors there is a spa, cinema, disco, games room and bar. The hotel Le Grand Bellevue has a cinema and a spa of 3000 sq. m with all kinds of saunas, a hammam, a salt grotto, a Kneipp path, an experience shower, and an open-air hydromassage pool. The first Six Senses Spa in Switzerland and a Japanese whiskey bar with the largest collection of this drink in the country are open in Alpina Gstaad.
An additional recreation area in Gstaad is the “Glacier 3000”, where you can fly in a helicopter, walk along a suspension bridge between two peaks, ride dog sleds and snowcats, ski and snowboard.
While on holiday in Gstaad, visit Gruyères (40 minutes by car). There you will see the 13th-century Gruyères chateau and the oldest operating chocolate factory in Switzerland, attend a master class on making sweets and shaped chocolate, cheese production and a fondue academy.

You can admire the panoramas of Switzerland from the window of the comfortable Glacier Express, the route of which passes through St. Moritz, Zermatt, the Albula railway viaducts, the Rhine Gorge (“Grand Canyon of Switzerland”) and the Oberalp mountain pass. Excellent conditions for a winter holiday in Grindelwald, from where excursions are organized to Jungfraujoch, where you will see the Sphinx observatory, the highest meteorological station in Europe and the Ice Palace.

Also in the Jungfrau region is Grindelwald-First: at an altitude of 2168 m above sea level there is a suspension bridge with an observation deck, an 800-meter zipline and other entertainment.