Ski
Alps ski vacations
Courchevel, Megève, St. Moritz, and car-free Zermatt, with the Matterhorn above the village.
Courchevel 1850 for Les 3 Vallées: Cheval Blanc, Les Airelles, and Aman Le Mélézin. Those rooms are requested, not taken off a public calendar. Megève is quieter skiing: Four Seasons is ski-in on Mont d’Arbois and reopens for winter on December 16, 2026. In St. Moritz the grand hotels are in town, not on the piste. Zermatt is car-free, under the Matterhorn.
A few dates are worth planning around. White Turf is the horse race on the frozen lake at St. Moritz, usually on three Sundays in February. Some Alpine villages open a floodlit slope in the evening and sell it as moonlight skiing. It runs on a scheduled evening, and not at every mountain. In Austria, a December week can include a Christmas market in Innsbruck, Salzburg, or a resort village such as Kitzbühel. Most markets are finished by Christmas Eve. Those belong on the trip only when the dates match.
Les 3 Vallées, including Courchevel and Val Thorens, are on the Epic Pass, along with Verbier and several resorts in Austria. Zermatt, St. Moritz, Chamonix, and Megève are on the Ikon Pass. A Club Med week in Val d’Isère, Tignes, Val Thorens, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Alpe d’Huez, Grand Massif Samoëns, or Saint-Moritz often includes the local lifts already, so a pass may not lower that price.
