A ski holiday is, technically speaking, a sport. Officially, you’re there to plough the piste, conquer the couloirs and beat the backcountry. Unofficially? You’re there for the après debauchery, the alpine spas, the Michelin-starred mountain perches and, of course, to chase génépi, gruyère, bombardini and glühwein with the fervour of an Olympian.
Sure, you might feel chipper about surviving that black run, but no amount of corduroy pistes can compensate for a dingy chalet miles from the lifts, with beds firmer than a church pew.
That’s where we come in, to steward you through the slush of mediocrity and bring you the finest ski hotels, chalets, huts and hideaways on the mountain. Think high-altitude hedonism in Courchevel, minimalist Nordic boltholes and Tyrolean chalets stuffed with schnitzel, schnapps and oompah bands. Whatever your taste (or tolerance for alpine kitsch), we’ll help you find somewhere worth resting your head.
Maya Hotel
France
Maya Hotel
If you’re allergic to antler chandeliers, gingham tablecloths and fondue fountains, Maya Hotel might be the antidote. Opening this December, the 14-room Courchevel outpost swaps Alpine kitsch for Monaco gloss and Japanese restraint. It’s the perfect alpine hideaway if you’re sashimi over schnitzel or crystal over carved pine. After 600km of skiing (Courchevel is part of the world’s largest interconnected area Les Trois Vallées, if that helps you justify the expense), limp to the extensive spa for a massage and recalibrate your muscle fibres.
From £620 per night; maya-hotel.fr
The Lodge
Switzerland
The Lodge
Richard Branson’s mountain retreat in Verbier is the ultimate Swiss Alps escape – nine bedrooms, generously stocked mini bars, an indoor pool, hot tubs and all the service you could wish for, short of a Virgin-branded rocket to orbit. The Lodge can be booked exclusively for 18 guests or individually during select 2026 weeks, with a team handling lift passes, ski lessons, equipment hire and chauffeur service. Off-slope, you can snowshoe, sled, or paraglide over Mont Blanc. Stays include all meals, drinks and champagne, leaving you free to ski, soak and sip on something stiff.
From £1,640 per night; virginlimitededition.com
Priesteregg Premium Eco Resort
Austria
Priesteregg Premium Eco Resort
Prefer your chalet with maximum hygge? The 18 you’ll find at Priesteregg are hella cosy: fireplaces, Finnish saunas, sheepskin throws and private terraces all bundled into perfect seclusion. When you’re not marinating in the hot tub, you can ski the Saalbach-Hinterglemm area with transfers to the lift included with your stay. The on-site spa features an infinity sky pool and Swiss pine and smoke saunas to serenade the sinuses. Dinner is resolutely Austrian, so buckle up for spätzle, knödel and enough cheese to send Stuart Little into a coma.
From £296 per night; priesteregg.at
Deplar Farm
Iceland
Deplar Farm
For those tired of the predictable glamour of the Alps, Deplar Farm offers a colder, more tranquil type of luxury. Deep in northern Iceland’s Troll Peninsula, this former sheep farm has been reborn as a high-design refuge for the heli-skiing, geothermal-soaking elite. Expect 13 bedrooms, two helipads and views more cinematic than a desktop screensaver. Days are for snowmobiles and skiing; nights for floating beneath the Northern Lights. Deplar Farm is perfect for those who like their ski holidays rugged not rhinestoned.
Price available on request; offthemap.travel
Odles Lodge
Italy
Odles Lodge
If your ideal ski trip involves minimal human contact and a vow of silence, Odles Lodge is for you. Perched on the Plose mountainside in the Italian Dolomites, its four spruce and Swiss stone pine lodges offer library-like tranquillity with mountain-view balconies and private kitchens so you can rustle up a bowl of polenta from the comfort of your own home. Breakfast materialises at your door each morning, and the kitchen is also stocked with local smoked ham and fish, homemade jams, and formaggio in abundance. A small spa with a pool, sauna and steam room is reserved for guests only, though you can also set your coordinates a few kilometres up the mountain to the nearby hotel Forestis and use its extensive spa for the full alpine cleanse.
From £479 per night; odles-lodge.com
Risonare Tomamu
Japan
Risonare Tomamu
Plotting a piste pilgrimage this season? Risonare Tomamu in Hokkaido’s powder paradise delivers. Beyond neatly groomed runs and soft snow perfect for beginners, the resort presents its pièce de résistance: an Ice Village – a frozen menagerie of bars, sculptures, and whimsical winter distractions. Off the slopes, you’ll find sledding, snowmobiles, winter horse riding and a top-notch spa for the sore-limbed. Hungry? The hotel’s food offering spans shabu-shabu, jingisukan, Japanese patisserie and beyond. Ski packages, snow-themed activities, and impeccable service make Risonare Tomamu a winter-wrapped retreat that’s worth the jet lag.
From £255 per night; hoshinoresorts.com
Ultima Promenade
Switzerland
Ultima Promenade
Got a hundred grand lying around? Point yourself to Gstaad and check into Ultima Promenade, possibly the glitziest chalet in town. Right on the main promenade, it has two grand living rooms with a wrap-around terrace, sleek interiors and an open fire to keep your tootsies warm. If a white-out traps you inside, there’s a cinema room, a playroom, a bar, and a private disco for your very own post-piste shindig. Recharge in the private spa, featuring a sauna, hamam, snow shower, and lap pool, and refuel with food courtesy of Zuma – the internationally acclaimed Japanese restaurant. Signature izakaya dishes, including beef tenderloin to next-level sashimi, will keep your protein levels suitably stocked.
From £135,357 per week; ultimacollection.com
Viceroy Kopaonik
Serbia
Viceroy Serbia
The Balkans aren’t just beaches and rakija. Serbia’s mountains offer largely undiscovered ski terrain – uncrowded, affordable, and surprisingly well-serviced. Kopaonik Ski Resort offers 55km of uncrowded pistes, and perched on the Suvo Rudiste mountainside is the resort’s most lauded hideout – the Viceroy Kopaonik. Its 119 rooms and suites marry WATG architecture with Wimberly Interiors, eschewing rustic tropes for something considered, minimalist and quietly luxurious. The spa, with hammam, indoor and outdoor pools, invites you to soak long after the last piste is conquered. Accessible via a three and a half hour transfer from Belgrade, twin your ski trip with a city stay for a belting Balkan break.
From £236 per night; viceroyhotelsandresorts.com
Grand Hotel Courmayeur Mont Blanc
Italy
Grand Hotel Courmayeur
Sitting beneath the drama of Mont Blanc, this five-star refuge is for skiers who like their pistes pre-arranged. A dedicated Ski Concierge will plan your routes, read the weather, and probably hold your hand if requested politely. The 500-square-metre spa offers everything short of sainthood, while the Equinox Lounge Bar serves après with glacier views and excellent lighting for introspection. Given its setting at the base of one of the world’s mightiest mountains, Courmayeur is a magnet for intrepid visitors. Skiers can ascend on the Skyway Monte Bianco cableway before descending along some of the Italian Alps’ most thrilling ski runs and off-piste terrain.
From £226 per night; rcollectionhotels.it
Schlosshotel Fiss
Austria
Schlosshotel Fiss
Fabian Schirgi
Reopening on 5 December, Schlosshotel Fiss is a five-star fortress of comfort perched in the Austrian Tyrol – a European ski destination lesser known to British travellers. Its 135 rooms and suites toe the line between chalet cosiness and modern gloss, with 214km of ski slopes that begin at your doorstep. Dinner happens at The Beef Club, which flaunts four Gault Millau toques, a Michelin star and a menu that leans carnivorous (think prime steaks sizzled on a Big Green Egg). The spa sprawls over 5,000 square metres (adults-only sanctum, family pool, hammam), ensuring even the most restless guest finds a niche. Non-skiers can snowshoe, toboggan, zipline, or simply perfect the noble art of getting schloss-ed.
From from £674 per night; schlosshotel-fiss.com
Isbreen the Glacier
Norway
Isbreen
Isbreen is a cluster of luxury igloos under Norway’s Finnmark Alps, for people who prefer their camping with mood lighting and a minibar. The setting, the remote Jokelfjord, is properly end-of-the-map stuff: mountains, fjord, total silence, the occasional snowmobile. Days are filled with guided ski touring, snowshoeing and other wholesome purple-fingered experiences; nights are for lying in bed while the Northern Lights do their thing above your duvet. Comfort is absolute: underfloor heating, crisp linen, cosy blankets and blissful solitude.
Price available on request; offthemap.travel
The Little Nell
United States
In the same league as St Moritz or Courchevel, Aspen is one of the world’s ritziest ski towns. Double down on the glamour and check into The Little Nell – Aspen’s only five-star, five-diamond hotel. Bedrooms lean luxury with concierge expertise and ski-in, ski-out convenience, removing the last scrap of morning decision-making. Element 47 delivers refined seasonal plates, while Ajax Tavern doubles down on comfort food, so be sure to replenish spent calories with a wagyu burger and signature truffle fries. Adventure in Aspen is administered by the bucket load, so buckle up for snowcat powder tours, ski-in ski-out spa treatments and snowshoe escapades.
From £919 per night; thelittlenell.com
Le Grand Bellevue
Switzerland
Le Grande Bellevue
Partial to a certain triangular lozenge of chocolate? Le Grand Bellevue in Gstaad obliges with a Toblerone fondue, accompanied by yodelling workshops, decoupage sessions and a world-class spa. The mighty 220km of Vaud Alps slopes await, with cross-country and heli-skiing options available. The chocolate theme continues in the spa with cocoa-infused treatments alongside cutting-edge red-light therapies, a Finnish sauna, a Turkish hammam, and holistic massages by resident healer Myrsini. When not curled by the fire, you can amble 20 minutes to the mountain cableways (or take a five-minute chauffeured ski bus) to hit the slopes. Opened in 1912, Bellevue is Gstaad’s oldest palace hotel and true to its name is indeed grand, complete with a life-sized plaid camel in the lobby (don’t ask).
From £620 per night; bellevue-gstaad.ch
Schloss Elmau
Germany
For those who have graduated from pickling their livers in euro-pop chaos, Schloss Elmau is where you go to have your soul massaged alongside skiing Bavaria’s slopes. Built in 1916 by Johannes Müller as a sanctuary in the pristine Elmauer Valley, it’s part hotel, part cocoon. Elmau has six spas, three libraries, eight restaurants, including a mountain hut, and an oriental hammam – the largest west of Istanbul. Daily retreats, classes, and a concert hall make it a wellness-meets-Wagner retreat. In winter, cross-country skiing is on-site, and for proper alpine thrills, Seefeld (Austria), Garmisch, or the Zugspitze Glacier are all within 30 minutes.
From £317 per night; schloss-elmau.de
Eleven Revelstoke Lodge
Canada
Heli-skiing fanatic? Eleven Revelstoke Lodge is your next stop – a newly refurbished red-brick relic in the heart of Canada’s heli-skiing capital, open for the 2025/26 season. There are now twelve rooms, including mezzanine-style Captain Suites, so capacious you could misplace your holiday companions. Wellness is taken seriously: cutting-edge sauna, cold plunge, steam room, state-of-the-art, fully equipped fitness center, and treatment rooms. Daily heli-skiing drops you into 300,000 acres of perfectly spaced trees and bowls (consider regular ski resorts ruined forever). Rates are a hefty £8,464 per night, but do include guided heli-skiing, all necessary kit, pre-arrival planning, chef-prepared meals and enough booze to keep après extremely lively.
From £8,464 per night; elevenexperience.com
My Arbor
Italy
Larch lovers, have we got a hotel for you. Camouflaged among the trees in the Italian Dolomites, My Arbor is an adults-only hotel that takes forest living very seriously. Built on 34m stilts, the treehouse-style architecture makes you feel at one with the firs. Sustainability credentials here are impressive, encompassing the use of regional products, support for local farmers, a commitment to a plastic-free environment, and the adoption of renewable energy sources such as a rooftop photovoltaic system. The 2,500m² Spa Arboris has infinity pools, saunas, and treatments inspired by the surrounding woods. When you’re not clipped into your bindings, you can attempt downward dog in yoga, wander off for forest bathing, join a guided hike, or collapse in a panoramic ‘cuddle nest’. Cosy AF.
From £222 per night; my-arbor.com
One&Only Moonlight Basin
United States
One & Only
One&Only Moonlight Basin flung open its doors this November as the brand’s first US outpost and one of the season’s more conspicuous ski openings. Big Sky sprawls outside with 5,800 acres of skiable terrain and a gondola that spares you the uphill drama. The main lodge boasts 73 rooms and suites, alongside 19 cabins and private homes with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, ideal for maximum mountain gawking. When you’re not skiing, there’s forest-to-plate dining, a hidden moonshine shack, wellness facilities, lakeside sunbathing, stargazing in the observatory and barrel-aged cocktails to keep you hydrated.
From £1,267 per night; oneandonlyresorts.com
Experimental Chalet
Switzerland
Verbier has its fair share of mountain huts promising all the rustic charms of alpine life – 60-second showers, dysfunctional radiators, questionable Wi-Fi, that sort of thing. But if you’re after something a touch more sumptuous, check into the Experimental Chalet. The interiors manage to feel modern without losing character: think deep jewel and sorbet tones, lacquered wood, geometric tiling, and beds so generous you may never emerge for your day on the slopes. There’s a chic bistro, spa, hammam, cocktail bar and an all-important nightclub, the Farm Club, with credentials stretching back to 1971 – for nights out which feel a touch more Eurobop than flop.
From £270 per night; experimentalgroup.com
