Le Jardin Alpin, Savoie
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Anyone raised on the Brothers Grimm knows the rule: never trust a gingerbread house in the woods. Airelles Courchevel, a confection of turrets and hand-painted balconies at the forest's edge above Courchevel 1850, breaks that rule with considerable style. In a resort where so much glitters and so little feels real, this sugar-coated Austro-Hungarian fantasy is, against all expectation, one of the most genuinely welcoming addresses in town. The only thing it ever fattens up is its guests.
The witchcraft is entirely benign. Doormen in the white uniforms of old Alpine hunters have the door open before it is reached, and butlers appear to remember names, allergies and coffee orders before their owners have quite settled in. Fires burn; armchairs are deep enough to lose an afternoon in. A cancelled flight or an inconvenient birthday can become somebody else's problem. Courchevel's usual froideur rarely makes it past the door, which may be the greatest enchantment of all.
Mornings begin in the ski room, where valets fit warmed boots while the coffee is still hot, polish goggles and place skis at the Jardin Alpin piste. Afternoons end with slippers, hot chocolate and enough cakes and tarts to render the day's exercise largely theoretical. In the original story, this was the moment things went badly wrong. Here it is merely the warm-up.
The real temptation is the table. La Table des Airelles stages a buffet of lobster, sushi and roasts, with a dessert display that has undone more resolutions than any witch. Dinner could mean fondue at Le Coin Savoyard or Italian cooking at Palladio. The generosity extends onto the mountain: the hotel's half-board offer includes a lunch or dinner at participating venues on-site or on the slopes; full board covers both. Whatever the arrangement, the experience is designed to make reaching for one's wallet feel mildly vulgar.
Children are treated as the guests of honour they consider themselves to be, with indoor play spaces, games, cinema rooms, a private ice rink, pastry activities and winter adventures. Their parents escape to the La Mer spa, where a warm pool, hot tub and snow cave offer various methods of recovering from family harmony. With the dining packages, the minibar, some laundry and other thoughtful extras are included. Gifts arrive, little problems disappear, and a person can begin to suspect the house is trying to make ordinary hotels impossible to return to.
Not everyone is enchanted. The gingerbread aesthetic is too sweet for some palates, entry-level rooms are relatively small, and suites can feel snug for the money. The gym is cramped, and cocktails are priced for Courchevel. The famously polished transport is useful around town, but even a Rolls-Royce is not a magic sleigh when traffic and weather turn against it. The bill, when it comes, is an emphatic reminder that the witch has not been entirely abolished.
The Grimms' gingerbread house was a trap dressed as a treat. Airelles is the reverse: a treat dressed, rather loudly, as a fairytale. Guests leave with heavier suitcases, slightly tighter trousers and the odd sensation of having felt at home in the least homely resort in the Alps.
On record
Opened in 1990 by Raymonde Fenestraz in a converted 1960s hotel, Les Airelles served as headquarters of the Olympic committee during the 1992 Albertville Winter Games.
Children have a rink of their own at the Winter Camp, with ski and skating equipment for their use and instructors who pitch lessons to each child's level. A heated treehouse stands by for warming up over pastries and hot chocolate. Indoors there is a play fort for the youngest, and an arcade club with two cinema screens for teenagers.
At lunch La Table des Airelles becomes a buffet: shellfish and crustaceans, meats roasted on the rotisserie in front of the chef, and desserts to finish. The same room serves breakfast, with pastries from the hotel's own baker, and dinner. On sunny days the terrace faces the snow-covered peaks for a lunch outdoors before returning to the slopes.
The spa lies within the hotel, at snow level. Around the pool are a hot tub heated to 40 degrees, a hammam, a snow cave, waterfalls, sensory showers and a relaxation room, and children have a pool of their own. Treatments use La Mer and LBA products; the gym, with a trainer on request, and cryotherapy sit alongside.
The Deluxe Room is the entry category: 32 square metres for two, with oak panelling, gilded furniture and heavy printed curtains, and a bath or a shower-hammam. Rooms can interconnect on request. The Junior Suite, at 40 square metres, adds a private balcony that opens towards the pines and the slopes of the Jardin Alpin.
At a glance
Where
Le Jardin Alpin, 73120 Courchevel 1850, Savoie; at the foot of the slopes in the Trois Vallées, about 600 km of pistes; Moûtiers station below the resort; Chambéry and Annecy airports about 100 km, Lyon Saint-Exupéry 180 km, Geneva 190 km; Courchevel airfield for private planes and helicopters
Why this one
Lunch or dinner, on or off the piste.
Plus cinema rooms and a Teenager Room.
Bernard Orcel ski valets in the house.
The Edit Notes
The room names say which way they face. The Junior Suite has a private balcony over the pines of the Jardin Alpin, the Junior Prestige Suite Myosotis has doors opening straight onto the snow, and the Suite on the Slopes looks west over the pistes. The Junior Prestige Suite Valley sits on the village side, and the One Bedroom Suite faces south over the Tarentaise valley. Skiers who want to watch the piste from bed should book by name, not by size alone.
The rate the hotel calls its best available is already half board: one lunch or one dinner a day, on site or on the slopes, with the minibar, spa, Winter Camp and chauffeur included. Full board adds the second meal for a daily supplement per person. The offer pages do not list which restaurants take part; Matsuhisa, Le Chalet de Pierres and the partner tables at La Folie Douce and Aman Le Mélézin are worth confirming with reservations before arrival.
Minimum stays vary with the season and with school holidays, and are given by the reservations department on request. Both board offers require a 50 per cent deposit at booking, with the balance due 60 or 30 days before arrival, depending on the period. Until that date a change or cancellation costs 8 per cent of the stay; after it, the whole stay is charged. For February half-term or Christmas, those dates fall early.
Les Airelles reopens on 4 December 2026, and its booking calendar closes again in early April 2027; there is no summer season. Le Chalet de Pierres, the hotel's mountain restaurant halfway down the Verdon slope, reopens on 5 December and can also be reached by road. The chauffeured Rolls-Royces run within Courchevel 1850 only; arrival is by hotel transfer from Moûtiers station or the airports, or by private plane or helicopter to the resort's airfield.
The price question
The money buys a winter stay in which most of the day is already paid for: one meal on or off the slopes, the minibar, the spa, the children's club, a chauffeured car around the resort and valets for the skis. It does not buy space at the bottom of the list: the Deluxe Room is 32 m², and the season is four months long.
Book it for a family ski week with children of mixed ages, on half board, in a slope-side Junior Suite or a two-bedroom suite. A couple who want a large room for a short weekend, or travellers arriving outside the winter months, are better placed elsewhere.
Cheval Blanc Courchevel
36 keys, including an Apartment and a chalet, with ski-in ski-out access in Courchevel 1850; restaurants Le 1947 à Cheval Blanc, La Terrasse and Le Grill Alpin, and a Guerlain spa. Reopens on 4 December 2026.
Fouquet's Courchevel
22 rooms and 20 suites with balconies on the Bellecôte slope in Courchevel 1850; the Italian restaurant Loulou, a spa and a kids' club.
The Extra Edit
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