Rue Emile Allais, Savoie
Rate on request
No payment now. A room preference is a request, not guaranteed availability. Personal confirmation within 24 hours.
Courchevel’s grand hotels are forever trying to out-jump one another. A new restaurant, a larger spa, a slightly more miraculous way of putting on ski boots. L’Apogée has an unfair advantage in this contest: it stands on an actual ski jump. The hill was built in the 1960s, long before the hotel rose above Courchevel 1850. Its name means the highest point, and the village, with its roofs, lifts and dark larches, drops away below. But the reason to stay is not the height of the jump. It is how softly the hotel catches you afterwards.
India Mahdavi’s bedrooms are made for the moment when you close the door on the cold. Wool, velvet, sheepskin and checked fabrics surround generous beds; marble bathrooms and warm floors provide the more practical argument. Nothing asks you to be glamorous after a day of falling over in ski boots. Families can spread into connecting rooms, the penthouse with its rooftop hot tub, or one of two private chalets with a cinema and spa of their own. For all the polish, the place is most convincing when it behaves like somebody’s very comfortable winter house.
Downstairs, however, the house has changed its clothes. Kelly Wearstler, making her first European hotel project, has brought darker stone, sculptural timber and an almost theatrical confidence to the dining rooms. The Piano Lounge and bar are no longer shy about being noticed. Beefbar supplies wagyu and the sort of mash that has its own reputation; L’Apogée Club handles the easier hours around breakfast, lunch and après-ski. The rooms upstairs still want you to put your feet up. Downstairs now rather hopes you will put on a good pair of shoes.
Its loveliest piece of engineering is much less glamorous. A private conveyor carries returning skiers forty metres from the piste into the ski room, an airport travelator in the snow. After a day spent persuading gravity to do its worst, you are conveyed indoors without another uphill step. The ski team takes charge of the equipment, warms the boots and prepares everything for the next morning. It may be the least athletic forty metres in the Alps. It is certainly among the most appreciated.
The quieter pleasures are the ones families remember. Children have a substantial kids’ club, teenagers have somewhere to escape their parents, and parents have a spa with a pool below ground. The real luxury is being able to spend half a day together on the mountain and the other half not having to agree about what to do. The hotel has thought through the handover from skis to slippers, which is harder than inventing another grand restaurant.
The summit has its inconveniences. The village centre sits below, so an evening elsewhere may call for the chauffeur; the slope-side position does not guarantee afternoon sun; and a pool without a mountain view is still a pool without a mountain view. Bills rise as confidently as the altitude, particularly once extras join the room rate. Wearstler’s new public rooms add excitement, although anyone who loved the old intimacy may find the performance louder than they remember.
Every hotel in Courchevel wants to jump farther. L’Apogée, built on the site of a real ski jump, knows something the competition might have missed. The landing matters more.
On location
Courchevel 1850 once built a 50-metre hill for its ski jump. The jump was later moved elsewhere; the hill stayed, and L'Apogée stands on it.
Skiing back to the hotel ends on a private conveyor belt 40 metres long, under a clear arched cover, which carries guests from the slope straight into the ski room. There the ski room team takes over the equipment, and guests carry on into the warmth of the hotel without a climb in ski boots.
The ski room is staffed by a professional team that handles rental, boot fitting, preparation and maintenance, and the hotel prepares lift passes in advance. Its shop sells equipment and snow clothing, including L'Apogée skis made by Nidecker. Ski and snowboard instructors, booked through the concierge, meet guests at the hotel's ski-in ski-out entrance rather than in the village.
The public rooms on the ground floor are Kelly Wearstler's first hotel project in Europe. She set the starkness of Brutalism against the softness of the Alps: dark stone, alpine wood, natural fabrics and a selection of European artworks across the lounge, bar and salon. L'Apogée Club works here from breakfast to après-ski, with live music; a grand piano stands by the staircase.
Spa L'Apogée by La Prairie lies underground. Its 11-metre blue mosaic pool sits with a whirlpool, hammam, sauna and a salt cave, and one of the five treatment rooms is a duo cabin with a banya and cold bath. Pool and fitness centre are kept for hotel guests; children swim with an adult, within set family hours.
At a glance
Where
5 Rue Emile Allais, Jardin Alpin, 73120 Courchevel, Savoie; at the top of Courchevel 1850 on the former ski-jump hill, with direct access to the slopes of Les 3 Vallées (around 600 km of runs); the Croisette lifts, shops and ski schools nearby; Chambéry airport about 1.5 to 2 hours by car; Courchevel Altiport transfers
Why this one
A 40-metre conveyor to the ski room.
Suites for five, a penthouse for nine.
Freestyle 1850, for ages 11 to 15.
The Edit Notes
The two room categories look at different things. Deluxe Rooms and Junior Suites are listed with forest views; the Deluxe Room page adds that they overlook the hotel's quieter side entrance. Prestige Rooms, Deluxe Junior Suites and the larger suites face the mountains, and the Prestige Junior and Prestige One-Bedroom Suites sit on the upper floors with slope views and balconies. For the view of the pistes and the valley that the hotel's height promises, book from the Prestige Junior Suite upwards.
Capacities are fixed by category. Deluxe Rooms, Prestige Rooms and Junior Suites take two adults, though Prestige Rooms have a niche with a small sofa for a child under six. Deluxe and Prestige Junior Suites and the one-bedroom suites take a third guest on a sofa bed. Beyond that come the Deluxe Two-Bedroom Suite for four, the Family Suite under the eaves for five, the Penthouse for nine and the chalets for eleven. Several categories connect on request.
By day L'Apogée Club serves from breakfast through lunch, tea and après-ski. In the evening the hotel's own answers page says the Club becomes Beefbar, so a week's dinners in the hotel mean one menu of beef, sides and street-food plates, with room service as the alternative. Beefbar also takes outside bookings in the season, so reserve tables when booking the room, and plan evenings at other tables in the village, where the chauffeur service helps on the return uphill.
The hotel opens for winter only. Its 2026/27 offers start on 11 December 2026 and the guided off-piste package runs until 29 March 2027; no closing date is published. Payment is taken in advance, cancellation deadlines lengthen in high season, and a one-night stay forfeits its whole deposit, so a single night tagged onto a longer trip is a poor fit. Pets are not admitted anywhere on the property. Arrival is easiest by transfer from Courchevel Altiport or by car from Chambéry.
The price question
The money buys the shortest possible distance between the last run and a warm room: a conveyor off the slope, a staffed ski room, a spa below and rooms planned for families. It does not buy variety at dinner or a pool with a view, and the booking terms are strict. The real comparison is with the other ski-in hotels on the Jardin Alpin and above it.
Book it for a week of skiing with children or teenagers, in a category that fits everyone without sofa beds pressed into service, and with dinners elsewhere in Courchevel planned for some evenings. Couples who want a different dining room every night, or a swim with the peaks in sight, are better placed elsewhere.
Cheval Blanc Courchevel
Thirty-six keys, including an Apartment and Le Chalet, with interiors by Sybille de Margerie, ski-in ski-out access, and Le 1947, La Terrasse, Le Bar and Le Grill Alpin for eating and drinking.
Airelles Courchevel
Forty-four rooms and suites, fifteen of them suites, at the foot of the Jardin Alpin slopes, with a ski room run by valets and half board served both in the hotel and on the mountain.
The Extra Edit
Confirmed with your quote
Something extra, from us.
Ask for a stay and a person takes it from there. Any hotel privileges that apply, and a personal Extra arranged by us, are confirmed with your bookable quote.
Tell us which Extra appeals in your request. Nothing is charged when you ask, and no upgrade is promised.
A drink, a meal or an experience: chosen by you, arranged by us.
A person confirms your request within 24 hours.
Rate on request
Personal confirmation within 24 hours