Courchevel or Val d’Isère: The Presidents’ Week Chalet Decision
Americans are skiing the Alps in growing numbers. For Presidents’ Day 2027, the staffed chalets in France’s two most storied resorts will go early.
Haute Retreats, the luxury villa and concierge company Sabrina Piccinin founded in 2016, represents fully staffed chalets in France’s two most storied ski resorts. In Courchevel 1850, the morning often begins with the hum of a light aircraft settling onto the altiport above the village. At the head of the Tarentaise valley, Val d’Isère wakes to the first chairs turning toward the Face de Bellevarde, the slope that staged the men’s downhill at the 1992 Winter Olympics. For American families planning Presidents’ Day 2027, the two resorts are increasingly the choice, and they offer two very different weeks.
Americans have been heading to the Alps in growing numbers. U.S. visitors to France’s ski resorts rose 10.6 percent in the 2024–25 season, and last winter Switzerland’s hotels recorded their strongest American season in 30 years. The Epic Pass now includes seven consecutive, unrestricted days in Les 3 Vallées, the 600-kilometer ski area Courchevel shares with Méribel and Val Thorens.
Presidents’ Day falls on Monday, Feb. 15, 2027, the same Monday most English schools break for half-term and much of Canada marks Family Day. It is the one week of the winter when British families and their North American counterparts all arrive at once.
Courchevel 1850: The Address
Courchevel 1850 is the highest and most celebrated of Courchevel’s villages, the one with the altiport, the grand hotels and the dinner reservations that are made before the flights. By road it is around two and a half hours from Geneva; by air, a short hop to the altiport.
Chalet Courchevel sits in the Nogentil district above the village, 50 meters from the Bellecôte run, with seven en-suite bedrooms for up to 14 guests. A butler, a private chef, daily housekeeping and a chauffeur within the resort come with the house. In the Chenus quarter, Chalet La Datcha sleeps 10 in five en-suite bedrooms, its floors joined by an elevator, with an indoor pool, a hot tub, a hammam and a wine cellar, 90 meters from the nearest slope and with a chef in residence.
Courchevel is the choice for families who want the scale of Les 3 Vallées on their doorstep and an evening that matters as much as the day.
Val d’Isère: The Skier’s Resort
Val d’Isère suits families who measure a day in vertical rather than in lunch reservations. Its slopes link with neighboring Tignes, its season runs from late November into early May, two weeks longer at the end than Courchevel’s, and the village is a proper mountain town with a long main street that keeps teenagers occupied after dark. It is about three hours from Geneva.
Among the Val d’Isère chalets in the collection, the fully staffed tier includes the East Wing of Étoile du Nord, Chalet Formet, Chalet de l’Ecrave and Chalet Kazakh, each with a team in residence and breakfast laid before the first lift. For a Presidents’ week with older children who want to ski from the first chair to the last, it is often the better answer.
Booking Presidents’ Week
The staffed chalets in both resorts are a fixed number. The February holiday week is the one the British have long treated as their own, and it is also the week North American families take off.
“Presidents’ week is the one week when the British, the Canadians and the Americans all want the Alps at once,” says Piccinin. “The staffed chalets go first, and they go to the families who decide early. In the fall there is still a real choice between Courchevel and Val d’Isère. By the new year, the choice has usually been made for you.”
Haute Retreats arranges the stay from end to end, from the private transfer out of Geneva to the chef’s first menu, and its luxury chalets in the French Alps can be explored at hauteretreats.com.
