How much does a week of luxury in Courchevel cost?

When a client asks me the budget for a luxury week in Courchevel, I always start with two questions: which period, and what kind of accommodation? Between a week in January and New Year week, the ratio can vary threefold, on the same chalet, with the same team. Here is how the spend actually breaks down.

Indicative rates, to be revalidated by season. What matters in this table isn’t a figure: it’s that accommodation alone represents the overwhelming majority of the budget. Everything else (passes, instructors, transfers, tables) fits inside the variation of a single chalet week.

You have two schools of thought, and they don’t compare on price alone. The private chalet means space, privacy, a team of your own and the ability to entertain. It’s always rented by the week, Saturday to Saturday, and only truly pays for itself from six or seven nights.

The hotel is paid by the night and suits a short stay. For a couple planning to ski every day and dine out every evening, a palace suite stands up very well against a six-bedroom house of which only two rooms will be used. I say it against my own interest, and it’s often the right advice.

The lift pass is the most predictable line of the budget, and by far the smallest. The real subject is the private instructor: around €600 a day, and to my mind the best investment of the stay. He doesn’t only help you improve, he gets you to the on-piste restaurant where lunch is booked without difficulty, he knows which lifts don’t jam, and he brings you back to the chalet on skis at the end of the day. On an area the size of the 3 Vallées, that last point alone justifies the cost.

Heliskiing is added on when conditions allow, as is premium equipment hire, delivered and fitted at the chalet rather than collected from a shop on Sunday morning.

Good news: in most restaurants, the cooking remains largely affordable. The bill can climb very fast the day you get carried away with the wine list, but I’ll leave that to you. Courchevel also has a rare density of starred tables, 1947 at Cheval Blanc and Slalom 1850 foremost among them, and much-sought-after on-piste restaurants that must be booked before arrival.

• Tourist tax and security deposit, never included in the “from” line of a chalet listing.
• The chef: does he cook every evening or three times a week? The gap changes the food budget entirely.
• Drinks, almost never included in a so-called “all-inclusive” chalet.
• Childcare and group lessons, to be booked well ahead during holiday weeks.
• The return journey. People budget the arrival and forget the following Saturday, which costs the same.
• Tips for the chalet staff, customary at the end of the stay.

There is only one real lever, and it isn’t negotiation: it’s the date. Move your week from mid-February to mid-January or mid-March and you get the same chalet, the same staff, often better snow, for a fraction of the price. The pistes are empty, tables can be booked the day before, and instructors are available.

The second lever, quieter: if budget is the main constraint, change level rather than category. A very fine chalet at 1650 with a driver on call costs less and lives better than an average chalet at 1850 bought for the address.