Courchevel 1850 is the only address in the Alps where a palace-grade chalet sits on the piste itself. In winter that single fact decides everything — you leave the sitting room onto snow, or you spend the week in a minibus.
The three positions
Courchevel 1850 puts you in the middle of the restaurants and the night. Jardin Alpin is quieter and higher, three minutes from the lift, and where most of the serious houses are. The Bellecôte piste is genuine ski-in ski-out with the valley view. Below 1850 the price drops and so does the point.
What a week costs
A properly staffed chalet in 1850 runs from around €30,000 a week in high season as an honest floor, and the front-line houses go well past it in the first fortnight of January and at February half-term. Anything advertised far below that in those weeks is either unstaffed, well below 1850, or photographed generously. See Courchevel chalets.
Staffed, or it does not count
Chef, housekeeping and a house manager are the baseline on everything we place, with drivers, ski technicians and childcare to brief. In the Alps the technician matters more than people expect: boots fitted and skis waxed at the chalet is the difference between a 9am lift and a 10:30 one.
Booking the week around it
The chalet anchors the week; the same thread holds the restaurant tables and the Geneva transfer. Wider notes: the Courchevel guide.
Five villages, one lift system
"Courchevel" on a listing can mean any of five villages strung down one mountainside and joined by the same lifts. Courchevel 1850 is the top of the town and the address people mean. Moriond (1650) sits to the east on its own sunny slopes, quieter and meaningfully cheaper for the same square metres. Courchevel Village (1550) is directly below 1850 on the Grangettes gondola, a few minutes from the centre and a different price bracket. Le Praz (1300), with the Olympic ski jumps from 1992, and La Tania are further down again. All of them ski the same Three Valleys — around 600 km of linked pistes with Méribel and Val Thorens, the largest connected ski area in the world — so the choice is about the evening, not the skiing.
When a listing says 1850, ask for the exact address and the walk to the nearest lift in minutes. Some of the houses marketed under the name are in 1550 or on the road between; the distinction is worth tens of thousands over a peak week.
What the rate includes, and what it never does
A staffed week is quoted Saturday to Saturday and normally covers the house, the team and the food: breakfast, afternoon tea, and dinner on most nights, with a night or two off for the chef by convention. The wine and champagne policy varies house by house — some include a house selection, some run everything on consumption — and it is the first thing we pin down, because it is where a headline rate and a final bill part company.
What the rate does not cover, anywhere: lift passes, ski hire, the French tourist tax, and in most houses the driver's time beyond the resort. Owners take a deposit on signature, the balance some weeks before arrival, and hold a security deposit against the house. We set out all of it in one document before you commit, so the number you agree to is the number you pay.
The calendar that sets the price
The season opens in early December and runs to mid or late April. Christmas and New Year are the first peak; the Orthodox Christmas week in early January is the second and, in 1850, often the more expensive; UK half-term in mid-February is the third, and the French school holidays stagger through February into early March behind it. Between those blocks — the second half of January, the whole of March — the same house is quieter, sunnier in March, and considerably better value for an identical week.
If the dates are fixed by school terms, the answer is to book early rather than hope. If they are not, a week either side of half-term buys the same chalet, the same tables and a shorter lift queue.
Reading a listing honestly
Three things to check before anything else. Sleeps twelve can mean six proper bedrooms or four plus a bunk room; ask for the bedroom count and which have en suites. Ski-in ski-out is claimed for anything within a few hundred metres of snow; ask whether you can ski to the door in boots at the end of the day, which is the version that matters. And photographs are usually taken in summer or on a perfect January morning — ask what the view is when the piste above is being groomed at 7am.
We visit or know first-hand every house we place, which is the only reason we can answer those three questions before you sign. See Courchevel chalets for how we source, or start with the Courchevel concierge for the whole week.