In this guide
Most ski trip planning stops at one resort and one booking. Aspen one year, St. Moritz if it ever comes up, Courchevel on a different trip entirely. We plan it as one season instead: three stops, each chosen for what it does best, with the same team carrying every detail between them. The idea started as a carousel on Instagram: Aspen, St. Moritz, Courchevel, closing on one line, plan your season with us.
Why plan a whole season instead of one trip?
Because the three resorts answer three different needs, and skiing all three well takes more coordination than booking each one on its own. A family week, a lake town built around light and a long lunch, and a mountain built for scale are not interchangeable, so the planning has to account for what changes between them: time zones, travel days, the kind of house that suits each stop. One plan that already knows all three stops tends to hold together better than three plans made separately.
What does each stop actually give you?
Aspen is four mountains in one valley, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass, with a town built for a family week rather than a single peak to cover (patagonialiving.com/resorts/aspen). St. Moritz hosted two Winter Olympics and skis Corviglia and Corvatsch above a frozen lake, under the Engadin light that shapes every afternoon there (patagonialiving.com/resorts/st-moritz). Courchevel opens onto the Trois Vallees, one of the largest linked ski areas in the world, with roughly 600 km of pistes and the whole valley at the door of the village (patagonialiving.com/resorts/courchevel). Put together, that is a family mountain, a lake town and a scale of terrain few single trips can match, which is exactly why they work better as three stops in one season than three competing choices.
How do we sequence three stops without rushing the trip?
We start from the gaps, not the dates on the lifts. Travel between Colorado, Switzerland and France takes real time, so we build in room either side of each stop rather than flying in and skiing the next morning. The order usually follows what a family wants from the season as a whole, a valley week to open it, a lake town in the middle, the scale of the Trois Vallees to close it, though the order can run the other way just as easily. Our guide on choosing between Patagonia, the USA and Europe covers the reasoning behind picking regions in the first place, and when to book a ski trip covers the timing question for any single stop inside the season.
What stays the same no matter which stop you're on?
The team planning your days, not the instructors on the snow, since that roster is assembled trip by trip around each stop and each family rather than a fixed group that travels with you. What does stay constant is the standard behind every stop: the instruction, the house, the transfers and the dining are planned the same way whether you are in a Colorado valley, an Engadin lake town or a French village at the base of the Trois Vallees. That consistency is the actual point of running a season through one team instead of three separate bookings.
Aspen, St. Moritz and Courchevel, in that order or another one that suits your season better. Plan your season with us.
For a closer look at the Courchevel stop on its own, see what Courchevel 1850 looks like from above.
Common questions
Can we really plan Aspen, St. Moritz and Courchevel as one season?
Yes. We work from one plan that sequences the three stops, handles the travel between them and keeps the same standard of service at every stop, so it reads as one season rather than three separate bookings. See our carousel on the idea.
What is different about Aspen, St. Moritz and Courchevel?
Aspen is four mountains in one valley with a town built for families. St. Moritz skis Corviglia and Corvatsch above a frozen lake, with the light the Engadin is known for. Courchevel opens onto the Trois Vallees, one of the largest linked ski areas in the world. Each is covered in more depth in what each stop actually gives you.
Do we need the same instructors at every stop?
No, and we would not promise that. The instructor network is assembled trip by trip around each stop and each family, so the people on the snow change, while the planning and the standard of service around them do not, as covered in what changes with private instruction.
How much time should sit between each stop?
Enough that nobody is unpacking the moment they land. We build the gap around travel time and how a family actually wants to spend a season, covered in how we sequence three stops without rushing the trip.
- Aspen
- St. Moritz
- Courchevel
