Half-term begins on 15 February, the same day Americans and Canadians take their winter break. For the fully staffed chalets in France’s two great resorts, the choice is being made now.
Haute Retreats, the luxury villa and concierge company Sabrina Piccinin founded in 2016, put a clock on February half-term in August. Its guide to luxury chalet rental in Courchevel, published on 12 August, marked the week as open, with full choice for roughly sixty days. Sixty days on, it is October, and the question most British families are still asking is not whether to go, but where.
For a family that wants a staffed chalet, the answer usually comes down to two resorts, Courchevel 1850 and Val d’Isère. Both sit in the Tarentaise valley in Savoie, and they suit very different families.
Why half-term 2027 is busier than it looks
Most English schools break from Monday 15 February 2027; 143 of England’s 153 councils have set that week. The same Monday is Presidents’ Day in the United States and Family Day across most of Canada, and both of those markets have been arriving in the Alps in growing numbers. American visits to France rose 10.6 per cent in the 2024–25 winter, and French ski areas reported Canadian visitors up by more than a fifth.
The British, for their part, did not wait. In February this year, a full twelve months before the week in question, the ski agency Iglu had already named half-term 2027 its busiest week for bookings. Haute Retreats’ own guidance for the French Alps puts Christmas, New Year and February half-term at 12 to 18 months’ notice.
At the top of the market, the inventory is houses rather than rooms. A chalet with a chef, a butler or chalet manager and daily housekeeping is a fixed number in any resort, and half-term is the week three countries want one at the same time.
Courchevel 1850: for the family that wants the address
Courchevel 1850 is the highest of Courchevel’s villages and the reason the name travels. Light aircraft and helicopters land at its altiport, at the top of the resort; the grand hotels are here; and the front door opens on to Les 3 Vallées, some 600 kilometres of linked pistes shared with Méribel and Val Thorens.
Among Haute Retreats’ Courchevel chalets, two show the range. Chalet Courchevel, up in Nogentil, puts seven en-suite bedrooms for fourteen guests 50 metres from the Bellecôte run, with a butler and chef, housekeeping every day and an in-resort driver. Chalet La Datcha, in the Chenus quarter, sleeps ten in five en-suite bedrooms, with an indoor pool, a hammam, a wine cellar and a chef of its own, 90 metres from the nearest slope.
Courchevel suits the family for whom dinner is as much a part of the holiday as the skiing, and the grandparents who want the lunch terrace as much as the piste.
Val d’Isère: for the family that skis first
Val d’Isère sits at the head of the Tarentaise, beneath the Face de Bellevarde, the Olympic downhill run of 1992. Its pistes link with Tignes, and its season runs from late November to early May, a fortnight longer at the far end than Courchevel’s. Haute Retreats’ own Courchevel guide makes its rival’s case in a phrase: altitude and reliability. The village has the life of a small town, with shops, bars and restaurants along its main street, and enough going on after dark to keep teenagers off their phones.
Haute Retreats’ staffed houses there include Chalet de l’Ecrave, Chalet Formet, Chalet Kazakh and the East Wing of Étoile du Nord, all with a team on site and breakfast included. For a half-term with older children who want first lift and last lift every day, Val d’Isère is often the better answer.
Getting there
By road, Geneva is about two and a half hours from Courchevel and three from Val d’Isère; Chambéry is closer to both. For families who would rather not fly, the Eurostar Snow service leaves London St Pancras every Saturday from 19 December to 20 February, changing at Lille, with stops at Moûtiers for Courchevel and Bourg-Saint-Maurice for Val d’Isère. The half-term Saturday, 13 February, is on the timetable.
Three questions before you sign
First, is the chef’s food included, or charged at cost on top of the rental? In both of the Courchevel chalets above, the chef comes with the house but the ingredients and wine do not. Second, which day does the week start? The Eurostar runs on Saturdays, but some chalets, La Datcha among them, change over on Sundays, which turns a Saturday arrival into a hotel night. Third, does the driver cover the airport or only the resort? Both Courchevel chalets above include a driver within the resort; at La Datcha, the airport transfer is an optional extra.
So which, and when?
The simplest test is how the family wants the day to end. If it ends at dinner, Courchevel. If it ends at the last lift, Val d’Isère.
The timing is the harder part. “Half-term is the one week when three countries want the Alps at once, and it is the week families still book latest,” says Piccinin. “The chalets that are worth the trip are decided by the people who read the calendar in the autumn. In October, there is still a choice between Courchevel and Val d’Isère.”
Leave it until January, and most families will find the choice has narrowed to whichever resort still has the right house.
