New Year is Courchevel 1850 at full voltage — the most glamorous, most expensive and most fully booked week of the Alpine season. The Palaces take New Year's Eve bookings a year ahead, the altiport fills with private jets, and the resort the international set has chosen for decades turns on fireworks over the Croisette. A five-star New Year's Eve week for two starts from around €15,000, and palace weeks climb well beyond. Here is how the week works — when to book, what it costs, and what actually happens.
If Courchevel has one signature week, it is this one. The stretch from 20 December to 4 January is the resort's peak, and New Year's Eve is the peak's peak — the night the whole village dresses for. Demand runs so far ahead of supply that the planning starts almost a year out. Here is the practical shape of it.
New Year at a glance
| What to know | |
|---|---|
| The dates | Peak runs 20 Dec–4 Jan; New Year's Eve is the single busiest night |
| When to book | Palaces up to a year ahead; any five-star by spring for the NYE week |
| What it costs | From ~€15,000 for a five-star week for two; €30,000+ at a Palace |
| The scene | Midnight fireworks over La Croisette, gala dinners, the Pyramides du Givre ice festival |
| Skiing | Open and groomed, but the busiest pistes of the year — ski early |
When to book — earlier than you think
New Year is the one week where ‘book ahead’ means a year ahead. The Palace hotels open New Year's Eve dates roughly twelve months out and fill fast; any five-star for the 20 Dec–4 Jan week should be held by spring. The New Year's Eve gala dinners — the hardest tickets in the resort — sell out well before the season opens. If you are chartering to the altiport or booking a private chalet with staff, start earlier still.
What a New Year week costs
It is the most expensive week of the year, comfortably above the February peak. As a baseline, a comfortable five-star week for two in ordinary peak season runs about €11,700 on our budget calculator; New Year carries a premium on top. Expect from roughly €15,000 for a five-star week, and €30,000 and up for a Palace week with a New Year's Eve gala — before flights, private transfers, chalets and shopping, any of which can double it.
The scene — fireworks and the Pyramides du Givre
At midnight the fireworks go up over La Croisette, watched from balconies and terraces the length of the plateau. Through the season the Pyramides du Givre ice-sculpture festival lights the village, and the palaces stage black-tie gala dinners that are events in their own right. It is the week Courchevel is most itself — dressed up, floodlit and unhurried about the bill.
Skiing the New Year week
The lifts are open and the pistes freshly groomed, but this is the busiest snow of the season. The move is to ski early — first lifts to the Saulire while the village sleeps off the night before — and lunch late. The sheer size of the Trois Vallées absorbs the numbers better than smaller resorts, but book mountain restaurants ahead and expect queues at the marquee lifts around midday.
Why Courchevel owns New Year
Few places are as bound up with New Year as this one. The altiport lets guests fly in almost to the snow; the density of Palaces and Michelin tables has no equal in the Alps; and generations of the international set — long a favourite of Russian and Gulf families — have made the turn of the year here a fixture. The result is a week that feels less like a holiday than an occasion.
Read on
Cost your week with the budget calculator, check the season dates, choose an address in our hotel ranking, or plan the journey in getting to Courchevel.
