These Most Luxurious Ski Hotels Around the World
There is a world of magic to doing either one. It isn’t that the slopes, the powder, the thrill of charging downhill is secondary, it’s that a cozy, character rich lodge with a long history has a way of nudging you to make it part of yours. Each of these resorts which include old school lodges, inns, and even grand hotels have deep roots in their legendary ski towns. From St. Moritz to Megéve, Aspen to Vermont, I looked for history and interiors that reflect their lineage. I sadly had to bypass older resorts whose interiors have been corporatized, aka rooms that feel a little like I’m trapped on a work retreat, complete with a glass top desk and pleather bench. Let find out These Most Luxurious Ski Hotels Around the World below.
Contents
These Most Luxurious Ski Hotels Around the World
Hotel Jerome
Aspen, Colorado: You can feel the silver boom in this three story, street facing hotel. It was built in 1889 by Jerome Wheeler, the old West’s version of a venture capitalist: After falling for Aspen, he sunk about $6 million into silver mines and other promising gigs. Its grand opening on Thanksgiving Eve was attended by a Who’s Who of New York socialites and Chicago business barons not that this crowd needed a bargain, but at the time of its opening, rooms could be rented for $3 or $4 a night.
Hotel Almhof Schneider
Lech am Arlberg, Austria: The ski in ski out hotel’s two restaurants boast a 25,000 bottle wine collection that is renowned as one of the best in Austria. Gerold’s mother, Hannelore, can often be seen doing rounds through the bar to make sure guests are happy. But between that wine selection and the curvilinear ebony bar, I’m guessing they are. That is once of These Most Luxurious Ski Hotels Around the World.
Hotel Almhof Schneider
Lech am Arlberg, Austria: Ninety years after his great grandfather Wilhelm and grandfather Leopold converted part of their farmhouse into guest rooms, Gerold Schneider is upholding his family’s legacy and then some.
He and his wife, Katia, an architect, have turned the generational business in what is known as the cradle of alpine skiing into an impeccably designed five star hotel. Adding to its alpine cred: Before she became an architect, Katia was a child actress who starred as Heidi in the German Swiss television series.
Hotel Jerome
Aspen, Colorado: Today, Jerome fetches upwards of $600 a night in the high ski season, thanks in part to a highly urbane and authentically appointed 2012 revitalization by Nevada based interior designer Todd Avery Lenahan. He held true to the hotel’s lineage with a sophisticated collection of western art, Navajo rugs, and 19th century antiques. That is once of These Most Luxurious Ski Hotels Around the World.
Hotel Jerome
Aspen, Colorado: Guest rooms honor the forms and traditions of old Aspen with elements like natural spindle beds, nightstands reminiscent of old travelers’ trunks as would be carried by coach, and touches of silver, all suggesting guests of Hotel Jerome are still striking it rich by landing here.
Badrutt’s Palace
St. Moritz, Switzerland: This grand hotel was opened in 1896 by Caspar Badrutt. His mother, Johannes, meanwhile, had her hands full luring the first English tourists to the now legendary ski town with the promise of winter sports like curling and toboggan runs. They both were successful, and their family spent the 20th century building the palace’s legacy in luxury sporting, all the while managing to throw epic parties.
To understand the latter, we can’t overlook the elephant in the room, and that’s hardly metaphorical: A gentle giant was summoned one year from a traveling circus to deliver a gift to a guest’s birthday party.
Les Fermes de Marie
Megéve, France: If the small village of buildings that comprise this five-star lodge feel older than their 30 years, it’s because their spirit dates back centuries. The wood used to build the inn and neighboring chalets was rescued from old farmhouses and pasture huts elsewhere in the French Alps.
The understated, yet entirely luxurious, compound is a five-minute walk from the central village of Megéve, which is part of the Evasion Mont Blanc ski area the fourth largest in France. Still, it isn’t crowd heavy and maintains much of the small-town charm of its inception in the 1920s.
Badrutt’s Palace
St. Moritz, Switzerland: Circus surprises aside, the hotel’s annual social event of the year is their New Year’s Eve bash, a costumed event that draws revelers from around the world to gathering rooms like the Grand Hall, King’s Social House, and the Renaissance Bar pictured here all of which bring rich wintry wonder in spades.
