Sun · 10 Jan
Arrival at altitude.
Sion airport, driver up through the Rhône valley. Hotel by 16:00, dusk on the terrace by 17:30. Dinner in-house. Early.
The three weeks after New Year the mountains stop performing. The lifts are quieter, the rooms calmer. If you've only been in high season, you haven't been.
The second week of January is one of the quietest of the Alpine winter. The Christmas crowd has gone home. The February school holidays haven't started. The weather is cold — properly cold, −12 at altitude at dawn — and the light is the best it is all year. Three minutes before dusk the valley fills with blue and the glass on the terrace turns a colour we don't have a word for.
You don't queue for the lifts. The chef plates for a handful of tables instead of a full room. The spa is quiet. The ski guide isn't rushing. The hotel's own staff — the ones who've been running at 110% since Christmas Eve — exhale, and you can feel it in the service.
What you're trading is slightly fewer sunny days — this is January, not March — and a handful of restaurants that stay closed on Mondays. In return you get a mountain almost entirely to yourself, and a hotel staff whose attention you can finally hold.
This page lists our Swiss stays with their live rate for the week of 11 January. Anything that isn't bookable online, our concierge arranges for you.
Our concierge can put a week like this together for you. The dates below are a sketch — the real thing is written around you.
Sion airport, driver up through the Rhône valley. Hotel by 16:00, dusk on the terrace by 17:30. Dinner in-house. Early.
Private guide at the lift for 09:00 — the hour the mountain is yours. Lunch at the Chetzeron. Back by 14:30, spa until dinner.
Train down to Sion for the Monday-market Tuesday variant, then wine in the vineyards above the river. Back for sunset.
Lifted up the glacier at 11:00. Fondue hut sleeps two, four courses by the fire. Walk out, descend by piste-basher at dusk.
Hammam at dawn. Breakfast on the terrace. Reading. The chef cooks you lunch at the counter. Early dinner in the village.
Different guide, different side of the mountain. Lift at Plaine Morte opens for powder — go up at 08:30. Lunch late at La Cave.
Nothing on the schedule. The terrace at 17:40 is worth staying in for. Dinner at Le Mont Blanc.
Breakfast on the terrace. Driver back to Sion for the 15:40. A note from the concierge follows.
Ski-in from the door, a spa for the afternoons. Live rates for the week of 11 January.
A ski-in chalet for ten, with a private chef. Live rates for the week of 11 January.
A grand hotel under the Matterhorn. Live rates for the week of 11 January.
If you'd like our concierge to put a week together for you — property, dates, guide, chef — it's one message. We write back within the day.