Mont-Blanc (Megève)

Long the biggest name in Megève hotels, the Hôtel Mont-Blanc has done a bit of sprucing up. Actually it goes deeper than that — the new-look Mont-Blanc joins a family that also includes such success stories as Cour des Loges and Les Fermes de Marie, with a new design by the very same Jocelyne Sibuet.

That doesn’t make it a “designer” hotel, necessarily. Sibuet’s work tends toward the classic, not the flashy, and a grand dame like the Mont-Blanc will always be luxury more than look. Still, it’s rare to see an Alpine resort hotel looking this stylish — in the Fifties it made an appearance in the film Les Liaisons Dangereuses, in the Sixties it was sophisticated enough for Jean Cocteau, and in its new incarnation it’ll continue to be a second home for many a skiing Parisian.

As for the nuts and bolts, it’s got everything you’d expect a slopeside hotel to have. A fitness center and a fairly extensive spa are musts. And there’s perhaps more of an emphasis on dining than in the average ski resort. Three restaurants and a couple of lounges serve everything from breakfast to dinner to caviar to the odd glass of mid-afternoon champagne — also a must, if you think about it.

Please note: Hôtel Mont Blanc is a seasonal hotel and is open December through April.

How to get there:
Just 55 minutes from Geneva International Airport (take the Geneva Chamonix motorway, leaving at the Sallanches exit) and Geneva International Railway Station (with the direct high-speed train services operating between Paris and Geneva) it is also connected by motorway to some of Europe's largest cities, including Milan, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Paris.