Courmayeur | Mont Blanc | Luxury Review | Helicopters | Snowboarders | Polo | L’Auberge de La Maison

A pine-scented Italian mountain refuge beneath Monte Bianco where folklore, food, skiing, and serious pleasure converge, and where leaving feels faintly disloyal

Courmayeur sits at the foot of Mont Blanc with the quiet confidence of a place that knows exactly who it is. It has no need to shout. Unlike many Alpine resorts engineered for throughput and spectacle, this is a real town with a proper centre, cobbled streets, stone houses, and a rhythm dictated as much by weather and tradition as by ski lifts and restaurant bookings.

The Aosta Valley frames everything with an almost theatrical sense of scale. Mont Blanc, or Monte Bianco if you are being respectful, dominates the skyline like a presence rather than a view. It is sometimes invisible, sometimes terrifyingly present, and always felt. Historically feared as the “Cursed Mountain”, believed to harbour demons, witches, and malevolent spirits, it was once so unsettling that local clergy were brought in to perform exorcisms. Even now, there is an unspoken understanding that Mont Blanc is not something to be conquered lightly. It is a mountain that tolerates you, or it does not.

Courmayeur balances this seriousness with Italian charm. High-altitude adventure followed by high-quality dining. Hard physical effort rewarded with excellent wine. Ski boots swapped for loafers without apology. It is elegant but never precious, sophisticated without being stiff. Très bien, as the French side of me insists.

Auberge de La Maison, An Alpine Fairytale That Grew Up Well

Set on a gentle slope just above the town, Auberge de La Maison feels less like a hotel and more like someone’s extremely well-loved mountain home, expanded just enough to share. It was still festooned with Christmas decorations when I arrived in early January, it felt reassuring, as if no one here felt the need to rush the season out the door.

The building itself is a celebration of Alpine nostalgia done properly. Bare pine everywhere. Roaring fires. Deep, unapologetically comfortable sofas and armchairs. Family oil paintings of Mont Blanc and surrounding peaks covering the walls. China plates displayed in large armoires. Animal figurines on almost every surface. Walking canes leaning casually by the door. Umbrellas ready for guests who look undecided about the weather. Millions of tiny, thoughtful touches that speak of care rather than concept.

One detail stays with me. By the bidet, there was a beautifully scented intimate care soap, camphor and tea tree, clearly chosen with thought. That kind of detail tells you everything. Care and attention, even where no one is really looking. We are in Italy after all, where passion tends to arrive before humour, unlike England. Ah l’amour.

The Garin family has owned and run Auberge de La Maison for three generations. With just 34 rooms and three apartments, it never feels anonymous. This is not a place that cycles through guests. It collects them.

The staff, dressed in traditional mountain attire, are warm, capable, and genuinely helpful. The atmosphere feels lifted straight out of Italo Calvino, or perhaps Karl Wolff’s Alpine folktales. A five-star refuge of the soul, rather than a performance of luxury.

Rooms With Space to Breathe and Undress Ski Armour

My room was a Charme Bois Alpin, and it immediately felt right. Raw textured pine throughout, a large double bed, and crucially, space. Ski gear requires space. Removing it is a ritual akin to climbing out of a spacesuit, particularly when temperatures fluctuate between a balmy +4 degrees in town and a face-bruising -20 at altitude.

The en-suite bathroom had a proper long bath, ideal for stretching out legs that have spent the day arguing with gravity. The bedroom itself was generous. Twin cupboards. A chest of drawers, all in pine naturellement. A desk. Twin bedside tables. A large red sofa upholstered in flowers, flanked by two deeply comfortable armchairs. Everything felt solid, functional, and quietly handsome.

There are many room types, each with its own character. The beautifully named Les Dames Anglaises or the Junior Mountain Suite with its quirky sloped roofs, upper mezzanines, log fires, and outdoor hot tubs. All come with mesmerising views over the valley and mountains. This is accommodation designed by people who understand how guests actually live in mountain environments.

La Maison de l’Eau, Where Water Meets Mountain

The spa, La Maison de l’Eau, is reserved exclusively for guests and strikes exactly the right balance. It is compact but deeply satisfying. The indoor-outdoor pool, the only one in Courmayeur with views of Mont Blanc, is reason enough to linger. Steam room. Sauna. Outdoor terrace where you can cool down properly while admiring the extraordinary scenery.

My massage with Marianna focused solely on legs and feet, at my request. Astonishingly, this was respected. Usually such requests are politely ignored. Her technique was precise and intelligent, arms teasing and squeezing muscles back into cooperation. It was my favourite massage in some time.

For something more immersive, the Refuge du Mont Blanc can be booked for private use. A hay bath. A bio-sauna infused with mountain herbs at a gentle temperature. A vintage wooden hot tub. A hay bed. It feels both ancient and indulgent, a contradiction the Italians manage effortlessly.

Lunch, Food, and the Athleticism of the Locals

Lunch at the hotel restaurant is always chic and entirely serious about food. A platter of meats and cheeses arrived that could easily have been lunch in most places. Here, it was considered a polite prelude. The locals know that when your days are spent skiing, climbing, or charging uphill in snowshoes, your body will forgive almost anything. Their impressive fitness is not dietary restraint. It is earned, daily, on the mountain.

I followed with rösti and jambon montagnard, then the house speciality ice cream drowned in warm chocolate sauce. Unbeatable.

As I wandered through the lobby towards the restaurant, stylish Italians lounged in little cubby holes dotted throughout the space. Reading. Chatting. Playing cards. Watching the world go by. Everyone glowing with health and contentment. No one in a hurry.

Helicopter Ride Over Mont Blanc - James Bond Style

You simply must take a helicopter ride over Courmayeur at sunset with Sky Aviation and behold the snow-covered mountain paradise from the air. Strap on the headphones and suddenly you feel like Tom Cruise about to complete your latest Mission Impossible, only this stunt is somehow even more death-defying than the last. Glide in a glass bubble for five, sailing over Monte Bianco, Monte Cervino, and Monte Rosa, the light catching blue glaciers that spread like pristine white blankets across the valleys. Snow drifts shimmer in the last rays of sun, and mountain goats scuttle along ridges far below, tiny yet impossibly sure-footed, as if you are observing the world from the perspective of a benevolent, slightly giddy god.

Skiing Mont Chétif, Confidence, and Mild Humiliation

Courmayeur’s skiing is excellent for intermediates but world-renowned for off-piste and backcountry terrain. Mont Chétif in particular is one of the best skiing areas in the Alps, suitable for beginners yet demanding enough to remain interesting.

Ski passes are arranged directly at reception, then you are off. My instructors were Costanza and Gaia, both excellent. Costanza was a superb skier and teacher, getting me moving immediately. She had me descending a blue slope within ten minutes. She would be useless at poker though. Every time I went a little wild, it showed on her face.

I am infinitely better at mono-ski than traditional snow skiing. On water, you lean backwards as speed increases. On snow, this is ill-advised. It made for some entertaining moments, but also genuine progress.

Witches, Santas, and Polo on Snow

I arrived just after La Befana on January 6th, when the Italian witch brings sweets to the good and coal to the bad, marking the end of the Christmas season. Courmayeur also has its own unique festive figure, Rhémy de Noël, a modern legend who lives on the glaciers of Mont Blanc. Part Santa Claus, part mountain climber, red coat paired with ice axe and backpack, delivering gifts to children in the valley.

Then came the Italia Polo Challenge Courmayeur 2026. Six international teams playing polo on snow under floodlights at Entrèves. A larger yellow ball is used so it can be seen against the snow, though this does nothing to make the game feel less precarious.

Team Fieracavalli emerged victorious, while Courmayeur’s own team lost narrowly in the semi-final, 3–4, in a fiercely contested match. Dinner followed in the VIP polo lounge with players and guests. We commiserated with the Courmayeur captain at his table, drinking his own estate wine. I believe we consumed most of his 2022 reserve. Hopefully his cellar will recover.

Finally, if you still have a spark of energy, end your evening at Shatush Mont Blanc, a very Italian club where music thunders and VIP rooms offer refuge from the dance floor. Opening at midnight, it comes alive after the polo, the perfect finale to a day spent chasing snow, speed, and spectacle.

Dining Out, Seduction, and Very Good Decisions

Il Marchese, at the top of the high street, delivers excellent steak tartare, baked starters, and a stylish basement bar that becomes the chicest late-night spot in town. Think louche Parisian lounge bar energy, where conversation is still possible and attractive people gather without the music drowning everything out.

Restaurant Pierre Alexis is the full gastronomic experience and not to be missed. Mountain cuisine with a Japanese sensibility, beautifully presented, unusual, and deeply considered. Multiple flavours, poetic explanations in the language of your choice, and service that feels familial rather than rehearsed. My black cod was so tender it bordered on indecent. Their signature winter log dish is unlike anything I have encountered. Sublime.

Family-run, with father as chef, mother running the house, twin sons handling front of house and wine, and the eldest brother as sous chef. The only way to tell the twins apart is that one has both ears pierced.

This is the restaurant where you take someone you want to seduce and guarantee the result. Then Il Marchese for fun and frolics.

As a local saying goes, the food in Courmayeur is great but the people are even better.

Museums, Mountains, and the Weight of History

The Alpine Guide Museum in the centre of Courmayeur is essential. Guides have been operating here since 1850, the oldest in Italy. Early guides, known as guides à mulets, climbed in shorts with equipment so primitive it is astonishing they ever returned. A local blacksmith built the first crampons. Lead boxes containing books were left on summits for climbers to sign.

The difference between a mountain hut and a bivouac is explained clearly. One offers warmth, food, and help. The other is just enough to keep you alive. Make sure you can cope with both if needed.

The English were among the first tourists, arriving for thermal baths and Grand Tour adventures. Women were carried in pole chairs, portatine, up the mountains. Progress has its limits.

Val Ferret, Snow, and Food That Warms the Bones

A drive up Val Ferret feels like entering a snow globe. Crystallised pine trees. Snow piled high like meringue. At La Clotze in Planpincieux, another three-generation family restaurant, we drank Panf wine made from petit rouge grapes by the owner Francesca Chatrian and Tommaso Rabbia’s family. Full-bodied, velvet smooth, lightly spiced.

Egg crêpes followed by pig and figs. Perfect mountain food. Afterwards, we hiked higher into Planpincieux, where snow lay 2.5 metres deep and silence became tangible. I leapt into a snowbank nearly two metres deep and left a snow angel behind. Irresistible.

Skyway Monte Bianco, Wind, Wine, and Perspective

The Skyway Monte Bianco cable car is the literal and emotional high point. Built in 2015, rotating gently as it climbs to Punta Helbronner at 3,466 metres, it feels like an Italian Bond villain’s lair, minus the menace and with the best hot chocolate you have ever tasted.

At the top, winds reached 100 km/h and temperatures dropped to -20. You would not survive ten minutes outside without proper gear. I managed two. Inside, there is Europe’s highest bookshop, the crystal museum, thriving restaurants, and the option to descend into Chamonix.

The Cave Mont Blanc winery at the Pavillon is a delightful contradiction. The highest cellar and winery in Europe, producing just 1,000 bottles annually at altitude. Smaller bubbles due to pressure. I tasted with Nicolas, starting with the Blanc de Morgex, then the Glacier sparkling, and finally the Cuvée des Guides. Each expressed the mountain differently. Clean, precise, quietly emotional. Mountain wine tastes like attitude at altitude.

The Moment That Stayed With Me

As I stood at the cliff edge taking photographs in near-zero visibility, snow vortexing violently around me and wind gusting over 100 km/h, a snowboarder walked calmly forward, clipped in, and without hesitation disappeared into the white void. Alone. Off-piste. Off his head or supremely skilled. Probably both. I was blown over by the wind at the exact moment he vanished.

When to Come, and Why You Will Not Want to Leave

January offers the best skiing. March brings longer days and social energy. Autumn and spring deliver solitude, scenery, and value. Milanese families return year after year. Courmayeur inspires loyalty.

Come for the mountains. Stay for the food and the people. Leave reluctantly, knowing it will break your heart just a little.

L'Auberge de la Maison Hotel

https://www.aubergemaison.it/en/

Courmayeur Tourist Board

https://www.courmayeurmontblanc.it/

Helicopter Ride Courmayeur - Sky Aviation

https://www.skyaviation.it/en/

Skyways Montebianco Cableway

https://www.montebianco.com/

Cave Mont Blanc

https://www.cavemontblanc.com/

Il Marchese Restaurant Courmayeur

https://ilmarchese.it/en/il-marchese-courmayeur/

Restaurant Pierre Alexis

https://pierrealexis.it/en/

Chateau Branlant Restaurant

https://www.chateaubranlant.com/

La Clotze Restaurant

https://www.ristorantelaclotze.it/

Shatush Mont Blanc

https://shatushmontblanc.com/en/