Rosewood's second season, the Fouquet's rebrand, Sundance opening in Moriond, the new Chenus gondola and a floodlit World Cup slalom on 22 December: what actually changes in Courchevel for winter 2026-27.
Courchevel opens for the season on Friday 4 December 2026, and for the second winter running the resort will look noticeably different from the year before. The last eighteen months have brought the biggest wave of hotel openings, rebrands and lift investment the village has seen in a decade, and most of it is only now settling into place.
Here is what is genuinely new for 2026-27, what arrived last winter and is back for its second season, and what has been announced but not yet confirmed. We have checked every item against current sources, and where something is still unconfirmed, we say so.
First, the Dates and the Pass
The resort opens on 4 December 2026, the full Three Valleys links open on 5 December, and the season runs through to 18 April 2027. The 3 Vallées Unlimited season pass is priced at 1,620 euros for an adult, dropping to 1,329 euros per person under the Family Flex formula. Full details, including how to time a trip for snow or for quiet slopes, are in our ski season dates guide.
If your dates fall in the festive fortnight, our Christmas and New Year guide explains why those two weeks now book out by the end of September.
Rosewood Courchevel Le Jardin Alpin: Year Two of the Newest Palace-Level Address
One correction to a rumour we still hear: the Rosewood is not opening this winter. It already opened, in December 2025, and 2026-27 will be its second season.
It was worth the wait. Rosewood's first alpine resort sits in the Jardin Alpin enclave above the village centre, with ski-in ski-out access, 51 rooms and suites including three signature houses, and interiors by the French designer Tristan Auer. The restaurant, SALTO, cooks from the northern Italian Alps playbook, and the spa, kids' club and cigar room complete a very deliberate statement of intent. Its first season sold on novelty; its second will show whether it joins the village's permanent aristocracy. Our luxury hotels page puts it alongside the established palaces.
Fouquet's Courchevel: the Rebrand That Worked
The former Hôtel Barrière Les Neiges reopened in early December 2025 as Fouquet's Courchevel, bringing the Paris name to the Bellecôte slope. The bones are the same, and they were always good: 42 rooms and suites, a serious spa, direct access to the piste. What changed is the energy.
The reason to care, even if you are not staying there, is the food and the terrace. Loulou runs Italian cooking from breakfast to late cocktails, truffle pizza included, with DJ sets taking over the terrace in the afternoon, and La Table Savoyarde handles the cheese side of the mountain repertoire. Pastry comes from Christophe Adam of Paris éclair fame. Forbes, reviewing it in March 2026, called it the buzziest reopening of the Courchevel season, and on the evidence of its first winter the terrace earned the noise. Expect it busier this year.
Sundance: Moriond Gets Its Five-Star Hamlet
The genuine 2026-27 debut is not in 1850 at all. Sundance, in Courchevel Moriond, is listed by its operator Alpine Resorts as new for the 2026-27 season: a hamlet of 41 lodges, from three-bedroom apartments to six-bedroom penthouses, run with five-star hotel services 150 metres from the snow.
The shared spaces are the point: an Italian restaurant, La Bokka, a spa with indoor pool, sauna, hammam and hot tub, a Technogym fitness room, and a concierge desk. For families who find 1850 prices hard to justify, this is the most significant thing to happen to Moriond in years, and another sign that the village below is closing the style gap with its neighbour. One honest note: the developer lists delivery for late 2026, so this is a genuine first season, and an early-December stay may find a brand-new operation still finding its rhythm.
On the Mountain: the Chenus Effect
The big lift news is now one season old but most returning guests will meet it for the first time. The Chenus gondola out of 1850, which had run for 55 years, was replaced for winter 2025-26 with a new POMA installation: ten-seat cabins, double the old capacity at 2,400 passengers per hour, a rebuilt bottom station that reorganises the snowfront, and solar panels on the top station. The 20 million euro project changes the morning rhythm on the west side of the village, and the old queue at 9.30am has largely gone with it.
For 2026-27 itself, no major new lift has been announced at the time of writing. The resort's investment cycle points next at renewals elsewhere in the Three Valleys, and we will update this page if the lift company confirms anything for the season.
A World Cup Night Slalom on 22 December
France gets a midweek women's slalom just before Christmas, and the venue is settled: the FIS calendar for 2026-27 lists the women's World Cup slalom at Courchevel on 22 December 2026. The resort ran the equivalent night race under floodlights at the Stade Émile-Allais in December 2025, so the format is proven, and the timing this season is a gift: a floodlit World Cup slalom three days before Christmas, in the middle of the fullest week of the winter.
The men's dates in France are fixed too, with Val d'Isère hosting giant slalom and slalom on 12 and 13 December 2026. If your stay covers the 22nd, plan the evening around the stadium: the village empties onto the snowfront and dinner reservations move late.
Back for a Second Winter
Two arrivals from last December deserve a mention because they reshaped the dining map. The Maya Hotel and its restaurant MayaBay brought Monaco's Thai-Japanese flagship to rue Park City, and POM Thai imported a cult Ibiza address to rue des Verdons. Both return for 2026-27, and both are covered properly in our Thai and Asian dining guide.
The recurring fixtures also roll on: the International Fireworks Art Festival lights the slopes in February and March, and the Millet Ski Touring night races climb from Le Praz one evening a week all season.
A resort that some guests dismiss as finished keeps rebuilding itself: a new palace-level hotel, a Paris rebrand, a five-star hamlet in Moriond and a World Cup bib number, all inside two winters. The village at the top of the road has never believed in standing still, and winter 2026-27 is the proof.
