Photo: (c) Shutterstock.

Top of most people’s wish list for their ski chalet holiday is a hot tub or pool, says Andy Sturt, MD of VIP SKI. Although the main attraction is to simply relax after a day on the piste, there are health benefits too: buoyancy eases pressure on joints and muscles, while heat increases blood flow to muscles and accelerates relaxation and joint stiffness. Additionally, hot tub jets provide therapeutic massage, stimulating the release of endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkiller.

 
So if you want to feel good every day of your ski holiday, even if you’ve pounded your legs on the piste morning and afternoon, it is worth staying somewhere where you can completely relax when you come down from the mountain.

And if there’s a storm blowing or a white-out, why not treat yourself to a day away from the slopes and laze in a hot tub after a relaxing massage? Of course, all resorts have something to offer, ranging from swimming-pool to a full-blown spa centre, but here are a few of my favourite places in which to relax:

Lech

The most exclusive resort in Austria is also one of the snowiest. The total 340km of marked runs are shared with St Anton, with Lech itself the less demanding part of the area and home to lots of easy-going pistes. However, if you’re going to ski all the way to St Anton and back you’ll be giving your legs quite a pounding.

Where to relax

Hotel Theodul’s spa.

Stay at Hotel Theodul (sleeps 57-80), which is in a great location on the high street, and has a good spa. A heated outdoor pool is being built in time for the coming winter. Alpine Sports Physio offers sports massage and physio, and will come to you. 

You can also visit the Aurelio Day Spa with its saunas, aroma steam baths, herbal and flower baths, multi-sensory showers, a cooling pool, and a vitality bar offering fresh fruits, tea and healthy snacks. Pick one of the variety of massages, scrubs and wraps, facial and body treatments – such as the Lomi Lomi Nui (Hawaiian Temple Massage which ‘blends rhythmic music with plenty of warm oil’).

Val d’Isere

Photo: (C) OT Val d’Isere.

Val d’Isere is a resort that suits all standards of skier, with its skiing split into five different areas that can be accessed from eight different points along the narrow valley road. For advanced and expert skiers especially, there’s an enormous choice of runs on offer: World Cup pistes, open powder fields, sheer chutes and some long off-piste itineraries.

Where to relax

Club Bellevarde’s pool.

The Aquasportif Centre has yoga and Zumba classes, bodybuilding sessions, indoor climbing, volleyball, indoor football, basketball, badminton and table tennis. The indoor swimming-pool has a stream river, water cannons, massage jets, bubble bench, aqua gym, and aquabike. 

Madrisah’s wet suite.

Stay in Club Bellevarde (sleeps 24), which has an outdoor hot tub on the terrace, a wellness centre and pool. The Farmhouse (sleeps 10) has transformed its basement into a spa suite with small counter-current pool and steam room. Or there’s Chalet Madrisah (sleeps 8), which has a fabulous wet suite with hot tub and sauna. Ski Physio offers a mobile massage service, with qualified therapists able to visit you in the privacy of your own chalet bedroom.

St Anton

It’s not so much the size of the ski area that matters (305km of marked pistes) here, but the huge variety of terrain in the St Anton area. There are other easier places in which to progress through the early stages of skiing, but you can find some reasonably easy pistes here. But what the resort is best known for is its dizzying black runs and sheer couloirs. If you ski from the Rendl area all the way over to Warth at the northern end of the lift system, you might well feel like you’ve skied across the Alps. 

Where to relax

The indoor pool at Arlberg-Well.

Club Arlberg-well.com has three swimming-pools, including a specially-designed kids pool, tennis courts and a multi-level sauna zone. Wherever you’re staying, Alpine Sports Physio can come to your chalet (such as Chalet Cristal, five minutes’ from the Rendalbahn lift) with its highly-trained specialists in sports massage, injury rehabilitation and prevention.

Les Gets

The huge Portes du Soleil ski area can be quite exhausting – especially if you’re an intermediate who’s not used to covering all those kilometres. If you’re staying in Les Gets the chances are that you’re on a family holiday, and may welcome some extra pampering and ‘me time’.

Where to relax

Spa Sereni.

Spa Sereni Cimes offers wellbeing treatments from the five continents, including Madagascar and Polynesian spirit massages, traditional Thai massage, Vietnamese massage, Balinese massage, and a Tibetan bowl vibrating massage. Stay in Altitude Lodge (sleeps 19-29), which is right on the piste. As well as having a communal outdoor hot tub, three of the bedrooms have their own private outdoor hot tubs. Mountain Rehab offers a full mobile massage service in the lodge.

Meribel

Chalet Mariefleur’s sauna.

No trip to the 3 Valleys is complete without skiing from one end of the vast area to the other, and staying in Meribel means you’re extremely well placed for both ends. So on one day you might ski the Meribel to Courchevel sector, and on another tackle the runs that go all the way to Val Thorens via St Martin de Belleville and Les Menuires.

Where to relax

Hot tub at Bellacima Lodge.

Stay at Bellacima Lodge (sleeps 11-12), which has a sauna, outdoor hot tub and a small counter-current swimming-pool, or Chalet Mariefleur (sleeps 10-11) where the sauna will help soothe ski-weary muscles and the new outdoor hot tub means you can watch the sun go down in style. As in Val d’Isere, Ski Physio offers a mobile massage service here.

You could also head for the Olympic Park – with or without children in tow. The sports and relaxation complex is located next to the Chaudanne and houses a 25-metre swimming-pool complete with water slide, a large indoor ice rink, a spa and a fitness area. My Spa by Pure Altitude has four treatments rooms, saunas, steam rooms and a large Jacuzzi. Those over 16 years of age can use the full spa.

Alpe d’Huez

Alpe d’Huez is at the heart of France’s fifth largest ski area, with an impressive 250km of pistes and, as well as having great nursery slopes, there’s some excellent terrain for advanced and expert skiers. This includes the longest black piste in the Alps – the Sarenne. The area has some excellent off-piste routes, such as the run from the top of the Pic Blanc all the way down to Clavans le Bas, in a valley east of the main resort.

Where to relax

Aquapalming at the Palais des Sports.

If you’re doing the ski area justice then you’ll certainly appreciate a dip in the hot tub or crashing out in the sauna after skiing. All our chalets in Alpe d’Huez have them, and if you’re looking to re-energise in preparation for the slopes, Massage Me can bring their treatments to your chalet. 

If you still have some energy left – or your children have – then you could visit to the Palais des Sports, which contains an indoor swimming-pool with aquabiking and aquapalming (a bit like an aqua gym), fitness and dance studios, indoor tennis courts, basketball, squash and badminton, a climbing wall and bouldering,

Morzine

The Manoir.

If you’ve skied the Swiss Wall you will have given your legs quite a battering, for it’s one of the most difficult descents marked as a black run on any piste map. But there’s also the long and testing black that descends from Le Plan Brazy following the line of the FIS downhill course to Les Prodains at the base of the Morzine area.

Where to relax

Hot tub with a view at the Manoir.

The Manoir (sleeps 10-15) has an outdoor hot tub with a fabulous view over the town, and Mountain Rehab offers a mobile massage service to the chalet. Also try Parc des Dereches where you’ll find indoor and outdoor ice-skating rinks, an aqua gym and indoor climbing. There are classes for yoga and meditation, street dance, BoxFit, and zumba. The large 25-metre indoor swimming-pool has two splash pools for children, is open in the afternoon most days and is a fun place to go when the weather is bad.

Avoriaz

Also in the Portes du Soleil, Avoriaz is the highest and most snow-sure resort in the ski area, offering 650km of piste in 14 resorts and two countries. The futuristic-looking village is set at the top of a cliff and has always been one of the most forward-looking ski resorts in the Alps.

Where to relax

The indoor tropical paradise of Aquariaz.

Chalet Poudreuse (sleeps 12-14) is situated at the top of resort just by the TK Dromonts lift and a short glide away from the nursery slopes. The chalet has a sauna to ease the muscles after a day on the slopes. Europe’s highest waterpark is Aquariaz, designed as an aquatic paradise in the mountains featuring lush vegetation and rocks, a river with a variable gentle current, a slidewinder (a kind of aquatic halfpipe), a water playhouse, paddling pool, a large pool with climbing walls, massage benches and an open-air spa heated to 34 degrees.