My stay in a five-star hotel in the ski resort rated the ‘best in the world’. Here’s what it’s like – and my score

With its panoramic window with resort and mountain views, mezzanine double bed and standalone bathtub, there is something almost cinematic about our quarters in the five-star Scandi-chic Altapura hotel in Val Thorens.

Certainly, there is enough acreage in the living room area for a film crew (see video).

So it is a big tick for the bedroom.

And big ticks for just about everything else at the hotel.

The property occupies a prime slice of ski-in, ski-out real estate at the 2,300m- (7,545ft) high resort – Europe’s loftiest and declared the world’s best ski resort nine times, including for 2024/2025 – and is something of a mini wonderland, a feeling helped by the actual tree trunks soaring from the ground to the ceiling by the ground-floor lifts.

Then there’s the beautiful lounge, liberally festooned with comfy 70s-style chairs and sofas – and punctuated by an enticing circular bar – for post-piste limb restoration and the exchange of mountain-themed tales of derring-do.

The spa is also magnetic, drawing in guests with its stunning inside-outside pool and ice-filled igloo room.

For my daughter, this part of the hotel is possibly the property highlight, even trumping the kids club.

Ted Thornhill checks in to five-star hotel Altapura in Val Thorens, France

Pictured above is the hotel’s inside-outside pool, which is part of a ‘magnetic’ spa complex

The outside section of the hotel’s pool, which is great fun for young and old alike

The dining options, meanwhile, are stellar.

There’s swish Italian Casa Alta and a brilliant Alpine-themed eaterie, La Laiterie – the hotel’s nerve centre for raclettes and fondues.

The cheese here is top-tier, cockle-warming stuff. And the wine is plaudit-worthy, too.

Breakfast is served in a more casual space, with windows galore offering sterling mountain views.

Altapura puts on a good spread for the first meal of the day, though the eggs for ‘eggs and soldiers’ (l’oeuf à la coque ) are an abject failure – distinctly undercooked. (The chef forgets the four-minute 20-second rule for the perfect runny yolk.) And trying to secure a pot of coffee involves a game of Pac-Man with the staff, wandering between the tables until you bump into one of them to put in an order.

Altapura occupies a prime slice of ski-in, ski-out real estate at Val Thorens, declared the world’s best ski resort nine times

At 2,300m (7,545ft), Val Thorens, which is encircled by six glaciers, is the highest ski resort in Europe

But here’s the thing – the staff here are consistently eager, joyful and charming, and walk with a spring in their step, so the slip-ups don’t rankle.

And there are a few more – at Casa Alta, the staff lose track of our progress and offer dessert menus before we receive our main course. Oops.

And we have to request our room to be cleaned and for our little one’s sofabed to be made up.

The hotel’s enticing circular bar, ‘for post-piste limb restoration and the exchange of mountain-themed tales of derring-do’

The ‘beautiful lounge is liberally festooned with comfy 70s-style chairs and sofas’

Stunning mountain views come as standard at Altapura

‘I suspect we and our fellow guests all feel the same – desperate to return,’ writes Ted

Potential irritations, but these small kinks in proceedings are ironed out quickly and with a smile, and that’s often all it takes to nail down return custom.

And I suspect we and our fellow guests all feel the same – desperate to return.

We spend our final hour at the hotel sunning ourselves on the expansive lounge terrace, eating delicious croque monsieurs, gazing up at Val Thorens’ epic peak-scape.

Cinematic from start to finish.

TRAVEL FACTS 

Ted was hosted by Altapura and the Val Thorens tourism office. Visit en.altapura.fr and www.valthorens.com.

Rooms at Altapura start from around £400 ($500) a night. 

Pros: Incredible rooms, superb location, joyous staff, great food, fun pool.

Cons: Service could be a little slicker.

Hotel rating out of five: ****

GETTING THERE

The best way of reaching Val Thorens from the UK is via Eurostar, which runs a ski train service to the French Alps that departs on Saturdays and returns on Sundays.

It stops at Chambéry, Albertville, Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-Les-Bains (for Val Thorens), Aime-la-Plagne, and Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Visit www.eurostar.com/uk-en/train/france/ski-train#Journey.

If that’s booked out, take a Eurostar to Paris and then a TGV from Gare de Lyon.

Eurostar fares from London start at £39 each way in Standard, or £70 in Plus.