School Holidays and Courchevel: Why Some Weeks Cost Twice as Much

Two identical weeks in February. Same chalet, same snow, same mountain. One costs close to double the other.

The explanation is not the weather and it is not the resort being opportunistic. It is that four countries send their children on holiday at roughly the same time, in a pattern that shifts every year, and where those weeks overlap is where Courchevel fills up.

If you understand the pattern, you can plan around it. If you're bound by it, you can at least book early enough to get the property you want.

How the calendars work

France splits the country into three zones — A, B and C — with winter holidays staggered across four consecutive weeks. Which zone takes which week rotates annually, so the pattern is never the same two years running. Paris and Lyon are in different zones, which matters a great deal to a French resort.

The United Kingdom takes a single half-term week in February, and most of the country takes it at the same time. This concentration is why the UK's impact is so sharply felt in one week rather than spread.

The Netherlands has the *krokusvakantie*, also split by region — north, middle and south — across late February.

Switzerland is decided canton by canton, so the effect is spread but persistent through February.

Belgium takes its carnival week in the same window.

What this produces

A period of roughly four to five weeks in February where Courchevel is busy throughout, and one or two weeks in the middle where several of these calendars coincide.

That overlap week is the most expensive and most crowded week of the season after New Year. Lift queues form where they otherwise wouldn't. Restaurants that normally take a few days' notice need weeks. The best properties are booked a year in advance, sometimes more.

The weeks either side are noticeably quieter for very nearly identical conditions.

What it means for your booking

If you're tied to school dates, book early. Not a few months early. For a good property in a half-term week, twelve months ahead is normal and eighteen is not unusual. The properties that are still available in October for February half term are, generally, the ones nobody wanted in October.

If you're tied to school dates but have a choice of week, look at where your country's holiday sits relative to the others. A week at the edge of the block behaves very differently from a week in the middle of it.

If you're not tied to school dates at all, avoid February entirely and you will have a better holiday for less money. Early January and early March both offer comparable snow with a fraction of the people.

Reading the pattern for your year

The practical steps are simple:

• Check the French zone rotation for the season — which zone has which week changes annually

• Find the UK half-term week and see which French zone it lands on top of

• Check the Dutch regional weeks against the same calendar

• The week with the most overlap is the peak; the weeks at either end are the value

We do this for guests as a matter of course when their dates are flexible, because it is the single most effective way to improve what a budget buys.

A note on the rest of the season

February gets the attention, but the same logic applies at Christmas and Easter. Christmas and New Year are fixed and universally busy. Easter moves year to year, and wherever it falls it brings a spike with it — which in a late Easter can mean a very busy week in what would otherwise be quiet spring skiing.

The practical summary

The busiest and most expensive weeks: New Year, then the February overlap week.

The best value weeks with comparable conditions: early to mid January, early March.

The weeks that reward flexibility most: the ones immediately either side of half term.

If your dates are fixed, we'll tell you what to expect and make sure you're booked far enough ahead to have a real choice. If they're flexible, we'll show you what moving by a single week actually does to your options.