The French Alps — this winter’s hippest new hotels

Stéphane Vidoni — the owner, who has five kids himself, aged from 4 to 20 — tells me his great aim at Fahrenheit Seven (apparently the temperature that creates a perfect snowflake) is to make skiing an entirely relaxing experience. He doesn’t even want you to call it a hotel, just “a place to be with family and friends”. The home-from-home, but actually much nicer than your own home, vibe is behind the huge success of the Soho House brand — and you would be forgiven for thinking that Fahrenheit Seven was its first ski outpost. It has the same combination of trendy British styling and absence of stuffiness. Here you would fit in wearing a chic cashmere jumper dress or salopettes. And you can go for breakfast in your ski socks.

Vidoni is not connected to Soho House — although he does have a British business partner. He was the general manager of five-star hotel The Fitzroy, up the road, and before that worked at L’Arboisie in Megève. When he saw a Val Thorens original, the Mercure Hotel, struggling and in need of a serious update, he bought it. Over the summer he and his wife, Véronique, transformed the place, and yes, it was with a little inspiration from the Soho House website, she confesses.

Out went the dated yellow paintwork and varnished pine. Now the walls are deep sea-greens, midnight blues and soft dark greys. The garish red carpets have been replaced by slate-coloured wooden floors. In came Moroccan rugs, leather pouffes and mid-century modern furniture in olive and ochre velvets.

The result is a place so inviting that all you want to do is climb a huge bar stool and treat yourself to a whisky mac, or settle into an armchair by the fire. Which is easy to do. Fahrenheit Seven has six bars, including a cosy lounge. There are two massive outside sundecks and a conference room that will convert into a children’s area in the school holidays.

You eat in La Rotisserie, where the taupe walls, velvet banquettes and open kitchen reminded me of Hoi Polloi, the restaurant in Shoreditch’s A-list haunt, the Ace Hotel. Many dishes here have an Asian-fusion bent. The dark and snug Le Zinc bar specialises in fine wines and Savoyard sharing plates. It is already a hit with the locals. The evening I was there, a group of ESF ski instructors sat drinking at one table. At another I spotted the director of the Val Thorens tourist office enjoying a night off with his family.

Upstairs in my room I spent a lot of time wondering if I should repaint my own bedroom walls a dark sea-green or a midnight blue like the velvet headboard. Those trendy dark colours are soothing. My room was a decent size, too, at 27 sq m. Rooms also come at 37 and 47 sq m. Most feature sofabeds for an extra friend or children. Fifteen rooms are interconnecting and there are two suites.

In my view, good storage and hooks are a vital feature in your room when skiing, and this one had plenty, with a TV, desk and a lovely old-style Bakelite phone from which I could make free international calls. No kettle, minibar or plug sockets by the bed, though. Annoyingly, the bathroom had only a handheld shower fitting in the bath. A small spa featuring a sauna, hamman and hot tub will be ready next month.

Val Thorens, the highest resort in Europe

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For your ski gear, walk through the locker room straight into Ski Technic, run by André and Pierre, who are the nicest French ski-hire shop men I have encountered. The equipment is excellent too. (Tip: you don’t have to be staying at the hotel to use these guys.) They will lend you top-brand salopettes and jackets for £8 each a day.

Because it is the highest resort in Europe, with guaranteed snow in these uncertain climatic times, there has been a rush of investment in Val Thorens over the past few years. Fahrenheit Seven will be the resort’s fourth four-star hotel, in addition to four five-star ones, including Le Pashmina, which opened last year. Also new this year is La Datcha, a luxury eco-chalet for 15 that has its own spa, pool and cinema room — yours for £34,120-£100,390 a week. However, there remains a huge variety of cheaper accommodation so the resort isn’t nearly as posy as its Trois Vallées sisters, Méribel and Courchevel.

People come here to ski, not shop — and there is plenty of skiing to be had via an efficient system of cable cars serving 150km of runs, almost all of them above 2,000m. My favourite are the two long runs in Orelle, the remote-feeling “fourth valley”. Here you can also put your skis on your back and zipwire across the valley, zooming through the chilly air at 100km/h. It is the highest zipwire in the world and takes some nerve at the start. Yet the ride feels strangely peaceful. All you can hear is the wind.

This year the 1980s favourite, mono- skiing, is being revived with lessons and kit offered by Ski Cool Ecole. The resort has devised a new ski-touring trail allowing you to hike up 280m as the rising sun lights up the mountains around you. Also new this year is ice-diving in a nearby lake (reader, I declined).

Val Thorens is an innovating, well- resourced resort that has plenty of draws beyond assured snow. It’s already popular with the Brits. My bet is that Fahrenheit Seven will make it more so.

Need to know
Bridget Harrison was a guest of Fahrenheit Seven, which has B&B double rooms from £132 to £382; for half-board add £32pp (fahrenheitseven.com). Further information: valthorens.com, savoie-mont-blanc.com

One of the patios at RockyPop, built to look like a French village café

RockyPop hotel, Chamonix
When it comes to hotel openings in the Alps, it is usually the four and five-star names that get all the attention. Not this year. The ski hotel that everyone is talking about is the RockyPop in Chamonix — and for good reason. It is offering a new concept in ski accommodation: ridiculously cheap rooms, paired with an all-action living space, where you can eat, drink and play without having to leave the building. It’s like a stylish youth hostel and I am predicting that it will be a hit with groups of friends on a budget, or economy-minded families happy for their children to run wild in the evenings, playing ping-pong, table football and retro video games.

RockyPop is the creation of a local hotelier, Romain Trollet, as a response to the exploding popularity of Airbnb in Chamonix, where traditional hotels are notoriously expensive. The idea is that RockyPop’s prices will compete with Airbnb, but you will get a lot more to enjoy. There are two types of room. The RockyDuo for two, that will start at £25.50 a person; and the RockyDuplex, with four beds, two in a mezzanine, starting at £21 a person. There are also two “penthouse apartments” featuring a kitchenette (with Smeg fridges), sofa areas and 12 single bunks — starting at £8.50 a person. Oh to be young again.

The rooms are a bit cramped. Hurling your ski stuff all over the place is not an option. However, they are bright and minimalist, with crisp white duvets on comfortable beds, a TV and power showers. They are a lot nicer than any of the budget studios in which I’ve stayed in my time. At least here you can escape downstairs.

The main hotel action is arranged in one flowing communal space. At one end there is a lounge-like area where you can play board games and make tea and coffee. Next comes the central bar with stools running along either side. Trollet’s brother owns two cocktail bars in the Pigalle quarter of Paris, so he knows how to deliver a quality tipple. There are 15 types of beer, and signature cocktails for £9. I recommend the RockySour made with the local liquor Génépi, lemon and morello cherry. On either side of the bar, bi-folding doors open to two outside “patios”. One features two table-tennis tables, a library, cinema screen and jolly balloon-style lights. The other side is designed to resemble a café in a French village, with tables and chairs, table football, an olive tree and a petanque court. Both patios have heaters.

At the far end is a lively restaurant area where you sit at refectory-like tables beneath rainbow-coloured lamps, or on cushions on the floor, Japanese style. It’s all very communal. Here a burger station and pizza truck complement a Savoyard-style menu. Most dishes cost about £12. Children’s meals are £10. The breakfast is £8.50. There are also four booths that double as laptop stations, and a hairdressers. In the basement is a launderette and ski hire shop.

The whole place feels great fun and is a massive homage to the Eighties. Models of C-3P0 and R2-D2 meet you at reception. The carpets have Pac-Man and Space Invaders characters on them. There are two arcade machines with 600 retro games to choose from — and free credits. (How this will be policed in half-term week, I cannot imagine. They had to drag me away.) In the lifts you will find a made-up tweet from Beyoncé saying “Best hotel ever for single ladies”. And one from Kim Kardashian “@kanyewest let’s stay at @rockypophotel for ever my love”. Justin Bieber just says “PARTY!!”

Les Houches ski area in Chamonix

You are probably getting by now that you have to be pretty sociable to stay at the RockyPop. You do. Its motto is “the joy of togetherness”. But then some of my best friends are people I have met on ski holidays. You would also have to appreciate house music. A DJ was spinning at the end of the bar as we ate dinner.

The hotel is on the main road to Chamonix, just north of Les Houches, a small village 7km south of Chamonix. You need to hop on a complimentary shuttle bus — they arrive every 15 minutes — to get to town or any of the surrounding ski areas: Les Houches, Brévent-Flégère, Le Grands Montets at Argentière and Le Tour Vallorcine. Regulars to the Chamonix valley know this is the deal here. It’s not a ski-in, ski-out resort. What you get is a wonderful, historic town that is full of fantastic shops and restaurants, and is surrounded by forests, glaciers and jagged peaks.

Chamonix is the birthplace of alpine sports and every outdoor brand has its own store here, which is dizzying if you have a kit fetish like me. The resort is also home to some of the most experienced mountain guides in France and has the best off-piste skiing in the Alps. That said, I reckon that the hotel’s location, next to Les Houches, means it would make a good choice for beginners. The Les Houches ski area is pretty, tree-lined and relatively gentle — and has its own ski school.

No doubt the RockyPop’s first season will be a bit of an experiment — especially when it comes to pricing and catering for everyone when it is full — there are 150 rooms. I’ve got a feeling it will also become a big evening destination for people staying elsewhere. So here’s my advice. Get in early. This place is going to be a riot.

Need to know
Bridget Harrison was a guest of RockyPop, where a double room is from £51 to £137; a room for four is from £85 to £239; a room for 12 is from £100 (rockypop-chamonix.com). More information: chamonix.com, leshouches.com, savoie-mont-blanc.com