Europe is home to some of the World’s most iconic ski resorts. Reliable snow records, vast skiing terrains, legendary night life and family friendly facilities are just some of the main draws to many of Europe’s premier resorts. Although skiing is no longer seen as a pastime reserved for the upper echelons of society, there is no doubt the sport attracts a wealthy set. If it is glamour and luxury that you pursue, then there are many resorts in Europe that can cater for your wants and needs.

Below is The Lux Travellers suggestion for 5 of the most glamorous ski resorts in Europe.

Courchevel 1850

Glamour and wealth are synonomous with 1850, it’s not unusual to see a Ferrari idling in the McDonald’s Drive Through, followed by a couple of top of the range Porche 4×4’s. “How would you like your fries madam?” “With diamonds” she replies, in Russian. It’s true, the Russian’s have made Courchevel 1850 a home away from home and brought a lot of Rubles with them too. The knock-on effect being that it’s sent prices sky high. I wrote a story about 1850 not long ago about how you could blow a million euros in a day and it wasn’t a fairy tale, it’s feasible to do so.

There are flagship stores here for most of the world’s leading brands in fashion, jewelry and sporting goods.

Of course I jest, there are commodities to be had for ordinary folk and it’s possible to survive on a low budget but when you’ve seen George Clooney in the checkout at Migros, bumped into Cher and her entourage on the ski lift and knocked over David Beckham’s pint in the English Pub, you have to pinch yourself. People watching is a fascinating sport here and once you’ve drowned out the sound of helicopters darting here and there, with their precious cargo of the mega rich, you might reflect that next year you’ll book two weeks somewhere less exclusive.

Zermatt

It would be fair to say that Zermatt owes it’s fame and fortune to a randomly shaped lump of rock, fashioned by the shift of tectonic plates in the earths crust long before skiing was invented. Yes, the iconic Matterhorn.

It’s phallic shape has fascinated humans down the ages, it’s possible to believe that early homo sapiens offered up sacrifices, in awe of it’s majesty and uncompromising nature. Like a sentinel keeping watch over the valley below it had stood for eons, unconquered, until curiosity and adventurousness got the better of English explorer and mountaineer Edward Whymper in 1865. That opened the flood gates and like the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the Matterhorn is to Zermatt. There are more photos of the Matterhorn than there are stars in the universe, to paraphrase the famous quote, the bulk of them will have been taken by the Japanese who flock here every year.

Does this make Zermatt glamourous, possibly not. But there’s no denying, it has brought huge wealth to the resort and where’s there’s affluence it’s usually accompanied by opulence and there’s plenty of the latter in Zermatt.

It’s probably just as well Zermatt is car free, the traffic jams in its narrow streets would be horrendous, but the wealth would be more obvious as you can bet the line of cars would be populated with top of the range everythings. So, for me Zermatt makes it into the top five of Europe’s most glamorous ski resorts.

St Moritz

As it is with Zermatt, it’s perhaps due to a geological feature that St Moritz owes its fame and fortune. Its superb lakeside setting is an attraction that is hard to resist. At the dawn of winter tourism such a location would have been a draw for those with the income and inclination to travel to beautiful destinations, like moths to a flame. Speaking of which the first electric light in Switzerland was installed in the Kulm Hotel in 1878. When news got out about that light bulb visitor numbers shot up.

St Moritz hosted the Winter Olympics in 1928, at a time when foreign travel was starting to become a fashionable and popular pastime for the international jet set. That sealed its fate to some degree as a whole new generation discovered the delights of St Moritz and spread the word. In 1948, amidst the gloom of the European post war depression, the winter Olympics were again hosted by St Moritz, further cementing it’s place in the affections of those with a taste for the finer things in life.

St Moritz became and still is one of the most expensive ski resorts in the world, with that accolade comes a degree of exclusivity that feeds the curiosity of the ordinary mortals who flock there to see and be seen.

St Moritz can boast the fact that it is the highest town in Switzerland with a rail connection, one of only three resorts ever to have hosted the Winter Olympics on two occasions, that it is the home of the famous Cresta Run, oh, and has a namesake luxury brand of Menthol Cigarettes, they are reassuringly expensive.