Luxury chalets with swimming pools, from Courchevel to St. Moritz

Most of the Alpine chalets in our published collection are luxury chalets with swimming pools, all private to the house, in Courchevel, Verbier and St. Moritz. Almost every one is an indoor pool on a dedicated spa floor. Seven descriptions state a length, from 9 to 17 metres, and three pools have a counter-current for swimming against the flow.

So the question is rarely whether a chalet has a pool. It is which kind suits your group: a 17-metre pool for someone who wants to swim properly before breakfast, a shorter pool with a counter-current for training in place, a warm shallow-feeling pool the children can play in after ski school, or a pool that opens to the outside so you can swim towards the snow. The Zermatt chalets we publish have no swimming pool; Chalet Zeyr has a cold plunge pool and Chalet Anelle a Nordic bath.

Everything below comes from the descriptions our team keeps for each residence after visiting it. Where a description does not give a length or a depth, we say so rather than guess. If you are comparing pools with everything else a chalet offers, our full collection of luxury chalets is the place to start; if the soak matters more than the swim, the tubs are covered on our page of ski chalets with a hot tub.

This is the pool map we work from when a client tells us the swim matters. The third column only shows a length when the chalet’s description gives one; a blank in our records is not a small pool, simply a figure we confirm with the house on request.

No description in our collection states a pool depth. We confirm depth and water temperature with the house for every family that asks.

A counter-current system pushes a steady stream of water towards you, so you swim against it and stay roughly in the same place. In a chalet it turns a pool of modest length into somewhere you can swim without turning, and it is a good way for skiers to loosen legs and shoulders on a rest day. Gus in St. Moritz, Ambre in Verbier and Oris in Courchevel have one. Ask the house team to show you the controls on arrival; after that, a few habits help.

1. Start gently

   Set the flow low for the first session and raise it once you have found a rhythm. Too strong a current pushes you back towards the wall and turns a swim into a struggle.

2. Find your line

   Swim in the centre of the jet, where the current is even. Drifting to one side makes you correct constantly and tires one shoulder more than the other.

3. Mix the strokes

   Front crawl suits the current best. Breaststroke works at a lower setting, and, where the pool is shallow enough, walking or jogging against the flow is a pleasant recovery session after a long day on the slopes.

4. Switch it off for others

   Turn the current off when you finish, especially before children or guests who want a calm float come into the water.

For many families the indoor pool is the reason for the booking: it fills the hour after ski school, it rescues a white-out day, and it lets grandparents enjoy the children without standing in the snow. It is also the one room in the house that needs a plan. These are the arrangements families tell us work best, alongside the official guidance above. For nannies, ski school and bedroom layouts in more depth, see our family ski chalets with childcare.

• Name one adult as the watcher for each swim, phone away, and hand over out loud when you swap. Several adults sitting around the pool is not the same as one adult watching.
• Ask the house team to keep the pool door closed when no one is swimming. On indoor-outdoor pools, such as those at Dace and Sally, ask which safety device is in place.
• Agree a simple rule on the first evening: no child goes down to the spa floor alone, whatever their age.
• Choose bedrooms with the pool in mind: bunk rooms at Valmont, Gus and Azelia, a family suite with its own bunk room at Flys, a children’s dormitory and playroom at Morelle.
• Plan the pool for late afternoon, when ski school ends and the light goes, and keep the sauna and hammam for the adults.
• Childcare or babysitting can be arranged on request in many of these chalets, including Gus, Azelia, Nore, Avalon, Astral and Dace, which leaves parents free for an adult swim.