Alpe d'Huez hotels: a five-star base at 1,860 metres

Where Alpe d'Huez hotels sit: a resort at 1,860 metres

Alpe d'Huez is a ski and summer resort in the Isère département, on a sunny plateau of the Grandes Rousses massif above the Oisans valleys. The resort stands at 1,860 metres and its highest point, the Pic Blanc, reaches 3,330 metres. The tourist office calls it the Island in the Sun and cites about 300 days of sunshine a year. It is one of the Isère resorts in our French Alps selection.

Administratively, the resort belongs to the commune of Huez, whose old village lies lower down at about 1,450 metres, and this page also lists the commune's other five-star hotels. Among Alpe d'Huez hotels, Hôtel Daria-I Nor stands up on the plateau, in the Éclose area served by the resort's internal gondola.

Skiing here has a long history. The resort was developed from the 1920s, and its first ski lift opened in 1936: a platter lift by Jean Pomagalski, founder of the Poma company. Alpe d'Huez then hosted the bobsleigh events of the 1968 Winter Olympics, which were based in Grenoble, and its altiport was built for the same Games; it was named after the mountain pilot Henri Giraud in 2000.

The resort's church, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, was designed by the architect Jean Marol and completed around 1970, with stained glass by Arcabas. Its organ, shaped like a hand raised towards the sky, was designed by the composer Jean Guillou with the organ builder Detlef Kleuker.

Hôtel Daria-I Nor in L'Éclose

Hôtel Daria-I Nor is a ski hotel at 1,860 metres, at Zone de l'Éclose, with a direct link to the ski area. It has 46 rooms in the Atout France register and was classified five-star on 25 January 2024. It belongs to Les Etincelles, a collection of hotels, residences and chalets that also includes Hôtel Taj-I Mah in Les Arcs. Its name comes from the Daria-i-Noor diamond, a pale pink stone whose Persian name means sea of light, and the décor draws on the diamond's history in warm, cocooning tones.

Every room has a private balcony. Sizes run from the 24 m² Chambre Classique to the 63 m² Suite Master, which sleeps up to six on one or two levels. Families can also choose apartments with a separate cabin of bunk beds for children under 13. The south-facing terrace looks over the ski area.

The Daria-I Nor Luxury Spa covers 800 m², with a pool, gym, sauna, hammam, jacuzzi, sensory showers, an ice fountain, a solarium and a relaxation area with a Himalayan salt wall. Its four treatment rooms use Valmont and Phytomer products. Dining is split between La Table du Daria, a bistronomic restaurant with a made-to-measure wine cellar worked into the décor, and L'Amethyste, a gourmet restaurant at the foot of the Alpe Express gondola. A lounge bar with a panoramic terrace serves a snacking menu.

For skiers, the hotel's ski shop on the third floor faces the Alpe Express lift and handles equipment rental and the drying of boots and helmets. The resort's kindergarten and beginners' area are close by, and the hotel offers a baby equipment pack and babysitting on request.

The Alpe d'Huez Grand Domaine in figures

The Alpe d'Huez Grand Domaine links the resort with four other ski resorts, Auris-en-Oisans, Villard-Reculas, Oz 3300 and Vaujany, and with the villages of La Garde and Le Freney-d'Oisans. The tourist office gives 250 km of runs on 111 pistes and a vertical drop of about 2,200 metres, from the Pic Blanc down to L'Enversin d'Oz.

The slopes face largely south, and Wikipedia notes that extensive snowmaking was built up to counter that orientation; the tourist office now counts 1,053 snow cannons. The same article credits very easy slopes with drawing beginners, while the high terrain draws steep-skiing enthusiasts. Recent lift projects include the Poutrans and Rif Nel cable cars.

The Sarenne, the Tunnel and the Pic Blanc

The Sarenne is the run many skiers come to complete. It starts at the top of the Pic Blanc at 3,330 metres and descends 16 km to 1,510 metres, a vertical drop of 1,820 metres. The ski-area operator describes it as the longest black run in Europe and puts it at more than 25 minutes of continuous skiing.

The Tunnel is the resort's other emblem. It starts at 3,000 metres, passes through a 200-metre tunnel cut into the mountainside and then drops onto a mogul field with a 35-degree incline, one of the steepest in France according to the operator. As of September 2026, the operator's website lists the run as not accessible following an unforeseen incident, so check its status before planning a trip around it.

Non-skiers can reach the summit too. From the Grandes Rousses sector, the Pic Blanc 1 and Pic Blanc 2 gondolas climb to a plateau at 2,700 metres, where a cable car takes over for the final ascent. The summit terrace gives a 360-degree view that takes in Mont Blanc, La Meije, the Écrins and the Aiguilles d'Arves.

The 21 hairpins and the Tour de France

The road up from Le Bourg-d'Oisans is the D211. The tourist office measures the climb at 14.45 km, rising 1,121 metres from 717 metres to 1,860 metres, at an average gradient of 7.9% and a maximum of 14%. Its 21 hairpins are numbered in reverse, from 21 at the bottom to 1 near the top. The idea came from Georges Rajon, a local hotelier who saw the numbered bends of the Vršič Pass in Slovenia in 1964 and marked the Alpe d'Huez bends the same year.

The Tour de France first came here in 1952, when Fausto Coppi won what Wikipedia describes as the race's first mountain-top finish. The Tour returned in 1976 and has finished on the Alpe regularly since; the bends now carry plaques bearing the names of stage winners. When all 21 had been named, by 2001, the naming started again from the bottom.

Later editions added their own chapters. In 2013 the riders climbed the Alpe twice in one stage, descending by the Col de Sarenne in between. In 2018 Geraint Thomas became the first rider to win the Alpe d'Huez stage while wearing the yellow jersey. In July 2026 the Tour finished at Alpe d'Huez on two consecutive days: Tadej Pogačar won stage 19 from Gap on 24 July, becoming the second rider to win here in the yellow jersey, and Richard Carapaz won stage 20 from Le Bourg-d'Oisans on 25 July. On stage 19 Pogačar climbed the 13.8 km from the foot of the Alpe in 35 minutes 27 seconds, according to Cyclingnews and TOUR magazine, beating the record Marco Pantani had set in 1995. The tourist office's page, timed over its longer 14.45 km measure, still shows Pantani's 37 minutes 35 seconds of 1997.

Summer at Alpe d'Huez: lakes, summit and bike races

In summer the resort switches to cycling, hiking and high-altitude sightseeing. The ski-area operator's summer programme includes a Lac Besson relaxation area with deckchairs, picnic spots, pétanque courts and a children's play area, and the Pic Blanc summit terrace at 3,330 metres is also fitted with deckchairs. Guided Pic Blanc tours, yoga sessions at the summit and tandem paragliding flights complete the programme. The resort also has a compact nine-hole golf course.

The summer calendar is built around endurance events on the resort's roads and slopes:

• La Marmotte Granfondo Alpes, first held in the early 1980s, which starts in Le Bourg-d'Oisans, crosses the Glandon, Télégraphe and Galibier passes and ends on the Alpe, usually in late June; the organiser gave its 2026 course as 177 km with 5,000 metres of climbing;
• the Mégavalanche, a mass-start mountain-bike race from the Pic Blanc, usually in July;
• the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon, organised since 2006, usually in late July.

Outside race days, the climb itself is the attraction: the tourist office counts several hundred cyclists riding it every day in season.

Getting to Alpe d'Huez: airports, trains and the D1091

Grenoble is the gateway. The road route given by the ski-area operator follows the A480 motorway and then the D1091 along the Romanche valley to Le Bourg-d'Oisans, where the 21 bends begin. Without a car, Grenoble station is the closest railhead, and in the season the Transaltitude coach line runs directly to the resort.

The distances below are published by Hôtel Daria-I Nor for its own address; road times come from the ski-area operator. For a method to judge any hotel's access and surroundings before booking, see our guide to checking a hotel's location and transport.