Should you choose a flat in the Alps or a large house in the mountains?

Should you choose a flat in the Alps or a holiday cottage in Sweden? Short answer: the Alpine market is centred on compact flats for four to six people and hotels offering half-board, whilst the Swedish mountain holiday market is centred on whole houses where ten to twenty people stay together. It is not a question of standard – both can be of a very high standard – but of how the week is organised and how the group can socialise.

The difference is most noticeable in the hours not spent on the slopes, and there are more of them than you might expect. For a larger group, the choice has, in practice, already been made by the market: mountain lodges for ten to twenty people are hard to come by in an Alpine village, whilst they form the backbone of the range of accommodation on offer in Sweden. Below, we look at what these two types of accommodation actually mean in practical terms for a week’s skiing holiday.

Quick answer: a flat in the Alps or a cottage in Sweden – two ways to stay

Here’s how the housing models differ in practice:

• Base unit: The Alps sell beds or flats – the Swedish mountains sell houses.
• Size: The chalet is typically designed to accommodate four to six people – the mountain cabin, eight to twenty.
• Kitchen: Kitchenette or half-board in the Alps – a fully equipped kitchen with a dining table in the mountain chalet.
• Communal areas: often a living room that seats four – as opposed to a living room, dining room and sauna that can accommodate the whole party.
• Pricing: per person in the Alps – per house in Sweden, which means that the cost per person falls as the group size increases.
• If there are more of you: another flat in a different block – or a larger house.

This is what accommodation in the Alps usually looks like – flats, hotels and half-board

The Alpine villages are designed to accommodate high occupancy rates within a limited area, which makes perfect sense given the steep terrain and the fact that the village has to accommodate ten thousand guests a week. The result is efficient flats in blocks of flats: two bedrooms, an alcove or sofa bed, a kitchenette with two hobs and a small living room. The alternative is a hotel offering half- or full-board, where dinner is served at a set time and you don’t have to cook at all. Both options have real advantages. The flat is often within walking distance of the ski lift and the village; staying in a hotel means no one has to go shopping or do the washing-up; and the standard of maintenance in newly built Alpine residences is high. What’s lacking is space – and therefore the possibility for a large group to be in the same room at the same time.

Square metres per person, and what that means for the week

Take a family of five in a flat measuring fifty square metres. It works perfectly well for six days in a row if everyone is out skiing all day. It works less well on the day there’s a storm, someone catches a cold or a child gets bored after two hours. Now imagine that same family in a mountain chalet measuring two hundred square metres: the children can have their own floor, someone can have a nap whilst others play cards, and there’s an extra sofa for anyone who wants to read in peace. A skiing holiday is rarely seven days of non-stop skiing – it’s three or four proper days of skiing, half a day’s rest, a day of bad weather and long evenings. Space, therefore, isn’t a matter of luxury, but rather what determines whether the week feels relaxing or cramped. This is the key structural difference that carries the most weight when comparing a flat in the Alps with a holiday cottage in Sweden.

Self-catering: food costs, grocery shopping and dinners cooked at home

A fully equipped kitchen changes the week’s budget and rhythm. With twelve people gathered round the same table, dinners become part of the holiday rather than a logistical challenge – someone cooks, someone sets the table, and the cost per portion works out well below restaurant prices. Breakfast can be eaten as and when everyone wakes up; packed lunches mean no one has to queue for lunch up on the mountain; and special dietary requirements are catered for in your own fridge. A kitchenette with two hotplates isn’t enough for more than four people, and half-board at a hotel ties dinner to a set time that doesn’t always suit children who’ve fallen asleep in the car on the way home from the slopes. If you want to sort out your dinners without going out, there’s also the option to book private chef for the holiday cottage for one or more evenings – an arrangement that requires a proper kitchen. Exactly what is included in a holiday let varies, and we’ll go through that in what is included when renting a holiday home in Sälen.

Sauna, relaxation area and a place to socialise in the evening

The Scandinavian holiday cottage tradition offers something that the Alpine market rarely provides at the apartment level: the sauna as an integral part of the accommodation, rather than a shared facility in the basement with a booking schedule. In a Swedish mountain chalet, the sauna is heated when the group gets home, the drying room takes care of wet ski boots overnight, and the relaxation area is used by those who couldn’t manage that final run. For many, this replaces après-ski, and it’s a significant part of why a week in the mountains feels like a holiday even for those who only ski for two days. In the Alps, the same needs are often met by the village spa or the hotel’s swimming pool, which is nice but not quite the same as having eleven people gathered in your own kitchen after the sauna. We’ve put together cottages with a sauna and relaxation area for those who prioritise that particular aspect.

Large gatherings – when the group can’t all fit under one roof

This is the point at which the difference ceases to be a matter of nuance. Whether twelve, sixteen or twenty people are travelling together, the alpine option effectively means several flats, often in different buildings and sometimes in different parts of the village. This means separate breakfasts, a dinner that has to be eaten out so that everyone can fit in, and the group effectively splitting into smaller sub-groups. In the Swedish mountains, the equivalent arrangement is a single house – sometimes with two kitchens and several bathrooms, built specifically for this purpose. The family reunion, the group of friends who’ve turned fifty, the three families who get together every year: they don’t travel primarily for the skiing, but to be together. We’ll look at which type of accommodation suits which group size in the differences between the types of accommodation in Sälen.

When an apartment in the Alps is the right choice

Choose the chalet if there are two to five of you. In that case, the compact space won’t be a problem, and in return you’ll get a location right in the heart of the village, within walking distance of the ski lift, a bakery and restaurants – something no Swedish mountain cabin can match. Choose this option if you plan to ski from the first lift to the last every day and only use the accommodation to sleep and get changed – in that case, the square metres are a waste of money. Choose a hotel with half-board if you want a holiday without any housework at all, which is a perfectly rational choice, especially for a couple or for parents who’ve been cooking for eleven months. And opt for alpine accommodation if the obvious convenience of the location outweighs the size: being able to go out in the evening without anyone having to drive is a real advantage that large mountain chalets often lack.

Summary – choose between a flat in the Alps or a holiday cottage in Sweden depending on the size of your group

The rule is simpler than you might think. Up to five people: The flat in the Alps is ideal, and its location in the village is a major selling point. Six to eight people: It’s starting to get a bit cramped, and a house with its own kitchen and sauna makes for a noticeably different week. Nine people or more: A large house in the Swedish mountains is, in practice, the only way to keep the group together, and the cost per person also falls with every additional guest as the rent is shared. Ask yourselves how many of you there are and how much time you’ll actually spend in the accommodation – the answers to these two questions will determine your choice. If you already know there’ll be a large group, we’ll be happy to help you find a house that can accommodate the whole group under one roof.