Alpine vs Desert
Two ways to run a company offsite, side by side — group size, budget, where each concentrates, and the estates worth booking.
Plan a RetreatAlpine
High-country lodges — summits, cold air, and big vistas.
- Venues
- 25 exclusive-buyout estates
- Typical group
- 2–500 guests
- Indicative budget
- $550–$1,100 pp/night
- Concentrated in
- Alpine Europe & Nordic · Mediterranean Europe · Western United States
- Best for
- leadership, team building, celebration
Desert
Sculpted stillness — spa mornings, star fields, and clean lines.
- Venues
- 24 exclusive-buyout estates
- Typical group
- 12–500 guests
- Indicative budget
- $600–$1,250 pp/night
- Concentrated in
- Africa & Middle East · Western United States · Mountain United States
- Best for
- leadership, celebration, team building
Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne
A clifftop resort village 500 m above Lake Lucerne, Bürgenstock spans three hotels (~360 rooms) and a 2,200 m² conference centre seating up to 600 — among the largest premium large-group capacities in the Alps. Arrival by private lake boat and funicular is itself the opening ceremony. It absorbs a full 500-person company while still feeling like a private mountain.
Sun Valley Lodge
America's original destination mountain resort, opened 1936 and renovated in 2015, with 108 rooms and suites, the Sun Valley Inn, rental cottages, and a large convention center handling groups from 10 to 1,000. A summer-forward valley of hiking, cycling, and golf plus a 15-treatment-room spa anchors the retreat, with winter skiing on Bald Mountain.
Millbrook Resort
A 650-acre golf and lifestyle resort in the Wakatipu Basin under the Remarkables, with 160 rooms across studios, suites and resort homes — capacity for 350-plus guests and all four onsite restaurants privately bookable. It's the rare Queenstown property that can take a large group end-to-end while putting bungee, jet-boating, heli-wine and the Otago wine country all within reach. The Southern Alps do the rest.
Enchantment Resort
Cradled inside the red-rock walls of Boynton Canyon, a low-slung resort surrounded by trailheads, a renowned canyon spa, and some of the most photographed terrain in America.
La Mamounia
The legendary 1923 palace-hotel — ~209 rooms, 17 acres of walled Moorish gardens, and a 450m² Grand Salon seating ~350 theatre. La Mamounia is the rare Marrakech address that combines true plenary scale with palace theatre: a gala in the gardens, a desert excursion to the Agafay, a hammam-and-souk afternoon as breakouts.
Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North
A casita resort tucked into the Sonoran Desert at the foot of Pinnacle Peak, with 210 rooms and suites spread across low adobe-style buildings among saguaros. Its scale and meeting space make it a workhorse for larger companies that still want desert quiet and Troon North golf next door.