Alpine vs Palace
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
Palace
Heritage palace hotels — ceremony, service, and old-world scale.
- Venues
- 14 exclusive-buyout estates
- Typical group
- 20–600 guests
- Indicative budget
- $425–$1,025 pp/night
- Concentrated in
- South & East Asia · Mediterranean Europe · Africa & Middle East
- Best for
- celebration, leadership, strategy
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.
Taj Falaknuma Palace
The former Nizam of Hyderabad's palace on a hill above the city, with a 101-seat state dining hall, a Durbar Hall and gardens that host events from 60 to 1,800. Guests arrive by horse-drawn carriage into one of India's grandest heritage settings.
Umaid Bhawan Palace (Taj)
One of the world's largest private residences, still partly home to the Jodhpur royal family, with a 64-key Taj wing set in 26 acres of formal gardens above the blue city. The plenary moves between the Majestic Banquet Hall (400) and the floodlit Palace Grounds (up to 1,200), and a full evening can be staged as a royal durbar with the Mehrangarh Fort lit on the skyline. Cultural immersion here is genuine, not themed.
Jai Mahal Palace
A restored early-20th-century palace on 18 acres of Mughal gardens in the heart of Jaipur, with about 100 rooms, seven meeting venues and lawns that stage evening functions for up to 2,000. Room for a full company kickoff with a genuine Rajasthani celebration built in.