Lodging includes one night in a mountain refuge and the rest in comfortable hotels.

FORBES: Circumnavigation of Mont Blanc

Perched at the first midstation on the Punta Helbronner cable car at a heady height of 2, 173 metres, Rifugio Pavillon is a traditional mountain refuge with a deckchairlined terrace.

BBC: Mini guide to Valle d��Aosta, Italy

Lagunillas has three lifts and 13 runs, a good ski school, a single refugio (mountain refuge) which can accommodate some 30 skiers, and a convivial family atmosphere, quite different from the larger commercial resorts.

BBC: A South American snow-hound��s paradise

Some Europeans who went to wage jihad in recent years told of being asked for money by their hosts, having to purchase their weapons and being on the run from one mountain refuge to another.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

My train is chugging up the snow-carpeted mountain to the Alpine resort of Davos, once a refuge for consumptives and now, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, home-from-home for the world's more conspicuous consumers (bankers, hedge fund managers, private-equity stars, inter alia).

BBC: Is Vince Cable castrating non-execs over bosses' pay?