Some ski resorts are famous for snow, scenery and après. Others have also had starring roles in films and TV. Here are 12 cinematic ski resorts, from Bond locations to Alpine TV favourites.
- Ski Resorts
The lifts are slick, the hut culture is strong, and even an ordinary lunch stop can come with a sunny terrace and something gloriously cheesy.
Huge linked areas, famous resorts, high-altitude snow-sure picks, proper towns, easy ski-in ski-out bases, and enough variety to keep you happy.
Italy brings the bits that make a holiday: lunches worth stopping for, coffee that doesn’t feel like a punishment and charming villages.
The scenery is ridiculous, and the mountain railways are half the fun. It has that old-school Alpine magic you picture when you think of a ski trip.
- Resorts by Ability
A beginner ski holiday can go one of two ways. You either come home saying, ‘Right, that was brilliant, I get the obsession now,’ or you come home wondering why nobody warned you that ski boots, button lifts and icy walkways were apparently part of the character-building package.
Intermediate ski holidays are where things get properly fun. You’re past the survival stage, you can usually get down a mountain without negotiating with it out loud. Find out where can you actually enjoy skiing without spending half the week on slopes that are either too flat, hectic or humbling.
This is where the mountain stops politely making things easy for you and starts asking a few proper questions. Can you handle steeper terrain without getting scrappy? Do you actually enjoy a bit of technical skiing, or do you just like saying you do over dinner?
Mixed-ability ski holidays are brilliant in theory. Everyone heads to the mountains together, the stronger skiers get their mileage, the beginners build confidence, the intermediates have a lovely time cruising about. Mixed-ability ski holidays in real life can be slightly more complicated.
- Resorts by Feature
An après-ski holiday is really a ski holiday with excellent timing. You do some skiing, obviously, but there’s also the very important business of slope-side drinks, dancing in ski boots, and pretending that ‘just one’ mountain bar stop won’t become the main event.
Some ski trips are about gentle pottering. Others are about covering serious ground, linking valleys, ticking off pistes and ending the day smugly pointing at a trail map like you personally conquered half the Alps. If you like big ski areas, mileage matters.
Non-skiers need more than a nice hotel and a promise of ‘there’s a spa somewhere.’ The best resorts have proper off-slope life, from winter walks and restaurants to shops, spas, scenery and activities that don’t involve clipping into anything.
Nobody books a ski holiday dreaming of grass poking through the piste. Snow-sure resorts give you a better chance of proper winter conditions, thanks to higher altitude, reliable snowfall, glaciers or strong snowmaking where it counts.
A snowboard-friendly resort is about more than just having snow and a mountain. Boarders need good lift links, fewer soul-destroying drag lifts, minimal flat traverses and terrain that lets you flow, carve, cruise or play around without always unstrapping.
- Chairlift Chat
- Ski Resorts
The lifts are slick, the hut culture is strong, and even an ordinary lunch stop can come with a sunny terrace and something gloriously cheesy.
Huge linked areas, famous resorts, high-altitude snow-sure picks, proper towns, easy ski-in ski-out bases, and enough variety to keep you happy.
Italy brings the bits that make a holiday: lunches worth stopping for, coffee that doesn’t feel like a punishment and charming villages.
The scenery is ridiculous, and the mountain railways are half the fun. It has that old-school Alpine magic you picture when you think of a ski trip.
- Resorts by Ability
A beginner ski holiday can go one of two ways. You either come home saying, ‘Right, that was brilliant, I get the obsession now,’ or you come home wondering why nobody warned you that ski boots, button lifts and icy walkways were apparently part of the character-building package.
Intermediate ski holidays are where things get properly fun. You’re past the survival stage, you can usually get down a mountain without negotiating with it out loud. Find out where can you actually enjoy skiing without spending half the week on slopes that are either too flat, hectic or humbling.
This is where the mountain stops politely making things easy for you and starts asking a few proper questions. Can you handle steeper terrain without getting scrappy? Do you actually enjoy a bit of technical skiing, or do you just like saying you do over dinner?
Mixed-ability ski holidays are brilliant in theory. Everyone heads to the mountains together, the stronger skiers get their mileage, the beginners build confidence, the intermediates have a lovely time cruising about. Mixed-ability ski holidays in real life can be slightly more complicated.
- Resorts by Feature
An après-ski holiday is really a ski holiday with excellent timing. You do some skiing, obviously, but there’s also the very important business of slope-side drinks, dancing in ski boots, and pretending that ‘just one’ mountain bar stop won’t become the main event.
Some ski trips are about gentle pottering. Others are about covering serious ground, linking valleys, ticking off pistes and ending the day smugly pointing at a trail map like you personally conquered half the Alps. If you like big ski areas, mileage matters.
Non-skiers need more than a nice hotel and a promise of ‘there’s a spa somewhere.’ The best resorts have proper off-slope life, from winter walks and restaurants to shops, spas, scenery and activities that don’t involve clipping into anything.
Nobody books a ski holiday dreaming of grass poking through the piste. Snow-sure resorts give you a better chance of proper winter conditions, thanks to higher altitude, reliable snowfall, glaciers or strong snowmaking where it counts.
A snowboard-friendly resort is about more than just having snow and a mountain. Boarders need good lift links, fewer soul-destroying drag lifts, minimal flat traverses and terrain that lets you flow, carve, cruise or play around without always unstrapping.
- Chairlift Chat
