Best Ski Resorts in Europe: Find Your Perfect Resort
Everyone says they want a great ski resort, but that means different things depending on the trip. For some, it’s lively après-ski and dancing in ski boots like that’s normal life. For others, it’s snow-sure slopes, huge ski areas, snowboard-friendly terrain or enough off-slope fun to keep non-skiers happy without sentencing them to hot chocolate and window shopping.
Choose a feature below to find the ski and snowboard resorts that match your priorities – whether that means après, extent, snow reliability, snowboard-friendly slopes or plenty to do away from the pistes.
Best Ski Resorts for Apres Ski
An après-ski holiday is really a ski holiday with excellent timing. You do some actual skiing, obviously, but there’s also the very important business of slope-side drinks, questionable dancing in ski boots, and pretending that “just one” mountain bar stop won’t become the main event.
Best Ski Resorts for Big Ski Days
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.
Best Ski Resorts for Non Skiers
A ski holiday with non-skiers needs more than a nice hotel and a vague promise of “there’s probably a spa somewhere.” The best resorts for non-skiers have proper off-slope life, from winter walks and mountain restaurants to shops, spas, scenery and activities that don’t involve clipping into anything.
Best Snow Sure Ski Resorts
Nobody books a ski holiday dreaming of grass poking through the piste and everyone saying, “Well, the views are still nice.” 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.
Best Ski Resorts for Snowboarders
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 constantly unstrapping like it’s a full-time job.