Few towns are as ski-in/ski-out as France’s Val d’Isere, the world’s third largest ski resort.
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Ski season is here, and first-class snow has been flying, especially in Europe, where the Alps got off to a better and earlier start than has been seen in recent years. But Europe has been trending upwards with American ski and snowboard travelers in recent years, and great snow is hardly the only reason why you should ski or snowboard in Europe in 2025—and beyond.
The Dollar Is Strong
There are some economic downsides to the strong dollar but when it comes to visiting Europe, the math is simple—your money goes further. The dollar is now at near parity with the Euro, about as good as it gets historically. In mid-November the New York Times ran a story titled “Why The Dollar Keeps Getting Stronger” and noted that “The day after the election, the dollar rose the most it had in years against a basket of other major currencies. And it has continued to rise, hitting a fresh high for the year on Wednesday…” That was the news less than two months ago, but since then the trend has continued with the dollar gaining a few cents more. As the Times further noted, “Such strength is a sharp shift from three months of sustained weakening.”
The bottom line is that right now is a really good time to use dollars for European travel. But strong or weak dollar, ski vacations in Europe are going to be better values for a variety of other, even more important reasons than currency exchange.
A Lot More Bang For The Buck
Maybe it’s because places like Courchevel, Gstaad and Cortina sound fancier than Steamboat Springs, Reno and Ogden, but many travelers I talk to automatically assume a ski trip to the Alps is more expensive than the Rockies or Sierras. This could not be further from the truth. Sometimes flights to Europe are a little bit more than flights to major U.S. resort destinations, and sometimes they are not. Across the board, the transport difference is nominal.
Ski instruction in Europe is very high quality—but costs about a third as much as in the U.S.
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But in almost every other key respect, skiing or snowboarding in Europe is substantially cheaper—even though you often get a lot more skiing—and two people skiing for five days can save enough on just lift tickets and lessons to cover round trip business class airfare. Really.
Or you can fly coach and pocket the change (also, anytime you fly, you risk delays, cancellations and uncertainty. But at least when you fly to Europe, on any carrier, you are protected via compensation, and that can save you hundreds more on air. Read more about the often-overlooked compensation you are entitled to when delayed flying to or from Europe here at Forbes).
Rick Reichsfeld is president and founder of Alpine Adventures, the leading luxury ski travel tour operator in the United States, and a member of the prestigious Virtuoso consortium of top travel advisors (agents). If your travel agent is not a ski expert (few are), there’s a good chance they will call Rick on your behalf. His company also works directly with consumers and books individuals and group ski and snowboard travel to U.S. resorts and the rest of the world, including Japan, with packages and custom itineraries, and he knows a lot about the intricacies of the ski industry and winter travel. A full-service travel agency, Alpine Adventures can even bundle air with its programs. I asked Reichsfeld about the European value proposition, and he had a lot to say.
“Why is it cheaper to ski in Europe over the U.S.? In the U.S., most ski resorts are privately owned by large corporations. Giant ski operators Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company own nearly 50% of the North American ski market. In Europe, however, the majority of ski resorts are state-owned. This decentralization leads to lower prices as there is greater competition. There are also around 8-times more ski resorts in Europe than in the U.S., which further increases competition and lowers prices.”
“With such a high demand for a small number of resorts, many of which are owned by a handful of large companies, the cost of skiing in the U.S. is increasing at a seemingly unsustainable rate. When comparing U.S. and European ski trips, a stand-out factor is the difference in lift pass prices. Ski lift passes in the U.S. are much more expensive than in Europe, with most European ski resorts offering cheaper rates than even some of the most budget-friendly resorts in the U.S. A European ski resort generally costs less than $100 a day. Weekly passes offer even better values, with prices varying significantly across European resorts, typically ranging from $230-$550.”
“While U.S. ski lessons are privatized and only available through the resort itself, Europe benefits from having independent instructors and ski schools. This competition brings down ski lesson costs significantly. Private ski lessons in Europe typically total $210+ for a half day of lessons, whereas, in the U.S., half-day private ski lessons can cost upwards of $600 for a of lessons. Group lessons are a cheaper option in both locations, but considerably so in Europe, typically costing around $250 for five days of lessons.”
Even ski and snowboard rentals are cheaper in Europe—where much of the best equipment is designed … [+] and manufactured
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“Even rental gear is less. Here you can expect to pay between $25-$100 per day for ski equipment rental. In Europe, ski and boot rentals can cost from just $100 for a week. Generally, in Europe you can save up to 50% by booking in advance.”
The differences Reichsfeld mentions are not minor, they are immense. In this country, prices for lift tickets and instruction have continued to skyrocket. It wasn’t too long ago that a single day ticket broke through the once unthinkable $200 level, which seemed abhorrent, but the $200-plus price point is now the new normal—with $300 not far off (a friend who lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and just spent the holiday week skiing there has season tickets but checked for guests and told me that last week the resort, which uses dynamic pricing to raise rates on popular days, surpassed $280 for a single day lift ticket).
Major European resorts typically charge 50% or less—or much less—than U.S. rates for lift tickets. For a March trip to Val d’Isere, France, which is much bigger than any ski resort in North America, I just ordered a 5-day unlimited pass for $366. On the exact same dates, a 5-day pass at Utah’s Deer Valley is $1,510—more than four times as much, even though Val d’Isere is about ten times the size. Do the math and you will see that the price in Europe is not half, it’s less than a quarter.
Ditto for instruction. In late March, when I am going, a full-day lesson at Deer Valley runs $1,570 (before a big tip). At Meribel, part of the world’s largest ski resort and where I skied last year with a private instructor from top ski school Oxygene (offering first-rate English speaking instruction at top resorts all across France), it’s $588 and a smaller tip, about a third the price—despite the fact that ski instructors in Europe are generally held to higher training and certification standards than in the U.S. Val d’Isere, where I am going this year, is a bit pricier, and there Oxygene charges $648—still significantly less than half.
Get out the calculator and you’ll see that a couple on a 5-day trip sharing one private instructor can save over $7,000 just on lift tickets and lessons. Enough for those business class tickets—or a new Rolex, should you be lucky enough to actually find one in a store.
Two people can save enough just on lift tickets and lessons in 5-days to pay for business class … [+] flights to Europe.
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Also, for lift tickets as well as hotels, meals and just about everything else, the price you see is generally the price you pay, whereas here it is before taxes, more taxes, “resort fees,” and sometimes mandatory “service fees”—whether you get good service or not. Even when gratuities are optional, the “normal” here is much higher and between taxes and tip, Europe drops another 10-20% on most significant vacation expenses.
Of course, not everyone takes a private instructor each day, but that’s one of the luxuries of Europe, especially at these immense mega-resorts with hundreds of trails and dozens of lifts—you can. And in any case, whatever instruction you do choose, from group lessons to an hour or half-day private to putting your kids in ski school, the same steep discounts apply.
Hotels don’t represent big savings across the pond, and top tier luxury lodging in Europe is just as much as it is here. But you do get the tax advantages and at least they don’t nickel and dime you, and I can’t recall ever paying a bogus “resort fee” in the Alps. I recently stayed in a top brand luxury hotel here in North America where the normal daily breakfast buffet (not Sunday champagne brunch) was more than $60 per person. In Europe, whether you go 5-star or bargain mom and pop, it’s almost an automatic that a good breakfast is part of your room rate.
Don’t forget the food! Melted cheese alpine cuisine goes way beyond common fondue—my favorite such … [+] dish is raclette, widely available throughout European skiing.
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And yes, some U.S. skiers take advantage of the big national and global passes such as Epic and Ikon and don’t ever buy single day or 5-day lift tickets. For this reason, the most extreme savings go to families that take a single weeklong ski trip annually and for whom the passes don’t make sense. But even if they do, these passes are widely accepted in Europe, and when I went to Meribel and the Trois Vallees last year, the world’s largest ski resort, I didn’t but any lift tickets at all, I used my Epic Pass from Vail Resorts. The year before I skied in Italy’s Dolomites at Dolomiti Superski, the second largest resort in the world, and used my Ikon Pass.
Another key takeaway is that if you are planning a ski trip to Europe for next season (it’s too late to buy passes for this winter) that should influence which pass you choose in the first place. Here at Forbes, you can read my recent story on the 10 Best Ski and Snowboard Resorts in the World to Use Your Epic Pass This Winter.
The savings are very real. But cost is not the only reason why you might love skiing in Europe, where you basically get two vacations in one.
It’s A European Vacation—Better Food, More Charm
A lot of us would take a trip to France or Italy for many reasons, skiing or no skiing. When you do it to ski, you still also get all the other great benefits of a vacation in Europe. The food is so much better than even the fanciest U.S. ski resorts that there is no comparison. Yes, there are very good restaurants in top U.S. ski destinations, and you can eat well, but anyone who thinks you can eat as well in a major U.S. ski resort as a European one should not be judging the merits of food. The variety of cuisine is also better.
Switzerland’s Zermatt may be the most quintessential mounatn town on earth, but there are lots of … [+] these charming gems in Europe.
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Reichsfeld says “the ultimate difference is that Alpine ski resorts are built around villages that have been around for centuries, where the architecture and traditions of the region are integral to daily life. Gourmet restaurants are located throughout even the small resorts in the Alps and sometimes even right next to the slope. It is after all the cradle of skiing.”
There’s a reason why the founders of Vail, in an effort to create a charming, quintessential ski town, copied Switzerland. But the centuries-old charms of the best European mountain towns cannot be so easily replicated. Nor can the stunning scenery. I have admired many gorgeous views in the Rockies, and I love mountains. In fact, I have been in every major range, from the Andes to Himalayas, and I have never seen any mountain scenery that can rival Italy’s Dolomites. The Matterhorn and Mont Blanc are not too shabby either.
Lots of ski resorts offer great views, but few can compare with Italy’s Dolomites, a UNESCO World … [+] Heritage Site.
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Reichsfeld also pointed out some other advantages to skiing in the Alps. “The weather is better: North America offers sub-zero, wild-wind skiing, while average temperatures in the Alps hover around 20 degrees. Vertical drops of over 4,000 feet are the norm, and big vertical drops mean long runs and uncrowded lifts.” Only three U.S. ski resorts top 4,000 feet, barely, with Jackson Hole at 4,139’ and both Snowmass and Big Sky at 4,030’ or less.
The food is better, the towns are charming, scenery is breathtaking, and to top it all off, you usually arrive through a wondrous gateway city where you extend your trip, tacking on a weekend in Paris or Vienna or Venice afterwards. Train connectivity, virtually unknown in North American skiing, is excellent, often directly from the airport.
I love Denver and I like Salt Lake, but when you ski in the Dolomites, the gateway is Venice—still awesome but much less crowded (and much, much cheaper) in winter.
Bigger Resorts, Better Lifts
The size of the largest European ski resorts is mind-boggling to those brought up on mountains here. I know people who have gone on weeklong resort vacations out West and started to go stir crazy skiing the same hill a few days in a row. Admittedly that’s not the norm, since many people live for decades at those mountains and don’t get bored. But if you crave variety, it’s hard to argue with staying in one charming, convenient place and accessing hundreds of trails—or hundreds of miles of trails.
The big ski resorts in Europe are often five to ten times the size of the biggest ones in North America, and there are a lot of these really big ones—including many you have probably never heard of. According to Ski Magazine’s list of the world’s 10 Largest Ski Resorts, one through eight are in Europe, but their math seems a bit fuzzy. CNN’s list goes to 12, and one through ten are in Europe. SkiResortInfo.com ranks more than 6,000 resorts worldwide in detail by size and doesn’t leave Europe until number thirteen. According to the site, the largest ski resort in Andorra (?), called Grandvalira, a place I have never known anyone to go, is the 23rd biggest and would be the fifth largest in North America.
Descending into Val Thorens, one of eight major ski areas interconnected to form France’s Trois … [+] Vallees, the world’s largest ski resort.
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Interestingly, after listing the eight big European resorts, when Ski Magazine finally got to North America and Canada’s Whistler Blackcomb at number nine, the review noted that “Compared to European ski resorts, the sticker price at Whistler Blackcomb can be painful.” Number Ten, and the first U.S. entry was Park City, and the magazine noted that “Like Whistler, Park City is pricey.” Especially compared to Europe.
But perhaps the most overlooked common advantage to European skiing is more and better lifts. A lot of people don’t think about it until they go in person and experience how easy it is to get around and traverse vast distances. In the Dolomites, where multiple towns are connected, in all directions, the norm is for virtually the entire village to be ski in/out.
Skiing down to Meribel, also part of the Trois Vallees
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Many lifts run year-round for hiking and biking in addition to skiing, and in many cases they double as true public transportation and are subsidized by the government, a big difference. In the U.S. one example of this is the awesome gondola linking the town of Telluride with Mountain Village and the slopes, which you can ride for free to dinner in the evening, but that’s about it. In Europe it is everywhere.
Val d’Isere-Tignes has close to a hundred lifts of all kinds. Trois Vallees has more than 180. If that sounds like a lot it is, but Dolomiti Superski has 450. The largest ski resort in North America, Whistler/Blackcomb, has less than 40.
Courchevel is yet another small part of the huge Trois Vallees resort
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Partially as a result of government money, the average age of lifts is far less, meaning they are newer and more advanced. Gondolas and trams proliferate, whereas they are still uncommon in this country, and these are much better for cold days, bad weather and longer distances. The chairs are better too, with many six and eight-passenger high-speed detachable lifts, including heated chairs and bubbles, so rare in this country that when a resort adds one (only a handful of resorts have even one) they brag loudly about it.
The owners of Big Sky, MT, the second largest ski resort in the United States, were so taken with the European model they followed suit and invested in a huge, years long upgrade that includes a new gondola, new tram and new large bubble chairs, and as a result, Big Sky has the best and most modern lift system in the U.S. It’s more comfortable, but more importantly, it is much less crowded, the bane of American resort skiing. If you want a taste of the scope and style of an immense European ski resort without a passport, head to Montana.
To put all this in perspective, I skied in France last winter with a couple who had never been before but had skied at luxury resorts all over the U.S, including multiple visits to Aspen, Deer Valley and Jackson Hole. At the end of the week, the wife told me that “We should be embarrassed of our lifts in the United States.”
Chalets: The Lodging Secret Of European Skiing
One other thing ski or snowboard vacations in Europe have going for them is staffed chalets, an entire category of vacations missing in our country. I’ve talked to skiers from the UK who have never taken a ski vacation and stayed in a hotel, because this concept is so normal to them, and it should be normal to us too, because it is awesome.
A typical luxury staffed ski chalet in France, this is Purple Ski’s Chalet Iona in Meribel, spanning … [+] three levels with private hot tub deck and much more.
Purple Ski
There are myriad agencies that manage and book staffed chalets, and since many of them are aimed at the UK market, staff speaks English and many of these companies are based in the UK. I’ve written a lot more on this here at Forbes (read here) but in a nutshell, you book a week at a luxury home that has a full staff including private chef (with extensive restaurant experience). Your full cooked breakfasts and multi-course gourmet dinners are included, and having done this three times in different places, I can say that the food quality is exceptional, and rivals the local restaurants, which are outstanding (you still get to eat lunch out every day, plenty of variety). Also included are après ski canapes, which meet you at the door upon returning from the slopes—along with flutes of champagne. In fact, at many of these chalets, unlimited adult beverages—fine wines, real champagne, cocktails—is included 24/7.
The chalets are luxurious, and standard amenities include hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms, pool tables, game rooms, home theaters and fireplaces, while some add indoor pools and gyms. They typically sleep 8-14 and are ideal for families, groups of friends and multi-generational travel. You can add every amenity you’d get at a hotel, from in-chalet ski rental delivery and spa treatments to some you cannot, like free laundry. In many cases if you book an instructor, he or she will meet you at the chalet and go door to door. Top chalet companies like Purple Ski (see below) also include a full-time local driver for on-demand trips to or pickup from town or the lifts. Last year in Trois Vallees we skied down to a different base area at the end of the day, stopped for a beer, then got picked up at the bar by our driver. Yet while staffed chalets are a true luxury experience, it is almost always cheaper than replicating it at a similar quality hotel, where food and drink tend to be overpriced.
Why share a pool or gym with hotel guests when you can have your own? This is Chalet Machapucare in … [+] Val d’Isere, which just won “Best Chalet in France.”
Purple Ski
Here’s a quick example. Purple Ski is a leading UK chalet company I have used that is best in class. Their Chalet Machapuchare in Val d’Isère has won “Best Ski Chalet in France,” two years running (2024 and 2023) at the World Ski Awards. Bear in mind that there are a lot of chalets, hundreds if not thousands, in France, and this is among the very best—meaning many others are even less expensive. Machapuchare has seven en suite bedrooms, sleeps 14 and has a full-size indoor swimming pool with waterfall and current system for exercise, a massage room, full gym, hammam (steam room), outdoor hot tub, cinema room with tiered seating and high-end sound system, and large ski room with boot heaters, plus an elevator.
Again, bearing in mind that this is one of the finest chalets you can rent, right in town with a great location at the third largest ski resort in the world (and a very upscale one), if you fill the chalet in peak winter season it begins at $569 per person per night, inclusive of gourmet meals and free flowing adult beverages. Try to equal that at one of Val d’Isere’s top luxury hotels such as Airelles and see how that goes. Try to equal that at the Four Seasons Jackson Hole or Little Nell Aspen or Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulf or Montage Deer Valley or any other top-tier North American luxury ski hotel and they will think you have gone insane. In many cases you’d be lucky to get a room with nothing included. I checked the same January dates in Val d’Isere and even at the Club Med the most basic room was more (though at least that is all-inclusive).
Bottom line: if you want to save big on a luxury ski vacation you should go to Europe. If you want to save really big on a luxury ski vacation, go to Europe and book a chalet. But where in Europe?
Where To Go Skiing or Snowboarding In Europe
I’m only going to cover the big four major options, but if you are adventurous, love food and really want to see how far your dollar goes at a luxury hotel, consider skiing in Turkey (yes it’s a thing, and the Kaya Palazzo Ski & Mountain Resort may be the most luxurious big all-inclusive ski resort hotel in the world). You can ski in Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Georgia, you can ski in Andorra or Liechtenstein, Norway has excellent skiing and may be the best positioned for climate change, and you can even ski in Spain (sometimes). But right now, most people reading this will be going to France, Switzerland, Italy or Austria.
France
France is the giant of European skiing with the most huge resorts, including the world’s biggest, Trois Vallees (including Courchevel and Meribel). Then there is Val d’Isère-Tignes, Portes du Soleil (including Les Gets, Morzine), Paradiski (Les Arcs and La Plagne), all huge and interconnected, plus several others. Most are accessible via Geneva or Lyon’s international airports.
French resorts Meribel (Trois Vallees) and Val d’Isere are also home to the most famous “day clubs” … [+] in skiing, La Folie Douce.
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French resorts typically have a great mix of French and alpine cuisine, the latter being a style common to Switzerland, France and Italy with lots of melted cheese and potatoes, think fondue, raclette, tartiflette. France is by far the leader in the chalet vacation niche mentioned above, common at Val d’Isere and Trois Valles, especially Meribel, the ski chalet capital of the world. Top tier luxury hotels abound, especially in Courchevel (Cheval Blanc, Airelles, Aman).
As far as skiing and snowboarding, the big French resorts are quite varied, with terrain for all abilities including some challenging off-piste, and it has some of the highest altitude slopes in the Alps, with more reliable snow, especially Val d’Isere.
Heli-skiing, which is usually done in Europe by the run or day rather than the week, a great intro way to give it a try, is banned in France, but some companies simply fly skiers and riders seeking this experience over the broader. Heli-skiing is available in the other countries.
Italy
Italy has two distinct regions that have both hosted the Winter Olympic Games, which are returning to Cortina (Dolomites) and Milan in 2026. More off the radar for Americans is the Piemonte region around Turin on the west side of the country, with smaller less connected resorts.
Apres in the Dolomites is awesome, like local signature speck with Italian cheese in tony Cortina … [+] D’Ampezzo.
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The big draw is the Dolomites to the east, where an unbelievably efficient and expansive series of lifts and trails links several valleys and a plethora of charming villages, all ski in/out and comprising the second biggest ski area on the planet. You can ski to another town for lunch, hit one for après and then ski home. Or you can take a day and do the famed Sellaronda, a one-day circular loop ski or snowboard pilgrimage across the entire giant Dolomiti Superski region, the sport’s equivalent of a marathon (but easier).
Italy wins for food (I mean it’s Italy) combining the best of what you want in Italian cuisine with alpine fare. Because the Dolomites border Austria, this region has the richest array of “local” food, featuring Italian plus the best of French, Swiss/alpine and Austrian cuisines. It is also a better value proposition than France or Switzerland, at least for hotels. There are less chalets but there are some. The Dolomites pride themselves on very few chains and instead, family run independent lodging and lots of it, where the welcome is warm and the food great. There are more than a few top luxury options including the world’s first mountain Mandarin Oriental in Cortina, several expansive spa resorts (Lefay, Adler, etc.), Relais & Chateaux members such as famed Michelin-starred La Perla, and the ultra-high-end Rosa Alpina, now associated with Aman.
But the niche where the Dolomites excel in lodging is the unique concept of rifugios, high mountain “huts” that are more often small inns with gourmet restaurants, serving simple lodging, exquisite food and deep wine lists. Rifugios are found all through the Alps, but this area has a much higher concentration, and more stunners, to the point where you could ski rifugio to rifugio (all on alpine gear, no uphill) via lifts and spend a week up high. However, I recommend a mix, a night or two of your trip in rifugios for a very different ski experience. You can read my Forbes feature on skiing the Dolomites here for much more detail.
Italy’s Dolomiti Superski is the world’s second largest ski resort, linking several charming towns … [+] and dozens of incredible restaurants.
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The scenery in the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of extreme natural beauty, is unrivaled. However, the skiing is less varied and more suited to intermediates and those who like groomers and long cruisers, with little in the way of off-piste, bumps or glades (there’s plenty of backcountry, tons of it, but I’m talking resort skiing). Most of the expert terrain is rated as such because it’s steep, not technical.
Other than Cortina, the big luxe ski resort and town in Italy is Courmayeur, in the Alps near the Swiss and French borders by Mont Blanc.
Switzerland
The only one of these destinations not on the Euro, skiing in Switzerland is generally a bit pricier than the other spots, but it has a lot to offer. Also interestingly, several Swiss resorts connect across the borders with France, Austria and Italy, so there are several examples that combine these countries.
St. Moritz is the birthplace of winter sport vacations, and Badrutt’s Palace in the center is one of … [+] the world’s most iconic grand ski hotels.
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St. Moritz is generally considered the birthplace of the winter vacation, and Zermatt is arguably the most quintessential mountain village on earth. Gstaad, Davos and Crans-Montana are some other major Swiss ski resort destinations.
It’s not fair to generalize because there are many exceptions, but in some of the most famous spots such as Gstaad, St Moritz and Zermatt, the town is the main attraction, surrounded by skiing, but it’s not a ski town the way we think of it in the U.S. and it’s not the massively interconnected resorts of Italy and France. Instead, you stay in town and have to commute to the slopes, by bus, car, taxi or some form of train, making it a less ski-in/out experience than many Americans are used to.
The payoff is the famed “Grand Hotels” of skiing, places like Badrutt’s Palace in St. Moritz, the Victoria Jungfrau in Interlaken, the Gstaad Palace, Mont Cervin Place in Zermatt and so on, whose equivalent does not really exist in the U.S. These are historic grand resort hotels with huge spas and multiple restaurants, often Michelin-starred, in mountain towns, but none are slopeside.
One notable exception to the above in Switzerland is the Four Vallees, the nation’s biggest interconnected area and more akin to the French model, with its most famous area being Verbier.
Fondue—enough said.
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Swiss resorts are generally easy to access, especially since Geneva is a gateway to much of the Alps anyway, there is world-renowned rail connectivity directly from the Geneva and Zurich airports, and the national airline, Swiss, famously never charges for checking skis because it’s such a part of their DNA.
What we think of as Swiss food is the prototype of alpine cuisine, all the major melted cheese and sausage groups, plus world class takes on French and Italian (and Japanese). It’s hard to eat poorly in Switzerland, home to some of the world; s best culinary and hotel schools, where hospitality is taken very seriously. As a bonus, Swiss wines are excellent and reasonably priced, and so popular here that they are all consumed domestically and virtually never exported, which is why you never see them outside Switzerland.
Austria
Historically the least popular of the four major destinations with American travelers, though this is changing fast and Austria is suddenly hot. The big reasons are people seeking something new, and because it presents perhaps the best value proposition of all, while still offering what its neighbors have: huge resorts, lots of them, great food and charming ski towns. The giant is Arlberg, a massively interconnected resort that includes Lech, has Austria’s answer to Italy’s Sellaronda, the White Ring, and connects to St. Anton and Zurs—nearly 200-miles of linked runs.
For all of the benefits of a European ski vacation with a little urban flair, try Innsbruck.
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Innsbruck is Austria’s answer to Salt Lake City, the rare chance to stay in an urban center and access great skiing easily. The benefits of this are more restaurants and shopping, more city hotel options and just more of everything urban. Innsbruck is ringed by a dozen ski resorts, linked by free ski buses—being Europe, the public transport is hyper-efficient—but if you prefer, surrounding resorts also have ski-in/out hotels. There are 12 ski mountains immediately around the city, which has an international airport and great rail connectivity, and the local Ski Plus City Pass give you access to all of them, free local transport and admission to city attractions as well, a pretty unique product in skiing. 5-Day adult pass? For all twelve resorts plus extras? $312. Yes, you read that correctly.
Reichsfeld is especially high on Austria, and cites its exceptionally reliable snow for Europe, 250 different companies operating 2,536 lifts across nearly 60,000-acres of slopes, and says, “Austrians often learn to ski as soon as they can walk, and embracing this sport means embracing a lifestyle that combines adrenaline-pumping activities with social and cultural immersion. Travelers can enjoy artisanal food, a sense of Gemütlichkeit, and genuine hospitality, all set against stunning Alpine views.”
Don’t forget the apple strudel!
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An addition to the Arlberg region, five interconnected villages forming the world’s fifth largest resort, he also recommends Kitzbuhel, a resort famed for its World Cup Downhill, the iconic Hahnenkamm race, with 54-miles of trails connecting to form the LitzSkiWelt Tour circuit. He also likes the Ortzal Valley, Austria’s second highest ski resort, a 007 James Bond film venue where two glaciers guarantee snow, and the cross-border Swiss/Austrian resort of Paznaun-Ischgl.
Austria takes the same great alpine fare you will find across Europe and adds its own spin with lots of schnitzel, wursts and potato products.
Pray for Snow!
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Publish date : 2025-01-07 07:42:00
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