12 European Ski Resorts Worth Skiing during the 26/27 season
Planning your next ski holiday? From huge French ski areas to the Dolomites and Andorra, these are 12 European resorts worth considering for winter 2026/27, and the type of skier each one suits.
By Max
Choosing a ski resort can become strangely difficult.
There are hundreds of serious options across Europe. Piste maps tell you how many runs there are. Resort websites tell you everything is wonderful. And once you've found somewhere you like, booking the same place again can feel considerably easier than starting from scratch.
So this isn't another attempt to rank the 12 "best" ski resorts in Europe.
Instead, these are 12 places worth having on your radar for the 26/27 Some are enormous. Some aren't. There are resorts for people who want to ski from first lift until last, resorts for groups who care just as much about what happens afterwards, and a few places for skiers ready to look beyond the obvious Alpine names.
Most importantly, there's a reason to consider every one of them.
Val Thorens, France
Go for: High-altitude skiing and access to an enormous amount of terrain.
There is an obvious reason Val Thorens appears on lists like this, but being obvious doesn't make it wrong.
Stay here and you have 150km of local pistes in Val Thorens-Orelle and access to the full 600km Three Valleys network. Around 90% of the local ski area sits above 2,000m, while the planned 2026/27 season runs from 21 November to 2 May.
The real attraction for a skier is how little compromise is involved. You can spend a day exploring towards Méribel and Courchevel, stay local when you don't want to travel far, or head across towards Orelle.
Val Thorens is purpose-built and looks it. If your ideal ski holiday involves a traditional Alpine village, there are prettier places to stay.
But if the skiing comes first, it remains one of Europe's benchmarks.
Think twice if: A traditional village matters as much to you as the ski area.
Explores Val Thorens on Trax →
Tignes, France
Go for: Skiers who want challenging, varied terrain and a long season.
Tignes is another resort that doesn't need discovering. But there's a reason skiers keep returning.
Together with Val d'Isère, it offers high-altitude skiing, long descents, big open sections of mountain and enough variety to keep ambitious skiers occupied for a week.
From the Grande Motte, the Double M descent provides around 1,400 vertical metres of skiing back towards Val Claret. Elsewhere, you can spend the day travelling between Tignes and Val d'Isère rather than repeatedly lapping the same sector.
For intermediates progressing towards more demanding terrain, or experienced skiers who simply want options, Tignes is difficult to fault.
The architecture divides opinion. The skiing generally doesn't.
Think twice if: You're primarily looking for chocolate-box Alpine charm.
Avoriaz, France
Go for: Exploring a huge linked area with exceptional ski-in, ski-out convenience.
Avoriaz doesn't look like many other Alpine resorts. That's part of its appeal.
The car-free resort sits at 1,800m and puts you directly into the Portes du Soleil, allowing you to spend your week skiing between France and Switzerland.
It's particularly good for skiers who enjoy going somewhere. Leave in the morning with another village or sector as the objective, stop somewhere completely different for lunch, and make the journey home part of the day's skiing.
It also works well for groups of different abilities. You don't have to be an expert to explore a large amount of terrain.
Think twice if: You want a conventional historic Alpine village.
St Anton am Arlberg, Austria
Go for: Strong skiing followed by a proper night out.
There are resorts with good après. There are resorts with serious skiing. St Anton's enduring appeal is that it has both.
The wider Ski Arlberg area gives confident skiers enough terrain to build genuinely big days around, while St Anton itself has one of the best-known après scenes in the Alps.
That combination makes it particularly good for groups. You don't necessarily have to choose between a destination picked for the skiing and one picked for what happens afterwards.
There is a catch. Beginners have easier places to learn, and anyone hoping for a quiet week may find St Anton's reputation works against them.
For the right group, that's precisely the point.
Think twice if: Half your party are nervous beginners or you're actively trying to avoid après.
Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria
Go for: Skiers who love covering ground.
Some ski areas encourage you to find a good sector and stay there. Saalbach encourages you to keep going.
The Skicircus is particularly good for the skier who opens the piste map over breakfast and decides to make a circuit out of the day.
There's an additional reason to look at it for 2026/27. Hinterglemm's Reiterkogel gondola has been replaced, with the new installation adding a second section that continues towards the summit.
This isn't necessarily where we'd send someone hunting Europe's most intimidating terrain.
It's where we'd send someone who wants to click into their skis in the morning and spend the entire day travelling.
Think twice if: Your priority is extreme terrain rather than kilometre after kilometre of interconnected pistes.
Explore Saalbach Hinterglemm on Trax →
Sölden, Austria
Go for: High-altitude skiing and seriously modern mountain infrastructure.
Sölden isn't subtle.
It has 146km of pistes, two glacier areas and three lift-accessible peaks above 3,000m.
And for 2026/27, another piece of its lift network changes. The old Gratl double chair is being replaced by a six-seater that roughly halves the journey time. The project also brings a new blue piste and improvements to the surrounding snowmaking system.
Plenty of European ski areas are larger on paper. Few feel quite as engineered around moving large numbers of skiers efficiently around a high mountain.
If you appreciate fast lifts almost as much as good pistes, Sölden makes a compelling case.
Think twice if: You're looking for a small, understated mountain village.
Cervinia, Italy
Go for: Long cruising runs, altitude and skiing beneath the Matterhorn.
Cervinia has a rather compelling proposition.
Stay on the Italian side of the Matterhorn, spend your days cruising broad, high-altitude pistes and, when the connections are operating, ski across the border towards Zermatt.
It's particularly appealing to intermediates. If your idea of a great ski day is covering serious distance on confidence-building pistes rather than hunting for the steepest marked run, Cervinia deserves consideration.
And there is something undeniably memorable about spending the week skiing around one of the world's most recognisable mountains.
Think twice if: Your perfect piste map is dominated by steep reds and blacks.
Livigno, Italy
Go for: A complete ski holiday rather than simply the biggest piste map.
Livigno enters 2026/27 with a considerably higher international profile after hosting freestyle skiing and snowboard events during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
But its appeal goes beyond that.
The village sits at 1,816m, there's more than enough skiing for the typical week-long holiday, and Livigno feels like a proper destination once the lifts close.
That's why it's here. This isn't the resort we'd choose because it has the largest number printed on a piste map.
It's one we'd consider because the whole week works.
Think twice if: Your main requirement is hundreds of kilometres of interconnected pistes.
Kronplatz, Italy
Go for: Immaculate piste skiing and some of Europe's newest lift infrastructure.
Kronplatz is perhaps the resort on this list that more British skiers should know about.
Its layout is unusual, with pistes radiating from the broad summit of Plan de Corones, and its reputation is built around prepared piste skiing rather than sheer headline size.
There's a particularly strong reason to consider it in 2026/27.
Three major lifts are being renewed or rebuilt: Kronplatz 1+2 becomes a 10-person gondola, Ruis an eight-person gondola and Dolomiti an eight-seat chairlift.
There are piste changes too, including an extended Lumen run and new blue terrain.
If you've spent years automatically looking west towards France when booking a ski holiday, Kronplatz is exactly the sort of place worth looking east for.
Think twice if: Your priority is an enormous fully interconnected piste network.
3 Zinnen Dolomites, Italy
Go for: Someone who has skied the famous resorts and wants somewhere different.
This is our discovery pick.
3 Zinnen doesn't have the name recognition of Val Thorens, St Anton or Zermatt. That's part of the reason it's here.
The skiing spreads through a spectacular corner of the Dolomites and the area continues to invest in connecting and improving its different sectors.
For winter 2026/27, the major development is Helmissimo, including a new 10-person gondola at Versciaco alongside improvements to the valley run and snowmaking infrastructure.
This isn't a recommendation based on having the largest number printed on a piste map.
It's for the skier who has already ticked off several of the obvious Alpine giants and has started wondering what else is out there.
Think twice if: You measure every ski holiday primarily by total piste kilometres.
Explore 3 Zinnen Dolomites on Trax →
Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis, Switzerland
Go for: Skiers who want somewhere that still feels like it's evolving.
Andermatt combines two rather different ideas of skiing.
There is the more serious mountain terrain associated with Gemsstock, alongside the wider journey east towards Sedrun and Disentis.
That creates something many ski areas struggle to provide: variety not just between individual pistes, but between different kinds of ski day.
The destination continues to invest for 2026/27, including further snowmaking work at Gemsstock and a new chairlift in Disentis.
It isn't necessarily the easy answer. Switzerland isn't cheap, and the ski area requires a little more understanding than some of Europe's seamless piste factories.
But that's also why it's interesting.
Think twice if: You want the simplest possible ski-in, ski-out package holiday.
Explore Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis on Trax →
Grandvalira, Andorra
Go for: A big ski holiday outside the Alps.
It's easy to talk about European skiing as though France, Austria, Switzerland and Italy are the only countries involved.
Grandvalira is the obvious correction.
Its different sectors allow you to travel from Pas de la Casa and Grau Roig across towards Soldeu, El Tarter and Canillo, giving it the sort of scale associated with considerably more famous Alpine destinations.
For British skiers who have spent every holiday heading to the Alps, that's the real reason it makes our 12.
You don't always need another French resort.
Sometimes you need another mountain range.
Think twice if: You specifically want the classic high-Alpine experience.
So, where should you ski in 2027?
That depends on what you want from your week.
If covering as much terrain as possible is the goal, start with Val Thorens, Avoriaz or Saalbach. For high-altitude skiing, Tignes, Cervinia and Sölden stand out.
If you've already skied the Alpine names your friends keep suggesting, look harder at Kronplatz, 3 Zinnen or Grandvalira.
For skiing and nightlife together, St Anton remains difficult to ignore. For something a little different, Andermatt deserves a look. And if you want a resort that does a bit of everything well, Livigno makes a strong case.
There isn't one best ski resort in Europe.
That's rather the point.
There is always somewhere else to ski.
How many of these have you skied? Explore the resorts, mark the places you've visited and build your Trax.