Are you ready to dust off your ski jacket and do a little snow dance to the weather gods? Yes, it’s that time of year when we start planning our escape to the mountains. And it looks set to be a bumper season, with new flights and trips luring skiers and boarders away from traditional Alpine resorts to the slopes in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The latter also scores well for offering up great-value winter sports trips – a winner in a year when budget remains a key issue for many travellers. Meanwhile, long-established resorts in Central Europe are reinventing themselves, with high-tech cable cars scaling new heights and linking ski areas. From revamped resorts and new openings to hot-ticket trips and more sustainable ways to reach the slopes, here’s all you need to know about this season in the snow.
Is there enough snow in the Alps this winter?
Even by modern standards, last winter was a mild one in the Alps — and it has deepened the skiing public’s anxiety about snow. “This is a major consideration for our clients,” confirms Nick Edwards of specialist travel agent Snowfinders. What’s more, he says the spectre of threadbare slopes is now worrying skiers in the hunt for midwinter holidays and not just for early- or late-season trips, which have traditionally been the riskier periods for snow cover.
However, this season is unlikely to be as warm as the last. The high winter temperatures of 2023/4 were, in part, a knock-on effect of an extra-strong dose of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean. This occasional climate anomaly can have a significant impact on global weather and fortunately it has now subsided.
But even so, it has long been the case that if you’re booking ahead, even for a midwinter trip, the general rule of thumb is to aim for high-altitude resorts if snow quality is a priority. It’s no guarantee you’ll get it, of course: we are, after all, talking about Mother Nature, and there are also lower-altitude resorts that buck this trend (see our Ask the Experts feature on page 20 to read more on this). But targeting a high-altitude resort such as Val Thorens, Val d’Isère and Tignes in France, Cervinia in Italy and Obergurgl in Austria will boost the chances of skiing soft, grippy pistes rather than slush, which often turns icy when it refreezes overnight.
Expect to pay a premium when you do. Take, for example, the difference in price between a week’s holiday from 23 March in an upmarket catered chalet in Morzine, compared with a week in a similar property in Val d’Isère: £1,424 per person versus £1,816 per person, not including flights. Even so, there’s no question which resort keen skiers would pick, especially in late March.
What’s new in Les Deux Alpes, France?
First prize for the most transformed ski area this winter goes to Les Deux Alpes in France. Its long, high and narrow domain — which rises from an altitude of 4,265ft all the way to an eye-watering 11,800ft — has just finished a two-year upgrade. Last winter, the long-neglected Vallée Blanche sector, west of the resort, got two new lifts, a new restaurant and a new beginner-friendly piste.
This winter sees the debut of the Jandri 3S, a high-speed gondola that links the village with its glacier at 10,500ft as well as a refurbished funicular train to whisk skiers on to the very top.
The Hotel l’Orée des Pistes is next door to the Jandri 3S. With Crystal, one week from 4 January starts from £956 per person, half-board, including flights and transfers.
Low-cost ski trips on the rise
For skiers, price rises have been relentless in recent years. Couple this with the UK’s cost of living crisis, and some travellers have been priced out of the market altogether. “For us, the twenty-something skier has almost disappeared — unless they’re skiing with their parents,” says Nick Edwards of Snowfinders. “There are fewer young families too,” he adds.
So, it’s no wonder that low-cost ski company Action Outdoors is reporting an insatiable appetite for its all-inclusive holidays. These are based in the UCPA — France’s non-profit, sport-for-all organisation — which runs hostel-like residential centres in many mountain resorts. Most of its accommodation is offered in bunk rooms sleeping four-to-eight people, and it’s not just meals that are included in the package. The price also covers lift pass, equipment hire and ski lessons too, but not travel.
This winter, the company has more than doubled its programme aimed at 18- to 30-year-olds, with prices for week starting from just £541 per person. Meanwhile, demand for its all-inclusive family holidays has significantly outstripped supply. Take, for example, its Easter Family Week based in UCPA Flaine and starting 5 April 2025: it sold out in five minutes of its release back in May.
Stöten ski resort in Sweden is only a 20-minute transfer from Sälen Scandinavian Mountains Airport.
Photograph by Magnus Dovallius
Ski & safari for less
Jackson Hole in Wyoming has teamed up with Big Sky in Montana to offer shuttles between the two resorts, both of which are now included on the Ikon lift pass. Along with epic Rocky Mountains skiing, these atmospheric Old West towns are on the doorstep of two iconic national parks, Yellowstone and Grand Teton. So, you can slot some bison-studded nature safaris in between the ski runs, along with snowmobile trips through the wilderness to visit Old Faithful geyser — and all minus the crowds that can plague the parks in summer.
It’s a tempting prospect for international visitors eligible for specially discounted ski passes at Jackson Hole: a new 10-day pass costs from $900 per person (£680) if you book a trip with specialist tour operators to the region, including Ski Safari and Ski Independence. Or, if you book accommodation directly with Jackson Hole Resort Reservations, it’s currently offering $500 per person (£382) towards flights into the town. Otherwise, a 10-day Ikon Base Pass covering both resorts (and many others) costs $969 per person (£730).
Slide up to a slopeside BBQ
Fed up with costly mountain restaurants? Head to Val Thorens, in the Three Valleys, where ski in, ski out Hotel Marielle will open its sundeck for ‘bring your own sausages’ events this winter, complete with barbecues, free bread and ketchup. Stick around until 6pm and you can also enjoy its new vinyl bar, where the public picks the playlist. With IgluSki, one week at the hotel from 11 January starts from £1,542 per person, half-board, including flights and transfers.
Scandi skiing makes a comeback
In the sport’s earlier days, Norway was a favourite destination for British skiers. Now, thanks to the weakening Norwegian krona and concerns about snow cover in the Alps, it’s climbing back up the popularity chart. This winter, specialist Crystal has added a seventh Norwegian resort to its programme: Gausta, three hours west of Oslo. It’s home to 30 miles of mostly beginner- and intermediate-friendly pistes, as well as one of Norway’s most accessible off-piste playgrounds. At the cute and cosy Gaustablikk Mountain Resort, seven nights’ B&B accommodation from 2 March starts from £1,015 per person, including flights and transfers.
Meanwhile, Nordic specialist Ski Scandinavia has just reported a 22% increase in bookings, year on year. For families, its hottest destination is the relaxed resort of Stöten in Sweden — it’s only a 20-minute transfer from Sälen Scandinavian Mountains Airport, which will soon welcome new direct flights from the UK. Scandinavian Airlines will introduce flights from Heathrow between 2 February and 30 March 2025. In winter 2025/26, Crystal Ski Holidays will offer weekly TUI flights out of Gatwick every Sunday from 21 December to 5 April.
At the chic ski in, ski out Stöten Ski Lodge (which opened in December 2023) a seven-night self-catering trip for a family of four over the peak week of February half term costs £2,245 per person including flights and transfers.
This season’s new hotels in the Alps
Europe’s love affair with designer ski hotels continues. Among the most hotly anticipated this season is the Experimental Chalet Val d’Isère, which is opening with 113 bedrooms right in the middle of the resort, with an Experimental Cocktail Club that’s sure to be a lynchpin of Val’s apres-ski scene.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland’s spectacular Jungfrau region there are signs that the village of Wengen is waking from a long slumber. This winter sees the opening of its first-ever five-star, the Grand Hotel Belvedere, which has just been refurbished by the French Beaumier hotel group. Book with Inghams which has seven-night stays from £1,669 per person B&B, including flights and transfers.
The self-catering ski chalet is here to stay
Before Brexit-induced difficulties on Brits working in Europe, ski chalets were — by definition — a place where someone else did the cooking. Not anymore. Ovo Network is one of several companies now offering them as self-catering holiday lets, and it has just added 28 to its portfolio for winter 2024–5. All are well off the beaten track and many are refreshingly affordable, provided of course that you can assemble a big enough group of friends and/or family to fill them.
Among the new arrivals is the beautiful, open-plan Chalet Lezopau near Samoëns in France. Admittedly, it’s a two-mile drive to the nearest lift (so bring a car), but for a week from 5 January it costs just €280 per person (£235) for group of 11 to stay there. The company has also launched a cancellation policy offering a 90% refund up to two days before your arrival date.
Chez Pépé Nicolas, a typical mountain restaurant in the Three Valleys ski area, sits between Val Thorens and Les Menuires.
Photograph by Jerome Labouyrie, Alamy Stock Photo
Ride the ups and downs
Going up: La Plagne launches a novel new attraction this season in the shape of Aérolive. Two new open-air cabins will be added to the Glaciers gondola, taking riders — clipped in with carabiners — up to the highest point of the resort at 10,100ft, offering panoramic views across the vast Paradiski area. With slatted floors and no glass barriers, this promises to be a high-octane way to reach the summit. Will you still have the ski legs to ride down? If not, steady your nerves in the Sixième Ciel cafe and reboard for descent.
Going down (very fast): after 34 years, the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships will return to Saalbach, Austria (4–16 February 2025). It’s been over a decade since the biennial championships have visited Austria at all, and the pretty SalzburgerLand village of Saalbach will be an intimate setting for this big World Cup event.
How to travel to the Alps by train
Travelling by train is the simplest and most effective way to make your ski holiday more sustainable. So, it’s good news that Eurostar has upped the number of weeks in which its ski train runs from London St Pancras to Bourg St Maurice in the heart of the Alps. The service will operate once a week (out from London on a Saturday, back on a Sunday) between 21 December and 1 March.
Meanwhile tour operator Travelski is offering Eurostar train-inclusive packages which add a night in France to take account of the Sunday return. On several key days the train is already full, but for a week from 11 January at the four-star Résidence Les Balcons de Belle Plagne & Spa the price is £994 per person, self-catering, for a party of four, including rail travel, a seven-day lift pass and an eighth night in the Basecamp Lodge in Bourg St Maurice. Ski specialist Inghams offers similar packages, as well as rail travel to resorts in Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
Now all we need to do is vote with our feet. Research by the Ski Club of Great Britain revealed that 2% of skiers travelled to the Alps by train in 2023/24, compared with 6% pre-pandemic.
Published in the Winter Sports guide 2024-25, distributed with the December 2024 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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