Whether you’re itching to bomb down a red-run at break-neck speed, or snow plough straight into an après-ski, you want to pick a ski resort that makes up for the long wait.
But how do you make the right choice in an avalanche of options? Here at OVO Network, we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve assessed over 40 European resorts and compared the length of ski slopes on offer, the number of ski lifts, the price of an adult pass, the number of nearby towns, the review ratings and even the number of hashtags on Instagram to find the top holiday destinations this ski-season.
The best ski resorts this season
At the study’s summit is the French resort of Les Trois Vallées, which comprises Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Méribel and Courchevel. The destination scored particularly well on the number of nearby towns and slope length, topping the list for both factors. In fact, the only data-point the resort didn’t score in the top 10 for was the cost of a daily pass.
Five of the top 10 resorts are in France, including the second and third best resorts in the study: Les Portes du Soleil and Tignes/Val d’Isère respectively.
Slope length and number of ski lifts
If you plan to ski or snowboard from dawn to dusk, Les Trois Vallées has 600km to wind your way across – the longest distance in the study. Les Portes du Soleil is the next best choice with 580km, and Les Quatre Vallées in Switzerland comes in third with 412km to keep you busy.
If you don’t want to spend your holiday waiting in ski-lift queues, then Les Portes de Soleil boasts 165 ski-lifts to choose between. Les Trois Vallées comes in just behind with 136 lifts, followed by St Anton in Austria with 88.
The best ski resorts for social skiers
For some trendy holidaymakers, the ski-run is also one of Winter’s hottest fashion-runways. Social media influencers should head to Chamonix, the most hashtagged ski-resort on Instagram, with over 1,372,327 results. Cervinia in Italy and Les Trois Vallées in France are the second and third most ski-chic destinations on the list, with over one million related hashtags each.
If you want to ski hard, but party harder, then having an ample choice of nearby towns will be a top priority. Near Les Trois Vallées there are an impressive 27 different towns to explore — ample choice for your après-ski. Arosa Lenzerheide in Switzerland and St Anton in Austria also have plenty of local towns to explore if you fancy a break from the slopes with 18 and 15 local towns respectively.
Whether you are a seasoned, social or beginner skier, we hope this guide has helped you choose your next destination. With the hard work now done for you, it’s time to wax your skis and snowboards, dust off your salopettes and prepare to hit the slopes.
Methodology
With this tool OVO Network set out to discover the best skiing resorts in Europe. To put this together OVO Network analysed a number of data sources including: Google Maps listings, skiresort.info informational pages and Instagram social shares. Once all the metrics were collected, a ranking system was created in order to score the skiing resorts and an overall ranking column was created to rank from best to worst performer.
