Best destinations for a ski trip

Fifty skiing destinations ranked by accommodation, ski run length, snowfall and price

James McCay

Dec 14, 2023

For many people, there are few activities as thrilling as skiing or snowboarding. Whether you are an experienced veteran, cruising down the slopes in style, or a ski-slopes newbie, taking in the stunning vistas and crisp mountain air for the first time, the slopes are truly a captivating and magical place.

There are so many beautiful locations across the world to do it too – Europe, North America, and even Oceanic locations like New Zealand.

So what are some of the best ski locations?

As travel insurance experts, we wanted to take a look at some of the best cities and destinations for people wanting to go on a snowy adventure.  We gathered data for 50 different locations and ranked them in our index below.

Here are the results.

Top three ski destinations index

Top 3 ski destinations graphic

Five of the top 10 destinations are in France

French ski destinations performed very well in our index, with five out of the top 10 locations being found in the French Alps. The European Alps in general seem to be a great destination with two Austrian towns and one Swiss ski village (St. Anton am Arlberg, Saalbach and Zermatt respectively) also landing in the top 10. The other two places at the top of the index went to Japan with the highest scoring location Hakuba, as well as the Canadian town of Banff.

What helped the European locations score so well was a combination of long total ski runs, high numbers of accommodation options, and ski pass prices that (apart from Grenoble) weren’t the cheapest, but were far from the most expensive in comparison to the other cities on the index.

“French ski destinations performed very well in our index, with five out of the top 10 locations being found in the French Alps.”

Are Australian and American ski runs overpriced?

There was a clear trend in the data where American and Australian locations were the most expensive for ski passes – despite having very low total lengths of ski runs in comparison to other locations. While the US location of Aspen has some of the highest intermediate and advanced ski run lengths (216kms and 243kms respectively), it is also the most expensive with ski passes costing an average US$228 per day. While American locations have decent snowfall, most have very low ski run totals and lower numbers of accommodation options.

It’s even worse in Australia. The low numbers of accommodation, combined with expensive ski passes, low ski run lengths and some of the lowest average annual snowfall make Australian ski destinations a very expensive choice.

With all these factors combined, Australian and American ski runs appear overpriced, and definitely don’t appear to be good options for beginners.

The best ski destinations index

Rank

Destinations

Accommodation

Beginner ski run length (kms)

Intermediate ski run length (kms)

Advanced ski run length (kms)

Annual snowfall (mm)

AVG ski pass prices (USD per day)

Index score

1

Hakuba, Japan

76993814211,000$338.91

2

Grenoble, France

774563901783,900$248.23

3

Morzine, France

292310210603,430$657.92

4

St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria

309130122503,580$707.55

4

Tignes, France

16317078525,630$667.55

5

Val-d’Isère, France

14917078524,740$667.24

6

Saalbach, Austria

291140112184,740$766.97

7

Megève, France

66126184382,810$516.83

8

Banff, Canada

8264116835,384$1026.66

9

Zermatt, Switzerland

28775220273,410$1116.63

10

Chamonix, France

2613251343,600$546.56

11

Anchorage, USA

23623422710,439$576.49

12

Aspen, USA

90472162437,798$2286.46

12

Whistler, Canada

14240110508,534$1486.46

13

Kitzbuhel, Austria

13411175222,080$546.29

14

Livigno, Italy

3663065202,710$626.05

15

Mayrhofen, Austria

2674466322,350$775.85

16

Lucerne, Switzerland

1494824153,560$415.78

17

Fernie, Canada

534258426,883$1065.64

18

Grindelwald, Switzerland

1136367212,920$825.47

19

Jackson, USA

11919525310,871$1545.44

20

Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy

1085569162,620$725.30

21

Granada, Spain

62851538190$605.20

21

Innsbruck, Austria

1691854142,140$465.20

22

Åre , Sweden

47646713980$465.06

23

Niseko, Japan

10722181015,000$575.03

24

Oberstdorf, Germany

315242973,140$614.96

25

Kicking Horse, Canada

1252020605,003$1064.93

26

Bend, USA

7015256010,312$1944.42

26

Queenstown, New Zealand

269204030939$1004.42

27

Furano, Japan

101151349,000$434.35

28

Alpbach, Austria

923152121,940$624.32

29

Wānaka, New Zealand

1331329205,500$1104.11

30

Panorama, Canada

112055254,241$1234.01

31

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

1531934101,840$653.81

32

Revelstoke, Canada

641618216,096$1183.70

33

Bormio, Italy

123143422,140$553.50

34

Hemsedal, Norway

37321162,560$483.47

35

Stowe, USA

57204285,638$1983.46

36

Rusutsu, Japan

1913171214,000$773.40

36

Telluride, USA

30651295,511$2183.40

37

Mount Hutt, New Zealand

2021020101,803$952.82

38

Hovden, Norway

9231713,400$632.69

39

Geilo, Norway

28181242,660$612.58

39

Perisher, Australia

332530101,981$1492.58

40

Oberjoch, Germany

1762422,680$532.55

41

Thredbo, Australia

371525122,023$1332.17

42

Vaduz, Liechtenstein

611932,610$572.04

43

Riksgränsen, Sweden

910101510$411.80

44

Falls Creek, Australia

3963581,448$1531.67

Getting the right travel insurance for a ski trip

Compare the Market’s General Manager of General Insurance, Adrian Taylor, notes that it’s vital to get the right type of policy for a ski trip, as regular travel insurance likely won’t cover snow sport activities and related events.

“Regular travel insurance might not cover emergency rescue or medical expenses if you have an accident while skiing. Both of these can be very expensive if something goes wrong and you don’t have insurance for it,” Taylor explains.

“Beyond the serious medical rescue benefits, ski trip cover can also insure you for financial loss from unused equipment and passes if the weather turns and you can’t go on your planned snow sport adventure. It can also cover accidental damage or theft of your ski gear when it isn’t in use, and that includes your own skis or hired equipment.”

Methodology

To calculate the index, we gathered data cross six different metrics for 50 different ski locations. We assigned each location a score for each different metric out of 10, with the best scoring location for that data point getting a score of 10, and the worst scoring location getting a score of 0. Once this was done for all data points, these scores were averaged for each country, providing a score out of 10. The higher the score, the better the location for ski trips. The data points were scored in the following ways:

  • Accommodation: The number of listed accommodation options for a location on TripAdvisor. The higher the number, the higher the score out of 10.
  • Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced ski run length: The total length of ski runs by difficulty grade across all snowfields and ski resorts listed for that location on Skiresort Service International. The longer the total length for each grade, the higher the score out of 10 for each grade.
  • Annual snowfall: The average annual snowfall for that location in millimetres (mm), as listed by On The Snow (Japanese locations were sourced elsewhere – Hakuba, Niseko, Furano, Rusutsu). The higher the amount of snowfall, the higher the score out of 10.
  • Average ski pass price: The average daily price for adult ski passes during peak season, calculated from the available ski pass information for all listed ski resorts and fields for a destination, as listed by Skiresort Service International. The higher the price, the lower the score out of 10.

Note: this information is accurate as of 08/10/2023 and is subject to change.