The 25 Best Ski Resorts in the World
Skiing doesn't have an equivalent to The World's 50 Best — no academy of a thousand voters producing a numbered countdown. The closest real body is the World Ski Awards (sister organisation to World Travel Awards, running since 2013), which crowns one winner per category each November from a mix of ski-industry professional and public voting, rather than ranking fifty. Its 2025 results are genuinely useful signal, though: Val Thorens was named World's Best Ski Resort 2025 for the tenth time since the award began, LAAX took World's Best Freestyle Resort, Kitzbühel's operating company won World's Best Ski Resort Company, and Utah's Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley was named World's Best Ski Hotel.
So this list is AVARA's own curated 25, built to be genuinely global rather than Alps-heavy the way most "best ski resort" content defaults to, and grounded wherever possible in real, checkable facts — vertical drop, skiable terrain, snow record, current awards, this season's actual headline (Cortina d'Ampezzo co-hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics alongside Milan chief among them). The numbering below is for readability, not a claim that No.1 objectively beats No.25 — these are twenty-five resorts we'd defend putting in any serious global top tier, ordered roughly by region rather than by strict competitive rank.
No. 1 — Val Thorens
Val Thorens, France
Val Thorens and the Trois Vallées piste network seen from the Col du Mottet. Photo: Florian Pépellin — CC BY-SA 4.0. Europe's highest resort at 2,300m, and the reigning World's Best Ski Resort for the tenth time since the World Ski Awards began — recognised specifically for lift infrastructure, resort facilities and slopeside accommodation rather than just terrain. It anchors Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski area on earth, giving Val Thorens-based skiers access to well over 600km of connected pistes without leaving the lift network once.
Best for: snow-sure altitude skiers who want the biggest connected terrain network in the world at their doorstep.
No. 2 — Zermatt
Zermatt, Switzerland
The Matterhorn above the village of Zermatt in winter. Photo: Deralpinbergsteiger — CC BY-SA 4.0. Car-free, Matterhorn-framed, and one of the very few resorts offering genuine year-round glacier skiing on the Theodul Glacier. The lift network crosses into Cervinia, Italy, meaning a single pass buys two countries' worth of terrain. Chalet Zermatt Peak, located here, was named World's Best Ski Chalet 2025.
Best for: skiers who want the single most photographed mountain backdrop in the Alps alongside genuinely serious terrain.
No. 3 — St. Anton am Arlberg
St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria
Skiers on the open Arlberg snowfields above St. Anton. Photo: Maarten Scheer / Unsplash — Unsplash License. The spiritual home of Alpine skiing's more serious, off-piste-minded culture — steep, often ungroomed terrain, plus a legendarily unpretentious après-ski scene at the Mooserwirt and Krazy Kanguruh that predates the current wave of Instagram-driven ski resorts by decades.
Best for: strong intermediate to advanced skiers who want terrain that demands real ability, not a groomed cruise.
No. 4 — Val d'Isère & Tignes (Espace Killy)
Val d'Isère & Tignes (Espace Killy), France
The Solaise side of Val d'Isère, seen across the Tignes dam. Photo: Florian Pépellin — CC BY-SA 4.0. Named for French ski legend Jean-Claude Killy, the combined Espace Killy area offers reliable glacier skiing on the Grande Motte year-round and genuinely varied terrain across both resort towns — Val d'Isère skewing more polished, Tignes more purpose-built and practical.
Best for: skiers who want both glacier reliability and a proper resort-town social scene.
No. 5 — Chamonix
Chamonix, France
Chamonix in winter, beneath the Mont Blanc massif. Photo: eGuide Travel — CC BY 2.0. Sitting beneath Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest peak, Chamonix is less a resort than the birthplace of extreme skiing and mountaineering as a culture — the Vallée Blanche off-piste descent, roughly 20km through glacier terrain, remains one of skiing's genuine bucket-list runs, guide required.
Best for: experienced skiers and mountaineers who want history and genuine extreme terrain over polished convenience.
No. 6 — Verbier
Verbier, Switzerland
The ski slopes above Verbier in the Swiss Valais. Photo: Realleok — CC BY-SA 4.0. The Swiss resort with arguably the most consistently ranked off-piste and freeride terrain in the Alps — home to the Freeride World Tour's Xtreme Verbier finale on the notorious Bec des Rosses face. Cabane Tortin, an off-grid retreat above the resort, was named World's Best New Ski Chalet 2025.
Best for: freeriders and serious off-piste skiers, with a nightlife scene to match the daytime intensity.
No. 7 — Courchevel & Les Trois Vallées
Courchevel & Les Trois Vallées, France
The Courchevel ski area, seen from the Bellecôte side of the Trois Vallées. Photo: Florian Pépellin — CC BY-SA 4.0. Courchevel is the polished, occasionally eye-wateringly expensive anchor of Les Trois Vallées, the world's largest ski area alongside Val Thorens's stake in it. Hôtel Le Pashmina here was named World's Best Ski Boutique Hotel 2025 for its ski-to-door access into the valley.
Best for: travellers who want five-star infrastructure directly attached to genuinely enormous terrain.
No. 8 — St. Moritz
St. Moritz, Switzerland
Lake St. Moritz frozen in mid-winter, below the town. Photo: Etiaetia1020 — CC BY-SA 3.0. Where competitive downhill skiing effectively industrialised as a tourist product — host to two Winter Olympics (1928 and 1948) and still the glamour capital of Alpine skiing, with the frozen lake hosting polo and horse racing each winter alongside the slopes above.
Best for: travellers who want ski-resort history and old-world glamour as much as the skiing itself.
No. 9 — Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
The snow-dusted Dolomite walls that ring the Cortina d'Ampezzo valley. Photo: Frederick Wallace / Unsplash — Unsplash License. The "Queen of the Dolomites," and in February–March 2026 the alpine-skiing centre of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics — its legendary Olympia delle Tofane course will host the women's downhill events, seventy years after Cortina last hosted the Games in 1956. Part of the Dolomiti Superski network, over 700 miles of interconnected slopes across the wider Dolomites.
Best for: skiers who want dramatic limestone-peak scenery unlike anywhere else in the Alps, with a genuine Olympic moment this season.
No. 10 — Kitzbühel
Kitzbühel, Austria
A rider on the groomed pistes of the Kitzbühel Alps. Photo: Kitzbühel / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Home to the Hahnenkamm, the most feared downhill race course on the World Cup calendar, and operated by Bergbahn AG Kitzbühel, named World's Best Ski Resort Company 2025. The town itself, all medieval frescoed façades, is one of the more genuinely charming base villages in the Alps rather than a purpose-built resort.
Best for: race-history fans and anyone who wants a real historic Tyrolean town rather than a ski-in modern development.
No. 11 — Lech-Zürs
Lech-Zürs, Austria
Stuben am Arlberg at dusk, on the Arlberg circuit that links Lech-Zürs. Photo: Feel free to use my photos, but please mention me as the author and if you want — CC BY-SA 3.0 at. Quieter and considerably more discreet than its Arlberg neighbour St. Anton, Lech-Zürs is where European royalty has skied for decades without much fanfare — connected into the wider Ski Arlberg network (over 300km) while keeping a noticeably lower-key, luxury-without-flash atmosphere.
Best for: travellers who want Arlberg-scale terrain without St. Anton's louder après-ski culture.
No. 12 — LAAX
LAAX, Switzerland
The LAAX halfpipe — the resort took World's Best Freestyle Resort at the 2025 World Ski Awards. Photo: Philipp Ruggli — CC BY-SA 4.0. Named World's Best Freestyle Resort 2025, LAAX built its reputation on genuinely unlimited terrain-park and freeride credibility rather than groomed-piste polish — home to one of the world's largest half-pipes and a snowboarding culture that predates most resorts' freestyle parks by a decade or more.
Best for: freestyle skiers and snowboarders who want park terrain taken as seriously as downhill.
No. 13 — Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
The Teton range in deep winter, the wall Jackson Hole skis against. Photo: Jeremy Bishop / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Consistently rated among the most challenging lift-served terrain in North America — Corbet's Couloir at the top of the tram remains a genuine test piece rather than a marketing gimmick. Bordered by Grand Teton National Park, the scenery alone justifies the trip even before the terrain does.
Best for: expert skiers who want steep, genuinely difficult lift-served terrain rather than groomed cruisers.
No. 14 — Aspen Snowmass
Aspen Snowmass, Colorado
A skier on the pistes above the Aspen valley. Photo: Vlado Sestan / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Four distinct mountains under one pass — Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass — giving a genuine range from expert-only terrain to gentle beginner slopes, tied to a town with a serious cultural and culinary scene well beyond the lifts.
Best for: groups with mixed ability levels who also want serious restaurants and nightlife off the mountain.
No. 15 — Vail
Vail, Colorado
Vail's village and valley framed by the snowbound Gore Range. Photo: Katie Musial / Unsplash — Unsplash License. The single largest ski mountain in the US by skiable acreage, with the famous Back Bowls offering genuinely wide-open, largely ungroomed terrain rarely found this accessible from a major lift system. The purpose-built Bavarian-style village is unapologetically manufactured but genuinely well executed.
Best for: skiers who want sheer scale — this is the terrain-volume choice in the Rockies.
No. 16 — Park City & Deer Valley
Park City & Deer Valley, Utah
A chairlift climbing the Wasatch slopes above Park City. Photo: Alex Moliski / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Park City is the largest single ski resort in the United States by acreage; neighbouring Deer Valley, skier-only and famously meticulous about grooming, is home to the Stein Eriksen Lodge, named World's Best Ski Hotel 2025. Both sit under 45 minutes from Salt Lake City International, among the most accessible major resorts in North America.
Best for: travellers who want big-mountain skiing without a long transfer from the airport.
No. 17 — Whistler Blackcomb
Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia
Whistler Mountain above the Coast Range. Photo: Murray Foubister — CC BY-SA 2.0. North America's largest ski resort by vertical drop (over 1,600m) and skiable terrain combined, connected by the Peak 2 Peak Gondola — one of the longest and highest lift spans in the world, linking two genuinely separate mountains in one continuous system.
Best for: skiers who want the single biggest vertical and terrain package on the continent.
No. 18 — Banff Sunshine & Lake Louise
Banff Sunshine & Lake Louise, Alberta
The Lake Louise basin under winter snow in Banff National Park. Photo: Jonas / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Set inside Banff National Park, this pairing offers some of the most dramatic mountain scenery of any ski destination anywhere — turquoise glacial lakes, the Continental Divide running directly through Sunshine Village's terrain, and a wildlife-dense national park setting unlike any resort in the Alps or the American Rockies.
Best for: travellers who want national-park scale scenery built directly into the skiing itself.
No. 19 — Big Sky
Big Sky, Montana
Snow-loaded pines on the Big Sky slopes of southwest Montana. Photo: Lee Sullivan / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Since a major lift and terrain expansion, Big Sky now claims the largest skiable acreage of any single resort in the US, with Lone Peak's Big Couloir offering genuine expert-only terrain, while remaining noticeably less crowded than its Colorado and Utah competitors.
Best for: skiers who want Vail-scale terrain without Vail-scale lift lines.
No. 20 — Palisades Tahoe
Palisades Tahoe, California
A groomed run and chairlift high above Lake Tahoe. Photo: Shawn Vaillancourt / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Formerly Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, host of the 1960 Winter Olympics and now, via the Base to Base Gondola linking eight peaks, the largest ski resort in California at 6,000 skiable acres — with Lake Tahoe itself providing one of the more striking backdrops in North American skiing.
Best for: West Coast skiers who want Olympic pedigree and genuine scale within driving distance of the Bay Area.
No. 21 — Niseko
Niseko, Hokkaido
Bottomless Hokkaido powder — the reason Niseko books out a year ahead. Photo: Jeremy Bishop / Unsplash — Unsplash License. The reigning capital of "Japow" — Niseko United's four connected resort areas average some of the highest, most reliable snowfall totals of any ski destination on earth, driven by Siberian weather systems crossing the Sea of Japan. Nikko Style Niseko HANAZONO was named World's Best New Ski Hotel 2025.
Best for: powder obsessives chasing the most reliable deep-snow days available anywhere in the world.
No. 22 — Hakuba Valley
Hakuba Valley, Nagano
The Hakuba valley beneath the Japanese Northern Alps. Photo: Marshall Ho / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Host mountain cluster for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, Hakuba spans ten linked resort areas with a scale and variety Niseko doesn't quite match, still without anything close to European or North American crowd levels.
Best for: skiers who want Niseko-level snow with more terrain variety and genuine Olympic downhill history.
No. 23 — Rusutsu
Rusutsu, Hokkaido
Rusutsu's calling card: quiet, tree-lined Hokkaido powder. Photo: Hendrik Morkel / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Smaller and considerably quieter than Niseko despite sitting in the same snowbelt, Rusutsu's tree-skiing through widely spaced Hokkaido birch forest has become something of an insider's favourite among repeat Japan skiers who've already done Niseko.
Best for: experienced Japan-trip skiers looking for the same snow quality with far fewer people on it.
No. 24 — Portillo
Portillo, Chile
Laguna del Inca below the Portillo slopes in the high Andes. Photo: Adriano Pulz / Unsplash — Unsplash License. A single, isolated yellow hotel beside a high-altitude lake in the Andes, with no real town attached — guests essentially take over the resort for the week, and its steep, high-altitude terrain has made it a genuine off-season training ground for World Cup ski teams from the northern hemisphere.
Best for: Northern Hemisphere skiers chasing a genuine July–September season, and anyone who wants a single-hotel, all-inclusive week rather than a sprawling resort town.
No. 25 — Las Leñas
Las Leñas, Argentina
A lift line rising over the wide, treeless snowfields of Las Leñas. Photo: Julieta Demaria / Unsplash — Unsplash License. Remote even by Andean standards, with steep, largely ungroomed terrain and a base elevation already above most European resorts' summits — the trade-off for the isolation is some of the most serious lift-served extreme terrain available anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.
Best for: expert skiers who've done Portillo and want something even more remote and challenging.
Volume 6 of the AVARA Best Of series. As with the weekend getaways guide, this one is disclosed as editorial curation rather than a sourced competitive ranking, since no equivalent to The World's 50 Best exists for ski resorts — grounded instead in verified terrain data and genuine 2025/2026 World Ski Awards results and Olympic relevance.
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