2025 10 day Euro Tour resort advice

A snowHead

Putting together my first ski trip to Europe for 10 days on the slopes around the second week of Jan or Mar. I put this route together and looking for feedback on if any of these I should skip, need two days (2 days is the max I will stay at one place), or if there are better alternates you can recommend for long blue/red runs. Aesthetically I prefer blues but will ski blacks, and like to carve hard from one edge of the run to the other. Not interested in ski scenery, après, or cost, only interested in the best places for long blues/reds. In March I skied open to close at 6 different CO ski resorts in 6 days which ended up being almost ~1000mi in the car. This would be a smidge of miles over that, so I'm not worried about the driving and am open to substituting stops that may be out of the way of this route. Route order is based on a start and end in Zurich.

Current Route
Ischgl
Sellaronda (probably the biggest uncertainty I have)
St Anton
Arosa
Laax
Zermatt
Crans-Montana
Les 3 Vallées
Val-d'Isère
Wengen

Thanks, Juan

A snowHead

@JuanValdezFoxHunter, that's a hell of a lot of travelling around and you'll barely scratch the surface of any of those resorts. For 10 days you could conceivably ski just one area and not get bored.

If you are absolutely set on that set of resorts (and I really can't emphasise how much you shouldn't do this) then your route doesn't make a great deal of sense. Ischgl and St Anton are pretty close to each other (you have to drive through/under St Anton to get to Ischgl) so I'd start off at St Anton then Ischgl then move on to the Sella Ronda. Then to go back to Arosa you'll drive through/under St Anton again. Or drive straight through to the Sella Ronda and do Ischgl and St Anton on the way back.

The rest of the route makes some sort of sense, but I can't emphasise how much you should reconsider this whole trip and just pick 1 or 2 locations.

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@JuanValdezFoxHunter, welcome to snowHeads.

I know you said it's your first ski trip to Europe and you obviously want to get a taste of as much European skiing as you can, but my first reaction is that you've chosen too many resorts for your 10 day trip. You'll be spending a substantial fraction of your time driving between resorts rather than skiing. One other consideration (although you said price doesn't matter) is that the lift ticket price per day's skiing will work out a bit cheaper if you ski for 2 or 3 days in a particular resort. I don't know if you'll have any of the US season tickets e.g Epic or Ikon but I think some of those include a few days at some European ski areas?

If you're flying into Zurich then I'd suggest a much shorter selection (and even that is too many in my view) from your list as follows:
St.Anton
Zermatt
Les 3 Vallées
Val-d'Isère
Wengen (I'm a regular there each year)

I love the Sella Ronda area, and the Alta Badia part of it in particular has masses of blue runs. However it's a bit of a drive to get there on your itinerary and you wouldn't have more than a day or so there, no time at all do it justice. Far better imv to leave it out on this trip and hopefully do it on another trip some time in the future.

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Bonkers. Absolutely no point in 10 days unless you like driving more than skiing. Just make it St Anton and Ischgl and fill in with other resorts around Innsbruck if you want a tick list.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I did a similar tour over a period of 2 months a long time ago.

Solden, St Anton, Davos/Klosters, St Moritz, Verbier, Crans Montana, Saas Fe, Zermatt, Tignes, Val d'Isere.

I did it in a van and at times a van was essential as I got stuck in snow on high mountain passes. (particularly between Austria and Switzerland and also many high roads were closed in Switzerland due to snow) Van was needed as I had to pull over and go to sleep and wait for the snow to be cleared on the roads.

The weather is unlikely to be your friend in a 10 day tour. Skiing is not always possible, and sometimes you have to wait for better days.

I did Les 3 vallees again on its own another year, and also went to Serre Chevalier, les deux alps, alp d'huez, and Montgenevre that year in the van. Too much to do there in a whistle-stop tour.

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@JuanValdezFoxHunter, This is too much for 10 days, you will spend far more time driving than you will skiing. Are you bringing skis with you or do you plan to hire them in each place?. If you want to get a taste of skiing in the Alps a better itinerary might be (assuming arrival in Zürich) St Anton, Wengen - this avoids passes closed in winter but is pretty much a full day drive from the Arlberg, park in Interlaken and take train from there, Grindelwald might be a better option as is driveable, Zermatt - you will need to take the car train through the Lötschberg tunnel, Verbier, Chamonix or the Portes du Soleil area - stay on the Swiss side, Morgins or Champery as easier to get back to Zürich. I would suggest that the larger French resorts are out of reach with this time frame. Even this list is more than ambitious and many of the drives will take 4 to 5 hours assuming decent weather in bad weather potentially double that. Personally I think even if you want to experience as much as possible then perhaps Wengen / Grindelwald, Zermatt, Verbier, Chamonix / PdS would be much more practical even that is a lot especially as you are likely to have at least one or two days of bad weather with restricted skiing. Probably just as easy and quick to use Swiss trains

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

JuanValdezFoxHunter,
Welcome to Snowheads.

I appreciate that it's your first trip to the Alps and you'd like to cram a few resorts in - but somewhere like The 3 Valleys would keep you occupied for a season, never mind 2 days! Even as a veteran of many 1 night (2 day) weekend dashes to the Alps from the UK, and 2 1,000 mile Colorado road trips (but over 2 weeks...), with respect I think your planned trip is bonkers. It would be no more than a gruelling, tick box, bragging exercise with a lot of the driving done in the dark. It's just as well you aren't bothered about the scenery as you would miss it all...

If you must ski in more than 1 resort and would like to ski in 2 or 3 countries my recommendation would be to go for a twin centre trip of Zermatt (Switzerland, but also ski Cervinia in Italy on the same lift ticket, as they are linked) and The 3 Valleys (though it's a 5 hour trip between the 2). That would see you tick off 3 countries with only 1 hefty commute by car.

After all it is free

I did my tour of ski resorts because I had time, money, health and age on my side. I figured I would not be able, want to do this when I was older.

Of course, bragging rights come with that, but I do not think people do this sort of thing just to post selfies on facebook to say "wish you were here". They probably do it because they enjoy skiing/snowboarding.

Having lived in a van in -15c to -20c at night in my 30s, I would say it is not something I would want to do in my 50s without much better heating/insulation. Even the problems of putting chains on the wheels in the dark on a steep icy incline, in the snow, is beyond my ageing finger dexterity. (not least my back would probably complain, and my knees would get wet on the gritted icy roads)

Welcome to Snowheads, @JuanValdezFoxHunter. Can I just check your timing? when you say "10 days on the slopes" do you mean just that, so that your travelling days would be additional? That makes it more manageable, and if you enjoy driving you would be driving some wonderful places. So a 3 week "road trip with skiing" would be doable. If you are resolved to enjoy the driving as much as the skiing, to me it DOES make sense, though advice on the most effective way of linking it all up will be helpful.

You will find that a lot of accommodation options in many of those destinations will be based on people staying for a week. You need to give a lot of thought to flexibility. If you arrive in resort X and the next day the weather is terrible and many lifts closed and avalanche blasting going on, will you still bash on the next day, even if that dawns bluebird, with every run beautifully pisted?

If you stay flexible, finding accommodation each night (which will probably sometimes be some distance from the slopes, and perhaps not what you'd have chosen for yourself) I reckon that could be a memorable holiday. But it would need a particularly "Zen" mental state, just staying with the present moment and enjoying it, rather than having a mental itinerary which "must" be kept. Only you know how your mind works!

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I’d say you need a minimum of 10 days in each of the following countries;

Switzerland
Austria
France
Italy

So you either need 2 trips of 20 days or one massive 40 day trip.

However if you just have the 10 days then personally I’d probably fly into Milan then ski most of the Aosta Valley whilst at the same time being able to ski Zermatt from Cervina and also possibly nip through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Chamonix. You could also do Madonna di Campiglio from Milan as well.

Enjoy your trip whatever you decide to do.

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In deciding where to start the tour, I checked the weather to see where the best snow was at that time. That is where I went first. The snow then fell all over the Alps after about a week or more in Austria. So I went to Switzerland and had some great sunny weather in St Moritz with plenty of snow. (but got snowed in on the pass between St Anton and Davos, had to sleep in a lay by high up on the pass)

I was very flexible, and only had accommodation booked in Zermatt for 5 nights over Xmas.

You know it makes sense.

Hold on while I just go on put some popcorn on

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Is this based on the assumption that European resorts are similar sized to US resorts?

A snowHead

@JuanValdezFoxHunter,
Welcome to Snowheads. As you'll have already gathered you're looking at too much.
An example:- Tignes-Val d'Isere (aka Espace Killy) is the smallest of the three mega resorts in the Tarentaise (France) by both total piste length (300 km, about 185 miles) and area (10,000 hectares, about 25,000 acres). You can happily do a season there without getting bored, and that is before hitting the off-piste or day trips to the other two mega resorts. Plus a small and a medium resort (the latter a large resort if you go for the area lift pass & ski into Italy) in the Tarentaise.

A snowHead

Looking back, the OP is not interested in scenery. Doesn't sound very zen. Too goal oriented. So I take back my "untimetabled road trip" suggestion.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@JuanValdezFoxHunter, you realise that e.g. Val d'Isere to Wengen is minimum a 6 hour trip??

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I have driven across USA a couple of times in driveaways. (delivering cars for people or businesses) Once from NY to San Diago, and once from Boston to San Francisco, and then another one from SF to Seattle with a week or two in SF (actually an island near Seattle).

Val d'Isere to Wengen is a days drive in good conditions....

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

This will sound like a broken record at this point, but as everyone else has said, you're trying for too much. Since you mentioned both St Anton and Ischgil, I would concentrate on that area. You could easily just ski 10 days at those 2 and be happy. But I understand you want to try other resorts on your first trip. That's why this area is fantastic. You could stay in a place Landeck and be within an hours drive of Ischgl, St Anton, Serfaus-Fiss Ladis, Solden and smaller places like See, Kappl, Pitztal Gletscher etc. If you want to mix up where you stay, you could also spend a few days in Silvretta Montafon as well. Last January, I did 18 days just at various between Solden and Silvretta and didn't even get to hit all the resorts I wanted. As others have said, plan about 4 different 10 day trips to cover your list. Once you've been once, you'll want to come back anyways!

On another note that nobody has talked about is the ratings of runs. I'm Canadian, and used to what you described for difficulty ratings. In Europe, it's different. It goes from Green to Blue, to Red to Black. I would say the average red run Europe would be a blue in most of North America. And you will rarely see a black run groomed in Europe. Most things with a black rating will be moguled or off piste. One other thing, since it's your first visit, is the avalanche control. They do not avalanche control the whole ski area. Only groomed runs and slopes that threaten groomed runs are controlled. For everything else, it's as if you are skiing out of bounds in North America.

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Ridiculous overkill.

Too many resorts. Too many miles.

Do 2 resorts max. Five days a pop.

Pick the world's 2 best resorts.

1. Chamonix (for steeps)
2. Zermatt (for atmos)

Enjoy.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

Oh,and one other comment for the OP. You said second week of January or March. While March would likely have better snow coverage, it will be WAY busier than January. The horror stories we hear about lift lines are from February and March. Going in January, there will be very few to no lift lines. I usually go to Europe from the second week in January to the first week of February and have never had large lift lines.

I'm agreeing with others. I haven't skiied all those resorts, but those I have all deserve several days just to sample. And in many cases you will be taking up a full (and long) day just to travel between them. Those mountains we call the Alps make it quite difficult to travel the distances between resorts even if they don't look bad in US terms.

Unfortunately I can't see the Sella Ronda - great as it is - working as part of a circuit from Zurich, and sadly the iconic Tarentaise resorts are nearly as hard. I would stick to Switzerland and Austria, there is plenty enough fantastic skiing and travel distances are feasible if still not ideal.

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@munich_irish, in les arcs all the black runs are left "natur" even those officially non natur may only be bashed once a year. I've always assumed that all black runs remain unbashed otherwise they are just steep reds. It seems I'm wrong.

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@Whitegold, he's not interested in steeps or atmosphere.

Perhaps @JuanValdezFoxHunter, and his crew are really interested in scenery more than actual skiing. Driving around taking in the different places and a bit of skiing thrown in. 10 days is not enough time to do those resorts on a skiing POV but for a 'leisurely' approach possibly. If you guys are serious about skiing then take some advice from the others resort wise.

You know it makes sense.

I noitce that the original poster said "for 10 days on the slopes" not a 10 day trip in total. Perhaps he is palnning a 20 day trip with days spent driving between the resorts, sight seeing etc intermingled. I hope he has thought about the difficulty of getting, say, one nights accommodation somewhere near his intented skiing days.

The plan does look a bit strange to me. For example if you are not interested in the scenery the blue and red runs in Val d'Isere and Courchevel are not that different. So why not do a couple days in the 3 vallies. He will still not do the same run twice. In fact (heresy here) they are not that different across the whole of the Alps.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@JuanValdezFoxHunter, I'm sorry, but I would have to agree with the others who have commented that this is too many resorts and too much travelling in between. The logistics are going to be difficult with finding accommodation for one night only in every resort near the slopes, driving every evening for many hours to get to the next resort on the list after a hard days skiing, possibly in wintry conditions with road closures.

If you're not interested in seeing varied scenery, I would question why someone would want to visit so many places in such a short visit. Is it an exercise to tick countries/resorts off a list?

A more enjoyable idea would be to pick one or (maximum) two bases for your trip. In Europe, many ski areas are large enough to occupy you for several days or more and if you are based in one convenient spot, there are often smaller day-sized areas close by for a bit more variety.

Some have suggested Landeck with access to St Anton and Ischgl on your list, plus a number of smaller worthwhile resorts like Kappl, See, Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, Nauders, Imst, Kaunertal, Hochoetz etc. to change things up.

There would be similar spots in Switzerland, France & Italy where you could do similar. A combination of 5 days in two large ski areas might work too, as per @Whitegold's suggestion of Chamonix & Zermatt above.

If you want to tick off countries the Aosta Valley is a good shout with a chance to ski across the border into France at La Thuile/La Rosiere and Switzerland at Cervinia/Zermatt, as well as Italy of course. If you stay somewhere near Aosta you can commute to all the resorts in the valley in under an hour, saving the local area Pila for a bad weather day. Milan airport would offer better access than Zurich for this idea though.

It'll be interesting to see the OP's reaction to the suggestions on here. I hope he takes it in the spirit of helpfulness that is intended.

A snowHead

This might help with planning, although it is quite out of date now!

https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=1793636&highlight=timeout#1793636
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=1793776&highlight=timeout#1793776
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=1794123&highlight=timeout#1794123
https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=1794161&highlight=timeout#1794161

@JuanValdezFoxHunter, looks like you should log in more often!

A snowHead

Thanks all. I really appreciate the honest feedback and alternatives. Overall, too many resorts, too far to get to, and enough at 2-3 resorts to spend 10 days at. I realize the majority of people that take ski trips will stay at 1-2 if they go for a week.

To answer some of the questions. Zurich is the start as it is close to an acquaintance. I'm taking my own skis not hiring. It would be 10 days skiing with a rest/travel day on each end, so closer to 2 weeks than 40 days. Sellaronda was not the first stop, as that would be a long initial drive from Zurich, vs stopping in Ischgl and breaking that drive up, so that was my rationale. I have been skiing open to close, driving for 1-3 hr, then 0.5-2 hr in the morning. So I'm not missing any skiing due to the driving. You are right that it is more driving than actual skiing down the hill. I still have the ski bug, so I like to experience as much unique skiing as I can on a trip. I don't do social media or post selfies, I eat on the lift, and all the food I ate was packed in my checked skibag ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Some people like to spend their ski time with an hour of posting to their socials, a 2hr lunch, and leave at 2pm...different strokes for different folks...I'm not concerned with them, I'm glad they're not taking up space on the slopes, Very Happy

.

I'll recalibrate and adjust the tour on the feedback. I like you suggestion @Alastair Pink, as they are close enough I could go back to one if I really enjoyed it or conditions change, and honestly I won't get it down to 2-3 resorts, more likely to remove 3-4. Like any trip it will not be set in stone, and will be adjusted real time based on the weather/other variables. I'm glad I could help some fill their popcorn intake.

EDIT: Overall a bunch of alternatives to consider, and I appreciate the feedback and ideas I need to consider, including Whitegold, Luigi, Bigtipper, and some other as well, too many to name. I asked as I do need the feedback from those that have been. More research I need to do of each of these.

-Juan

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@JuanValdezFoxHunter, Can see where you are coming from. Do be a bit circumspect about assuming your experience in the US is directly transferable to the alps. Little things like finding hotels that will accept one or two night stays might be an issue. I do think that the Sella Ronda would be a good fit for what you have told us, a lot of reasonably straight foward piste skiing with probably the best snow making around so skiing pretty much guaranteed. Easy to stay for a week and hardly ski the same piste twice. St Anton makes a much more convenient stop off point than Ischgl (which is towards the end of a long dead end valley). If you come back the same way look at Serfaus / Fiss which is not far from the main east west road. Then perhaps one of the Swiss places. I would say the Dolomites and the large French areas are too far apart geographically to fit in both in the time you have. Choose the area you most fancy and base you trip around that.

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@JuanValdezFoxHunter, bear in mind that if Zermatt still figures on the itinerary and you have a rental car, there are some unusual logistics.

You will not be able to drive into the resort and park next to a lift as it is a car-free village, except for the licensed 'golf cart' electric vehicles that ply as tiny buses, taxis or hotel shuttles. Any private cars must be left at Tasch at one of the expensive car parks and a shuttle train takes you up the valley to Zermatt station. From there it is a short walk to the Gornergrat mountain railway or a short electric bus ride up to the Matterhorn gondola.

Most visitors use the excellent Swiss train service rather than renting a car if arriving from Zurich and visiting Zermatt.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@JuanValdezFoxHunter, I think you are being way too ambitious with your original request.

From Zurich, I'd be thinking Andermatt/Sedrun/Disentis, Jungfraujoch, Saas Fee, etc. A good list here https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Airports/Zurich.html

But, then, I'm lazy and can't be ersed driving.

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@luigi, I was aware that I wouldn't be driving into Zermatt. @under a new name, that is a good resource, I had a few of those resorts on my list as I whittled it down. I'll revisit them as they relate geographically to each other, and create some tighter regional options as some others have suggested as well. If I can reduce the driving a bit, that is a plus, and there is no goal to have to drive so far or cross as many borders. Back to the drawing board.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I'm sure that anyone can offer any more practical advice until you've whittled your list down to something more practical and even then you'll face the problem of accomodation which can be challenging for short, irregular stays.

After all it is free

The borders aren't too bad -- it's all the Schengen free movement area so while there is border infrastructure you don't stop (unless pulled over).

Definitely consider the train ("let the train take the strain" in the words of an old British advert) instead of a hire car if you haven't -- not all ski resorts have stations, but enough do and other have public transport or taxi connections. (Plus no parking, driving up/down winding mountain roads in the dark, dealing with hire car chains and 2 or 3 different sets of traffic laws)

St Anton has a station and is only two and a half hours from Zurich: I'm sure there will be enough of your resorts of put together a logical train routs. It's kind of the other way to Wengen / Zermatt, but they're also of course accessible by train.

Given the OP plans to travel between resorts between lift closing and lift opening the following day it's unlikely that public transport would work. I personally would find driving between resorts part of the holiday but not if the schedule entailed not missing an hour's ski time!

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Allowing up to 2 hours to get to the resort in the morning and 2 hours to leave in the evening will allow @JuanValdezFoxHunter, to stay in one village town and travel to different resorts every day. For example staying in Innsbruck will allow visits to most of the Tirol including the North of the Italian side. Tolbach is, according to google maps, less than 2 hours from Innsbruck. Interlaken will give good access to many Swiss resorts such as Adelboden, Grindelwald, Wengen etc. Hotels should be easier to book in the valley towns than resorts.

Do not underestimate the difficulty of parking in European resorts.

Help!!

2025 10 day Euro Tour resort advice

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