Considering the prospect of spending New Year's celebrations on the slopes is an incredibly exciting one. Wrapped up warm while watching fireworks crash and sparkle in a riot of colour over the mountains, with the brilliant white of the snow underfoot, is an experience that creates memories to last a lifetime.
The period approaching the festive season can often be a stressful time of planning and preparing to make events happen in the best possible way for everybody involved. As a result, the New Year is often a chance to take a little time for you and your family to combine the relaxation of a holiday with the exhilaration of skiing and winter sports. Our guide to the very best ski escapes for the new year offers some excellent choices to help your initial research phase. Hopefully, the rest of the trip admin and logistics will all be downhill from here.
Val d’Isère
This is quite simply one of the most iconic ski resorts anywhere in the world. The alpine attraction of the Haute-Tarentaise valley is a wonderful combination of serious skiing terrain and modern glamour in a setting that remains faithful to its old-world village charm and beginnings. Together with neighbouring Tignes, it offers over 300km of slopes, with the majority of them occupying a space over 2000 metres high to help with the all-important snow security. All ability levels are serviced through green, blue, red and black runs, with off-piste and glacial skiing also available for those that really want to stretch themselves in the most daring way.
When the sun does set, Val D’Isére offers a fantastic wealth of entertainment and leisure options that marry a timeless charm with modern sophistication. The hamlets of Le Fornet, Val Claret, Le Lac and La Daille have spent centuries building their communities around the allure of the slopes and have mastered the perfect apres-ski attractions. Hotel considerations such as the new Airelles Val d’Isére, are right at the heart of the resort with a ski-in and ski-out accessibility that keeps you firmly in the middle of the action at all times. This entire place is a skiing sensation that leads the way for alpine hospitality.
Courchevel
The French Alps are the standard bearer for ski tourism and hold an important chapter in the history of this fascinating sport. Courchevel is perhaps the best-connected resort in the whole area of Les Trois – the three valleys, with its villages named as reference to their altitude, demonstrating how important it has been for development over the past century. Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz) is recognised as being the most attractive village here for an elite mix of professionals and keen amateurs that are looking for all the comforts of a modern holiday without compromising the thrill of the world-class facilities. Michelin-starred restaurants and major ski challenges combine for what is an original purpose-built resort with curated experiences high up in the mountains.
A total of 96 runs are available in Courchevel, that split between abilities quite evenly. The L’ Èclipse course built for the 2023 World Championships is perhaps the most technically challenging, with many gentler runs created in the lower villages to encourage beginners. L’Apogée Courchevel represents the location perfectly with a hotel that includes a wonderful spa for those moments away from the slopes. And the incredible two Michelin-starred Le Chabichou has become a pinnacle of high dining in truly elevated surroundings set in the village of Courchevel 1850. Everything of elegance in one resort, Courchevel has it all.
Verbier
For almost a hundred years, this beautiful area of the Swiss Alps has celebrated everything about skiing. A Ski School, Ècole de Ski de Verbier, was officially created here in 1937 with serious infrastructure and ski lifts appearing over the following decades. This connected the whole area to meet increasing demand for the sport as a recreational activity with supporting tourism facilities. Verbier’s journey from a land of remote alpine pasture to a globally renowned ski capital was well underway. Its geographic location on a plateau exposed to the south has been instrumental to its evolution, with hotels, chalets and restaurants all determined to make the most of the seasonal sunshine and incredible views over Valais towards the imperious Mont Blanc. The Experimental Chalet Verbier is home to some of the best residences in the area, particularly its Panoramic Suite with three private terraces that look out across the rooftops and mountains. There are often festivals and events across the New Year period here, with restaurants such as the Michelin-starred La Table d’Adrien always on hand for some exquisite Alpine-French & Italian dishes to warm up with after a day gliding down the immaculate powdery runs.
Livigno
High in the Lombardo region of Italy, near the Swiss border, and with reliable snowfall and mountains of character, Livigno is a real gem for New Year Ski lovers. Over time, this boutique location has earned the name Little Tibet due to the remote valley setting and somewhat separation from the more mainstream resorts that surround it. There are 115km of pistes here with over 30 lifts to support them, many of which lead into some areas of pretty spectacular freeriding potential too.
Although there are easy runs available for the uninitiated, Livigne does feel pitched towards an intermediate ability crowd. However, the resort’s duty free status does mean that shopping and leisure are also prioritised here for the seasonal skier. Livigno looks set to be an integral part of the 2026 Winter Olympic schedule, hosting the freestyle skiing and snowboarding competitions, so the turn of the New Year is a chance to experience a new infrastructure created in response to this exciting responsibility. The atmosphere in Livigno has always carried a youthful energy and buzz around it that will undoubtedly rise as it begins to establish its own new legacy and status over the next 12 months. Being a part of that atmosphere is a rare opportunity for visitors ready to experience a destination that aligns folk tradition and farming roots with a future-facing focus.
Ringing in the new year with a sojourn on the slopes is always a refreshing and reinvigorating calendar opener. For 2026, it is a chance to reflect on the year that is drawing to a close and move into a world of new opportunities with elegance, grace and some heart-racing style.
