Ski season 2026/27: where to go in Europe this winter

The glaciers are already turning, and the big Alpine names open within weeks. Here is where to ski in Europe this winter, whether you are clipping in for the first time, travelling with children, or hunting for the mountain nobody at the office has heard of. Plus one wildcard far from the Alps.

There is a moment every November when the ski season stops being an idea and becomes a date in the diary. This is it. A handful of high glaciers in Austria and Switzerland have been running lifts since the autumn, and the main Alpine resorts follow from the third week of November.

The choice has never been wider, or more confusing. So this guide is organised by the kind of skier you are, not by country. It covers the resorts that suit beginners, the ones that are genuinely easy with children, a short list of lesser-known mountains for those who have done the classics, and a few lower-lying favourites worth skiing sooner rather than later. It finishes with the practical bit: sorting your money so the only thing you need to think about on the mountain is the next turn.

Getting there: transfer times at a glance

Most Alpine gateway airports are under two hours' flight from the UK, so the transfer is what really shapes your first day. Times below are typical drives from the nearest practical airport; allow longer on busy Saturdays and in snow.

You can book resort transfers through Caxton's Travel Extras, so the car or coach is waiting when you land.

When the season opens, and what the snow might do

Most big Alpine resorts open between 20 November and mid-December 2026, led by Austria's Obertauern and France's Tignes and Val Thorens; Kitzbühel, using snow saved from last winter.

The US Climate Prediction Center gives a greater than 90% chance of a very strong El Niño this winter . Its pull on the Alps is weak and inconsistent. The huge event of 1982–83 brought a mild Alpine winter with a high snowline, while others have done little at all. OpenSnow's outlook leans towards above-normal snowfall across the core Alps from January, but with warmer temperatures that could bring rain to lower slopes, and a slightly drier picture for the eastern Pyrenees. The sensible response, as specialists keep saying, is to book on altitude rather than hope: above 2,000 metres, or with a glacier, for early December and Easter.

Dates depend on snow, so check the resort's own site before you book.

If you are heading out early, load your euros onto a Caxton Travel Card before you go. You will know exactly what you have to spend when the first lift pass goes on the counter.

Best for first-timers: high nursery slopes and patient instructors

For a first week on skis, choose altitude, a dedicated beginner zone and an English-speaking ski school over a famous name. Soldeu, Obergurgl, Livigno and Cervinia all deliver that, and none of them asks you to ride a bus to your lesson.

Soldeu, Andorra. The Espiolets zone at the top of the gondola is built for beginners and kept apart from faster traffic. The ski school has long employed British instructors, which takes the language barrier out of the most nervous morning of the trip. Andorra uses the euro, and food and hire tend to cost less than in France or Switzerland. This winter's outlook is slightly drier for the eastern Pyrenees, with March the strongest month, so a later trip is the safer bet.

Obergurgl, Austria. The village sits at 1,930 metres, high enough for reliable snow from late November to late April. It is compact and car-free. By midweek, most learners can manage the long, gentle blue from Hohe Mut back to the village, a run with a view that rewards every fall it took to get there.

Livigno, Italy. A wide valley at 1,816 metres, a sunny nursery area at Costaccia and a lively town make it easy to love. Its duty-free status also brings prices down on the high street.

Cervinia, Italy. Under the Matterhorn, the Plan Maison plateau gives learners room to turn, and the runs back to the village are broad and kind. The lift system links to Zermatt, so a confident improver can, by the end of the week, ski into Switzerland for lunch. Take a few Swiss francs on your card for that one.

Lessons and hire are where a beginner's budget goes. Paying for them on a prepaid card in local currency keeps the bill clear, and keeps the holiday spend away from your everyday account.

Best for après-ski: where the party is

If the evenings matter as much as the skiing, Val Thorens and Saalbach-Hinterglemm are the two to book.

Val Thorens, France. Europe's highest ski resort, at about 2,300 metres, so the party has snow under it from opening day on 21 November. La Folie Douce, the slope-side terrace where dancing on the tables is part of the afternoon, sets the tone, and the town is a long-standing favourite for university trips and groups of friends. Chambéry is about an hour and a half away and Geneva about two and a half.

Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. One of Austria's liveliest après scenes, across two villages in the 270 km Skicircus, with plenty of long blue runs for groups of mixed ability. Salzburg is about an hour and a half away, and the lifts open on 27 November.

In both, think about where you sleep: a room above the busiest bars means a short walk home and not much rest.

Best for families: short transfers and car-free villages

The best family resorts remove the logistics: short transfers, ski school a short walk away, and streets without traffic. Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, Les Gets, Avoriaz and Wengen do this better than most.

Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, Austria. Three villages on a sunny Tyrolean plateau, linked to the lifts by an underground railway. The Murmli children's area is being redesigned and modernised for this season. The lifts run from 4 December 2026 to 11 April 2027.

Les Gets, France. Around an hour and a quarter from Geneva, with the nursery slope in the middle of the village. No bus, no long walk in boots with a four-year-old. It sits in the Portes du Soleil, so older children and parents have plenty to explore.

Avoriaz, France. Car-free and ski-in, ski-out: you step out of the door onto snow. Its Village des Enfants runs age-specific programmes from three years old.

Wengen, Switzerland. Reached only by cog railway, it is quiet, traditional and safe for children to wander. The train up to Kleine Scheidegg, under the Eiger, tends to be the thing children remember most.

Families have more cards to manage, and more chances to lose one. The Caxton Travel Card lets you add up to four additional cards for others in your party, and you can freeze any card in the app if it goes missing in the snow. For 6 to 16-year-olds, Caxton's sister card nimbl gives teenagers their own pocket money, with parents watching from their phone.

For experienced skiers: four lesser-known mountains worth the detour

If you have done Val d'Isère and St Anton, the next step is not a bigger resort but a wilder one. La Grave, Engelberg, Alagna and Jasná trade groomed kilometres for vertical, character and quiet. Each rewards a strong skier, and in the off-piste each one demands a qualified guide.

La Grave, France. Barely a resort at all. A single cable car climbs from about 1,450 to 3,200 metres above the village, and the only prepared run is on the Girose glacier at the top; the rest is high-mountain off-piste, including the classic Vallons de la Meije. This season runs from 20 December 2026 to 3 May 2027, conditions permitting. Book a guide from the village bureau and treat it as mountaineering on skis.

Engelberg, Switzerland. Little more than an hour from Zurich, it is home to the Laub, a broad, steep, north-facing off-piste face of around 1,000 metres that many regard as one of the finest single runs in the Alps. Titlis above it adds glacier terrain and descents of nearly 2,000 vertical metres. Load Swiss francs before you go: Switzerland is not cheap, and knowing your balance helps.

Alagna Valsesia, Italy. A Walser village at the end of a Piedmont valley, linked into the Monterosa ski area. It is regarded as one of the places modern freeride skiing grew up, with big lines from lifts that reach about 3,275 metres. The village is tiny and the lunches are long.

Jasná, Slovakia. The wildcard within Europe. Slovakia's biggest resort sits on both flanks of Chopok in the Low Tatras, with 51 km of pistes and 12 freeride zones. The season is scheduled from 28 November 2026 to 2 May 2027. It uses the euro, and it feels like the Alps before the crowds found them.

Guides, avalanche kit hire and heli-drops often need paying for on the spot. A card in the local currency, with real-time spend alerts in the app, means you will never be guessing at the exchange rate in a guides' office at 7am.

Ski them while you can: lower-lying classics with a lot of life left

Some of Europe's most charming resorts sit low, and a warming climate makes their seasons less predictable. That is a reason to go soon, and to go well, not to stay away. The places below are adapting hard, with snowmaking, stored snow and year-round programmes, and in a good January they are as lovely as anywhere in the Alps.

The pressure is real. This winter, two small areas will not run their lifts at all: Lac Blanc in the Vosges, which sits between 900 and 1,200 metres, and Braunwald in Switzerland's canton of Glarus. Both are turning to summer business instead. Bigger resorts are investing to stay ahead, and some are doing it very well.

Kitzbühel, Austria. The town sits at around 800 metres, and the lifts top out at 2,000. Yet it starts its season today, 6 November, on a small area covered with snow stored over the summer. Ski beneath the Hahnenkamm, home of racing's most famous downhill, then take your pick of the medieval town's cafés.

La Clusaz, France. A real Savoyard village in the Aravis, an hour from Geneva, with a season scheduled from 28 November 2026 to 25 April 2027. Long overlooked for its altitude, it has quiet slopes, generous off-piste and the best reblochon you will eat.

Megève, France. Low, elegant and wooded, with some of the finest mountain restaurants in France. Its tree-lined runs ski well in flat light, when higher, bare resorts lose their definition.

The smart way to ski these places: go in mid-season, from early January to mid-February, book flexible or late, and check the snow report the week before. Many lower resorts now have strong non-ski offers, from spas to snowshoeing, so a thin week is still a good one. Whatever the conditions, your Caxton Travel Card works the same in the valley as at the summit.

The wildcard: Taos, New Mexico

If you are going long-haul this winter, the unexpected pick is not Japan or Canada but Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico, a region where this El Niño looks set to work in skiers' favour. OpenSnow's seasonal outlook favours above-normal snowfall for New Mexico, Taos included, while it leans below normal for Japan and much of western Canada.

Taos is a mountain with a reputation among people who know. Its steeps, hike-to ridges and chutes in the Sangre de Cristo range rival anything in Colorado, on 1,294 skiable acres. Yet it keeps an old-fashioned, almost European soul: it still runs its traditional Ski Weeks, a week-long programme the resort says is the only one of its kind in North America. The season opens on 26 November 2026.

Off the hill, the town of Taos is all adobe, chilli and high-desert light, with the thousand-year-old Taos Pueblo on its edge. The forecast signal is strongest for November–December and March–April, so think pre-Christmas powder or a spring trip with sunshine.

Getting there takes more effort than the Alps. There are no direct flights from the UK, so connect through a US hub to Albuquerque, about two and a half to three hours' drive away, or to the smaller Santa Fe airport, about two hours away. Shuttles run from both, but most visitors hire a car.

The money side is simple. Load US dollars onto your Caxton card before you fly, and leave room for tipping, which is expected in American bars, restaurants and ski schools. At the petrol pump, pay inside at the counter: pay-at-pump terminals can place a temporary hold on prepaid cards.

Money on the mountain: six things to sort before you fly

Ski holidays are expensive in small, constant ways: lift passes, hire, lessons, lunch at altitude, a round at the bar. Getting the money side right before you leave stops those costs adding up in ways you did not plan for.

1. Know your currency. The euro covers France, Austria, Italy, Andorra and Slovakia. Switzerland uses francs, Norway kroner and the US dollars. The Caxton Travel Card holds 15 currencies, including EUR, CHF, NOK and USD, so you can load before you go and know your balance when you land.
2. Always pay in local currency. When a card terminal offers to charge you in pounds, say no. Choosing pounds lets the merchant set the exchange rate, and it is rarely in your favour.
3. Keep holiday money separate. A prepaid card is not linked to your bank account, so if it slips out of a pocket on a chairlift, your main account is untouched. Freeze it instantly in the app and call Caxton's UK-based team, wherever you are.
4. Use your phone. Add the card to Apple Pay or Google Wallet, and you can tap to pay with gloves half off. Turn on spend alerts to see every lift pass and vin chaud as it happens.
5. Carry a little cash. Some mountain huts, ski lockers and tips still run on notes. Caxton charges no overseas ATM fees on the card, though some machine operators add their own.
6. Check your insurance covers skiing. Winter sports cover is usually an add-on, and off-piste skiing is often excluded unless you are with a guide. A UK GHIC covers state healthcare in EU countries, not mountain rescue or repatriation. Caxton's insurance partner Staysure offers single-trip and annual multi-trip policies; read the cover against your plans.

You can also book resort transfers through Caxton's Travel Extras, so the coach or car is waiting when you land in Geneva, Turin or Salzburg.

Ski season 2026/27: quick answers

When does the 2026/27 ski season start in Europe? High glaciers in Austria and Switzerland have been open since the autumn. Kitzbühel starts on 6 November on stored snow. The main resorts follow from 20 November (Obertauern) and 21 November (Tignes and Val Thorens), with most of the Alps open by mid-December.

Will El Niño mean more snow in the Alps this winter? Not reliably. This El Niño is one of the strongest on record, but its link to Alpine snow is weak. Book high, above 2,000 metres or with a glacier, if your dates are early or late in the season.

Which European ski resort is best for beginners? Soldeu in Andorra, Obergurgl in Austria, and Livigno and Cervinia in Italy all combine high nursery slopes with English-speaking ski schools.

Which ski resort is best for families? Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis in Austria, Les Gets and Avoriaz in France, and Wengen in Switzerland are standouts, thanks to short transfers, car-free streets and strong children's ski schools.

What are the best lesser-known resorts for advanced skiers? La Grave in France, Engelberg in Switzerland, Alagna in Italy and Jasná in Slovakia. Hire a qualified guide for any off-piste.

What is the best way to pay on a ski holiday? Use a prepaid travel card loaded in the local currency, always pay in that currency rather than pounds, and keep a little cash for mountain huts and tips.

What summer told us, and what winter might bring

Before anyone clicks into a binding, a quick look back: this summer, Caxton cardholders made more than a million purchases and cash withdrawals abroad between May and August. Our How Britain Travelled report turned that into a few things we now know about you.

• You love a long lunch. One in every three pounds spent abroad went on restaurants and bars. We expect that ratio to survive the move to the mountains, with vin chaud standing in for Aperol.
• Orlando beat Paris. Britain's number one city this summer was not Rome or New York but Orlando, and there were 3,117 transactions at Disneyland Paris alone. Maybe a trip to europe this ski season is the next motive.
• The Grand Tourers are leading the way. Travellers aged 65 and over made up around 40% of all spending abroad, and spent about 20% more per transaction than average. Retirement, it turns out, is a full-time holiday job.
• Nobody plans that far ahead. More than half of travellers loaded their card and were spending abroad the same day or the next. Fresh snow forecast for Saturday? We get it.
• Some of you went a very long way. New Caledonia went from no transactions to 116, some 10,000 miles from home. And one cardholder spent more than £10,000 in one go at a horse sale in Ireland. We still have questions.

So what will this winter hold? Euros made up two-thirds of everything loaded this summer, and we would bet on the Alps keeping that crown. Beyond that we are watching for surprises. Will Taos turn up in the data for the first time? Will Jasná do what Romania and Georgia did this summer, when spending there rose by 39% and 32%? Will someone, somewhere, buy a pair of skis in a country with no snow?

We cannot wait to find out. Wherever this winter takes you, and whatever you come home with, we will be glad to be along for the ride.

Before the first lift

Wherever you end up this winter, on a nursery slope in Soldeu or at the top of the Laub, the mountain should be the only thing that takes your breath away. A free Caxton Travel Card keeps your holiday money in the right currency and away from your bank account, with no fees on spending abroad and a UK team at the end of the phone if anything goes wrong. Trusted by a million travellers for over 25 years. Order yours today, load it before you go, and save the thinking for the next turn.