Finding Your Perfect Ski Holiday

There’s a particular kind of excitement that comes with finally deciding: this is the winter you’re going skiing.

The good news is that planning a ski holiday has never offered more choice, or more genuine flexibility. Whether you fancy a fully catered chalet with someone else doing the cooking, a self-catered apartment where you set your own pace, or a resort so quiet you’ll wonder why nobody else has found it yet, there’s a version of this holiday built for you.

We’ve put this guide together to walk you through the decisions that actually matter: how to pick the right resort for the kind of skiing you want to do, how to choose accommodation that suits your group and your budget, and how to put a package together piece by piece, so that every part of it, flights, transfers, lift pass and all, is properly protected. We’ve also gone hunting for some of our favourite hidden gem resorts in Austria and France: the kind of places that get overlooked by the big names but reward you with quieter slopes and a warmer welcome.

Before you book anything, it’s worth knowing your rights. Under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations, a package holiday sold by a UK operator comes with a legal right to a refund or suitable alternative if things go wrong, and ATOL protection covers you if your package includes a flight. It’s always worth checking your operator is ATOL-protected (you can search the register on the CAA’s ATOL site) and looking for the ABTA logo too; ABTA membership brings its own financial protection and a code of conduct operators have to stick to. Both schemes exist for exactly this reason: so your money, and your holiday, are safe.

Ready to get into it? Here’s where to start:

• Choosing the Perfect Ski Resort – snow reliability, altitude and how to narrow down where to go
• Finding Your Ideal Ski Accommodation – chalet, hotel or apartment, and how to choose
• How to Design Your Perfect Package Ski Holiday – building your own package, step by step
• The Best Hidden Gem Resorts in Austria – quieter Austrian resorts worth your time
• The Best Hidden Gem Resorts in France – lesser-known French resorts with big-name skiing

And if you’re still deciding between destinations altogether, our Best Ski Resorts in Europe and Best Snow-Sure Ski Resorts guides are a good place to widen the search.