THE SKIING GUIDE · THE WORLD ON SNOW
The mountain is always worth the early start.
Reviews of ski and snowboard tours, lessons and guided days across the world’s great snow. The Matterhorn over Zermatt, cross-country trails under the Arctic lights, Rila powder in Bansko and the Tatras out of Krakow. We read the listings so you book the right day on the snow.
Worth the airfare
Three ski days you can only have in one place.
There is a beginner slope in every snow country now. But cross-country under the Arctic aurora, a run with the Matterhorn filling the sky, and a day deep in the Lapland taiga happen on these mountains and nowhere else.
Arctic Norway
Cross-Country Under the Northern Lights
Three hundred kilometres above the Arctic Circle, Tromso skis to a different clock. In the blue half-light of a polar morning you kick and glide along groomed langrenn trails between the fjord and the fells, the snow squeaking, the sky bruised pink and green. A guide carries the warm drink; the aurora does the rest. There is nowhere else you cross-country ski under a sky like this.
- 1 Tromsø: Cross Country Guided Skiing Course
- 2 Breivikeidet: Cross-Country Skiing & Husky Visit
- 3 Cross-Country Ski Lesson for Beginners in Tromso
The Swiss Alps
Skiing Under the Matterhorn
Zermatt is car-free, snow-sure into late spring, and watched over the whole time by the most famous peak in the Alps. You ride up through the cloud, drop onto pistes that run for miles, and stop at a mountain hut where the Matterhorn fills the window. Beginner lessons to off-piste guiding, this is the alpine ski day at its grandest, on a mountain you will recognise the moment you see it.
- 1 VIP Ski or Snowboard Lesson – Full Day Zermatt
- 2 Private 3-Hour Ski Lesson in Zermatt, Switzerland
- 3 Full Day Private Ski Lesson in Zermatt
Finnish Lapland
Wilderness Skiing on the Arctic Circle
Out of Rovaniemi the trails leave the resort behind and head into the silent pine forest of the Arctic Circle, snow weighing down the branches into white tunnels. You ski for hours and meet no one, a guide breaking trail and reading the weather, reindeer tracks crossing the path. Slalom on the home hill or a full day deep in the taiga, this is skiing as the Finns have always done it.
- 1 Rovaniemi: Cross-Country Skiing Adventure with Guide
- 2 Backcountry skiing adventure
- 3 Cross-Country Skiing Trip
The day everyone books
If you only clip in once.
More travellers reach for this one than anything else on the site. A safe first booking on a mountain you are still getting to know.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Ski Tours
Zermatt, Tromso, Bansko, the Tatras, Lapland. The lessons and guided days travellers book first, on the mountains they most want under their skis.
Where to ski
Pick your mountains.
The Swiss Alps for the big-name peaks. Finnish Lapland for cross-country and the Arctic night. Norway for the fjells, Bulgaria for great-value powder, the Polish Tatras for lessons near Krakow, the Canadian Rockies for the deep stuff. Each range, with the days it does best.
Which kind of day
How to spend a day on the snow.
The kind of skiing matters as much as the resort. Three ways to spend a day in the mountains, depending on how confident you are and what you want from the snow.
Zermatt, Verbier & the Bernese Oberland
Switzerland is where skiing grew up.
The cog railways, the mountain huts, the runs that drop for thousands of feet: the Alps wrote the rules and the Swiss still keep them best. Pistes under the Matterhorn at Zermatt, the long descents above Verbier, Grindelwald beginner days in the shadow of the Eiger, and snow that holds late into spring. Lessons for first-timers to off-piste guiding, on the most storied mountains in the sport.
See the best ski tours in Switzerland →Rovaniemi, Levi & the far north
Lapland skis to the rhythm of the Arctic.
This is cross-country country, where skis are how you move through a frozen world. Out of Rovaniemi, Levi, Saariselka and Yllas the trails run for kilometres through silent snow-laden pine, the daylight short and gold, the chance of the aurora real. Beginner langrenn courses, guided wilderness tours, a few downhill fells too, and a warm drink by a fire at every turnaround.
See the best ski tours in Finland →The best part
Nobody forgets the first run of the day.
A great ski day is never only the mountain. It is the empty piste at first lift, the cold air and the squeak of fresh snow, the instructor who turns a nervous beginner into someone who cannot stop grinning, and the long lunch on a sun terrace with the peaks all around. You come down tired, wind-burnt and already planning next winter.
Browse every ski tour →Japan’s legendary powder
Japan gets the lightest snow on earth.
Storms roll off the Sea of Japan and dump dry, weightless powder on the runs of Hokkaido and the Japanese Alps, day after day. Tree skiing in Niseko-deep snow near Sapporo, the long groomers of Shiga Kogen above Nagano, Yuzawa a bullet train from Tokyo, and a steaming onsen waiting at the bottom. A guide who knows where it falls deepest turns a good trip into the one you never stop talking about.
- 1 Ski or Snowboard Lesson in Shiga Kogen (4Hours)
- 2 Full Day Private Skiing / Snowboarding Tour in Sapporo
- 3 Full Day Ski Lesson (6 hours) in Yuzawa, Japan
By time on the snow
How much of the day do you want on snow?
Some days you want a couple of hours on a floodlit slope and dinner in town. Some days you want a proper morning lesson to crack the basics. And some days you want to be out from first lift to last, deep in the backcountry. Pick the day, we will point you at the tour.
A couple of hours
Clip in after work.A floodlit city slope or an indoor snow dome: a quick lesson or a few laps for first-timers, gear sorted on arrival, dinner in town the same night.
Half a day
Learn it properly.A morning with an instructor on a quiet beginner piste: boots fitted, the snowplough cracked, and enough lift time to link your first real turns before lunch.
A full day out
Ski into the wilderness.Cross-country or backcountry across frozen forest and fell, a guide who reads the snow, a fire and a hot drink at the turnaround. The long Arctic days you plan a trip around.
Europe’s best-value snow
Bulgaria is where a ski week still adds up.
In the Rila and Pirin mountains, Borovets and Bansko deliver real alpine terrain at a fraction of the Alps price: modern gondolas, long tree-lined runs, and lessons and rental that cost a third of Verbier. Borovets is the old-school resort with the gentle nursery slopes; Bansko pairs its powder with a lively medieval old town. First-timer or returning to find your legs, this is the easiest place in Europe to learn.
See all 17 ski tours in Bulgaria →By resort
Pick a resort and clip in.
Zermatt for the Matterhorn and snow into spring. Tromso for cross-country under the lights. Rovaniemi for the Lapland wilderness. Borovets for great-value lessons. Bansko for Pirin powder and an old town. Oslo for floodlit slopes a tram from the city.
By country
Every country worth a winter.
From the Swiss Alps to Finnish Lapland, the Norwegian fjells to the Bulgarian Rila, the Polish Tatras to the powder of Japan. Browse by the country whose snow you want under your skis.
First lift to last
A perfect day on the snow.
First proper ski trip and want a full day on the mountain? Here is how it flows, from the empty morning corduroy to a last run in the golden afternoon light.
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