The best luxury ski trip in the US starts in Aspen Snowmass, which has the strongest combination of terrain, hotels, and town of any American resort.Deer Valley is the pick for service and grooming, Jackson Hole for serious terrain and scenery, Vail for sheer scale, Telluride for the setting, and Utah's Cottonwood Canyons for the most reliable snow in the country. Europe wins on value once you land, with lift tickets running about a third of US prices. Japan's Niseko is the pick for powder. Every guide below comes from paid stays and full seasons on these mountains. No comps, no sponsorships, no paid placements.

Colorado‍ ‍

If you are still choosing a town, the Colorado hub breaks down the whole state. If you already know you are headed to the Aspen side, go straight to where to stay in Aspen or our local's guide to the best hotels in Snowmass Village. The short version: The Little Nell if skiing is the whole point, the Viceroy if you are bringing the family to Snowmass.

Telluride is the most dramatic setting in American skiing, and the best hotels in Telluride covers where to sleep in it, from Mountain Village slopeside to the historic town below. The Telluride travel guide handles the rest of the trip, and if you are torn between the two marquee names, our Telluride vs. Aspen comparison is the honest version from someone who lives in one of them.

Crested Butte is the version of Colorado that has not been smoothed over yet, with serious terrain and a fraction of the crowds. Start with the best hotels in Crested Butte, then the Crested Butte travel guide. And our Kindred Resort review covers Keystone's first luxury hotel, which is promising and not quite there yet.Planning the trip itself? The Aspen winter travel guide covers all four mountains, where to eat on the hill, and where locals actually après. One of the most popular options, and closest to Denver, is Breckenridge. Check out our best hotels in Breckenridge before you book.

Utah

Utah's advantage is geography. Fifteen resorts sit within about an hour of the Salt Lake City airport, which means you can land at ten and ski by noon, and you can change mountains daily without changing hotels. No other ski state in America works this way, and for a short trip it usually beats Colorado on logistics alone.

Park City is where the hotels are. Our guide to the best hotels in Park City covers Stein Eriksen, Montage, the St. Regis, and the newer East Village properties, and our Deer Valley vs. Park City Mountain comparison settles the question most travelers are actually asking. Deer Valley is skiers only and has roughly doubled in size over two seasons, which changes the math for anyone who wrote it off as a small mountain. If your trip includes a city night at either end, the Salt Lake City hotel guide covers where to stay and when the drive up the hill is worth it. The Utah hub holds the rest of our coverage, including red rock country.

Jackson Hole, Big Sky, & Sun Valley

Jackson Hole is the American mountain that most rewards good skiers, with a 4,139-foot vertical drop, terrain that does not flatter anyone, and the Tetons standing over all of it. The trip planning question is almost always the same one: Teton Village at the base, or the town of Jackson twenty minutes away. Our guide to the best hotels and resorts in Jackson Hole works through both sides of that decision, from the Four Seasons and Caldera House in the village to the boutique stays around Town Square, and it doubles as the lodging guide for a Grand Teton or Yellowstone summer trip.

Big Sky is the other Mountain West argument, and it is mostly about space. Nearly 6,000 acres and famously short lift lines, plus a luxury hotel scene that arrived recently and arrived fast with Montage and One&Only. Our guide to the best hotels and resorts in Big Sky covers where to stay across Mountain Village, Moonlight Basin, and the Meadow, and it pairs naturally with Jackson Hole for anyone building a two-stop Montana and Wyoming winter trip.

Sun Valley is the most underrated ski destination in America. It was the first purpose-built destination resort in the country, home to the world's first chairlift, and it has one of the best skier's mountains anywhere with almost nobody on it. Bald Mountain has 3,400 feet of consistent uninterrupted pitch and lift lines are essentially not a thing. The catch is that the famous hotel sits next to the beginner hill rather than the main mountain, which our guide to the best hotels in Sun Valley explains before anything else.

Canada

Canada has some of the most reliable snow in North America. While some of the best skiing is only accessible via helicopter or snowcat, there are also some incredible resorts that pair convenience with some of the world’s best skiing. Whistler is our top choice for skiing in Canada. Read our full list of best Whistler ski hotels here.

France

France has the biggest linked ski areas in the world and the best value at the top of the Alps. Les 3 Vallées, linking Courchevel, Méribel and Val Thorens, is the largest connected ski area on earth, and the palace hotels in Courchevel 1850 cost meaningfully less than their equivalents in Zermatt or St. Moritz. France is also unusually good for genuine ski-in ski-out, because the big resorts were built with the lifts and the lodging planned together, which is the opposite of Switzerland. Our guide to the best ski hotels in France ranks eleven properties from Cheval Blanc Courchevel to Le Coucou in Méribel, and covers which resort each one suits.

Switzerland

Switzerland has the best-looking skiing in the world and charges for it. Car-free villages, cog railways, hotels run by the same families since the 1890s, and mountains that are bigger and steeper than the Alps elsewhere. Expect to pay 30 to 50 percent above France or Austria on everything, including lunch on the hill. One thing worth knowing before you book: true ski-in ski-out is rarer here than the marketing suggests, because most Swiss resort villages sit in valleys below the skiing, so the grand hotel in the middle of town is a walk and a cable car from the snow. Our guide to the best ski hotels in Switzerland ranks ten properties from The Chedi Andermatt to Badrutt's Palace and flags which are genuinely on snow. And read the 5 best hotels in Zermatt and 5 best hotels in Gstaad.

Italy

Italy is the best value skiing in the Alps and has the best food on any mountain in the world, and after the Milano Cortina Olympics in February it also has the newest lifts. Cortina benefited most, since ageing infrastructure had been the standing criticism of the resort for two decades, and Bormio and Livigno both came out of the Games with upgrades too. Expect to pay 30 to 40 percent less than Switzerland for comparable skiing. Alta Badia has the highest concentration of good mountain restaurants anywhere, several of them Michelin-recognised, and Courmayeur has the best dining of any resort in the Alps on or off the hill. Our picks for the Dolomites are in the best hotels in the Dolomites guide, and the rest of the country, including Courmayeur, Cervinia, Madonna di Campiglio and Livigno, is in the best ski hotels in Italy.

Austria

Maybe the best value in the world of skiing, Austria has great snow, charming villages, and beautiful hotels. Read our favorite ski hotels in Austria before you book.

Skiing Japan

Japan is the powder trip. Cold air coming off Siberia dumps light, dry snow on Hokkaido all winter, and Niseko gets the most of it, close to 18 metres a season. Four resorts share one mountain and one lift pass, so you can ski Hirafu, Hanazono, Niseko Village and Annupuri without changing hotels. Fly into Sapporo's New Chitose Airport, then it's about two hours by road. January and February bring the deepest snow, and that's also when the best rooms disappear. Our guide to the best hotels in Niseko covers where to stay.

The hotels worth the rate

A great ski hotel is the difference between a good trip and one you repeat every year. Our guide to the best luxury ski hotels in the US ranks the properties that earn their winter rates, from Aspen to Deer Valley to Big Sky. The best ski hotels in Europe can be found here as well, giving you plenty of options to enjoy the Alps.

Fair warning: true ski-in ski-out is much rarer than hotel marketing suggests. Hotels a shuttle ride from the lift use the phrase. Hotels across a highway from the gondola use it. Our roundup of the best ski-in ski-out hotels in Colorado applies a strict definition, which is that you can click in at the building and ski back to it.

Skiing with kids

Ski trips with young children are a different sport, and the mountain matters less than the base village. In Colorado that means Snowmass and Buttermilk, and our guides to Aspen with kids, winter activities for kids in Aspen, and Snowmass Village with kids are the ones we send to visiting friends. Beaver Creek and Deer Valley are the two strongest ski school operations outside the valley, and both are covered in the town guides above.