Want to go ski in Europe, but have no idea where should go? There are many absolutely great ski resorts in Europe, and sometimes we find ourselves thinking “where should we go ski this year?”. Even though there are plenty of good ski resorts in Europe, few of them are absolute pearls. This short article defines three awesome ski resorts in Europe.

Wengen, Switzerland

Few years ago I went to ride my mountain bike in Wengen, together with my cool friend Teemu Hellman. He was working in Wengen on that summer and I asked if we could ride some awesome trails in Wengen. Oh boy, it was fabulous! I really enjoyed that week, but I also noticed that Wengen must be a very good place to ski as well. After riding my bike for few days, I figured out that I must see this place in winter as well.

One of the best races of Alpine World Cup is skied in Wengen, which is one of the best known ski resorts in Switzerland. If you feel like you have seen enough places like St Moritz, Zermatt and Gstaad, go to Wengen. It is not a luxury ski resort, but it provides probably one of the most spectacular mountain views in Europe. Wengen is a town in which cars are not allowed. The town is located high and it provides awesome views towards the highest mountain peaks, such as Jungfrau and Eiger, of Switzerland. Wengen provides pistes from very easy to extremely challenging backcountries, but mostly Wengen is easy to ski. In the walking street of Wengen, which is located in 3440 meters, you can buy clothing, Swiss cheese and chocolate. In the evenings you can go curling, ice-skating or enjoy fondue in lovely restaurants.

Andorra

In the mountains of Pyrenes there is a little country called Andorra. Surrounded by Spain, Andorra is located in the mountainside, close to Barcelona. As the two biggest ski resorts of Andorra, Pas de la Casa and Soldeu, were merged the results was Grand Valira with 193 kilometers of pistes. More than 100 million euros were used to build ski industry in Andorra, and it can be seen in the high quality supply. If you are interested in mixing skiing and beach, Andorra is a great place to go. You can first spend five nights skiing in Andorra and then two nights enjoying the beach and ocean in Barcelona.

La Grave, France

In case you are fed up with the rush in big ski resorts and you would like to enjoy the backcountries day after day, you should really check La Grave in France. About ten years ago many of my freeskiing friends used to spend seasons in Chamonix, but soon they got sick and tired with the rush and traffic in Chamonix. It was not anymore fun to fight for powder skiing. If there was new snow in Chamonix, mornings turned to nightmare. If you wanted to ski the new powder close to slopes, you really had to be among the first ones in the ski lift.

Some of our friends discovered La Grave in France. Soon we heard stories like “there is no hurry in La Grave” or “in La Grave you can find powder day after the last blizzard“. Those stories were true. There was no hurry in La Grave because it was not as popular as Chamonix. If you are interested to ski the backcountries and you are looking for the top place to ski in Europe, go to La Grave. All the stars are there, why not you?