A week on the slopes can cost under €300 or well over €2,000, depending entirely on which mountain you point your skis at. A new price index from holiday rental search engine Holidu compared 265 European ski resorts - each with at least 20 kilometres of slopes - by combining median nightly accommodation costs with one-day lift pass prices, averaged across high season (21-27 December 2026) and low season (22-28 March 2027).
The result: France utterly dominates the budget end, taking nine of the ten cheapest spots. Top of the pile is Roubion les Buisses in the Alpes-Maritimes hinterland, about an hour from Nice, at just €40.50 per day. It has 30 kilometres of varied slopes - mostly reds, plus beginner-friendly greens and blues and two blacks - with lift passes at €20 and beds from €15-26 per person per night.
Second place goes to Réallon in the Hautes-Alpes, above Lake Serre-Ponçon, at €42.95 a day. It's the quiet, low-key option of the top three, with 30 kilometres of pistes and the cheapest accommodation of the bunch - as little as €13 per night in low season, with lift passes between €24 and €29.90. Third is Gresse en Vercors, 45 minutes from Grenoble at the foot of the Grand Veymont, costing €49 a day. Families and cross-country skiers love it: around 50 kilometres of Nordic trails supplement its 20 downhill kilometres, and lift passes run €23-27. Other French bargains in the top ten include Le Mourtis (€51.50), Lans en Vercors (€54.98), Le Collet d'Allevard (€55), Chabanon (€55.20), Aillons-Margériaz (€55.40) and Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes (€57.50), with Spain's Sierra de Béjar (€53) the sole non-French entry.
At the other end, the gap is startling - Zermatt tops the luxury table at €303.86 per day, more than seven times Roubion's cost. Lift passes there hit €111.28 in high season and accommodation averages €244 per person per night, though low season brings that down to €154 plus a €98.44 pass. Cortina d'Ampezzo follows at €290.50 - expect prices to be pushed up further by the halo of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which the resort hosted just months before. It offers 120 kilometres of Dolomites skiing, and low-season accommodation drops to €113, roughly a third of peak rates. Gitschberg Jochtal in South Tyrol rounds out the top three at €271.50, a family-friendly spot with panoramic platforms overlooking some 500 peaks. Austria and Italy fill the rest of the expensive list, including St. Moritz, Ski Arlberg and Val Gardena.
Why it matters: the same snow budget can stretch dramatically further depending on your pick. If you're flexible, small French resorts in the Southern Alps, the Vercors or the Hautes-Alpes deliver genuine skiing for under €60 a day, all in. And if you have your heart set on a marquee name like Zermatt or Cortina, shifting your trip to March low season can cut accommodation costs by a third or more. Small resorts mean shorter lift queues, quieter pistes and lower aprés prices too - a genuine trade-up for beginners, families and anyone who'd rather spend on good food than on prestige.
