Inghams Ski Survey Reveals Best Ski Resorts

21st October 2026

Truly nothing beats a good ski holiday – the crisp mountain air, the crunch of the fresh snow underneath your boots and, who could forget, an après-ski tipple to round off your day.

But as memorable as an excellent ski holiday is, a disappointing one can be harder to forget.

So to help guide skiers and help them avoid any 2026/27 ski season disappointment, Inghams Ski has crunched the historical data behind some of the world’s most popular ski resorts to reveal the most reliable resorts and regions in its new research.

The formula for a reliable ski resort or region, according to Inghams Ski

Most “best ski resorts” lists lean on a single measure: how much snow falls.

But Inghams Ski wanted to develop something more useful and developed a scoring system that ranks resorts on both snowsure and functionality factors.

To achieve this, the ski experts analysed data for seven winter ski seasons across 133 popular Northern Hemisphere ski resorts and regions for the following factors:

• Mountain running (35%) – average % of lifts and slopes operating in the core season

• Snow adequacy (25%) – % of core-season days with 30cm or more at the base station

• Consistency (20%) – how steady ‘mountain running’ is from one season to the next, rewarding resorts that perform consistently well year after year rather than swinging between great and poor seasons

• Downside protection (12%) – gap between the average season and the worst one

• Snow depth (8%) – average snow depth on the mountain

The researchers then created an average score out of 100 to determine an overall “Reliable Ski Score” for each destination, with Pontedilegno-Tonale in Italy achieving the highest overall score of 93.1 out of a possible 100, making it Europe’s most reliable ski destination.

Europe’s top 20 most reliable ski resorts and regions

It’s all about the Alps…

The research revealed that Pontedilegno-Tonale, Italy, is Europe’s most reliable ski resort or area with a score of 93.1/100.

Nestled between the soaring peaks of the Adamello-Presanella range in northern Italy, this Italian gem offers some of the most varied ski experiences in the Alps.

The resort’s top score reflects its consistent performance across Inghams Ski’s reliability factors, so skiers can expect practically hiccup-free exploring alongside snowsure slopes.

Skiing in Italy. Image © PlanetSKI

In second place is Obertauern, Austria (92.9/100).

Great snow condiions in Obertauern. Image © PlanetSKI

Often described as Austria’s snowiest ski destination, this resort’s score in the study also reflects its running consistency year after year.

This is perhaps thanks to the fact that Obertauern is almost entirely set up with true ski-in, ski-out hotels.

It means skiers can step straight from their accommodation onto the pistes without any added transport.

PlanetSKI’s Jane Peel visited Obertauern in 2024:

• Obertauern revisited 

PlanetSKI’s Jane Peel in Obertauern, Austria. Image © PlanetSKI

Following in third is Les Arcs, France (92.2/100).

This massive resort spans around 200km of local slopes but also gives skiers easy access to the vast Paradiski area, which has around 425km of pistes when linked to neighbouring La Plagne.

LesArcs, France. Image © PlanetSKI

Skiers, however, don’t have to worry about the reliability of getting around the expansive resort.

The research found that it scored 89.5/100 for its “mountain running” – Inghams Ski’s measure of how reliably its lifts and slopes stay open day to day.

In fourth place is ski area Les 3 Vallées, France, with an overall score of 91.1/100, followed by Alpe d’Huez, France, in fifth (90.5/100).

France and Austria are home to 80% of Europe’s most reliable ski resorts and regions

Interestingly, France dominates Inghams Ski’s list, accounting for 50% of the top 20 most reliable European ski resorts and regions. This includes:

• Les Arcs

• Les 3 Vallées

• Alpe d’Huez

• Tignes-Val d’Isère

• Espace San Bernardo (La Rosière/La Thuile)

• Val Cenis

• Les 2 Alpes

• La Forêt Blanche (Vars/Risoul)

• La Plagne

• Auron

Austria appears second most, with six featured resorts and regions, namely:

• Obertauern

• Kitzsteinhorn

• Filzmoos

• Damüls Mellau

• Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn

• Ski Arlberg

Together, France and Austria alone account for 80% of the list, suggesting any skiers looking for a dependable ski holiday this season may want to start their search there.

Notably, with the exception of Spain’s Baqueira-Beret, every resort and area in the European top 20 sits within the Alps.

 “Betting on your chosen ski destination giving you reliable conditions is a common travel concern amongst skiers, with many relying on anecdotal reviews from ski providers or other holidaymakers,” said the head of destinations at Inghams Ski, Laura Mason.

“However, our new research takes the guessing out of the ski holiday equation, helping skiers make informed decisions with historical data on the actual reliability of some of Europe’s most popular ski resorts and regions.

“At Inghams Ski, we’re proud to have over 90 years of travel knowledge to ensure those booking their ski holidays with us have the very best experiences.

“Our experts hand-pick our ski destinations across Europe and Canada with reliability and quality in mind; just in case the conditions don’t deliver, every package holiday is backed by our Snow Guarantee.

“This ensures that if less than 25% of a resort’s planned ski runs are open due to a lack of snow, we’ll get you to a nearby accessible resort with better conditions, completely free of charge.”

See here for the survey: Inghams Ski Survey.

Related PlanetSKI Posts:

• Inghams Ski expands programme for 2026/27
• The Inghams ski holiday experience
• Inghams Ski reveals best resorts for sunshine

Image c/o Inghams Ski

Methodology

Inghams Ski’s researchers started with a list of 150 popular ski resorts and regions in the Northern Hemisphere, narrowing this down to 133 with sufficient historical data to score reliably. 

They analysed this final set using the core season period of 5th January to 20th March across seven Northern Hemisphere winter seasons (2017/18-2025/26, excluding the COVID-affected 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons). 

What Inghams Ski scored: Each resort and region’s Reliable Ski Score combines five factors, calculated from its performance across seven seasons:

• Mountain running (35%) – average % of lifts and slopes operating in the core season

• Snow adequacy (25%) – % of core-season days with 30cm or more at the base station

• Consistency (20%) – how steady ‘mountain running’ is from one season to the next, rewarding resorts that perform consistently well year after year rather than swinging between great and poor seasons

• Downside protection (12%) – gap between the average season and the worst one

• Snow depth (8%) – average snow depth on the mountain

The data is recorded at ski-area level, which are referred to as ‘regions’ in the rankings, so where several villages share one lift network, they share identical figures and ranking every village would simply duplicate rows.

They scored ski regions, then mapped villages back to their parent region separately. Where two or more similarly-sized resort towns genuinely share one region (e.g., Tignes-Val d’Isère), names are shown together; where one name clearly dominates a shared region, Inghams Ski used that name alone.

Data was compiled independently by Inghams Ski via publicly available historical listings on skiresort.com and is correct as of September 2026. 

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