The Best Après-Ski Resorts in the World

Every resort claims to have après-ski. What most of them have is a bar. The difference between a bar and genuine après is whether the whole mountain empties into the same place at the same time — and that is a function of the resort's layout, its size and its culture, not its marketing.

These are the places where it reliably happens. If you are not sure what you are signing up for, start with what après-ski actually is and come back.

If you want the loud version

St. Anton am Arlberg, Austria

The benchmark, and not a close contest. The last run of the day passes directly through the Mooserwirt and the Krazy Kanguruh, two enormous slopeside bars roughly two-thirds of the way down. By four in the afternoon both are full of people in ski boots on the tables. There is then a second run down into the village afterwards, which is exactly as bad an idea as it sounds.

The skiing is also genuinely serious — steep, high and vast — so this is not a case of a party resort with a token mountain attached.

Ischgl, Austria

St. Anton's rival, with a harder edge and better nightlife. Ischgl is known for its end-of-season concerts, which have drawn genuinely enormous acts to a stage at 2,300 metres. The village is compact and almost entirely given over to the business of the evening.

Val Thorens, France

The highest resort in Europe, which means the season is long and the snow is reliable, and a purpose-built village where everything is within walking distance in ski boots. The Folie Douce above the village is the loudest single venue in the Alps — an outdoor stage with live singers and a brass section, at altitude, at four in the afternoon.

Mayrhofen, Austria

Cheaper and younger than St. Anton, with a valley-floor village that is easy to get around without a car. It is the one most often recommended to groups in their twenties on a budget.

If you want a good afternoon rather than a big night

Zermatt, Switzerland

Sun terraces with a view of the Matterhorn, which is not a thing you get tired of. Expensive, beautiful, and the après is a long slow drink in the afternoon light rather than anything involving a table. The village is car-free, which matters more than you would expect at six in the evening.

Courchevel and Méribel, France

Both sit in the Three Valleys and both have a Folie Douce, so the loud option exists if you want it. What sets them apart is the volume of decent bars in between — you can have a civilised hour and then a very good dinner, which is harder to arrange in Austria.

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

The Italian model: aperitivo rather than après. You buy a drink, food arrives with it, and the whole thing happens along the Corso rather than on snow. If the Austrian version sounds exhausting, this is the alternative.

Kitzbühel, Austria

A real medieval town rather than a purpose-built resort, which gives the evening somewhere to go. Après here starts slopeside and moves into streets that would be worth visiting without a mountain attached.

North America

The honest framing: North American après ends earlier, is less alcohol-centred and is far more family-friendly than the Alpine version. That is a feature for some people and a disappointment for others.

Whistler Blackcomb, British Columbia

The best on the continent, and the closest thing to a European village. The base area is a pedestrian plaza ringed by bars that fill the moment the lifts stop, and it stays busy well past the point where most North American resorts have gone quiet.

Aspen, Colorado

The Ajax base sits directly in a real town, so après and dinner are the same walk. It is expensive — it has been expensive for sixty years — but the density of good bars within three blocks is unmatched in the United States.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Teton Village has the Mangy Moose, which has been doing this since 1967 and is the only slopeside bar in America that feels like an Alpine one. The town of Jackson, twenty minutes away, is the other half of the evening.

Stowe, Vermont

The East Coast answer. Brewery-led rather than bar-led, which suits the Vermont version of a ski town, and a genuinely good main street for afterwards. Cold enough in January that most of it happens indoors.

How to read a resort before you book

You can predict the quality of a resort's après from three things, none of which appear in a brochure:

1. Does the mountain funnel into one base, or several? One base concentrates everybody; four bases divide them into four quiet groups.
2. Is the village walkable from the last lift, or is there a car or bus in between? A shuttle ride kills the afternoon shift entirely.
3. Do people stay in the resort or drive in for the day? Day-trip resorts empty out at four because everyone has a two-hour drive ahead.

It is also the clearest example of how a resort's physical layout drives its atmosphere — the sort of thing that becomes obvious the first time you lay out a mountain yourself and discover that where you put the bottom station decides where the crowd ends up.

What it costs

Slopeside drinks in the Alps run well above village prices, and Switzerland runs well above France and Austria. If you are managing a budget, the standard approach is one round on the hill and the rest in town — the same logic that runs through skiing on a budget.

Where you stay matters too. A ski-in ski-out hotel puts you thirty seconds from the bar, which is either the best or the worst thing about it depending on the week you are having.