Nothing beats a good meal after a day tearing it up on the slopes. There's no better feeling than warming your cockles with a steaming dish of tartiflette, letting forkfuls of potato, bacon and reblochon cheese fill your empty stomach, and soothe your weary muscles. Or, how about a bowl of egg-topped tiroler grostl, providing the energy you need for your final few runs? As ski resorts become equally well-known for the meals you eat at the end of the day as they do their fresh powder, a ski holiday no longer needs to mean a dry pasta and a sad beer at the end of the day.
So, whether you're looking for a casual burger in Aspen or a Michelin-starred experience in Alta Badia, our best ski resorts for foodies roundup will ensure that you don't go hungry.
Best ski resorts for foodies
Erciyes
Turkey
If you’re over the cheese and meat monoculture of the Alps, then a trip to Turkey to shred the slopes might just be your answer. Fragrant lamb adana kebabs, cistrussy tomato salads, kofte, robust Turkish coffee and multiple baklavas are the designated fuel on the slopes of Erciyes, so get ready to unbutton the popper on those salopettes and pile the ezme onto every forkful.
Erciyes has 19 modern ski lifts, a mix of gondolas and charlifts, as well as 70 miles of well-groomed trails that mainly cater to the intermediate skier. As if it couldn’t get any tastier, ski passes here are also around just 2.5% of the price of your average resort in the Alps. Piste perfect.
Alta Badia
Italy
While many flock to the Dolomites for Dolomiti Superski and the Sella Ronda, a trip to Alta Badia is as much about Michelin stars as the couloirs, with esteemed restaurants serving a concoction of refined Italian food, hearty Ladin fare and plenty of Austrian kaiserschmarrn for good measure. As well as a glut of Michelin-starred restaurants, the area also hosts the annual Taste for Skiing initiative, which includes everything from reasonably priced dishes served in slopeside restaurants designed by celebrated chefs to skiing with a sommelier. What could possibly go wrong?
The nearby slopes are rich in cruisy, confidence-boosting runs, so there’s little reason not to sink a bottle of Italian red with a heap of venison ragu at Rifugio Col Alt before bowling down the mountain.
Sölden
Austria
Food and wie at Wein am Berg in Sölden
Fancy fine dining at 10,000 feet? How about refreshing yourself mid-ski with a glass of wine aged at a similar altitude? Or an entire weekend dedicated to mountainside wine tastings and expansive feasts catered by chefs from across the globe?
That’s the ticket in Sölden, where mid-ski breaks are taken up a few notches at James Bond-approved restaurants and culinary institutions and the Wein am Berg festival hosted by Das Centraal hotel gathers gourmands for a gluttonous weekend of good skiing and even better food and wine. Should you just fancy some standard fare, the good stuff is all there too: schnitzel, goulaschsuppe and käsespäetzle galore.
Aspen
USA
Over three days in summer, Aspen is home to one of the USA’s leading food festivals: the Food and Wine Classic, when over 70 chefs and drinks experts descend on the town for a gluttonous weekend of goodness. Never fear if you’re visiting in the winter though – there’s more than enough to keep you fed off the slopes. Whether you’re after sushi from the legendary Nobu Matsuhisa, prime steaks at Steak House No. 316, fine dining at Bosq, or infamous burgers at White House Tavern, Aspen will deliver. And with four mountains included in your ski pass, there’s more than enough to keep you satiated on the peaks, too.
Queenstown
New Zealand
With four ski fields on its doorstep serviced by regular shuttle buses, Queenstown is easily New Zealand’s snowsports hub. But it’s not just the oodles of corduroy that bring visitors here in droves – the town and its surrounding countryside is home to some of the country’s best restaurants and vineyards.
Just a 16-minute drive from the centre of town sits Amisfield Restaurant which was recently awarded three Cuisine hats – the NZ version of the Michelin star system – while back in Queenstown central you’ve got the two-hatted Sherwood, plus Jervois Steak House, Rātā and Botswana Butchery – and that’s before you’ve even gotten to the myriad bars and cafes. It’s safe to say hungry slope riders will be well catered for.
