Mountains & Ski

Mountains & Ski

Altitude as luxury. Summer in the Dolomites — lifts between valleys, rifugi lunches, villages that still feel like villages — and winter skiing based from the right village rather than the biggest one. Patagonia's granite for the ambitious. Cool air, long views, serious hotels, and evenings that end by a fire.

A Few Mountain Misconceptions

“The biggest resort is the best base.”
The biggest resort is the best at being a resort. The right base is the village you'll enjoy at 6 p.m. — where dinner is, how the light falls, whether it still feels like a place when the lifts close.

“A ski trip is about the skiing.”
The skiing is the day's structure. The trip is the village, the lunches, the non-skiers' afternoons, the fire at the end of the day. Trips planned only around vertical feet disappoint everyone who isn't counting them.

“The Alps in summer are the off-season.”
Summer is the other season, not the lesser one: high pastures, rifugio lunches, lakes warm enough to swim in, and the same hotels at a gentler pace. Some of my favorite mountain trips never see snow.

“Altitude is a detail.”
In the Alps it's a factor in the weather. In the Andes it's the itinerary: arrive too high, too fast, and the first days are lost to headaches. Altitude gets planned, like everything else.

Start With the Mountain, Not the Resort

Before I name a single hotel, I ask:

• How do you actually ski — groomed runs, off-piste ambitions, or mostly the long lunch?
• Who else is coming, and what do the non-skiers do all day?
• Village charm or ski-in, ski-out convenience — you rarely get both at full strength
• Is this a winter trip, a summer hiking trip, or the mountain as one base in a wider journey?

The mountain decides the trip. The resort is just where you sleep near it.

Where I Plan Mountain Trips

Japan

Powder, Then a Ryokan Evening

Niseko and Hakuba get some of the most reliable powder on earth, and the skiing is only half the reason to go. The other half is what happens after: a soak in an onsen, dinner at a counter, a night in a ryokan where the hospitality is the luxury.

• Niseko for the deepest, most consistent powder and the easiest logistics
• Hakuba for a bigger valley feel and a more Japanese village rhythm
• Off-slope days that are worth taking: snow monkeys, sake breweries, a slow train
• Kyoto or Tokyo at one end, briefly — the contrast is part of the trip

Japan is the ski trip I'd suggest to someone who thinks they don't like ski trips.

The Dolomites

Rifugio to Rifugio

In summer, the Dolomites are my favorite walking country in Europe: lifts and well-marked paths between rifugi, each serving lunch as if it were the point — because at 2,000 meters, it is.

• Alta Badia for the gentlest version: great food, Ladin villages, walks for every level
• Cortina for the classic base, with the drama turned up
• Hut-to-hut days with bags moved for you, or single-base walking with a hotel to return to
• Winter skiing between the same villages, with the same kitchens

The Dolomites suit travelers who want their mountain days active and their evenings civilized.

Switzerland

The Engadin and Zermatt

Switzerland does mountains the way it does trains: precisely, expensively, and beautifully. The Engadin gives you St. Moritz's polish and the valley's light; Zermatt gives you the Matterhorn and a car-free village.

• The Engadin for skiers who also want lakes, space and summer walking
• Zermatt for the icon — ski beneath the Matterhorn, dine in a village with no cars
• Rail between bases, which in Switzerland is a pleasure rather than a transfer
• Summer in both: high trails, lake swims in the Engadin, and half the visitors

Book ski-season hotels here early. The good rooms in the good villages are a finite resource and everyone knows it.

Austria

The Arlberg

Lech and St. Anton are the Arlberg's two answers: Lech polished and unhurried, St. Anton for skiers who mean it. Between them, some of the best-managed mountain terrain in Europe, and evenings with more warmth than formality.

• Lech for families and mixed-ability groups — gentle terrain, serious hotels
• St. Anton for the skiing first, with the village to match
• Ski-in, ski-out as a genuine feature, not a brochure phrase
• A similar standard to the Swiss icons, generally a notch kinder on price

Austria is where I send people who loved Switzerland and want the sequel — and people who found Switzerland a touch too polished.

Peru

The Andes Are the Point

Peru's mountains aren't a ski story. They're about altitude, archaeology and walking country on a scale nothing in Europe matches — the Sacred Valley and the routes to Machu Picchu.

• Base in the Sacred Valley first: lower than Cusco, kinder for acclimatizing, and beautiful in its own right
• Machu Picchu reached by train for most, or on foot by the quieter trekking routes for those who want to earn it
• Lodge-to-lodge trekking for travelers who want real walking with a real bed
• Days sequenced around altitude, not against it — the plan respects the mountain

Peru pairs a mountain trip with a culture trip and a food trip, which is why it keeps ending up on lists like this one.

What I Plan Around

• One base per week, roughly — mountains punish hopping
• Guides for off-piste skiing and for Andean trekking; the mountain is better with someone who reads it
• The non-skiers' and rest days planned with the same care as the big days
• Altitude sequencing in Peru, and weather flexibility everywhere
• Hotels booked early for peak ski season — the good villages sell out on a schedule

Plan this trip with us