For decades, North America has been celebrated for big skiing, especially out west in Utah, Colorado, and California, but has lacked the polish—save for Aspen—of European resorts. Not anymore: The touchdown of several five-star hotels and dining outlets fronted by pedigreed chefs has smashed that perception, positioning a handful of American spots in the same swanky league as Courchevel and even St. Moritz. Now if only the snow would cooperate… 

Aspen, Colorado

In 1989, when a five-star, ski-in, ski-out hotel called The Little Nell opened on the site of a ski-bum bar, Aspen left its counterculture hippie days in the dust and transitioned to an A-list playground. The arrival of Matsuhisa, Moncler, and Prada, along with Dior residencies and Veuve Clicquot-in-the-snow après events, has burnished that image.  

This year, the chi-chi ambiance will spike when White Elephant (from $1,995/night) opens on Main Street, applying its Nantucket charm to the Rocky Mountains. The modernist mountain lodge stands out in the historic town with a color palette of snow white, warm woods, and rust, and airiness conveyed by white oak millwork and textured stone mosaics. The 54 rooms will feature wall coverings by Phillip Jeffries, fabrics by Pierre Frey, Kelly Wearstler, and Schumacher, and statement-making furniture by Ngala. Like its sister hotels in Nantucket and Palm Beach, the property’s signature restaurant, Lola, will have a menu inspired by destinations along the 41st parallel, from Nantucket to Japan.

The five-star Hotel Jerome (from $1,795/night) just emerged from a renovation that amplifies its heritage as the town’s first hotel (c. 1889). Rooms are a fresh take on the Old West, ablaze in kilim-patterned settees, leather and cowhide accents, and wildlife art with green-gray trim, paying tribute to Aspen’s silver mining days. The Victorian grande dame’s new Garden Room has a conservatory feel, and now serves a posh caviar-and-champagne-filled “après tea.”

Another fancy pants arrival is Sant Ambroeus, which opened last year with truffle-dusted pizza, gnocchi ossobuco, and its signature cuteleta alla Milanese. In an adjoining Victorian cabin is Il Baretto, the restaurant’s cocktail bar, where après unfolds around a fire pit with a DJ. For lovers of lively Parisian bistros, chef Ludo Lefebvre opened his first Petit Trois restaurant outside Los Angeles in the Mollie Hotel, serving classics like Burgundy escargots, steak frites, and French onion soup.

Park City and Deer Valley, Utah

Park City clocks in as America’s largest ski area with 7,300 skiable acres and 330+ trails. Deer Valley Resort, also in the powder-rich Wasatch Mountain Range, has 4,300 skiable acres and 202 trails. But, until recently, hotels and the dining scene—especially après—were not reflective of the resort’s alpine majesty. That changed when Auberge entered the market.  In 2019, The Lodge at Blue Sky (from $1,349/night) opened on a 3,500-acre nature preserve just above Park City, with undulating, organic architecture that echoes the peaks and valleys. Beyond chic rooms laden with locally sourced goodies, a cliff-front spa, and a private ski lounge at the resort, the 46-room lodge amplifies its glamour quotient each year with its food. This season, there will be pop-up dinners with acclaimed Napa Valley winemakers Bo and Heidi Barrett and Manhattan’s two-Michelin-starred The Modern (inside the Modern Museum of Art), as well as a speakeasy-style yurt experience focusing on small-batch tequilas and mezcal.

In 2021, Auberge took over the old-school Goldener Hirsch (from $1,200/night) and expanded the 18-room Bavarian bolthole by adding 40 state-of-the-art residences with fully equipped chef’s kitchens (Wolf appliances included), Italian marble fireplaces, commissioned artwork, and a rooftop pool for all to use. This season, the hotel’s beloved Austrian-themed restaurant was updated while preserving the rustic hand-carved wooden details and woodland murals. Newly installed chef Jeff O’Neill draws on stints at Daniel and Le Bernardin with an inventive menu that honors legacy (fondue, wiener schnitzel, and apple strudel) and cool, contemporary flavors (dill-cured salmon with root-vegetable beignets, scallops with a toasted muesli galette). This year, the hotel introduced wood-framed alpenglobes for al fresco dining. In March, there will be a pop-up dinner with Michelin-starred Moody Tongue Brewing Company of Chicago, featuring a 13-course, sushi-oriented tasting menu with beer pairings.

Stein Eriksen (from $1,234/night) isn’t shiny and new, and that’s the point. The Tyrolean-style on-mountain lodge, Utah’s first five-star property as of 1982, still smacks of old-world elegance. The fireside brunch at the hotel’s Glitretind Restaurant is a must-have meal; wooden trestle tables are heaped with pastries, salads, crepes, cheeses, eggs, and smoked fish (and the requisite carving table), evoking the chalet-chic of Lech, Austria.

Finally, Main Street has enhanced its après options with Union Patisserie (which becomes a wine bar at night) and a swell new cocktail bar called Palomino, next door to the popular fine-dining restaurant Riverhorse. 

Big Sky, Montana

This year is shaping up to be a banner one for Big Sky, a 5,850-acre resort (America’s second largest behind Park City) awash with steeps, trees, bumps, and a gnarly triple black diamond run called Big Couloir, which drops more than 1,400 feet with a sustained pitch of 50 degrees. The whippet-fast lift system got even more efficient this season with the introduction of the Explorer Gondola, the world’s speediest 10-person gondola that ferries skiers from base to peak on heated seats. Three challenges have kept this southwest Montana area under the radar: an absence of luxury lodging, limited fine-dining options, and the level of difficulty getting there (fly to Bozeman and then drive for an hour into the Madison Range). Short of flying private, nothing can be done about its away-from-it-all location, but lots of updates have made the trip more appealing.

The arrival of One & Only Moonlight Basin (from $1,195/night) is a game-changer for Big Sky. The ultra-high-end brand’s first American property—and first alpine resort—opened in December on 240 acres bordered by 17,000 acres of protected wilderness called the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a corridor rich with elk, bighorn sheep, moose, and even grizzly bears. The Olson Kundig–designed property isn’t simply a hotel; it’s a five-star compound with its own gear hub, dining and cocktail spots (including an in-the-woods whiskey shack), and a heated gondola to Big Sky Resort. The 73 rooms and suites are sleek yet cozy, done in stone and oak with hand-stitched leather and hammered hardware finishes, plus fireplaces and plenty of textiles. Nineteen standalone cabins (studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedrooms) come with private hot tubs and fire pits. All, including the three guest lodges, are outfitted with floor-to-ceiling windows to frame the wowza views of the 11,167-foot Lone Mountain and snow-covered pine forests.

Service is the brand’s hallmark, and it is extraordinary. An assigned host will organize transfers around town and to/from the airport, source forgotten items, and drop off almond milk (or, really, anything) when you request it. On the food and beverage fronts, there are plenty of options: The Landing (hearty alpine), Wildwood (Montana-inspired fine dining), Akira Back (inventive Japanese), and a cocktail bar called Dear Josephine, named for the notorious prohibition-era bootlegger Josephine Doody. Mix in the 17,000-square-foot spa with outdoor onsen, and it’s not difficult to spend all of your off-slope time at the resort.

The other prestige player in Big Sky is Montage, which opened in 2021, enticing luxury lovers to the area. The 139-room, ski-in/ski-out hotel, home to Cortina, an excellent Northern Italian restaurant, continually introduces inventive thrills to its repertoire. On tap this season: après-ski recovery treatments (Normatec compression boots, Hypervolt massage therapy, oxygen therapy, and IV treatments) and pop-up dinners such as Taikun Sushi Omakase with rare whiskeys and ingredients sourced directly from Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market.

It’s not every day that a big-deal restaurant sets up shop in a remote mountain town. Inspired by Montana’s rugged landscape, Grant Achatz of two-Michelin-starred Alinea in Chicago chose Big Sky for his restaurant’s 20th-anniversary world tour (Tokyo, Beverly Hills, Brooklyn, and Miami were also stops). The four-month residency—M by The Alinea Group—is in the resort’s main town, Mountain Village, and is designed to fit into the low-key landscape, yet sizzle with urbane details that reference the Mountain West. To wit: rough-hewn wooden ceiling beams, a red travertine bar top, and other stone finishes, lush, textured fabrics, and leather straps for window treatments.

In signature Alinea fashion, the 11-course meal is layered with unexpected thrills: a fig-lacquered Pekin duck with dried fruit ragout is presented on a smoking bed of fragrant herbs and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, spiked with smoked medjool date-mustard seed chutney, which are flattened tableside beneath a piping-hot cast-iron that looks plucked from a turn-of-the-century homestead. Servers weave in backstories about technique (lots of smoking, embering, curing) and sourcing (mostly local ranches) alongside the “why” of wine pairings.

Park City is on the Epic Pass in 2025-2026; Aspen and Big Sky are on the Ikon Pass.