The price of a lift pass is the most searched piece of information after the resort’s name, and the worst served on the web: “from” prices, last year’s prices, promotional rates presented as the norm. We read the full adult price on each resort’s official list, with the date, and we keep it from one season to the next to see how it moves.
By mid-September, 59 resorts had published their 2026-2027 list. The others do so between September and November, and their pages update as they go. Here is what those 59 lists say.
The range: from €15 to €78 a day
The average is €45.60 for an adult day. But the average hides two worlds.
At the top, the big Northern Alps areas sit within a few euros of each other: €78 at Tignes and Val-d’Isère (Espace Killy), €76 at Les Arcs, €70 at Les Menuires for the 3 Vallées, €63 on the Grand Massif (Flaine, Les Carroz, Samoëns, Morillon), €60.50 at Le Corbier for Les Sybelles. At that level you are paying for 200 to 425 km of pistes and lifts that carry several thousand people an hour.
At the bottom, the small mid-mountain resorts: €15 at Prabouré (Massif Central) and Saint-Hilaire (Chartreuse), €17 at the Col de Porte, €18.50 at the Semnoz above Annecy, €20 at Gaschney in the Vosges, €22 at La Bresse Lispach. For a first day or a Sunday out, those are prices you will not find anywhere else.
In between, the bulk of mid-sized resorts: Super-Besse at €43.50, La Bresse Hohneck at €41.50, Gourette at €44.
What the price buys, and what it does not
An expensive pass is not a rip-off. Divided by kilometres of pistes, the order almost reverses: Tignes sells 221 km for €78, or 2.8 km per euro; Val Thorens and the 3 Vallées, 425 km for €70 at Les Menuires, or 6 km per euro. A small resort at €20 for 11 km sells 0.55 km per euro. The table from our value-for-money ranking, at the bottom of this article, does that sum for every resort that has published its list.
What the sum does not measure: lift queues, snow quality, the price of accommodation — often double the pass over a week’s skiing. A resort at €20 a day with a cottage at €60 a night costs less over the week than a €40 pass in a village where the flat is €200.
Half day, two days, weekend: the full list
Since this season our pages also read the in-between prices when the resort publishes them. On the lists we read, a half day costs between 70 % and 85 % of a full day — €36.80 against €43.50 at Super-Besse, €34 against €41.50 at La Bresse. It is the least known pass and often the best value: arrive at noon, pistes groomed in the morning, nobody at the lifts after 2 pm.
The 2-day pass is almost always slightly less than two day passes. A weekend pass sold as such is rare outside promotions: of the 59 lists, none offers one at full price.
What has changed since last year
Our pages keep every season read. Where two seasons are available, the increase runs from 2 to 5 % — in line with inflation, a little above it in the big areas. The detail, resort by resort, is in the “How the day pass has changed” block on each passes page.
How to read a price list without getting it wrong
Three traps come up on almost every list.
The area. A linked resort often sells two passes: the local area and the linked area. At Valmorel, €56.10 a day for Valmorel alone, €59.70 for the Grand Domaine with Saint-François-Longchamp. Compare the right one.
The season. Some resorts run three rates by date. We read the full price, and the page states the validity period when the list gives it.
The promotion. “−30 % on Saturdays”, “flat €71.65 for weekends in January”: those are offers, not prices. They do not appear on our pages, deliberately — a promotional price shown as the price is what makes comparisons wrong.
The table below ranks resorts by kilometres of pistes per euro of day pass, on the lists published to date.
