Best ski resorts for a honeymoon (chalets, spas, Matterhorn views)

The Matterhorn watches over every run, and no cars are allowed to spoil the view. Zermatt skis all year on the Theodul glacier, the only resort in the Alps that genuinely never closes.

Statistically the snowiest corner of the Alps, and the most discreet. Lech and Zürs sit just above St. Anton but trade its rowdy bars for quiet luxury and the elegant White Ring circuit.

Alpine tourism was born here in 1864, and the place has never let you forget it. Two Olympics, the Cresta Run, polo and horse racing on a frozen lake: St. Moritz wraps serious skiing in old-money theatre.

Freeriders make the pilgrimage here for the Xtreme and the merciless Tortin couloir. Verbier sits at the top of the 4 Vallées, Switzerland's largest domain, and the nightlife matches the terrain for sheer intensity.

Sixteen kilometres west of Vail, Beaver Creek is what happens when a 1980s developer is told to build the most polished ski village in America and given a quiet valley to do it. A gated, car-free hamlet, escalators between hotels, freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies handed out at three in the afternoon, and one of the best children's ski schools in the world.

More Michelin stars than any ski village on earth, and a western doorway into Les 3 Vallées. Courchevel stacks six villages by altitude, from the palace hotels of 1850 down to the family runs of Le Praz.

Tomamu is a world of its own: two glass towers rising from the snowfields of central Hokkaido, framed by Hoshino Resort's quiet luxury. The skiing is gentle and forgiving, the snow is among the most reliable in Japan, and the resort lights up at night with the Ice Village, a winter art installation built entirely from frozen sea water.

Aspen Snowmass is really four mountains on one ticket, wrapped around a former silver-mining town that became old-money playground and creative hub at once. Ajax rises straight out of downtown, Highlands hides a bowl that hikers chase all winter, Buttermilk hosts the X Games, and Snowmass quietly delivers the biggest terrain of the four.

Telluride sits at the head of a box canyon in the San Juan Mountains, ringed by 4 000 m peaks that come right down to the edge of town. The remoteness keeps the day-tripper crowds away. The setting is the most dramatic in American skiing, and the historic Main Street is connected to the modern Mountain Village above by the only free public gondola in the country.

Niseko is the name every powder hunter whispers. Storms roll in off the Sea of Japan and drop fifteen metres of dry, weightless japow on Mount Annupuri each winter, while Mt Yotei rises across the valley like a private Fuji. Four interlinked bases, neon-lit izakaya, steaming onsen at night: this is Hokkaido in maximum mode.

Deer Valley is the white-tablecloth address of the Wasatch, a ski-only resort where attendants park your skis at lunch and the dining rooms keep their linen pressed. Beneath the polish lies a surprisingly broad mountain, and the Mayflower expansion will nearly double the place by 2026.

They call her the queen of the Dolomites, and the UNESCO peaks of the Tofane and Cinque Torri explain why. Cortina co-hosts the 2026 Winter Olympics, but its real currency is the long, sunlit lunch on a mountain terrace.