Hemsedal is Norway's freeride flagship, set under the dark walls of Totten at 1,450 m and nicknamed the Scandinavian Alps for good reason. The snow comes early in November and the bars stay open late, which is rare for a Norwegian fjell resort.
Hemsedal is a ski resort with genuine ski-in/ski-out hotels in Norway, in the Norwegian Mountains. The village sits at 640 m and the lifts top out at 1450 m, with 53 km of pistes and 22 lifts. Its BestSnowHotels snow score is 86/100, and the season usually runs Nov 23 → May 1.
How we score and classify resortsResearched by the BestSnowHotels team
Run counts and piste kilometres are indicative. Green runs only exist in France, Spain, Andorra, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, the United States, Morocco, Algeria, Lesotho, South Africa, Egypt, Canada, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Chile; Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany start at blue. Indicative average snow depth near the top of the resort, in cm.
A handful of well-rated hotels in and around the resort. Pick one, then compare live prices across Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Very good · 977 reviews
A long-standing favourite in Hemsedal, trusted by thousands of guests before you.
Guests rate this hotel as very good (4.3/5 from 977 reviews). A mid-range option for Hemsedal, with live nightly rates shown for your exact dates so you always see the best price.
Very good · 790 reviews
A long-standing favourite in Hemsedal, trusted by thousands of guests before you.
Very good · 711 reviews
A long-standing favourite in Hemsedal, trusted by thousands of guests before you.
Good · 471 reviews
Moments from the lifts in Hemsedal, so you can ski back to the door and skip the morning queues.
Great · 151 reviews
Moments from the lifts in Hemsedal, so you can ski back to the door and skip the morning queues.
Good · 34 reviews
Moments from the lifts in Hemsedal, so you can ski back to the door and skip the morning queues.
Ratings from Google, prices indicative per night. Live availability and rates via our booking partners.
True ski-in/ski-out is concentrated around the main gondola base and the Hemsedal Skisenter complex, with a smaller cluster at Tinden; everything labelled village-side off-mountain needs a five-to-ten-minute ski-bus.
From a base village at 640 m, the lifts climb to 1,450 m on Totten and open onto bowls, ridges and chutes that feel a lot bigger than 53 km of marked piste suggests. The off-piste between the Skarsnuten and Roni peaks is the lift-served terrain everyone comes for, while the home runs back to the village are wide, well-prepared blues and reds that keep families happy on the same lift pass. Snow records start in the second half of November and hold through to the very end of the season, with the cold Hallingdal climate giving dry powder more often than coastal Norway. Three and a half hours from Oslo by car or train-and-bus, and three from Bergen if you take the high mountain road in clear weather. The après-ski scene is small but real, with a handful of bars in the base village that actually fill up. The lodging mix is heavy on apartments and lodges, lighter on hotels, and Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com all list the slope-side blocks above the main lift.
Hotels and apartments around the lifts. Compare prices on Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Everything on our site connected to Hemsedal: its area, the lists it makes, head-to-heads and trip guides.
Hemsedal offers 53 km of pistes across 22 lifts, from 640 m to 1450 m. Whether it suits beginners depends on the dedicated learner zones at the base of the slopes, so check the local ski-school options for green and blue run access.
The season runs from Nov 23 to May 1, with a snow score of 86/100. Snow is usually most reliable in the heart of that window, deep in winter, while the closing weeks bring longer days and softer afternoon snow.
True ski-in/ski-out is concentrated around the main gondola base and the Hemsedal Skisenter complex, with a smaller cluster at Tinden; everything labelled village-side off-mountain needs a five-to-ten-minute ski-bus.
Hemsedal has 53 km of marked pistes served by 22 lifts, between 640 m and 1450 m of altitude.
Hemsedal counts about 53 marked runs in total. The colour breakdown above shows how they split by difficulty, a good guide to whether the resort fits your level.
The closest alternatives, an easy switch if dates or hotels are tight.
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