Europe

Condé Nast Traveller readers have spoken. In the 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards unveiled this fall, the Savoyard resort crushed the competition with a score of 99.17%, surpassing the most renowned alpine destinations on the continent. This victory confirms France’s dominance over Europe’s premier ski slopes. The podium features three legendary resorts: Val d’Isère at the top, closely followed by Switzerland and Austria with Gstaad and Kitzbühel tied at 98.89%. This ranking places four French resorts in the global top 10. Les Trois Vallées takes fourth place, Châtel fifth, while Avoriaz rounds out this French sweep in eighth position. France establishes … Read more

In tourism as elsewhere, keeping up with important news isn’t always easy—you might miss something that could actually matter to you. That’s why we regularly revisit recent developments to bring them back into focus. Higher Prices Coming in January 2026 for Non-European Visitors While differentiated pricing based on nationality isn’t exactly groundbreaking in the tourism world, it’s actually fairly uncommon in France. Usually, when nationality-based pricing exists, it works the opposite way—offering free or reduced admission to young people and students from the European Union. But starting next January, access to one of France’s most visited sites—drawing 8 to 9 … Read more

France is dotted with hundreds of castles—some in ruins, others remarkably well-preserved. They’re part of the nation’s heritage that never fails to captivate visitors, often awakening our inner child. But among all these historic fortresses, which one was actually the last to be built? Medieval Castles: A Late Blooming Phenomenon First, it’s worth clarifying that while we associate castles with the Middle Ages, they actually only appeared toward the end of this period. Historians date the medieval era from the fall of the Roman Empire (around the 5th century) to Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492—roughly a thousand … Read more