For many skiers, the lifts closing doesn’t mark the end of the day—it marks the beginning of something even more memorable. Après-ski has become as much a part of mountain culture as carving first tracks: a blend of champagne bars, live music, gourmet dining, and parties that stretch until dawn.
Across the Alps and Rockies, a handful of resorts have elevated après-ski into an art form. These are the places where the slopeside terraces are as famous as the pistes, where DJs play to mountain backdrops, and where bottles of Dom Pérignon appear as casually as ski poles.
Here are the seven après-ski destinations that define mountain nightlife.
La Folie Douce – Val d’Isère, France
High above Val d’Isère at 2,400 metres, La Folie Douce is where après-ski became a performance. Since the 1980s, this mountaintop cabaret has turned afternoons into festivals, complete with DJs, live musicians, dancers, and champagne showers.
Skiers spill from the slopes onto the terrace, transforming the mountain into an open-air nightclub where fur coats mingle with ski boots. The descent into town afterward—often in the twilight, sometimes in the dark—has become a rite of passage.
La Folie Douce isn’t just après-ski. It’s theatre.
The Farm Club – Verbier, Switzerland
Verbier’s Farm Club is legendary, and for good reason. Since opening in 1971, it has been the beating heart of the resort’s nightlife—an intimate, wood-clad club where European royalty, celebrities, and freeride champions end their nights.
The evening often starts at Le Rouge or the Experimental Chalet terrace, but it always seems to end at the Farm Club, where champagne bottles never stop arriving and the music plays until dawn.
In Verbier, après-ski is as much about status as skiing—and the Farm Club is where that status is confirmed.
Cloud Nine – Aspen, USA
At 3,300 metres, perched on Aspen Highlands, Cloud Nine is a restaurant by day and a champagne-fuelled party by afternoon. The scene is unapologetically indulgent: bottles of Veuve Clicquot and Dom Pérignon sprayed across the terrace, DJs spinning, and the Maroon Bells looming in the background.
What begins as a long lunch quickly escalates into one of the most iconic après-ski parties in the world, with diners dancing on tables in ski boots before skiing (or being escorted) back down.
It’s Aspen at its most glamorous—Hollywood meets high altitude.
MooserWirt – St. Anton, Austria
St. Anton is famous for its snow and its stamina, and nowhere embodies that better than MooserWirt. Nestled on the slopes above the village, it’s one of the busiest après-ski bars in the Alps, capable of serving thousands of beers in a single afternoon.
The music is loud, the dancing starts early, and the party spills onto the snow outside. Skiers pile in straight from the slopes, and the run back into town is often more challenging after a few steins than before.
MooserWirt is après-ski in its most unfiltered, alpine form: rowdy, energetic, and unforgettable.
Badrutt’s Palace – St. Moritz, Switzerland
Not all après-ski is about raucous dancing. In St. Moritz, it’s about refinement. At Badrutt’s Palace, champagne is poured beneath crystal chandeliers, cocktails are mixed with precision, and the crowd is as glamorous as any film festival.
Since the 19th century, St. Moritz has attracted the world’s elite, and the Palace remains its centrepiece. Afternoons here drift into evenings of caviar, live jazz, and lakeside views that shimmer under the Engadin moonlight.
This is après-ski at its most aristocratic.
Krazy Kanguruh – St. Anton, Austria
If MooserWirt is wild, Krazy Kanguruh takes it one step further. Established in 1965, it sits on the slope above St. Anton and has built a reputation for high-energy après that starts early and doesn’t stop.
The terrace fills with skiers dancing in the sun, DJs blasting Euro-pop classics, and steins of beer in constant circulation. By late afternoon, the run back to the village is a slalom through thousands of revelers still buzzing from the party.
It’s chaotic, it’s noisy, and it’s essential St. Anton.
Nikki Beach – Courchevel 1850, France
In Courchevel 1850, après-ski is synonymous with style. At Nikki Beach, located directly on the piste, the party starts with gourmet sushi, champagne towers, and fur throws on sun loungers—and ends with DJs and dancing against the backdrop of the Trois Vallées.
Nikki Beach has exported its brand of beachside glamour to the Alps, attracting a clientele of international jet-setters who prefer their après with a side of caviar. For those arriving by helicopter or private jet, it’s the perfect transition from piste to party.
The Final Descent
Après-ski is no longer just about a beer at the bottom of the hill—it’s about identity, performance, and indulgence. From the champagne showers of Cloud Nine to the chandeliers of Badrutt’s Palace, from St. Anton’s rowdy terraces to Courchevel’s fur-clad lounges, these destinations define what it means to celebrate the mountains in style.
For many, the skiing is just the prelude. The real stories happen after the last lift closes.