If you are looking to unwind at a winter resort this festive season, choose one that offers value for money facilities. When looking for a winter resort, choose a resort that best suits you rather than the best resort. A winter ski resort offers a ski area and all necessary facilities to make it a destination resort. Facilities include accommodation and all other vital requirements; these facilities are located close to the ski area.

Nestled high in the Pyrenees, Soldeu may not be Andorra's most attractive or popular holiday ski resort, but it's a great place for family holidays and provides excellent value for money for travellers on a tight budget. It's renowned for being cheerful and family orientated, and is rated as one of the best places in Europe for beginner skiers. The village is located in the greater Grandvalira region, which incorporates neighbouring Pas de La Casa and has four other resort bases in the eastern half of Andorra. During the summer months, Soldeu is a popular destination for hiking, mountain climbing and even white water rafting, while during the winter months the pistes below Pic d'Encampadana are covered in snow providing perfect conditions for skiers, snowboarders and those who just enjoy the beauty of the frosted Pyrenees peaks.

Among Austrian holiday resorts, Kitzbühel is the most commercial, glamorous and expensive. The beautiful alpine town of Kitzbühel, which dates back to the 9th century, has remained fairly unspoilt; in the winter holiday season you will hear the jingle of bells as a horse-drawn sleigh is pulled through Kitzbühel's cobbled, traffic-free town centre. There is an extensive and varied skiing area offering excellent skiing and snowboarding, both on and off-piste, but be prepared for a lack of snow in places. Due to Kitzbühel's low altitude, the lower slopes are rarely open. If the skiing doesn't tire you out while on holiday in Kitzbühel, the nightlife certainly will. The atmosphere is bright, boisterous and fun and doesn't stop till the not-quite-so-early hours. Kitzbühel is also Austria's winter entertainment capital and attracts performers from all over the continent throughout the holiday season.

St Anton is a top holiday resort destination for British skiers and snowboarders, attracted by both the first-class skiing and the beer-fuelled après-ski sessions. Along with its neighbours, Lech and Zürs (only a short bus ride away), St Anton offers extensive skiing for intermediate and advanced skiers but is possibly not the best choice for beginners or non-skiers on holiday as lower slopes can get crowded and there are not many off-slope facilities. The St Anton holiday resort, which sprawls along the bottom of a narrow valley, is a haven for ski-bums attracted by the excellent off-piste runs - the best Austria has to offer. St Anton's south-facing slopes can get slushy by the end of the day, particularly in spring, and partly for this reason the collection of bars on the slopes above St Anton get packed by around 3pm.

Time and again the holiday hub of Vail is ranked among the top ski destinations on the continent, the most visited ski resort in America and known to be one of the world's premier winter holiday destinations. With the largest single mountain ski area in North America it offers miles of ski terrain and the opportunity to choose a different descent every time.

Verbier is a picturesque Swiss ski resort nestled on a vast plateau almost 5,000 ft (1,524m) above the valley floor and surrounded by majestic snow-covered mountains. Verbier lies at the heart of Les Quatres Vallées (Four Valleys) and is the holiday hub of this extensive ski area. A sophisticated network of cable cars and gondolas connect all the holiday resorts in the region and provide access to 253 miles (410km) of marked pistes. Verbier is the primary ski resort of French-speaking Switzerland, attracting advanced skiers and snowboarders to its demanding slopes and unlimited off-piste opportunities. Although quaint in appearance, a holiday at the Verbier resort offers all the modern comforts and facilities of a major resort, with some of the finest cuisine in the region and a raucous nightlife combining English-style pubs and French cafés. Much of Verbier closes down over the summer but despite this it can also be a great summer destination with magnificent scenery, good weather and wonderful walks; during this time it is popular with paragliders and mountain bikers.

The beautiful, bright blue, mile-high holiday paradise of Lake Tahoe, straddling the border of California and Nevada in the United States, is the second largest alpine lake in the world. The lake, perched atop the Sierra Nevada, is surrounded on all sides by world-class ski resorts, magnificent golf courses, first-class hotels and casinos, which cater for millions of holidaymakers every year. Although the area's scenery and facilities draw visitors on holiday year-round, it is as a skiing and snowboarding destination that Lake Tahoe really thrives. Recently most of the popular resorts, with appealing names like Alpine Meadows, Heavenly and Squaw Valley, have undergone extensions and face-lifts. The comfortable resorts, bolstered by the fact that Lake Tahoe guarantees 300 days of sunshine a year, 33 feet (10m) of annual snowfall, unrivalled scenery and more than 17,500 acres of terrain to explore, make it nearly irresistible for anyone contemplating a winter sports holiday in California. For a holiday at Lake Tahoe, visitors can fly in to the nearby Reno/Tahoe Airport, or drive on all-weather highways from Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles in just a few hours, for a dose of fun in the pure mountain air.

Winter Park has been increasing in popularity as a holiday destination over the last few years and the resort management, Intrawest Corp. are putting some funding ahead for new improvements. The Winter Park resort sits at over 9,000 feet (2,743m) above sea level, and is roughly one and a half hours away from Denver, in the snow and ski heavyweight state of Colorado.

Consistently rated as the number one ski resort in North America, and among the best in the world, Whistler Blackcomb is just a two-hour drive from the city of Vancouver in the Coast Mountain range. The Village of Whistler lies cradled in a valley between two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb, that rise up 5,280ft (1,609m) to provide more than 8,100 acres of prime mountain terrain, including 12 alpine bowls, three glaciers and more than 200 marked ski trails to enjoy while on holiday. In fact, the state-of-the-art facilities at Whistler provided the cross-country, biathlon, Nordic combined, and ski jumping venues for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The resort offers state-of-the-art lifts that can carry 60,000 skiers per hour to jump-off points throughout the area. With two million visitors coming on holiday to Whistler Blackcomb every year, such lift capacity becomes a necessity! Skiers and snowboarders flock here from the world over, not for the weather (which can often be wet and foggy) but for the exceptional variety of skiing. The village of Whistler is set around a cluster of small lakes and is British Columbia's fastest-growing municipality. It boasts a quaint village atmosphere and offers shopping areas and après-ski restaurants bordered by squeaky-clean streets. In summertime, Whistler Blackcomb is a popular holiday destination when the focus shifts to outdoor activities like mountain biking, hiking and fishing. Snowfall is rare in the city of Vancouver, but is more than adequate for the ski slopes on the Coast Mountains to the north where Whistler is situated. As with all Canadian ski resorts, Whistler can get very cold. Go prepared for the occasional blizzard. In general though, temperatures are moderate throughout the winter season, rarely dipping below 12°F (-10°C) in the valley and 5°F (-15°C) on the peaks during the coldest part of the year. Average daily alpine temperature during most of the winter months is 22°F (-5°C).

Meribel is in the centre of the Trois Vallées, which also incorporates the holiday resorts of Courchevel and Val Thorens. Together they form the largest ski area in the world. Unlike most French holiday ski resorts, Meribel has retained an atmosphere of the traditional skiing village, despite having grown enormously in recent years. Meribel-Mottaret is situated two miles (4km) up the valley and is better suited for the skiing, but not the nightlife. The resort was founded by the English early in the last century and is still very popular with British holidaymakers.