This year, winter getaways are trading the usual lift lines and ski-town traffic for distance instead. They span separate countries on different continents, each one built around a slightly different version of the same idea, from a converted sheep farm on Iceland’s remote Troll Peninsula to a Forbes Five-Star guest ranch deep in Montana’s rugged, wide-open backcountry. Distance, not convenience, is what each one sells, no matter the setting.
The distance each property sells looks different up close. A ranch assigns each guest a private ski guide instead of a lift line, and a historic village in the Alps offers a nightly lantern procession instead of a crowded apres-ski bar. One lakefront estate goes further, letting guests skate across a frozen lake without another set of blades in sight. The food is still elaborate, and the rooms are still warm. What’s missing is the noise and the sense of being herded from one activity to the next. For travelers who’ve spent a year fielding notifications, choosing between ice fishing and cross-country skiing is its own kind of luxury.
Search data back up what these five properties are betting on. Interest in Kittilä, a remote town inside Finland’s Arctic Circle with direct winter flights from London, has climbed 65% year over year, according to a recent travel analysis. It isn’t the only far-flung destination seeing a jump. Travelers are increasingly searching for places once considered too remote to bother with, and booking them anyway, well before the first snow falls.
Remote wilderness retreats
Eleven Deplar Farm sits on Iceland’s remote Troll Peninsula, a converted sheep farm turned adventure lodge with black timber walls and a grass-covered roof. Guides lead guests on Nordic skiing and fat-biking trips by day, and at night, the lodge’s geothermal pool doubles as a front-row seat for the Northern Lights, especially after an invigorating Viking ritual. The surrounding area also offers more adventures, from horseback riding to heli-skiing. The lodge’s spa includes flotation tanks, indoor and outdoor saunas, indoor and outdoor hot tubs and a steam room. Floor-to-ceiling windows throughout keep the mountains in view.
The Ranch at Rock Creek occupies 6,600 acres of wilderness outside Philipsburg, a historic Montana mining town, and holds a Forbes Five-Star rating. Guests get a private ski concierge for the day, plus gear for snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, ice fishing at nearby Georgetown Lake and horse-drawn sleigh rides. Downhill skiing at nearby Discovery Mountain is also included. Reserve three or more nights between Jan. 13 and April 30, 2027, and the ranch adds a complimentary fourth. You can also ice skate and go sledding back at the lodge.
Historic Alpine escapes
Tradition still governs daily life in Evolène, a mountain village in Switzerland’s Val d’Hérens about two hours from Geneva. Hotel Le Central, a seven-room boutique hotel and spa, is the newest addition and opened Aug. 21 in the heart of the village. Winter adventures here range from cross-country skiing to ice climbing, with snowshoeing in between, plus a nightly light display called Evolène en Luminère that runs from Dec. 6 to Jan. 6. A holiday market sets up just outside, and Carnaval d’Evolène, with its wooden masks, follows from Jan. 6 through Feb. 9.
Lakeside winter luxury
Four original log cabins, once part of the Rockefeller family’s Great Camp, make up The Point Resort on New York’s Upper Saranac Lake, an adults-only, all-inclusive hideaway with just 11 rooms across its 75 acres. Days bring ice skating, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snow tubing, curling and ice fishing. Nights bring black-tie dinners twice a week and an ice bar out on the frozen lake. Each cabin keeps its original stone fireplace and fine antiques, honoring the camp’s century-old traditions.
A 10,000-brick fireplace anchors the Tap Room at Manoir Hovey, a lakefront estate in Quebec’s Eastern Townships about 20 minutes from the Vermont border. Guests can skate or ice fish on frozen Lake Massawippi, or ski through the nearby Appalachians, watching for bald eagles along the way. Back inside, the 9,000-square-foot spa spans three levels, with six treatment rooms, a hammam, a cold plunge pool and a heated outdoor pool with its own firepits. A lakeside bonfire with s’mores and acoustic music rounds out the evening.
Disconnecting is becoming the point
Selling distance from the usual crowds is deliberate at every one of these properties. A separate survey found that nearly 1 in 5 travelers planning 2027 trips want to unplug altogether, and a week far enough from a city that Wi-Fi is beside the point might be the easiest way to