Love Bormio? Where to go next for the old town, the spa or the big mountain

Stay in Italy and go to the Dolomites. Cortina d'Ampezzo is a town at Bormio's height, give or take a metre: it sits at 1,224. It is stylish and scenic by our read, with long lunches and the Dolomite scenery on its list of what it does best, and it hosted the 2026 Games.

The mountain is bigger and kinder. We measure 86 kilometres of piste around Cortina, 33 more than around Bormio, with 38 kilometres of blue and easier, about three times your 12, and 9.1 of black, nearly twice your 4.7. A quarter of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 32 percent, and its blacks average 32.5 percent against your 35.7. There is more marked itinerary too, 9.2 kilometres against 4. And it keeps the long runs: the longest single piste we measure there is a 6.9 kilometre red with 1,000 metres of drop.

The trade is the quiet, and the top. We class Cortina as upmarket, not quiet or traditional. Its lifts reach 3,028 metres, but the highest piste we measure starts at 2,724, which is 277 below your 3,001. Sixty seven percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 76, and it is snow sure on our measure on the piste alone. Its ski area figure is not one we can confirm, so we compare on what we measure.

If the thermal baths are half the reason you go to Bormio, Austria has a spa town of its own. Bad Gastein is faded belle époque grandeur and thermal spas, grand and characterful by our read, with the spa and the scenery on its list of what it does best. We class it as traditional, as we do Bormio, and our matching puts it second closest to Bormio of all the resorts we cover, and the closest in Austria.

It is the steeper of the two. Thirty seven percent of Bad Gastein's piste is steeper than one in four, joint eighth of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 32, and its reds average 25.0 percent, the ninth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 21.7. Its blacks are a little kinder, 32.6 against 35.7. And there is twice the piste: we measure 107 kilometres around the town against your 52.5, with 41 kilometres of blue and easier against 12. Bad Gastein's own area is 83 kilometres, and the wider pass is not all joined by lift.

The trade is height, and with it the snow. The town is at 1,000 metres, 225 below yours, and the skiing reaches 2,644 metres, measured, 357 below your top. Half the piste, 50 percent, is at or above 1,800 metres, so it does not pass our snow sure test, where Bormio passes with room to spare. And we do not class it as quiet.

If what you love is the calm of an old place with a big mountain above it, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville is the closest French match we measure, and the only pick here that keeps both of Bormio's traits, traditional and quiet. It is an old Savoyard village inside the Three Valleys, authentic and good for food by our read.

The map is the big change. The Three Valleys is quoted at 600 kilometres and is joined by lift, though we have not measured the whole of it ourselves. That is twelve times Bormio's own mountain on the quoted figure, and it is one linked area rather than four separate valleys. Around the village itself we measure 75 kilometres, about 23 more than around Bormio.

The height holds up. The village, at 1,450 metres, is 225 above yours, and 75 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, against your 76, up to 2,691 metres, measured. It is snow sure on our measure, as Bormio is, though the top is 310 metres lower.

The trade is the steep, and the spa. Saint-Martin is much gentler: 20 percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against your 32, and its blacks average 30.9 against 35.7, with 6 kilometres of them. French blues run steeper than Italian ones, and these average 16.6 percent against your 14.6, but there are 50 kilometres of green and blue against your 12, so there is far more room for an improver. And it is a village rather than a spa town: the thermal baths stay in Bormio.

Our matching puts Andermatt closest to Bormio of all the 55 resorts we cover, on the height of the skiing and the size of the ski area. It is a snowy sleeper resort in the middle of Switzerland, reborn and snowy by our read, with off piste and snowfall on its list of what it does best.

On the mountain it is a near match. The skiing reaches 2,922 metres, measured, 79 below your 3,001, and 76 percent of the piste is at or above 1,800 metres, exactly your figure. It is snow sure on our measure. The village is a little higher, at 1,444 metres, 219 above yours.

The difference is that it joins up. The Andermatt pass, including Disentis, covers 180 kilometres linked by lift, though Gemsstock sits outside the linked area, against Bormio's 50 kilometre mountain and a pass split across four valleys. Around the village we measure 61 kilometres, a little more than your 52.5, with 27 of blue and easier, more than twice your 12. And there is far more off the piste: 21 kilometres of marked itinerary, the ninth most of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 4.

The trade is the town and some of the bite. Andermatt is up and coming and an expert's resort by our read, not a traditional or quiet one, so the historic town and the spa stay in Bormio. Its piste is less steep, too: 27 percent is steeper than one in four, against your 32, and its blacks average 30.7 against 35.7.