Six short emails. One global event. We’re covering the 2026 Winter Olympics with the biggest stories, travel insight, and insider context.
SPECIAL EDITION
A Post-Winter Olympics Itinerary
The Winter Olympics this year offered a rare opportunity: watch Olympic history unfold in real time, and then ride a train a few hours to the places that shaped the first Winter Games.
Milano Cortina 2026 will spread events across four main clusters in northern Italy, from the Stelvio pistes above Bormio to the ski jumps in Val di Fiemme and the ice arenas in Milan and Verona.
From Milan, you can reach former Olympic hosts in Austria, France, and Switzerland by train, plus alpine towns that live and breathe winter sport year-round. Below, four places that work cleanly as pre- or post-Games stops — and are worth a stop on any winter Euro trip.
Innsbruck, Austria
Innsbruck is one of the few cities that have hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1964 and 1976, and it’s spent the past six decades quietly refining that legacy. From Milan, trains via the Brenner Pass reach Innsbruck in about five hours, making it a straightforward add-on at the start or end of a Games itinerary.
The Bergisel Ski Jump, rebuilt to a Zaha Hadid design, rises just south of the center; a funicular and elevator take visitors to the tower for views over the city and the Nordkette range. On competition-free days, it’s worth timing a visit to watch training jumps and get a sense of the height and speed that TV coverage flattens.
In town, the old quarter still centers on the landmark Golden Roof completed in 1500. The infrastructure built for the Games shows up in less obvious ways: tram lines that run cleanly from suburbs into the core, a ring of sports venues that continue to host World Cup and youth events, and a cluster of rinks and pools that locals use on any ordinary Tuesday.
▶ Explore More: 11 Awesome Itineraries for Your trip Through the Alps
Chamonix, France
Head to Chamonix to see where the Winter Olympics started. In 1924, the French resort hosted an “International Winter Sports Week” that the International Olympic Committee later recognized as the first Winter Olympics.
Today, Chamonix is better known for its glaciers, off-piste skiing, and steep terrain than for archival sports tourism, but fragments of that earliest Olympic week remain. The original stadium site sits near the center of town, and signage around the valley marks key venues from 1924: speedskating ovals on the valley floor, ski-jump hills, and early bobsleigh tracks.
From Milan, you can reach Chamonix by train in roughly six hours via Brig and Martigny, then onto the Mont-Blanc Express. Buses can cut that to under three hours if you’re willing to trade scenery for speed. Either way, the route underscores how closely linked the Italian and French Alps are.
St. Moritz and the Engadin, Switzerland
St. Moritz, three-to-six hours from Milan by regional trains and scenic railways, is another town where Olympic history sits just under the surface of daily life. It hosted the Winter Games in 1928 and 1948, and many of the same valley routes and lake surfaces still carry recreational skiers, skaters, and sledders.
Rather than centering your stay on a single palace hotel, look toward properties that connect directly to the landscape. The historic Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz can arrange access to the Cresta Run, a natural ice skeleton track built in the late 19th century, and the Olympia Bob Run between St. Moritz and Celerina that’s been in operation since 1904. This is the world’s oldest bobsleigh track and the last sliding track built entirely from natural snow and water each winter. Guest rides offer a short, controlled sample of race-level speeds without turning the experience into a theme-park attraction.
▶ Where to stay: Badrutt’s Palace Hotel
Photos: Badrutt's Palace Hotel
Lausanne, Switzerland
If your route home takes you north rather than south, Lausanne, on Lake Geneva, is home to the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Museum. Here, you can see torches and medals from past Games alongside athletic equipment used by Olympians throughout the history of the Games and opening ceremony costumes.
▶ Where to stay: Beau-Rivage Palace