I attended Tomorrowland Winter for the 3rd year in a row this year, and it still remains as one of my favorite festivals, combining music and snow sports! I really enjoyed this year’s edition too, as overall I feel it’s a fairly chill and comfortable festival, with reasonable costs in a beautiful environment. See my Instagram reel. I previously wrote about tips for enjoying the festival, this is an update with my latest knowledge.
Table of Contents
Where and When?
Tomorrowland Winter is held in the beautiful ski resort town of Alpe d’Huez in the southeast of France, in late March. The festival organizers have signed a new contract with the town until 2030, so it will held there for the foreseeable future. You can predict future dates by looking at the 2nd or 3rd Saturday of the month, so the 2025 edition should be March 15-22, 2025, and the 2025 edition should be either March 14-21, or March 21-28, 2026. The exact dates are subject to the official announcement.
While the festival spans the whole week, Tuesday through Friday nights are considered the main festival days when the Main Stage is open and more major DJs are playing. We have opted for the full week the last 2 years to spend more time enjoying the atmosphere as well as to not feel like having to pack all the experiences into only 4 days.
Tickets
Tickets have usually gone on sale in September the year prior to the festival. Ticket prices have gone up compared to previous years: for the 2024 edition the 4 day GA pass was €510 and the 7 day GA pass was €675 (official site). This speaks to the popularity of the festival, and makes more sense compared to the previous pricing which was essentially the cost of the ski pass for those days. You can also buy 1 day tickets Saturday to Monday nights when the Main Stage is not open for €110 a night, and 1 day tickets Tuesday to Friday nights when the Main Stage is open for €175. You must pre-register at the official website to be able to buy tickets. If you don’t feel like going to the main festival, you could also just buy ski passes only and listen to the music from the outside the daytime stages.
Lineup and Crowd
You can see the day by day lineup for the 2024 edition here.
There are a smattering of bigger name DJs earlier in the week, but not too many. Later in the week when the Main Stage opens is when the big names go back to back. The DJ focus is very European, similar to a Tomorrowland Summer lineup but scaled down. Honestly I thought the lineup was a bit weak some days, though I did have fun and discover interesting new artists each day I went. The Brasa stage lineup is unlisted but is always worth swinging by, as they usually have big name DJs playing unannounced sets. I felt that the festival got more crowded later in the week with the Main Stage, sometimes leading to ruder interactions, but overall still not super crowded compared to some other large festivals.
Where to stay?
Again, you should stay in Alpe d’Huez as otherwise it is a pain with shuttles to get back and forth, or you have to drive. This time we opted for a Silver level package which ended being €1267 a person for the week, a €592 premium per person over the 7 day passes. We stayed at the Résidence Prestige Odalys L’Éclose which was an improvement compared to the accommodations we had the previous years, Bronze and Wood packages. The room was reasonably spacious and well maintained, and had a full kitchen and dishwasher. For 6 people, we got 2 bedrooms plus a living room with a sofa couch. 1 bedroom had a full bath, then there was a split toilet and shower. The hotel had an indoor pool as well as a fitness center, but did not come with free breakfast. It seems policies on breakfast and having included kitchens or not vary by hotel, so you need to check the details when booking the packages.
Accommodation packages go quickly, so it’s best to be ready when the sale starts. If you want the best chance of buying a good package, you can also buy the Tomorrowland NFTs, which give you access to a presale. You can buy all 3 NFTs currently for around €1200 (depending on the price of crypto at the moment), but I think it’s well worth it for the guaranteed access it gives you for the Summer edition.
Most hotels in Huez itself get blocked off by Tomorrowland, so there’s slim pickings if you decide to go separately via normal hotel booking sites or vacation booking sites. It seems like if you book early enough, there are chalets you can book which potentially could be a better deal than through Tomorrowland, for example through the Alpe d’Huez official tourist site.
Add ons!
We again went for meals and experiences at the festival. The add on sale happens around 3 weeks before the festival, and add-ons, especially meal experiences, go fast. You don’t actually need to have a ticket to buy add ons, so if you really want to do them, have multiple people in your group attempt to buy. Lunches were around €30-40 a person, and overall fairly high quality, which we found reasonable compared to the expensive prices for normal food at the restaurants. One trick is that you can use a lunch as a cheap way to get a “table” for a DJ set. The lunch areas usually have access to view the stage and if you get a 2pm slot you can just stay there until the daytime stages close. Also, it’s totally possible to book some meal experiences last minute or adjust the time and number of people for the experience by asking in person. We really enjoyed the cocktail experience as well as the Brasa grill dinner and the Crystal Garden lunch.
I went with Intersport to book my skis this year, and fortunately there was a 50% off sale a few weeks before the festival. The cost of a Black Package (second highest package) for the week, plus helmet, plus the ability to change from ski to snowboard or vice versa once during the week was €128.50. The cost through Tomorrowland was about €100 for the week, but the downside is that you can’t cancel or change your rental, nor can you select your experience level.
How to get there?
We did not book a transportation package this year, and just booked transportation separately. From Grenoble to Alpe d’Huez we booked bus tickets with Transaltitude, the official bus operator. We had no problems with buying tickets to Alpe d’Huez, but when we were looking for tickets to return on the final Saturday, only 6:50am or afternoon tickets were available. From previous experience, as long as you have a ticket you can waitlist for earlier or later buses if they haven’t filled up.
I flew into Geneva as I’ve never been, and there was a direct train or bus from Geneva straight to Grenoble where I could take the bus. I know last year my friends drove from Geneva as well.
Miscellaneous
Bring a snow equipment lock as there have been reports of theft (or just some drunk attendee taking the wrong gear). I had my skis stolen in 2022 and had to pay €200 as a penalty.
The air in the mountains is super dry and bad for your skin / respiratory system. We ended up boiling water constantly to get some humidity into our room. You can also wear a mask while you sleep to keep some humidity. Or you could get a portable humidifier.
Amazon is available in France and you can use your normal Amazon US login. You can get next day or 2 day delivery straight to your accommodations.
Conclusions
I’ve learned several tips and tricks from my 3 years of going to Tomorrowland Winter, hopefully these help people have a more enjoyable experience at the festival. I highly encourage anyone interested in EDM and snow sports to check it out!