What to expect from Trojena, Saudi Arabia’s futuristic ski resort hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games: the mountainous region of new megacity Neom will have 36km of slopes, a huge lake and a zip line

Jun 3 , 2024

Saudi Arabia is pulling out all the stops to create one of the world’s most environmentally friendly and futuristic ski resorts. Photo: @aedas_architects/Instagram

If Beijing’s Winter Olympics seemed like a stretch given the lack of precipitation in the northern capital, a ski resort in Saudi Arabia probably sounds even more far-fetched – but, of course, nothing is too outrageous for the wealthy kingdom to pull off these days.

Saudi Arabia’s Trojena resort in Neom. Photo: @touriism__/Instagram

Located in the megacity of Neom that’s been created on the country’s north west coast, the Trojena ski resort is set to be completed in 2026 – oh, and it’s already won the bid to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029.

“When Trojena opens, it’s going to be the one place in the world where you can ski and scuba dive on the same day,” says Neom’s head of tourism Niall Gibbons, per Euronews Travel. So what exactly can snow lovers expect from the epic project? Here’s the lowdown.

Trojena ski resort is just one part of a new megacity in the Saudi Arabian desert

An artist’s rendering of the vast new desert complex known as Neom. Photo: @magazine_mimar/Instagram

In a bid to boost tourism and reduce its dependence on oil, Saudi Arabia’s current crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, reportedly envisioned new megacity Neom as a “model for nature preservation and enhanced human liveability”, per The Guardian. The size of Belgium, it won’t be fully complete until the 2030s, but will consist of several different regions – of which Trojena will be one.

Trojena’s central feature will be its 2.8km man-made lake, according to the project’s marketing lead Clark Williams, and the area is based in the highest mountain range in the country.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to revamp the kingdom’s image. Photo: DPA

Will the skiing be any good?

Trojena will eventually feature 36km of ski slopes. Photo: @aedas_architects/Instagram

For starters, 36km of ski slopes are planned for Trojena, and given that the Asian Winter Games include events like ice hockey, snowboarding, freestyle skiing and figure skating, the facilities will be state of the art from the get-go. The area’s official website also says the resort aims to “act as a hotbed of innovation in the sport”.

The architecture looks epic

Trojena will feature a “folded vertical village”. Photo: @touriism__/Instagram

Since Trojena is being created entirely from scratch, the world’s top architecture firms have been drafted to work on it, including Aedas (the company behind The Venetian Macau), UNStudio and Zaha Hadid Architects, according to Construction Week Middle East.

Interestingly, the ski village won’t be a sprawl of chalets, hotels and restaurants connected by roads, but a single structure that blends in with the terrain. Per the publication, Aedas’ Ignacio Gomez explains that they had the freedom to “dream up a superstructure that has the scale of a village, but with all the connections and mobility happening vertically across several levels”.

The roof of the Trojena ski resort will match the mountains in the region. Photo: @aedas_architects/Instagram

Even more cool is that the roof structure of the village – “designed to align with the natural undulations of the mountain”, per Construction Week – will provide 2km of the planned 36km of ski slopes.

It’s getting several luxury hotels

Aedas’ design for the Trojena ski resort. Photo: @aedas_architects/Instagram

Naturally such a high spec resort is slated to get several equally futuristic hotels, starting with the 25hours hotel (already popular in Dubai), and an eight-storey Morgans Original hotel, which will have a 2,000 sq m (around 21,500 sq ft) spa, several top restaurants, a ski slope roof and even its own microclimates, according to Time Out Riyadh.

There are more slated for construction in the run up to the Games too – including a Raffles hotel that will boast panoramic views and sit near Trojena’s pioneering astronomical park and stargazing camp. There will also be a Ritz-Carlton Reserve there.

But does it actually snow in Saudi Arabia?

Most of the snow will be built using a sustainable system during the three winter months of the year. Photo: @arqui9/Instagram

While snow only occurs naturally atop Neom’s highest mountains, the weather in Trojena is cooler than the rest of the region, reaching 0°C or below in winter.

“We just need – 3°C in order to create snow, and we can do that for three months of the year,” Williams tells Euronews Travel. And for the rest of the time? Aside from the artificial slopes that will replace the snowy ones, there’s a whole host of other activities to take part in, including a zip line, Alpine coaster, mountain biking and water sports in the lake, according to the same source.

And for those worried about the environmental impact all that fake snow will have, the resort’s designers have come up with a smart solution: Aedas’ snow-making system uses 100 per cent renewable energy.

Luxury travel

Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision for luxury ski resort Trojena is pulling in big guns such as Raffles Hotels, Zaha Hadid Architects and Aedas – the architecture firm behind The Venetian Macau
Trojena is situated in an area cooler than the rest of the region, with sub zero temperatures that allow real snow to sometimes grace the slopes – and there’s a sustainable snow-making system too