Sestriere has 929 inhabitants and is located on the pass that links Val Chisone and Val Susa, at 2,035 metres (6,677 feet) above mean sea level The village is completely surrounded by mountains, which have been exploited to build one of the biggest ski resorts in Italy. The main mountains around Sestriere are: Monte Fraiteve 2,701 m (8,862 ft) in the north-east, Monte Sises 2,658 m (8,720 ft), Punta Rognosa di Sestriere 3,280 m (10,761 ft) and Monte Motta 2,850 m (9,350 ft) in the south-east. Sestriere is divided into several smaller hamlets: Sestriere Colle, on the pass top, Sestriere Borgata, in Val Chisone, Champlas du Col and Champlas Janvier, in Val Susa.

Sestriere is a popular skiing resort; during the winter holidays the population goes up to about 20,000 people. Together with the villages of Pragelato, Claviere, Sauze d'Oulx, Cesana Torinese and San Sicario, and Montgenèvre in France, it makes up the Via Lattea (Milky Way) skiing area. Sestriere is connected to 146 skiable pistes, for a total of up to 400 km (249 mi) of trails, of which 120 are provided with artificial snow. Sestriere has also one of the few facilities where it is possible to ski at night on a floodlit run.

It regularly hosts FIS Alpine Ski World Cup events, and it hosted the FIS World Championships in 1997, and the IPC World Championships in 2011. It was a main venue during the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and the 2006 Winter Paralympics, hosting all the men's alpine skiing competitions and being the site of one of the three Olympic Villages. The two hotel towers, one of which was part of the Olympic Village, were built in the 1930s by FIAT's founder Giovanni Agnelli, and have become the symbol of the village; these were the first buildings of the village.