Ski vacations off beaten slopes offer happy trails
Ilove Vail, but the beautiful and popular Colorado ski resort can be crowded and expensive.
However, as someone, perhaps Frosty, once said, the snow falls on the famous and the obscure alike (given the right weather conditions), and that applies to ski resorts, too.
Online travel site Cheap flights.com has come up with a list of 10 “alternative” North American ski resorts, lesser-known destinations where the snow is just as cold, but the lift lines might be a little shorter and the lift tickets a little less expensive.
“Travelers are missing out if they don’t at least consider some of these alternative ski resorts,” said Cheapflights Editor Amanda Festa.
The closest resort on the list to Columbus is Boyne Highlands, near Harbor Springs on Michigan’s lower peninsula. Cheapflights notes the resort’s 55 runs, including one that’s more than a mile long.
Skiing Michigan not in your travel plans? I’ll accept that.
How about Colorado, where Steamboat Springs could be the (lift) ticket?
Steamboat Resort offers access to a huge 2,965 skiable acres with 165 trails for varying skill levels, the website notes. Visitors also can take advantage of the nearby and beautiful Strawberry Park natural hot springs, a great alternative to the crowded hot tubs at your rental condo.
And don’t overlook our maple-syrup swigging friends to the north. Whistler isn’t the only Canadian ski resort, not by a kilometer (or whatever they call a mile up there).
Who would know “apres ski” better than the Frenchspeaking Quebecois? Mont Blanc resort in Quebec’s Mont Tremblant ski region has one of the highest verticals on the east side of the continent and one of the largest ski schools in Quebec, with more than 125
instructors.
Calabogie Peaks, in Ontario just an hour from Ottawa, also offers ice fishing, ice skating and a series of apres-ski live-music shows.
And Fernie Alpine Resort in British Columbia has a vast ski-trail system and is located in a cute former mining town. At the town’s Fernie Brewing Co., five Canadian dollars (somewhere around $3.75 American) gets you a flight of four beers, and all the money goes to a local charity.
Back in the good ol’ U.S.A., Cheapflights recommends Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming, as a more sedate alternative to Jackson Hole for skiing the Tetons.
And — why didn’t I ever think of this? — you can, of course, ski Alaska. The Alyeska Resort, an hour from Anchorage, is the only North American ski resort with mountain, glacier and ocean views.
“Don’t limit yourself to one particular popular resort,” Festa recommended.
“Think about the kind of vacation you want and the type of skiing you want to do, and you can probably shop around and find something with comparable amenities and terrain and save some money as well.”