winter vacation suggestion for Southerners?
 

My husband and I want to take a winter vacation in the snow and need suggestions. We have no experience driving in snowy, winter weather, and do not want to rent a car. As a result, we will have to pay for ground transportation to a resort. We are not interested in skiing (because of past knee surgeries), but are healthy and are interested in all other winter activities such as snowmobiling, snow-shoeing, tubing, horseback riding, carriage rides, etc.

Suggestions? Thank you!!

Portsmouth, NH is lovely. Really fun little town with lots of cute shops and great restaurants.

What month are you looking at? If December, you need to go quite a bit north, even Portsmouth may not have much snow.

We would like to go late December, after Christmas. I have been looking at Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort. About a 45 minute ride from SLC airport. Also looked into Whistler, BC, and even though it is a 2-3 hour ride from Vancouver, it seems to be about $75/pp for the bus ride.

Try and get to Aspen. It is a beautiful, magical, a tad expensive...but worth it.. town with many things to do and see.
Whistler is getting ready for the Olympics........not really sure what that means......but something to consider!
-john

Let's start with where are you coming from? Delta out of Atlanta has flights to the mountains and i'm sure a direct flight to Salt Lake City as it is one of its hubs. If from the Texas area or Dallas is more convenient, American has direct flights to lots of winter ski areas. I would start with the airlines maps and figure out where you can fly to easily. I do anything to avoid United which flies through denver and then operates flights to most major ski resorts.

Now, let me give a plug for my favorite place in the whole world. Crested Butte, Colorado. It's a short 30 minute drive from Gunnison (GUC) the closest airport. Alpine Express will pick you up and take you to your door. Once in town, the mountain express shuttle bus runs between the main town of Crested butte and Mt Crested Butte which is the ski area. It's a charming victorian town with fantastic restaurants, but if you like to shop, there's probably enough for a day but not much more. The nordic center is great, there's cute carriage rides, but i've never seen snow tubing, but there could be. There are new owners of the ski mountain and they are really bringing in new snow activiites.

let me also caution you that after christmas and january can be very very cold. I have been on the mountain skiing adn had the wind blowing so hard and cold I was literally pushed backwards and all we did was ski down the mountain to go get in front of a fireplace. So I think you should look into temperatures of the location you may want to go. Whistler may be brutally cold then, but then again, it may not.

I can also see the attraction of the Deer Valley, Park City resorts because you are flying into a major airport, it's not a long drive, etc.

Thank you all! I will definitely look into Crested Butte. Sounds great!

come to portland oregon and do som winter Sturgeon fishing

www.fastactionfishing.com

IMO, you should stick with your plan for the Park City area. It's easy to get to from SLC, will most likely have snow - Portsmouth and Portland, OR probably won't and New England may not either - there is a free shuttle bus service around town and things to do besides skiing. "Cold" out west is much warmer at the same temp than in the NE because it's dryer. Crested Butte is beautiful but small and much more difficult to get to, esp in bad weather. Also, the altitude isn't as much of an issue in Park City as it is in many CO areas.

Park City is terrific with wonderful restaurants and lots to do. If you can go after New Year's week (Jan. 4th), it will be less crowded and hotel/room rates will likely be lower.

The areas around SLC are indeed very close to the city. But the areas outside of Denver are only 2 hours drive to Vail, and about 6 others. Vail would offer you everything you want, by the time you add in areas nearby. You can even go fly fishing if you want.
Colorado does a good job of keeping the interstates open, unless overwhelmed.

Keep in mind that the week between Christmas and New Year is one of the busiest times of the year for ski resorts, so if you're planning for this year some of your accommodation options may be limited.

Having said that, I'd stick with places that were towns before skiing became a sport - you'll usually have more options for activities other than skiing.

Others have made some good suggestions - Park City, Deer Valley, Aspen and Crested Butte.

I'd also suggest Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs, both in CO. 3 generations of our family spent Christmas in Steamboat 2 years and it was great - wonderful skiing for those that wanted to, and lots of activities for those who didn't - like horse rides, sleigh rides, hot air balloons, tubing, snowmobiling, great restaurants and shops. Free shuttle buses throughout the town.

Shuttles run between DEN and Breckenridge.

williamscb made a good point which I might add to. You can fly directly into quite a few places without going through Denver which can save a LOT of time and hassle. williamscb already mentioned Gunnison (for Crested Butte - which we've done non-stop from Houston and works very well) Also, for another ex, you can fly non-stop into Hayden, CO (which is a 20 ride from Steamboat) from Dallas, Houston, Chicago, and Atlanta. Really easy.

The week we were in Steamboat, DEN was shut down twice, but Hayden remained opened the whole time. Won't always happen of couse, but it's definitely worthwhile to check what you're options are since flying directly to the town/resort can really be an advantage.

Hey rksh,

Montreal & Quebec City I would say fit the bill. Charm & culture to boot. You definitely don't need a car for either city here (I don't own one and I live in Montreal); public transit is quite good by North American standards. Carriage rides, snowshoeing, outdoor skating definitely all possible.

You may also want to consider Ottawa as well for the experience of skating on the Rideau Canal.

Bring a proper winter coat (the ones I used to wear for "winter" in Virginia for example, won't cut it here!), thick scarves, a good toque and warm gloves though if you come!

Best wishes, Daniel

I will agree that the cold out west is different than the cold in the east and is not the damp cold you get in the south, but I still find December and January to be very cold, completely different from the cold in February or March. Another poster also makes a great point to check the altitudes of the potential locations. Crested Butte at 9000 feet is very high and causes lots of altitude problems for some people. Also, continental no longer flies to Crested Butte, but American does now, and so I completely forgot to mention to check Continental for direct flights to ski areas.

So many southerners especially Texans like to go skiing to have a little bit of the experience of snow that you can find direct flights to many ski areas. I would much rather fly directly to Gunnison and to Crested Butte which can be a very hard area to get to and is 30 minute drive up to the mountain than fly directly into Denver and then have to drive 2 hours to Vail. Vail is a super cute village, but is a completely planned village, not an old mining town like some of the other ski resorts. and there's always the issue of being 2 hours away from the airport. Of course American probably flies directly into Eagle/Vail during the winter.

another town you might want to consider is Telluride. it hasn't been mentioned. i'm not sure we've helped you figure out where to go there are so many different choices and you'll have a great experience no matter where you decide to go.

I want to do snow and the mountains too! I wish I could talk DH into going! I miss snow so very much. We were in Breckenridge in the summer, and I was thinking how magical it would be in winter....sigh.

I also loved Crested Butte but for non-skiers I would recommend Lake Tahoe as there is so many other things to do there.

I really hated Lake Tahoe. But I was with friends who love to gamble and i hate gambling, find it very very boring. I also think that Tahoe is inappropriate for you if you don't want to rent a car. It's a pretty long drive from Reno to Tahoe. I'd go somewhere with more charm. Perhaps there are other ski areas around lake Tahoe that would be more charming but I thought that South Lake Tahoe had no appeal.

Thank you everyone! Will check out these great suggestions. Has anyone taken these 10 person shuttle buses from Denver Airport to the ski resorts? WHile I do not look forward to a 2 hour ride in a small van, we do not want to drive in the mountains in snowy, icy weather if the weather is not clear on our travelling days. Are there any reasonably priced shuttles that use larger, more comfortable buses that you would recommend?

We've taken a shuttle a few times between DEN and Vail/Breckenridge area. Many use 15-passenger vans which aren't really that small and were more than adequate/comfortable for the 2 hr ride. I frankly don't know of anyone that uses full size buses, but maybe someone here knows of a company that does.