November 14, 2006
Interesting accommodations for your winter ski vacation
I really enjoyed this article. Let me summarize some of the different accommodations and if you want more details follow the link and read the article.
One of the places they mention: "the cabins at Strawberry Park Hot Springs eight miles from Colorado's Steamboat Ski Resort.... Earth-heated water fills three rock-lined pools in a forest setting of stream, boulders and snow. It's like soaking in a scene from a Sierra Club calendar..."
If you're going to Mount Hood, an hour's drive east of Portland, Timberline Lodge is a publicly owned ski-in/ski-out lodge: "Opening in 1937, Timberline began as a Great Depression employment project for out-of-work craftspeople.... The resulting structure, filmed as the outdoor backdrop for The Shining, looks worthy of a national park."
In Huntington, Vermont On the Loose Yurts is a few minutes from Mad River Glen and Sugarbush Resort: "a modern yurt is a tent-like structure whose circular shape and conical roof make it resemble a colossal cupcake. Foil-laminate walls stretch over a folding latticework frame, spoke-like rafters support the roof, and an acrylic apex dome creates a skylight. With a well-stoked fire, it can easily reach 80 degrees inside in even the coldest climate."
In Colorado, a half-hour's drive from the Winter Park Ski Resort, C Lazy U Guest Ranch turns wrangler fantasies into Western realities: "Shuttles leave three times daily for the ski areas. Those opting not to go downhilling can choose from an array of other free, on-ranch activities that include sleighing, sledding, ice-skating, cross-country skiing and horseback riding."
The place that I want to stay at is California's Fantasy Inn in South Lake Tahoe. The basic rooms are fine, but the 15 theme rooms ($179-$399) that set the place apart: "One can go from downhilling to decadence in the Anthony and Cleopatra Room, complete with its marbled columns, black- and gold-draped walls and tiger-striped carpet. There is the Romeo and Juliet Room with fireplace, sunken spa and circular bed set in a mirrored alcove. The Elvis-inspired Graceland Room offers a guitar-shaped coffee table and heart-shaped spa, while the cowboy-style Western room has rocking chairs and saddle. Add in the Tropical Treehouse, Arabian Nights, Sultan's Tent, Caesars Indulgence, Mystic Mountain, Marie Antoinette, Penthouse, Rainforest, Tahoe and Romans rooms, and guests can find a setting to indulge nearly any flight of fancy.
''People will stay here a week and change rooms every day,'' says employee Robert Matsumoto. "They come back from skiing, get new keys and they're all set.''
Lastly we have Quebec's Ice Hotel near the ski areas of Stoneham, Le Massif and Mont-Sainte-Anne: "Overnight guests slumber in sleeping bags atop pelt- and pad-insulated ''mattresses'' of ice. Basic rooms feature unadorned walls and few furnishings. More exciting are the annually changing theme suites featuring frigid fantasies of art and architecture. Previous motifs have included a King Tut-adorned Pharaoh fantasia, an Eiffel-towered Parisian parlor and a voodoo-haunted Shaman suite."
Posted by James Trotta at November 14, 2006 12:07 AM | TrackBack