Ski Vermont on a Budget

As I have stated in previous articles, I absolutely love to ski in the winter snow. Although I am not an expert skier, I consider myself to be a knowledgeable intermediate level skier who has grasped all the fundamentals of skiing. I am also well versed on what to look for when I choose a ski resort. When it comes to booking a ski resort for your winter getaway, you will want to first make sure that they can accommodate all of your family's needs and second, make sure they are within your budget; you don't want to spend too much on lodging, as you are only going to sleep there. Consider going with one of the smaller, less expensive resorts.

If you don't already have a destination in mind, I would suggest you check out what Vermont has to offer. Last year I had the opportunity to ski the picturesque green mountains of Vermont's northern region and found it to be great family fun with a side of romance all for a very reasonable price.

Smugglers Notch Resort- Vermont

Here at Smugglers Notch Resort you will find fast friendly service with five star accommodations. This resort is located 31 miles northeast of Burlington, follow Route 15, 104 or 109 into Jeffersonville and from here take Route 8 for 5 miles to arrive at Smugglers. This beautiful mountain has a base elevation of 1,030 feet and a peak elevation of 3,640 feet with a vertical drop of 2,610 feet.

Smugglers is a world renowned family resort that sits slope side on 1,000 acres, has 10 lifts and 78 runs with the longest run being 18,480 feet, which is over 3-miles of ski terrain. Here at Smugglers you will take a step back in time when you stay at this historic Inn. Built in 1790, Smugglers has been recently renovated and restored making it a unique place to lodge at in this quintessential Vermont town. The Inn is relatively small with only 11 suites, so you will defiantly need to make reservations ahead of time. However small Smugglers may be they make up for it with all the extra curricular activities such as snowboarding, skiing, snow shoeing, half pipes, family lessons, childcare, fine dinning at great restaurants and pubs. All of the restaurants here at Smugglers Resort pride themselves on serving only the best food imaginable. It coasts roughly 89.00 to 129.00 per night and this is on non-peak days. If you book in advance and stay at least a week you will receive a huge discount. Smugglers cozy, self-contained mountainside resort and village has something for everyone. All of the restaurants here are about serving excellent food at an amazing price.

Stowe Mountain Resort- Vermont

Here at Stowe Mountain resort you will experience new longer trails, new beginner ski area, new inter-mountain transfer lift and 2 new high-speed quads. While skiing here at Stowe they welcome you to stay at their luxury new hotel. This hotel offers great amenities such as fine dinning, childcare, snowboarding, snow shoe trails, night skiing, lessons and tons of great family packages.

Stowe Mountain has a base elevation of 1,067 feet, peak elevation of 4,395 with the longest vertical drop on any mountain in Vermont at 2,160 feet. The average annual snowfall here is about 333 inches, which will cover 116 trails that run trough 485 acres of ski terrain.

All of the accommodations here at this hotel are 2, 3 and 4 bedroom condominiums, which feature beautiful fireplaces, modern appliances, roomy closets and a huge outside decks complete with lounge furniture and indescribable mountain views. This resort has 40 units available that range in price from 90.00 to 650.00 per night. Note, reserving one of the week packages and sharing to coast with another couple will not only save you money, but you will have the added benefit of your friends to ensure you have a good time. The lift tickets at this resort are more expensive than at Smugglers and I am not sure why, but a lift ticket off peak days here is 65.00 per day, if it is on peaks days (weekend) you can pay up to 147.00 per day. This is just a little pricey for me.

Traveling to Vermont

There are several travel options to get you to Vermont and they all differ in price. One can travel anywhere in the United States on Greyhound for $100 or less and that is for a round trip ticket, given that you have a lot of travel time planned out because the bus will take a couple of days to get you there. Amtrak is another way to travel to Vermont at a reasonable price. One could get a round trip ticket to Vermont for roughly 350.00.

If you live relatively close to Vermont you could always drive, then you will only have the coast of the gas to get there. If driving is not an option and you don't want to take time out of your vacation for traveling, then I suggest traveling via airplane. With all the hits the airline industry has taken in the last few years, tickets are an all time low. I was checking out prices on airline tickets for this article and found at Southwest Air you could get a round trip ticket for as little as 321.00 if you book 6 weeks in advance.

So lets say you are planning a winter getaway to Vermont's Smuggler Notch Resort and your entire budget for the vacation is 2500.00 total. You will need 2 round trip airline tickets at 321.00 per ticket, 90.00 per night to stay at the Smugglers Lodge for 3 nights and you are going to purchase ski lift tickets for 2 of the 3 days you will be there. Your total coast so far is 1,112.00 and you will have 1,388.00 left, which you will need for all the fine dinning, entertainment and shopping.

References for this article came form skibig3.com and ski.com