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What kind of lodging do you prefer on a ski trip?

What kind of lodging and do you eat in or eat out

  • Ski house with a bunch other ski friends

    Votes: 23 29.9%
  • Ski house alone or family

    Votes: 13 16.9%
  • Condo

    Votes: 29 37.7%
  • Hotel suite

    Votes: 6 7.8%
  • Hotel/Motel

    Votes: 17 22.1%
  • Do you Eat In?

    Votes: 9 11.7%
  • Do you eat out?

    Votes: 8 10.4%
  • Combination of eating in and eating out

    Votes: 55 71.4%
  • Do you like staying with a group of other skiers?

    Votes: 8 10.4%
  • Do you prefer to get your own lodging?

    Votes: 27 35.1%

  • Total voters
    77

Pat AKA mustski

I can keep a Secret
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My first choice will always be a ski in/ski out cabin or condo. However, my preferences and my budget don't always line up. A kitchen is a must have as I generally prefer my own cooking to restaurant food. But, if I am exhausted at the end of a ski day, it's nice to have some options in restaurants.
 

Jimdh

Putting on skis
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Great topic! My answer is "it depends." We do a 5-6 day ski trip with friends each year; some ski and some don't. In that outing it's all about ski-in/out house/condo with hot tub for 4 couples.

If my wife and me, then just a nice place unless we're racing, then ski in/out is in order. Good bar and restaurant are major pluses.
 

TheArchitect

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Metrowest Boston
Let's see...

Get my own lodging: check; booked at Goldminer's for the 2018 Gathering
Hotel/motel: see above
Combo of eating in and eating out: GMD is kinda both in a way.

I always prefer either ski in/out or at the mountain base village with a short walk to the lift. It's just the way I slide, umm, roll...
 

at_nyc

Getting off the lift
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646
main considerations: Cost, proximity, free breakfast and hot tub.
Quite!

Although I have a different priority, I use a similar logic in choosing lodging: first figure out what's most important, the rest will have to be compromised.

For me, cost is not always the overriding concern. Proximity almost always come with higher cost. So it's typically a balancing act between those two. The rest: hot tub, breakfast, space, kitchen, private bathroom...etc. are all negotiable.

Sometimes, the best value comes in the form of a motel/hotel, other times a condo, or a hostel and/or ski house. I have no hangup on one kind over another.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Whitefish, MT
My normal choice is a bed and breakfast. That wasn't offered in the poll. Smaller, more personal, places, with guest interaction. I might not live in Whitefish today if it wasn't for the Hidden Moose. Really, it's all their fault. And blame the Silver Forest Inn for why we hated Bozeman.

If I'm just trying to get from point A to point B I'll stay in a hotel, but vacations need to be special.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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Colorado
If I'm just trying to get from point A to point B I'll stay in a hotel, but vacations need to be special.

Weirdly, I don't think of a ski trip as a vacation. I think of it as an activity.

To me, a vacation requires sleeping in and no agenda whatsoever - the opposite of how I approach ski trips.
 

at_nyc

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Weirdly, I don't think of a ski trip as a vacation. I think of it as an activity.
Both for me.

When I'm going skiing from home, it's an activity. When I'm traveling, it's a vacation. Although for me, I don't need anything special for lodging even when on vacation. A change of scenery makes it so.

To me, a vacation requires sleeping in and no agenda whatsoever.
Weirdly, I do that at home on rainy days. You can call that staycation?

A lot cheaper, and the bed is the best one.
 

Started at 53

Making fresh tracks
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Not Ikon, UT
Skiing is a getaway for us, by that I mean Mrs. 53 is away from the BS that goes on with an office at home. Honestly, a vacaion is being at home for me, but then I travel 26 weeks a year.

Ski in/ski out is nearly mandatory, not like I can take the money to the grave.... May as well enjoy it.
 

Wilhelmson

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We rent a house for the 2 vacation weeks and every other weekend, about 30 nights. I like to have some quiet family nights and other times have a family stay with us so the kids play with kids and adults play with adults. The house is nice because I can cross county in the woods if we're having a slow morning.

About 80% cook at home 20% eat/take out.

Kids like hotel pools so we usually stay at a hotel in December and late March when it's cheaper.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Whitefish, MT
Weirdly, I don't think of a ski trip as a vacation. I think of it as an activity.

To me, a vacation requires sleeping in and no agenda whatsoever - the opposite of how I approach ski trips.
Well, where I live, it's an activity, after all I ski five days a week. But if I went to a place that required me to buy lift tickets and lodging (essentially ON TOP of my pass and my mortgage), then it's "special".
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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Colorado
Weirdly, I do that at home on rainy days. You can call that staycation?

A lot cheaper, and the bed is the best one.

Yeah, that is pretty great, too. But I find it hard to actually laze around when I'm at home - there's so much that needs to get done, and it's hard for me to ignore it.


Well, where I live, it's an activity, after all I ski five days a week. But if I went to a place that required me to buy lift tickets and lodging (essentially ON TOP of my pass and my mortgage), then it's "special".

Yeah, I can see that. But when I'm skiing, I emphatically do not sleep in (unless it's spring and I don't need to worry about parking), so it doesn't feel like a vacation.

I understand that mine is a totally idiosyncratic way of looking at vacationing. If I go to mountain bike, it's more of an activity. If I go to chill out, it's vacation.

My first vacation in quite a while is coming up shortly. I'll be visiting my parents. They live near the beach and have a dock in their back yard. They have a lovely gazebo on their deck overlooking the water. The water itself is brackish, but at high tide there's a path through the grasses to get to the intracoastal waterway. I've already made clear that my plan is to sleep in, have coffee in the gazebo ... and if we don't do anything but that the whole time, that's fine with me.

Before that, a couple of days with my husband's parents, meeting up in Flagstaff. I think that will also be vacation-y. The only real agenda is to hang out and eat good food.

Then the visit to family and friends in Utah, bookending a mountain biking clinic in Park City - that's an activity, not vacation.

(I'm being laid off, hence all the free time - between jobs is an excellent chance to visit family if you can swing the gap.)
 

SkiNurse

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Weirdly, I don't think of a ski trip as a vacation. I think of it as an activity.

To me, a vacation requires sleeping in and no agenda whatsoever - the opposite of how I approach ski trips.
I consider a vacation anytime I am not at work for a couple of days and spending time with friends. I don't think I have ever had a vacation that wasn't associated with an activity. I'm definitely not the sleep in, sit on a beach and do nothing traveler...but totally appreciate my friends that do consider that a vacation.
 

Monique

bounceswoosh
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Colorado
I consider a vacation anytime I am not at work for a couple of days and spending time with friends. I don't think I have ever had a vacation that wasn't associated with an activity. I'm definitely not the sleep in, sit on a beach and do nothing traveler...but totally appreciate my friends that do consider that a vacation.

Sadly, according to my own definition, I don't think I've had a vacation in a few years!

You go go go .... I need some stop stop stop ;-)
 

Posaune

sliding
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Bellingham, WA
I prefer my cabin
IMG_2749.jpg

For a musical introduction click below. It's not my cabin he's singing about, but it's the same kind of place. Mine is quite cozy in the winter.

 

at_nyc

Getting off the lift
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Mar 8, 2016
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646
I'm definitely an outlier.

Almost all my travels are for "activities": skiing, kayaking, biking. But I consider all of them "vacation".

When I'm home (I'm also in between jobs at the moment) on a "weather day", I sleep in and have leisurely breakfast. There're chores of course. But they can wait till tomorrow.
 

Ulmerhutte

Getting on the lift
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Apr 25, 2017
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Australia and St Anton
Tried to answer the survey as best as I could, but the choices do not apply neatly to Europe. This is my preferred place of abode... http://www.raffl.info/deutsch/main.html Lovely apartment, 1 of 4 in the house, close to everything useful, and a wellness centre (steam bath, sauna, etc), run by terrific people (close friends after 15 years of staying there). What's not to like!?!
 

Crank

Making fresh tracks
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Dec 19, 2015
Posts
2,623
My preferred lodging is ski-in-ski-out. And I try to do at least 1 trip a year where that is the case, but I have done it all, including staying in cheap motels 20-30 minutes from the hill or crashing at my sister's place an hour from Gore in upstate NY. Been a long, long time since I stayed in a hostel though I considered it for the second half of my Aspen Gathering stay - I ended up renting a bedroom in a small house through Air B&B.

Have not slept in a car in a ski area parking lot since 1982.
 

Chris Walker

Ullr Is Lord
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Dec 8, 2015
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Denver
Oh, man, I got my first try at true ski in/ski out last Thanksgiving at CB. Usually all I can afford is a short to medium drive or at least a long-ish walk. But this was literally step outside the door and put your skis on. Now last December and January probably blurs the memory of this fact, but the snow SUCKED at T-giving at Crested Butte. They were barely able to blow enough snow to open one lame run, but having the lift right outside my door made it all worthwhile. :)

So that will always be my preference, but as finances dictate, I'm not above a Motel 6 thirty miles down the road or the back of my Outback with a sleeping bag.
 

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