Memorable ski/travel lodgings

What are some of your most memorable ski or general travel lodgings? Tony C. stayed in a place recently in Namibia that looked pretty crazy/amazing!

Although I've skied at about 100 different ski areas in North America and Europe, fancy lodging is not my specialty. I'm usually hunting for bargains. In my old age I sometimes stay slighter higher scale, but not much.

I suppose one of my favorite stays for skiing was two nights and three days at Sunshine Mountain Lodge in late March 2018. This is the rustic, picturesque mid-mtn lodge at Banff-Sunshine ski area in Western Canada. It was mostly empty, the conditions were good, and they let us check in early and check out late, so we got three very powdery ski days for the cost of two night's lodging, which I purchased at the time with a nice Mountain Collective Pass holder discount.

Lodge foreground, Angel Express chair background


Did some scenic snowshoeing out of the lodge with my wife.



It had an adjacent hot tub, and restaurant that were very handy.


A very memorable stay for a non-skiing trip occurred in May of 2019. As we were driving through California the day before, my wife called the Grand Canyon National Park reservations number to check just by chance for any last minute lodging openings and yes (!), they had a cabin open for the one night we hoped to visit. It was close to the famed El Tovar Lodge on the south rim and cost something like $250 for one night, yet was much better than expected! Though the exterior looks rustic, the inside of these historic 1940's era cabins are very nicely decorated. And most incredibly, we had a canyon view from our window and were just 40 feet from the rim. Whoever cancelled and enabled us to get this cabin last minute, must have reserved it a year in advance!?!


When we first entered the cabin it was so nice my wife and I spontaneously hugged each other. The bed, not shown, was quite elegant.


Breakfast view, nothing between us and the rim of the canyon.


The weather dramatically changed from stormy to sunny during our short, two day, one night visit. Pretty unforgettable.

Over the course of 25 years as a downhill skier, which includes 81 separate short-, medium-, and long-distance excursions (I counted!) where I stayed in some sort of commercial lodging, the only times I overnighted in hotels above two stars was on visits for a feature article, also known as a junket! A fair number of those fell into the three-star bracket with an on-premises restaurant and wellness options such as a pool, spa, sauna, etc.; however, a small handful of times I got lucky and scored accommodations which skirted four-star territory and here's the one that definitely qualifies as the most memorable.

For my February 2009 trip to northern New Mexico's Enchanted Circle, the obvious place to be based was Taos, which is no more than a 40-minute drive from my target ski areas: renowned Taos Ski Valley along with lesser-known Angel Fire, Red River, and Sipapu. I'd later hit Santa Fe and Pajarito on the way back to Albuquerque Here's the route, seen from the state-level and close-up:



2009 was back when my wife joined me on at least half of my ski trips because our respective parents were still able to come stay with our son once or twice per season (they collectively aged out of that in the late 2010s). Whereas our destination visits were usually planned purely around skiing -- an early breakfast and on the lifts by no later than 9:30, ski all day, drinks/dinner, TV, and bed -- she insisted that the New Mexico stay take into account her status as overworked and underappreciated by also including a more reasonable departure time from the hotel, non-skiing tourism, and spa-enhanced relaxing.

Through the wonders of former FTO Admin's extensive Rolodex, now known as a social network, I ended up scoring several nights at the four-star property El Monte Sagrado (The Sacred Mountain), a half mile from the town center. By combining an opulent atmosphere, top-shelf amenities and service, carefully curated New Mexican and world art, culture, cuisine, and interior decorations with an environmentally-sensitive mantra, the property had, since its opening in 2003, pocketed a growing stack of Best-Of honors such as Condé Nast Traveler’s “75 Top Resorts in North America” and National Geographic Adventure’s 50 Top Ecolodges.



While El Monte Sagrado’s atmosphere strongly reflects northern New Mexican and Native American culture (adobe building styles and color schemes, kiva-style fireplaces, stone tiles), they were also aiming for a “gorgeous mosaic” international vibe with influences from all over the world, including Spain, Japan, India, Africa, Argentina, Egypt, Marakesh, Bali, even Texas: a high-end multi-culti playhouse. Here's a short selection of the rooms:




A close-up of the creative license-plate map:

For those on a more limited budget who still want to experience the property's many amenities, there's an entire building with less eclectic but still pleasant rooms (that's where we stayed):

Outside in the inner courtyard is a grassy “Sacred Circle” surrounded by tall cottonwood trees, a stocked pond, gurgling waterfalls, foot bridges, and a grove of solar trees:






Back inside is the De La Tierra restaurant, which follows the global-village theme with interpretations of cuisine from New Mexico, Morocco, Russia, and other countries:


Reverse shot:


The Anaconda Bar has a sculpture of its namesake winding through the ceiling:


Here's the Aqua Center, housed inside a greenhouse structure that allows you to gaze out at the mountains in the distance while enjoying a saltwater pool, two wading pools, and a hot tub.


Alongside is a virtual rain forest of tropical flora in which every plant is ID’d with tags so you knew where each species originated. The resort’s waste water is allegedly filtered naturally through the plants, soil, and rock formations, and then used to irrigate the grounds: a self-enclosed ecosystem.


The Library, where you can shoot a game of pool on a table that Minnesota Fats allegedly once played on:


This is just a condensed overview of what's on the property. There are enough details scattered throughout to fill several feature articles such as this and this. While critics may claim that the blend of earth-consciousness and lavish pampering are working at cross purposes (and come off as precious or twee), you can't deny that the experience goes beyond that found at many McSki resorts throughout the west.

About the only downside to basing yourself there is that you have to make some hard choices about how to spend your limited time. A traditional "we're here for the skiing" format means that you'll miss out on the resort’s specialty, ultra-deluxe relaxation, which we viewed as karmic payback for the vast majority of times we stayed in bargain accommodations. If this hotel were in the Alps, it would be the perfect way to spend stormy down days.

We promised ourselves to return to El Monte Sagrado on our own dime, but here we are 16 years later (which spanned the shooting and airing of celebrated NM-based TV series Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) and we haven't made it back. Hopefully "soon" -- whatever that means.

Very nice! My wife and I recently stayed in a poor man's version of this sort of place. We spent two nights in a hotel called Casas de Suenos in old town Albuquerque, May 31 and June 1, 2025. It was about $430 total for two nights. Complex of 21 old adobe apartments turned into a hotel/b&b. We got a made to order breakfast each morning as part of the cost. Nice hot tub area and very convenient to old town shops, restaurants, and activities.

Exterior of our apt.


Living room section of our apt., which also had bath, bedroom and full kitchen (we never used)


Double hot tubs.


Breakfast area.


@jamesdeluxe 's post reminded me of a "junket" I took myself and four family members to many years ago at a VERY nice hotel and small ski area in Virginia, The Homestead. It was one of my wife's favorite ski weekends, particularly as a freebie.

jamesdeluxe said:

visits for a feature article, also known as a junket!

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Given that premium hotels are historically a low priority on ski trips, that's the way it worked for me.

One time I got premium lodging for 4 nights for a feature article was at Chateau Whistler in 2005. I also got one night at the Post Hotel in Lake Louise in 2008 courtesy of Travel Alberta. FYI my first time in Lake Louise in 1999 Adam and I stayed at the Chateau Lake Louise for $150 per night including 2 lift tickets!

The NASJA annual meetings were usually at well located but not premium properties. But 2004 in Telluride was at the very premium Peaks Resort. In 2003 in Quebec our lodging was at the historic Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and Manoir Richelieu in the Charlevoix.

Thanks again to James, I'm willing to pay up a little more for well located half board hotels in the Alps, starting with the Sandhof in Lech. The next week in 2017 the Alpinresort in Saalbach was even more upscale. The biggest hotel splurge in the Alps was probably the Tsantelina in Val d'Isere in 2018.

Tony Crocker said:

One time I got premium lodging for 4 nights for a feature article was at Chateau Whistler in 2005. I also got one night at the Post Hotel in Lake Louise in 2008 courtesy of Travel Alberta. (...) The NASJA annual meetings were usually at well located but not premium properties. But 2004 in Telluride was at the very premium Peaks Resort. In 2003 in Quebec our lodging was at the historic Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and Manoir Richelieu in the Charlevoix.

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Those are impressive scores. The only one I also enjoyed on a ski press visit was Manoir Richelieu, covered briefly in Ski Day #4 of my 2010 St. Lawrence Ski Safari article. Here's a pic of our breakfast backdrop (clearly shot on an early-00s digital camera) with only a portion of the stunning wide-screen panorama in view:



I stopped feature writing in the early 2020s and suspect that ski resorts and tourist bureaus are no longer as generous as they were during my 15-year run. Of course, my preferred stops were in the Alps with France and Austria always going out of their way to welcome visiting ski journalists, while Switzerland basically didn't bother. I never tried Italy.

Tony Crocker said:

my first time in Lake Louise in 1999 Adam and I stayed at the Chateau Lake Louise for $150 per night including 2 lift tickets!

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My wife and I stayed at the downtown SLC Grand America hotel in January 2002 (just before the Olympics), which was running a similarly excellent Mon-to-Thurs internet deal that included two tickets every day to any of the Cottonwoods or Park City ski areas. If memory serves, it was $109 per night ($197 adjusted for inflation) and we couldn't figure out how any money was being made unless the ski tickets were being provided as part of a city tourism promotion. Hard to believe now given how the discount-ticket situation there disappeared with the emergence of the Vail/Alterra duopoly.

I've mentioned before that a separate promotion from the golden days of Utah skiing (through the early 2010s) was Quick START, in which you presented your boarding pass from a morning flight to SLC and were given a comp ticket at any of the three Park City areas. My Delta flight from Newark back then landed at 10 am so I was on the lifts (at Deer Valley once and The Canyons twice) by 11:30. Yeah, conditions are better on the Wasatch front side but don't argue with free! This link is from Dec 2011; I can't remember when they stopped the program, maybe a year or two later.