Grand Dame Ski Resorts

When you book a grande dame ski resort, instead of basic but boring condominiums or a ho-hum base lodge, you stay at a property with first-class service and presence and possibly a world-class spa and top-rated cuisine. Kids love exploring these resorts’ imposing lobbies with their blazing fireplaces and also finding the best lounges for family card games and hot chocolate breaks. Many properties also have movie theaters, bowling alleys and indoor swimming pools and most of these hotels sit majestically on hundreds if not thousands of acres of woods and meadows.

Admittedly, at many of these year-round properties the downhill runs tend more towards mild than wild (with the exception of Canada’s Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise). However, what some of these great properties lack in slopeside thrills, they make up for in style.

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Canada

The location of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is extraordinary. Situated at 5,000 feet on the shore of an emerald green lake and surrounded by the towering peaks of Canada’s Rockies, the 513-room hotel delivers both a fairytale setting as well as top skiing. The Chateau, like its sister property the Fairmont Banff Springs about 45 minutes away, lies in the 2,564-square-mile Banff National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of mountains, meadows, glaciers, and rivers.

From both Fairmont properties you can access three ski areas with more than 7,700 acres cut with 240 trails. Ski Norquay is nearest to the Fairmont Banff Springs, Sunshine Village is between Banff and the Chateau. The Lake Louise ski area with 4,200 skiable acres is one of North America’s largest. The longest run stretches for five miles and there are plenty of gut-wrenching steeps to challenge your teens as well as open bowls, chutes and beginner and intermediate trails. Kidski offers ages five to 12 supervised skiing and instruction. Shreddies does the same for snowboarders from age seven to 12.

At the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise ice skate on the frozen lake with its view of Victoria Glacier, sign-up for a moonlight snowshoe tour or a sleigh ride and try a steak dinner with all the trimmings at the Tom Wilson Steakhouse (800-441-1414; www.fairmont.com).

The Homestead, Virginia

The Homestead, located in Hot Springs on thousands of acres in Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, offers an array of ski and snow fun. The resort, however, stands out for its spa. Even before the American Revolution, the area’s mineral waters drew people. From 1818 to 1820, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison soaked in what’s now called the Jefferson Pools, historic, covered enclosures built in the eighteenth century and located down the road from the main hotel.

The Homestead employs the same healing waters in its modern spa, an expansive facility with 36 treatment rooms that’s rated as one of North America’s top 50 spas by Conde Nast Traveler. Apres-ski, enjoy treatments and massages such as the Highlands Maple Sugar wrap and an Allegheny Raspberry Relaxer and Buttercup Body Polish. Even children get pampered here at the KidSpa, a program of treatments for those under age 16. Teens indulge in facials designed just for them, and get personalized make-up lessons. Kids can soak their toes in a soothing chocolate milk bath and their fingers in a strawberries and cream mixture.

In winter the 483-room hotel, situated about 70 miles from Roanoke, offers a 45-acre ski area with a downhill slope for skiers and snowboarders, tubing runs, cross-country trails and guided snowshoe tours. At the year-round KidsClub, children ages three to seven and eight to 12 enjoy tubing and ice skating as well as swimming in the indoor pool, creating crafts and bowling on the resort’s lanes. Along with full and half-day programs, the KidsClub offers Saturday evening sessions (800-838-1766; www.thehomestead.com).

The Balsams, New Hampshire

So often ski vacations mean mediocre dinners of pizza and pasta at local eateries with grungy plastic menus. But not at the Balsams, about a three-hour drive from either Concord, New Hampshire, or Manchester, New Hampshire.

The sprawling 202-room hotel set on 15,000-acres in New Hampshire’s White Mountains tied for the #1 slot for dining on Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s Gold List. The resort, which dates to 1866 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, is the kind of hotel where dinner is a five-course meal in a 450-seat dining room. Boys over 13 (and men too) must wear jackets, but the kitchen always serves a kid-friendly entree.

In summer, families come for the golf, tennis and hiking. In winter, the Balsams morphs into a ski resort. The hotel’s Wilderness Ski Area, a short ride by shuttle from the hotel, has a 1,000-foot vertical drop plus a snowboarding half-pipe.

For those who prefer a slow slide through glistening woods, there are 77 kilometers of groomed cross-country trails as well as snowshoe-only paths. Whether on these or winding through the glistening woods on a sleigh ride or dog sled adventure, keep an eye out for rabbits, moose or even fox.

In ski season the Alpine Base Lodge cares for kids ages six months to five years. For tots three and four years old Tiny Turns offers private one-hour ski lessons. At the Wee Whistle Snow Farm, kids four to six years old learn the basics during 90-minute group lessons and the Wind Whistle Ski and Snowboard Camp holds 90-minute group lessons for ages seven to 13. With the Wind Whistle Ski Camp, ages seven to 13 enjoy three hours of supervised skiing (866-380-6798; www.thebalsams.com).

– Candyce H. Stapen is the author of 27 books, including National Geographic Guide to Caribbean Family Vacations.

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