The Travel page



Me and my Australian pals Adam, Nick and Paul.

Chances are, after a couple of seasons you may get a little bored always riding the same runs and hitting the same kickers at your home resort. (especially in the east!) Unfortunately, the cost of winter vacation packages can be way out of most people's reach. so what's a rider to do?

Here's a few tips.

Airlines and Airfare
  • if you live in the New England area, pick up the New York Times or the Boston Globe newspapers. They have very large travel sections and occasionally you will find amazing deals on airfare or even winter package deals.

  • Look towards Europe! There are tons of bargain airfares from New York and Boston to many parts of Europe. You can sometimes find tickets to France, Switzerland, Germany or Austria for about $200.00 (US). Not too bad when you consider that tickets from Boston to Utah will cost about $500 to $800.

  • All those handy adjustment straps on your technical, snowboard carrying, backcountry pack are just dangling around begging to get torn off by baggage handlers. To prevent this buy a cheap nylon duffel bag that you can fit your fully stuffed pack into. once you get to your destination airport, remove the pack from the duffel so you can carry it on your shoulders then, roll up the duffel and stick it in an accessory pocket. later you can use it as a dirty laundry bag!
Lodging
  • Stay in hostels, dormitories or motels. Hostels, although not nearly as popular in the US as they are in Europe, are usually only $15 to $25 a night. In many cases the accommodations may not be great, but some are quite nice and may even have hot tubs and game rooms. Anyway, it's the riding that really counts...right!? Check out United States Ski Country Hostels or the Hostelling International page for info on where to find them.

A few American resorts do have dormitories and lodges. For example, Sunday River, Maine and Stowe, Vermont. Also when in the New England area try the Vagabond Ski lodge near Stratton, Vermont.




Outside the USA
  • Get lots of travel guides for the country you are visiting and learn everything you can about the county, its people, their customs, food, EVERYTHING! the more you know the less likely you will be shocked by a new culture or strange situations. check out Lonely Planet Travel Guides or INSIGHT compact travel guides for good travel info.

  • Learn the language!! get some language training courses on tape and learn at least some very basic things to say and how to ask questions. I was told that "in Switzerland everybody speaks English" and this may be true at most major ski resorts but I ventured into a lot of smaller towns and found myself in a few binds and quickly realized that NOT everyone spoke English! In one particular town that I wandered into I might have had to spend a night sleeping on the streets had I not know some very basic German!
Cutting costs
  • Pick area's that have lot's of public transportation or resort shuttle buses. This saves you from having to rent a car to get from where you are staying to the mountain. It's also a huge bonus if you find resorts or hotels that have shuttles that pick you up at the airport for free because a limo/van company will often charge about $45 each way!

  • If you are travelling to Summit County, CO. be sure and stop at a "King Super" supermarket near Denver and purchase all your lift tickets there, they are almost half-price what you will pay at the resorts.

  • There are many resorts in this country that have great terrain, cheap lift tickets and reasonable lodging yet you seldom hear about them because they don't have the big-bucks advertising budgets that places like Vail and Aspen do. If you have an area you think you would like to travel to, call that town or county's Chamber of Commerce. They will usually send you out a big package of info on all the businesses in the area. you may just find a small mountain or some lodging options that you hadn't known about. Many chamber of commerce's can be found on the Internet too, check out YAHOO to track them down.

Read the "ANTI-RESORTS" article in the December 1998 issue of Snowboard Life magazine for a small sampling of lesser known resorts.