Cedar House Sport Hotel
Cedar House Sport Hotel
TAHOE GETS A WOODY: The Cedar House near Truckee
Truckee, California
When the Cedar House Sport Hotel opened in summer 2006, it instantly wiped out the drab Truckee, California, lodging tradition of Best Westerns and sugary B&Bs. The 36-room, six-suite inn, set among ponderosas just two minutes from downtown, is both industrial in aesthetic and homey in tone. Exposed cedar beams complement a metal-and-cement interior, featuring a modern bar and plush leather couches for kicking back in front of the lounge’s giant fireplace. But after a long day of skiing at Alpine Meadows, just 15 minutes away, you’ll appreciate the Cedar House’s warm touches: a large out-door hot tub, heated tile floors in the bathroom, and cozy platform beds covered with down comforters and Egyptian cotton. Doubles from $180;
Clay Brook at Sugarbush
Warren, Vermont
Sugarbush has 53 miles of trails and five high-speed quads, but, without any updated lodging, it lost its cachet as the Aspen of the East, oh, about 30 years ago. Things turned around last December with the opening of the $61 million base village. Lest you be fooled by the barn-and-silo construction, consider that it is equipped with a new day lodge, an upscale restaurant called Timbers, and Clay Brook, comprising 61 condos. With a design sensibility we’ll call farmhouse chic, the hotel showcases photographs and paintings by locals and is equipped with two giant slopeside hot tubs as well as a ski valet who’ll warm your boots by morning. Doubles from $259;
Arrabelle at Vail Square
Vail, Colorado
When developers started thinking about one of the first new hotels to be built in Vail Village since the seventies, they called RockResorts, which has a long history of delivering boutique accommodations, from Aspen’s Hotel Jerome to Santa Fe’s La Posada. Arrabelle’s 36 rooms and 50 condos, which open steps from Vail’s gondola in January, will feature canopy beds, in-room martini bars, floor-to-ceiling sliding-glass doors leading onto balconies, and marble bathrooms with deep cast-iron tubs. From the rooftop hot tubs, which have front-row seats to the alpenglow, it takes one turn of the head to procure vodka tonics from wandering servers, and for dinner reservations there’s a private concierge on each floor. Of course, if you can tear yourself away from all this, those classic Vail bowls await. Doubles from $850;
Stowe Mountain Lodge
Stowe, Vermont
It has all the prerequisites of a snug New England abode: a timber-and-glass exterior, a wood fire in the lobby, and views of Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak. But at this 139-room lodge, opening slopeside at Stowe this spring, you won’t feel von Trapped. That’s because it will feature well-stocked in-room bars, personal shoppers who’ll fetch new duds from the base village or town, audio hookups, and alpine concierges who’ll tune skis, warm boots, and store gear. At night, organic cotton linens, Japanese buckwheat or goose-down pillows, and marble bathrooms with large soaking tubs will dull the pain of that late-afternoon yard sale. Doubles from $435;
The Sky Lodge
Park City, Utah
Sure, it’s got all the amenities you look for in a five-star resort—private decks with cedar hot tubs, 400-thread-count sheets, and wet bars in each of its 22 condos—but the lodge, opening a block from the lifts on Park City’s main drag this December, is more about the experience than the accommodations. Fire pits in the lounge, a Zen-inspired meditation room, and the spa’s Japanese hinoki-wood tubs will tempt you to spend as much time inside as out on Park City’s 3,300 acres of skiable terrain. Complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres are served nightly at five in the Sky Club, which has a sunken bar and fireplace. One-bedroom condos from $925;
Hotel Terra
Jackson, Wyoming
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort will turn a shade greener next month when Hotel Terra, a LEED-certified property with 72 rooms and suites, opens in Teton Village, 50 steps from the new tram. The eco theme is everywhere—in the efficient windows, passive solar heating, and 80 percent recycled content in the steel beams. And while you probably won’t notice that, here’s what you will notice: the rooftop hot tub, with views of the Tetons, and rooms decked out with organic cotton sheets and towels, giant down duvets, and Fair Trade coffee. By 2020, owner and elite ski mountaineer Rob DesLauriers plans at least a dozen more green hotels worldwide. Doubles from $395;