skiing

Situated some 2,135 meters (7,000 feet) above sea level and high above the town of Jackson, Wyoming is Amangani, a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Ski Hotel.

If it is action-packed days on the slopes and a convivial après-ski atmosphere you are in search of, look no further than this 40-suite resort. Amangani, which translates to "Peaceful Home", is the first Aman resort in the United States. Opened in October, 1998, Amangani is near the southern boundary of Grand Teton National Park.

Constructed with soft-hued Oklahoma sandstone, Douglas fir, cedar and Pacific redwood, the three-story resort is cut into the hillside on the western edge of the East Gros Ventre Butte. The area is encircled by elevated peaks and buttes, hence the world "hole" is used to describe this extensive alpine valley. It is a peaceful location at the southern end of the Greater Yellowstone Area, a vast expanse of mountain and meadow, sage flats, river bottoms, national forests and wildlife sanctuaries.

Amangani is a short ride away from some of the North America's most acclaimed ski runs at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, where ski and snowboarding enthusiasts enjoy 1,000 hectares of high-thrill skiing and snowboarding terrain featuring a lift-serviced vertical drop at 1,260 meters (4,139 feet). As Jackson Hole averages 1,016 cm (400 inches) of snow a year, it offers some of the best skiing conditions in the world. During winter months, snow piles up to four meters (10 feet) in the mountains. The entire valley turns white after mid-November and winter can stretch past early April.

In Teton Village, at the base of Rendezvous Mountain, the resort has a private ski lounge where guests will find snacks, hot beverages and a concierge service (which organizes ski equipment rentals and lessons). The resort offers a complimentary shuttle service as well as private transfers to and from the resort and the ski lounge, which is 20 minutes away. After a day on the slopes, guests unwind before the large wood-burning fireplaces of Amangani's Lounge with the two-story window wall offering beautiful views of the Snake River Range.

In addition to skiing and snowboarding, other winter activities enjoyed by the guests include snowmobiling, snowshoeing and half-to-full day dog-sledding. Amangani also offers horse-drawn sleigh rides which take guests up to the ridge of the butte where they will see panoramic views of the valley. Guests can also spend a day visiting nearby Yellowstone National Park, which is America's first national park and its largest outside Alaska. Yellowstone boasts its own Grand Canyon, plentiful geysers and Yellowstone Lake, the largest mountain lake in America.

While the resort has been nominated for best ski hotel, Amangani is also a great option for spring and summer vacations. During the warmer months, wildlife safaris led by biologist guides enable guests to view a wide variety of wildlife including black bears, grizzly bears, elk, bison, moose, pronghorn, bald eagles and golden eagles. Fly fishing enthusiasts enjoy the Snake River, which is a haven for local cutthroat trout as well as rainbow, lake and brown trout. Canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, horseback riding and hot-air ballooning are other activities offered to guests.

The Health Center features treatment rooms, exercise studios, steam rooms and individualized yoga programs. The resort offers a 30 meter outdoor pool and whirlpool with magnificent mountain views; both are opened year-round.

Each of the resort's 40 suites have spectacular mountain and valley views. Rates start at $565 for April to mid-June and mid-October to mid-December; $725 from early January to early April (excluding Presidents' Day weekend when the entry rate jumps to $875); and $857 from mid-June to mid-October. A four-bedroom home with full hotel amenities is also available for $3,400 to $4,800 per night, depending on the time of year. The resort is a 20 minute drive from the Jackson Hole Airport.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed for each of the Winter Travel categories. Readers' Choice Awards for the Best in Winter Travel will be announced on January 31st.

Gallery: More from the Amangani Hotel

Le Mélézin, in the fashionable Alpine village of Courchevel 1850, is a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Ski Hotel.

The intimate alpine retreat lies in the heart of the world's largest ski area, the Trois Vallées in the French Alps. Ideally situated on the Bellecôte piste, the four-story lodge provides easy ski-in and ski-out access to Courchevel 1850, one of one of Europe's most fashionable and exclusive resorts. Le Mélézin is a short stroll from the epicenter of the resort which offers superb restaurants and shopping.

Le Mélézin opened in the heart of the Trois Vallées region as an Aman resort in 1992, offering 31 luxurious guest rooms and suites. The four-storey resort combines a ski experience with the classic traditions of the finest French Chateaux with its classic design. Its patterned parquet flooring and panelling and spectacular 200 year old oak beams, add a weathered touch to the updated surroundings. Most of the rooms throughout the property offer spectacular views of the ski slopes and surrounding peaks.

The resort , which is an Aman Resort, offers the ultimate après-ski experience with guests relaxing in the spacious hammam (steam room) or the white capri stone pool with a jacuzzi on either side. The resort also offers a spa with three treatment/massage rooms and a Thai/Shiatsu room.

The Trois Vallées region that embraces Courchevel is acknowledged for its beautifully groomed slopes, superb infrastructure and some of the consistently best skiing conditions in the world. Guests at Le Mélézin enjoy 600 km of groomed slopes, some with gradients of 38 degrees that are among the most taxing black runs in the world. There are also more than a dozen cross-country routes in the area, most of them created especially for the 1992 French Winter Olympics. A two-kilometre toboggan run, lit for night use, links the village of Courchevel 1850 with Courchevel 1550. There is a range of sports and other activities for children both indoors and outdoors during the day and a mix of day nursery and introduction to skiing pending on age.

Rates at Le Mélézin through April 7, 2010 start at 730 Euros per night, net of taxes and service. The winter ski season runs from mid-December to mid-April.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed for each of the Winter Travel categories. Readers' Choice Awards for the Best in Winter Travel will be announced on January 31st.

Gallery: More From Le Melezin

Tucked away on a quiet Colorado mountainside ideally situated between Beaver Creek and Arrowhead in the heart of the majestic Rocky Mountains is the exclusive enclave known as Bachelor Gulch. The village is aptly named for its original settlers---seven pioneering, single men who came in search of wealth and a better life. Today, the crown jewel of the village is the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch, which is a Readers' Choice Nominee for Best Ski Hotel.

The property opened in 2002, is reminiscent of the architecture of the grand lodges of Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks. This unique style, known as parkitecture, features a variety of indigenous natural materials such as logs, timbers and stone. The hotel has 180 guestrooms including 40 suites (with 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms) and the 1,800 square foot "Ritz-Carlton Suite". No fewer than 95% of the guest rooms offer spectacular mountain or resort views and 77 have fireplaces.

Bachelor Gulch is the centerpiece of Beaver Creek's village-to-village ski experience. More intimate and removed than its Beaver Creek or Arrowhead neighbors, Bachelor Gulch proved to be the perfect setting for a family-oriented ski resort that combines privacy with authentic Rocky Mountain luxury. The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch is situated right at the base of the Bachelor Gulch chairlift, a high-speed quad chairlift, providing unparalleled ski-in, ski-out access. The daily Fire Pit Lighting Ceremony starts at 3:15 pm and is a favorite amongst guests and locals, with hot chocolate, cookie and s'mores.

Guests can literally hit the slopes and finish up the day right from the resort's back lawn. There is a wide array of other winter outdoor activities available to guests at the resort, including snowshoeing, snowmobiling, dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, and hot-air ballooning. During warmer months, guests can enjoy more than a dozen world-class Colorado courses in Vail Valley and have exclusive access to the Red Sky Golf Club, which was recently rated in "Top 100 Courses to Play" by Golf Magazine.

Other nice amenities offered by the hotel is its Ski Concierge and Ski Nanny services. The Ski Concierge provides valet service to securely store and dry skis, boards and boots for overnight hotel guests. Guests have the option to have their equipment waiting slope-side, or the Ski Concierge staff can assist with loading equipment onto the Beaver Creek shuttles. The Ski Concierge can also assist with booking lift tickets; private lessons and facilitate equipment rentals. The Ski Nanny program enables parents to enjoy their morning and hit the slopes for a day of skiing or spa, at their leisure. The Nanny will make sure the resort's young guests get on the ski school bus that takes them to Beaver Creek Village for group lessons. After a day on the slopes, the Ski Nanny will meet children at the Ski School drop-off point and escort them into Ritz Kids for munchies and a movie where parents can pick up their children at the end of the day.

The resort also boasts a 21,000-square-foot, Mobil Four-Star rated Bachelor Gulch Spa featuring 19 treatment rooms, a luxurious separate manicure/pedicure salon, and men's and women's locker rooms offering sauna/steam and water therapies. A unique feature to the Spa is the rock-lined Grotto with a lazy river hot tub. There's also a year-round heated pool and three hot tubs.

A state-of-the-art fitness center boasts beautiful views of Beaver Creek Mountain and the Vail Valley and offers a cardiovascular room with top-of-the-line Precore elliptical trainers, treadmills, step machines and stationary bicycles. All cardio machines are equipped with flat panel screens, DVD/CD players and iPod station docks. The Fitness Center also offers a full line of Cybex equipment and free weights. Certified personal trainers are on hand to assist during workouts or to provide customized one-on-one training. Classes are available in the center's aerobics room daily with classes such as Step Aerobics, Body Sculpt, Kickboxing, Yoga and Pilates.

The Ritz-Carlton offers a bevy of dining options including Spago, the only Colorado outpost of Wolfgang Puck's renowned flagship restaurant, which features imaginative, seasonal American cuisine with Asian accents in a sophisticated, warm environment. For those seeking a more rustic ambiance , there's Anderson's Cabin, which is situated just above the resort and boasts sweeping views of the surrounding National Park. There's also outdoor dining, year-round, both poolside and mountainside at The Mountainside Terrace which offers grilled Colorado specialties.

Another unique feature to The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch is its resident Labrador Retriever, Bachelor, who is available for guest walks via a Loan-a-Lab program. Available Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. and on select weekends, Bachelor can accompany guests on a 30-minute or one hour hike or snow shoe out the backdoors of The Ritz-Carlton on two designated trails.

Standard room rates vary by season and range from $195 per night for a single or double occupancy in the spring/fall to $450 in the summer and $725 in the winter. Suite rates begin at $540 per night in the summer and $950 in the winter.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed for each of the Winter Travel categories. Readers' Choice Awards for the Best in Winter Travel will be announced on January 31st.

Gallery: More from the Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch

One of Europe's finest skiing locations, Lech and Zürs offers the glamour and glitz of Milan or Paris in the setting of a quaint mountain town. Packed with top-notch restaurants, stellar scenery and copious entertainment opportunities, it has been nominated for a Readers' Choice Award in the Best International Ski Destination category.

Made up of the neighboring hamlets Lech am Arlberg and Zürs, Lech and Zürs dates back to the fourteenth century. Like many ski resorts in Austria – as opposed to ones in France and Switzerland – Lech and Zürs offers a slightly younger, more laid-back atmosphere. It is established as one of the world's greatest ski resorts and a snowy playground for Europe's rich and famous. Renowned for its five month guaranteed snow season, glamour and quality skiing, attractions include outdoor performances like "Viva Verdi: The Magic of Arias in the Alpine Landscape," a riveting performance of light, fire and passion enacted on a unique outdoor stage setting consisting of several hundred cubic meters of snow and ice with an impressive natural backdrop.

Located in a particularly snowy region, the road between Lech and Zürs is sometimes blocked during the winter, making the villages unreachable each other except by ski or snowmobile. Fortunately, the two towns are linked by countless trails and lifts. Lech is almost entirely self-sufficient thanks to a local biomass power plant.

The Lech ski lift system has a limit on the number of day passes to prevent over-crowding and queuing. A 14,000 limit on the number of day passes is strictly enforced but anyone staying in the village of Lech has a guaranteed pass during their visit. The 2009/2010 winter season began on December 4 and will last until April 24th.

The villages of Lech and Zürs have only a few dozen hotels and guest houses between them. When in the area, check out Hotel Aurelio (a nominee for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Ski Hotel) or Hotel Almhof Schneider. With an unfavorable exchange rate for Americans, an Austrian ski vacation won't be cheap, but it will no doubt be as memorable as any in the international ski destination category.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed for each of the Winter Travel categories. Readers' Choice Awards for the Best in Winter Travel will be announced on January 31st.

Gallery: More from Lech and Zurs, Austria

The sport of skiing gets a luxe boost this season from the automotive and fashion worlds thanks to new collaborations between Bentley, Paul Smith and high-end sporting good firms. Bentley has partnered with Swiss firm Zai on a "Supersports" set (top) comprised of handmade skis, poles and a ski bag worthy of bearing the famed British marque's moniker, limited to 250 pairs. The skis are fashioned from a special carbon fiber material called "Zaiìra" with a natural rubber core, and chromium-steel-infused carbon fiber for the flexible components backed up by Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites.

The Zai Supersports poles use the ExoGrid tech usually associated with the world of golf clubs. Each pair is priced at $9,800, making them some of the priciest skis on the snow. British designer Smith meanwhile has collaborated with Austrian experts Edelwiser on a pair of skis decorated in his signature multicolored stripes (above). Dubbed the Paul Smith Swing 162, at $1,000 a pair they're far more reasonable than the Bentleys. Every pair of Edelwiser skis is hand-made and built with state of the art materials like wood cores, laminated sidewalls and graphite bases for optimized flex and torsion characteristics.