I Wanna Walk in a Winter Wonderland!

December 23, 2011 4:47 AM

Help me decide on a quiet but accessible winter retreat destination for snow play?

I am researching a wintery retreat for a group of friends (8 or less). We live in the DC metro area but are willing to fly for this retreat anywhere within the USA or drive up to 4.5 hours from here. Place should be within a 3 hour drive of an airport. I want a place that has the right mix of isolated quiet feel close to nature and God with CC/snowshoe trails but also standard downhill skiing with lifts nearby for those who want to do that. We'd be renting a cabin. Aspen and Mt. Washington both meet my ideas for this kind of place but I want to find a destination I've not been to before. Can you recommend some specific towns I should consider based on your experience?

posted by TestamentToGrace to travel & transportation around United States (4 answers total)

How about Jay Peak in Vermont? It's in far northern VT on the border and the area around it is lovely. I've never stayed there overnight but a google search turned up some cute cabins. There aren't any cities nearby so it's pretty isolated, minus the skiing stuff. Also they just got an indoor waterpark!
posted by pintapicasso at 5:10 AM on December 23, 2011

New York's Catskills have a couple of decent ski resorts, and scores of trails all through; and the whole upstate NY/Hudson Valley area could really use a boost right now because the area suffered massive flood damages aftger Hurricane Irene.

More specifically, I also just so happen to know of a place available for rent that's very near one of the aforementioned ski sites; it's based in a really teeny-tiny itsy-bitsy town that is still nevertheless within convenient driving distance to larger towns if you get into a "I want to see more civilization" mood. Or you could just walk through the town itself (seriously, every time I've gone there's maybe three cars on the road a day), and the house is about a five-minute walk from "main street," which consists of about seven or eight little storefronts and a couple diners. It's about 3-4 hours' drive from New York at most, as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:40 AM on December 23, 2011

(D'oh, forgot to add the disclaimer: my friends own that rental place I mentioned, so I have a tiny bias. But I also have stayed there and it's a great little place in its own right; the stargazing from that deck is amazing.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:42 AM on December 23, 2011

Alleghany State Park is a vast winter wonderland with cabins, near Holiday Valley ski resort. Not sure whether you'd drive there from DC, or fly into Buffalo and rent a car.
posted by vitabellosi at 5:46 AM on December 23, 2011