These days, many hotels are trading their high-end amenities for deals and discounts. But don’t worry, there are still some places where you can find absurdly expensive novelties to absorb your vacation dollars. Case in point: the Millionaire Margarita we spied recently on the menu at the Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch Buffalo Bar. For $125 a pop, you can catch a buzz courtesy of this concoction’s Herradura Suprema tequila (the stuff retails for around $300 a bottle), Grand Marnier 150 (which goes for upwards of $170 a bottle) and fresh lime juice. Just don’t forget to tip.

Here’s an example of just how good the ski season deals are getting this year: downhill divas and snow-seekers can hit the slopes and bunk in overnight at Stowe, VT for under $100, as long as they’re willing to visit midweek before Feb. 12 and don’t mind scheduling the trip around pesky blackout dates (like stays Jan. 16-Jan.24, a big chunk, are not included in the promo rate).

The Stowe Stay & Ski not only offers 15 to 20 percent off rack rates for midweek stays, but also comes with a free Stowe Points Card for each person in your group, based on double occupancy. You can use the card to purchase an adult lift ticket or to pay for food, beverages and other mountain purchases. A look today at available lodging options showed plenty of budget, no-frills options at under $100 a night, but there are also great deals in the $109-$200 range at such places as Stowehof Inn, Innsbruck Inn at Stowe and Green Mountain Inn.

The number one reason we love winter? Snowy mountains, of course. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of flying down a perfectly-groomed slope with the blues skies above and the wind in your ears. To make your next winter ski trip the travel triumph of the season that it deserves to be, keep our tried-and-true tips for easier, cheaper and better ski travel in mind before you go:

1. Avoid connecting flights when possible. Delayed luggage poses more of a problem during a ski vacation than many other types of trips, and the chances of luggage mishaps increase dramatically when connections are involved – especially when you’re heading somewhere with winter storm potential. Winter sports gear is notoriously expensive, so unless you’re living really, really large, it’s unlikely you’d want to buy an extra set of mountain necessities while you wait for wayward bags. Instead, you’ll end up sitting in the lodge until your gear catches up to you – a painful experience when it’s your one big ski trip of the year. Whenever possible, book direct flights to your destination.

2. Consider shipping gear. Shipping luggage and winter sports gear saves you the hassle and expense of airline fees for checked bags and ensures that your mountain must-haves will be at your destination when you arrive. The downside, of course, is that shipping luggage can be expensive. If you choose this method, plan to ship gear out at least a week before your departure. That way, you’ll get the most reasonable shipping rates.

3. Buy lift tickets in advance. Several weeks before your trip, check with the mountain resort you plan to visit to assess lift ticket prices and discount plans. In many cases, buying lift tickets in advance online translates to significant savings. At Vail Resorts, for example, buying tickets 7 days in advance will save adults $39 on a three-day lift ticket. Another example? At Aspen and Snowmass, a 7-day advance purchase will save adults $15 on a three-day lift ticket and $20 off group lessons.

4. Reserve rentals online before you go. Many ski and snowboard rental companies offer discounted rates to those who reserve and pay for gear online. What’s more, reserving gear in advance not only saves you money. It’s also likely to cut the time you spend at the shop once you arrive at your destination.

5. Reserve roof racks for car rentals. If you book a car rental reservation online before your trip, you may not be able to select seasonal extras like roof racks for transporting skis and snowboards at the time of booking. Still, there’s no need to wait until you arrive at the car rental desk to request items like this. After booking your reservation online, call the car rental customer service number and ask to be connected to the local office at your destination. The representatives there should be able to add the extra request to your reservation. That way, you’ll have a car outfitted with the appropriate rack one you arrive. It can save time at the rental car desk and get you where you’re going faster.

In what may come close to being every skier’s worst nightmare, an unidentified man was photographed last week as he slipped from the seat of Vail Resort’s Big Sky Basin chairlift, only to endure the frightening and humiliating experience of being caught by his ski and hanging upside down and – improbably – pantsless for 15 minutes until rescuers could back the chair up and remove him. Photographs snapped by onlookers have been flying around the web, thanks to The Smoking Gun. As of yet, there’s no explanation of how or why the chair malfunctioned, leaving its rider in such an, um, over-exposed position.

[Source: Jaunted]

Here’s something you don’t see often in the travel world: ski resorts cutting their lift ticket prices before the season is even in full swing.

But that’s what’s happening at Vail Resorts this year, thanks to the gloomy economy. Today Vail Resorts announced that it will roll back prices for multi-day lift tickets to match last year’s at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly. You’ll get the best deal when you buy tickets for three or more days at least seven days before you hit the mountain. Ticket prices vary depending on the mountain. Here’s a brief rundown of the pricing, courtesy of Vail Resorts:

This season’s best pricing is available when guests purchase a three or more day PEAKS advance ticket seven days in advance. Three-day adult rates include $249 ($83 per day) for Breckenridge and Keystone, $267 ($89 per day) for Vail and Beaver Creek and $228 ($76 per day) for Heavenly. These rates represent up to $27 off of the lead single-day window rate which is $92 for Breckenridge and Keystone, $97 for Vail and Beaver Creek and $82 for Heavenly.

Plenty of seasonal hotels and resorts throw open their doors during summer months and happily shut down during the cold, slow days of winter. But summer can’t have all the fun.

We’re giving winter-only lodging some much-deserved love today with a look at four hotels that thrive on the cold, snow and ice. If you want to visit these, you’ll have to bundle up and bunk in before the first thaw.

1. Ice Hotel

There’s no need to worry about out-dated accommodations at this hotel in the village of Jukkasjarvi, located some 200km north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden’s Lapland region. Each year, artists and builders create the hotel anew using water from the nearby Torne River. Rooms and suites are the work of innovative artists and architects and feature such far-out elements as frozen whirlpools, ice sculptures and translucent beds. This year, the hotel welcomes the addition of an Absolut Icebar, which offers guests a glowing lounge complete with icy booths draped in fur throws for evening imbibing.

2. Hotel de Glace

Spending the night in North America’s only ice hotel means sleeping on a bed made atop a solid base of ice, but don’t fret. Open annually from January to March, the Quebec hotel provides guests with arctic-ready sleeping bags, and the specially-designed hotel bathrooms are heated. A Nordic relaxation area outfitted with outdoor hot tubs and a dry sauna gives overnighters several worthy reasons to escape the cold. Guests here typically head here just for the night. While hotel tours are offered during the day, overnight accommodations are only available from 9pm to 8am.

3. Hotel Garni Bel Ami

Tucked away high in the Austrian Alps, this winter-only hotel puts guests on the slopes of the Silvretta Galtur ski area from December through April each year. Rooms are moderately-priced, simply furnished in natural wood beds and armoires and include access to the hotel’s steam and sauna facilities. Especially good deals that include lift tickets to the adjacent ski area are available when you book a seven-day stay. Another perk? At night, the inn’s owners are usually there for fireside chats with guests in the bar area.

4. Arlberg Hospiz Hotel

Also in the Austrian Alps, this St. Christophe hotel houses single, double, suite and apartment-style rooms in a building whose history dates back to 1386. Set amid towering snowdrifts and the steep slopes of the surrounding mountains, the overall vibe is upscale, with rates climbing well past 600 euro per night in many cases. In recent years, the hotel has added an impressive spa area with both Eastern and Western treatments, an indoor pool, fitness facilities and plunge pools. Note that the surrounding resort area is small, equally exclusive and probably best for skiers with at least intermediate or better skills.

As of today, skiers in Taos, New Mexico will know the joy of sharing the mountain with one-planking snowboarders. After years of deprivation, skiers at this southwestern ski resort area will, like their two-plank brethren around the nation, spend their days dodging snowboarders huddling in groups in the middle of groomed runs, avoiding sad sack beginners as they bounce tail bone-over-wrist down the mountain and envying the cool snowboard graphics lacking on their own skinny rides.

After years of being a ski-only mountain, Taos has finally decided to allow snowboarders to share the slopes. It’s a smart move, regardless of what the opposition (and there is one, a vocal one) says, for a resort as isolated as this one. The few remaining ski-only resorts in the country (Alta, Mad River Glen, Deer Valley) are located near competing mountains that allow both sports. That gives families and groups with both skiers and snowboarders choices. But instead of the ban at Taos attracting more visitors with its exclusive policy, it had the effect of sending more and more people, skiers included, out of state for fun in the snow.

The resort is kicking off the new policy with a celebratory weekend of events sponsored by Red Bull.

If you’re going to be in New York this weekend and you love travel, consider checking out the New York Times Travel Show, a veritable smorgasbord of travel information from resorts, hotels, spas, cruise lines, tour operators, tourist agencies and adventure travel companies from around the world. Along with vendor booths and live entertainment performances representing a vast array of cultures, the show features a Taste of the World Pavilion filled with international cuisine and cooking demonstrations, a Spa Pavilion offering sample treatments and discounted packages at spa resorts, travel author appearances and special travel deals offered to folks brave enough to book their next vacation on the spot. And with travel experts Rick Steves, Arthur Frommer, Ian Wright and Stephanie Abrams – among many others – leading seminars, the show offers a rare chance for face-to-face learning from leading peeps in the industry. Cost: $15.

Yup, you heard right. A mere three weeks remain before the deadline for Burton’s Poach for Freedom Contest, which will award $5,000 for the best video of snowboarders riding terrain at each of the four remaining North American ski resorts where snowboarding is not allowed:

Mad River Glen, VT

Alta, UT

Deer Valley, UT

Taos, NM*

Video entries have started to come in. I’m personally a fan of the vid featuring a nerdy, Napoleon Dynamite-esque duo – fanny packs and all – who get their calisthenics on before taking Vermont’s Mad River Glen by storm early one morning.

* Taos has announced that it will begin allowing snowboarders for the first time beginning on March 19, 2008.

Boy, am I stoked to go skoarding this weekend! Hmmm. Sounds like an old lady with too many snowmen in her yard. What about, we’re planning to hit the slopes for a little planking! Hmm. No, sounds like something Dr. Phil would tell you never to do to your children. There’s always the obvious and more benign term snurfing. As in, snurf’s up, dudes!

Each of the above words has been entered in Ski Utah’s 2008 Ski-Snowboard Lingo Contest, a month-long search for a new term to replace the cumbersome compound noun “skiing and snowboarding.” The contest, which runs through March 4, has two winning categories:

- The best new catchall term for skiing and snowboarding

- The best new skiing and snowboarding lingo or term related to the sports, but not necessarily a catchall phrase

The winner in the catchall category will win a two-day ski trip hosted by Ski Utah in April. The winner in the best new lingo category wins two lift tickets to the Canyons and 10 t-shirts sporting the new word. Clearly, for everyone who does not happen to live in Utah, concentrating on the catchall term makes more sense.

Contest judges include pro skiers Julian Carr and Kristen Ulmer, as well as editors from Transworld Snowboarding and Powder magazines.

To participate, submit your word online. Make sure to select the Ski/Snowboard Lingo Contest before you submit.