The Most Affordable Ski Resorts for Your Next Winter Getaway

Winter is approaching in the northern hemisphere, and with it comes the arrival of ski season.

Ski resorts across the country are starting to open up, but the cost of a snowy getaway could lead many to keep their wallets closed — especially after a summer of vacationing. Fortunately, travelers have a few options in the wintertime.

Vacation rental site HomeToGo put together its forecast of the most affordable ski destinations throughout the U.S. and Canada for the upcoming season. The list shows that a weekend on the slopes may be more affordable than you first thought.

Coming in at No. 1 is the Bridger Bowl Ski Area in Gallatin County, Mont. The total cost for an adult to spend one day and night at the resort comes out to just under $160 after factoring in equipment rental, a lift ticket, lunch and accommodation, according to HomeToGo. Considering lift tickets at other resorts can regularly surpass more than $100 alone, that’s quite a bargain.

Montana is also home to the second-most affordable ski vacation, according to HomeToGo. Red Lodge Mountain, named after the town it inhabits, can be traversed for roughly $166 a day and night, the company found.

Rounding out the top five is California’s Snow Summit in Big Bear Lake, New Hampshire’s Cranmore Mountain Resort, and Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, just north of the border in the Canadian province of Québec. These three resorts can be had for no more than $186.71 a day, HomeToGo found.

Some of the more popular ski resorts made the list as well: Heavenly Mountain, Breckenridge, Deer Valley and Vail Mountain are included in the top 35, but they tend to fall towards the lower half of the table with the highest being Heavenly Mountain at number 26. Chalk it up as the price of fame, we suppose.

HomeToGo said it used information provided on the resorts’ websites to calculate equipment rental and lift ticket prices. Lunch prices were determined by the cost of a hamburger and fries with a soda at a “mid-range restaurant” on the ski slopes. Finally, the company said it used its own metasearch data from its vacation rentals on the resorts to calculate the accommodation cost