[quote=ctr70]”I also must have lift-serviced skiing within a couple of hours of my home, so Florida is out for me”
If you are talking about Big Bear, I wouldn’t even call that skiing. I would rather not ski at all than go to Big Bear.
You have a crushing 7 hour drive to get to Mammoth to get any real skiiing living in SD. With all the money you would save on housing in FL, you could just fly to REAL skiiing in Utah or CO 3-4 times a year! A flight from FL to Salt Lake is faster than driving to Mammoth.[/quote]
Very true, ctr70, I have flown to CO to ski but IMO, this is a VERY expensive ski-cation.
I have stayed overnight at Big Bear resorts but I don’t think they’re worth it, either.
Regarding Mammoth and Tahoe resorts, if you rent a condo and purchase all your own food for a week close to home and carry it in ice chest(s) (to save a couple hundred more) and also have *YOUR OWN* vehicle to drive to different lifts to start from in the mornings, then driving is the way to go (7.5 to 11 hrs – depending on conditions). I have also driven to CO toting all this stuff, but took a larger vehicle and 2-3 drivers – to trade off driving.
I have also flown to CO to ski. If you are going to eat lunch and/or dinner out every day at the resort and/or rent a vehicle when you deplane, this will significantly add to the cost of an already-expensive trip. Buying groceries and carrying them back to your condo on a free shuttle is doable but most groceries are much more expensive in ski towns, even in the same stores we have at home (i.e. Vons/Safeway). Must be the “remote trucking,” monopolistic and “captive-audience” factors – lol!
I do agree that FL RE is DIRT CHEAP right now. I have some very well-off relatives considering buying property there, furnishing it, leaving it vacant and hiring an occasional gardener, just so they can use it to golf there two weeks per year, in February :=)
