Ski for free at Stowe when you stay at Topnotch Resort

Ski season is in full swing at resorts throughout the US, and now through April 10, you can “ski for free” at Topnotch Resort in Stowe, Vermont. The resort sits at the base of Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak, which reaches nearly 5,000 feet. It offers luxury accommodations on 120 acres, 40 minutes from Burlington Airport. .

This season, included in accommodations rates, you’ll also receive two adult lifts tickets to Stowe Mountain delivered by the resort’s “Ski Concierge”, shuttle service to and from the mountain, and overnight ski storage. Rentals are available from the resort’s Nordic Barn. In addition to skiing, the resort offers tennis, a spa, and horseback trail rides.

Rates start at $250 (plus tax) for weekdays and $350 for weekends. Blackout dates include January 28-30, February 7-20, February 25-27, and March 21-23. Rate outside of the promotion start at $300 per night, and lift tickets at Stowe can cost $84 per day per person, so this deal would save you around $200 per day for two skiers….which means more money for apres ski fun and hot toddies by the fire.

New England: dirty, sexy, sweet

Mud and maple shroud every New England spring. Thanks to an economic climate that is devastating the travel industry, you can indulge for cheaper than ever. Properties in the New England Inns & Resorts Association (NEIRA) are adding maple to mud as the snow melts, and some are throwing in a bit of spice.

Mud & Maple Madness: Inn at Ellis River, Jackson, NH
From March 15 to May 21, pick up two nights at the Inn at Ellis River, and breakfast and lunch daily. The price (which starts at $479) also includes dinner for two and two massages.

Inn the Mood for Mud: Inn by the Sea, Cape Elizabeth, ME
For $679, pick up a night in a room with ocean views and a fireplace! (Hey, that’s a big deal to a city-dweller like me.) Strawberries drizzled with Rich Maine Mud chocolate Sauce™ will be waiting for you in your room, along with two mudslide cocktails and L.L. Bean gum boots (to make walking in the mud easier). The spa treatment for this package? You guessed it … mud mask.

Tap at Trapp: Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe, VT
From March 13 to April 13, $490 will get you two nights at the Trapp Family Lodge, breakfast every day, a sugaring demonstration and a traditional maple sap gathering experience. On Saturdays, you’ll be able to participate in the “sugar on snow” party.

Dirty, Sexy, Sweet: Colonnade Hotel, Boston, MA
A free car wash will remove the mud from your ride, a nice addition to the one-night stay in Boston’s Back Bay. The $279 room rate also includes Chocolate Mud Mousse for two, with sweet maple liquor, delivered to your room. Apparently, you won’t want to go downstairs for dessert.

Sound of Music family’s Vermont lodge and ski resort still going strong

Certainly any kid who imagined him or herself a singer pictured what it would be like to be dressed in a play-suit made of curtains leaping about Salzburg, Austria with the von Trapp children as they sang “doe a deer.” I certainly did.

When the von Trapps escaped from Nazi-ruled Austria during World War II, they eventually landed in Stowe, Vermont as the Trapp Family Singers who made money by performing and opening a ski resort lodge. After the movie “The Sound of Music” came out in 1965, the real family and their ski resort and lodge gained even more notoriety.

I read in this New York Times article that Sam von Trapp, the grandson of Maria and the captain, immortalized by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, is the newest von Trapp to take over the business. He’s happy to do it since, from what I understand, no one asks him who he was in the movie. A generation of distance from tinseltown fame helps.

Recognizing that “The Sound of Music “connection is one that brings business, Sam is running commercials advertising the Trapp Family Lodge on tonight’s showing of the movie on ABC. He also plans to bring back holiday singalongs like the good old days.

The one song I can sing reasonably on key is “Edelweiss.” If you’re ever at the singalong, see if that’s on the list of options. If you want to sing the song along with the movie von Trapp’s, click here.