When you try to take your kids to the ski countries during the summer season, they will almost definitely show their desagreement by saying: "No!" but that is the normal reaction from any kid. Anyway, if you have decided to go to the ski countries during the summer, then you definitely need to have a look at the msnbc.com article below and see how you can make it all easier:
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By Eileen Ogintz
Got the M&Ms?
Wherever we hike in the mountains, a little chocolate therapy does wonders when the kids are tired and the adults are cranky. Hand out a sweet treat and those vistas — fields of wildflowers, craggy peaks — are guaranteed to seem that much more spectacular whether you are on foot, mountain bikes or riding a ski resort chair lift.
Yes, ski resorts in summer. They might just be the best vacation value going in this summer of great vacation values. Ski instructors around the country whisper that they came to the mountains for the snow but stayed — raising kids in ski towns — because of the glorious mountain summers. There is so much to do — everything from whitewater rafting to free concerts, mountain biking to camping and alpine slides. And it's so cheap! Lodging can be more than 50 percent less than what it is in winter, says Dan Sherman of ski.com, which has just launched summermountaintravel.com. You can even snare a deal on a luxury resort.
If tony Aspen and Vail were out of reach last winter, now's your chance. In fact, to encourage families to visit in summer, for the first time, Vail Resorts has launched all-inclusive summer vacations complete with airport pickup, guided hikes, mountain picnics, visits to Rocky Mountain National Park and even a parents night out. Also check out vailallthelove.com for more deals on everything from lodging to restaurants to shopping.
Book three nights and get a fourth free at many Aspen hotels — along with a coupon book good for discounts at everything from admission to the Aspen Music Festival (where kids 17 and under are free this summer) to two-for-one rock climbing and even a free candy bar from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I especially like the newly renovated Limelight Lodge. Right in downtown Aspen, the Limelight has been owned by the same family for more than 50 years. If you are looking for an adventure with your kids, you can hike and stay at some of the 29 backcountry 10th Mountain Huts or take a free guided hike atop Aspen Mountain with naturalists from the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies. The skateboarders in your gang will also love the Rio Grande Skate Park, considered one of the best in the country.
Don't forget ski resorts on the East and West Coasts either. Waterville Valley, N.H., — in the middle of 770,000 acres of the White Mountain National Forest — offers all-inclusive packages that start at just $45 a person a night, including golf, canoeing, and mountain bike lessons. And in Vermont — which is celebrating the Lake Champlain Quadracentenial with an array of special activities — Smugglers' Notch Resort has slashed summer prices by as much as 20 percent. Come in June and child care at its first-rate nursery is half off, too. In California, Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort offers the widest variety of mountain biking of any park in California — and lots of stay-and-bike packages.
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