A just-released report states that Colorado has the nation's two most expensive ski destinations, with four-day vacations topping out well over $4,000 for 2 adults. Compiled by Hipmunk, a San Francisco-based travel booking website, the study looked at 16 of America's most popular ski destinations to discover the average cost of a vacation during the February and March ski season. To no one's surprise, Vail earned the number one spot and pricey Aspen came in at number two.
The specifics: Hipmunk used data from 2015 to determine what the average hotel and flight costs were at 16 ski areas that experience a high number of skiers each year. These resorts are spread throughout 5 states: Colorado (5), California (3), Utah (2), Montana (2), Vermont (2), and New Mexico (1). Finally, Hipmunk included the cost of lift tickets and for consistency's sake, used online prices to ski on January 13, 2016.
Prices for the trip were for two adults and included round-trip flights, four nights in a hotel, and three days of skiing. Here is how everything added up:
Vail is the most expensive, over $1,000 more than Breckenridge (#3). Colorado is also clearly one of the most expensive states to ski, with four out of the five costliest resorts. But it also has the least expensive resort town featured, Winter Park, where a four-night vacation costs only $1,840.
It's no surprise that California resorts are more affordable, but there are a few destinations that didn't make the list. We're curious how resorts like Jackson Hole, Deer Valley, Steamboat Springs, Sun Valley, Killington, and Banff stack up against the 16 resorts included here.
For data junkies, here's how the ski areas compared on the individual metrics (hotel price, lift ticket price, and flight price):
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