Month: January 2016

At the top of Hidden Peak, Snowbird, Utah

Getting to Snowbird, Utah

by The Impatient Traveler, posted in Snowbird Skiing, Snowbird, Utah

After a very hectic first three days of New Year’s week, I finally wrapped up at work, grabbed my keys, and jetted home to embark on our long-weekend getaway to Snowbird, Utah! As we packed the night before, it was a grab the bags, energy drink, and go situation to get out of the house. Expecting holiday rush hour traffic at 4 PM on a Wednesday, we planned for lots of traffic time, but the travel Gods parted the highway seas for us and we arrived at the airport, checked our bad, and passed through security with 2+ hours to spare. Pros of being early – no stress. Cons of being early – spending 2+ hours in an airport…

Anyway, we squeezed into a two-top at the airport Chilis for a quick bite. I spent the majority of that dinner eavesdropping on the two single travelers next to us that serendipitously made a love connection over chips and salsa. Yay, airport entertainment!

Our plane boarded on time and I spent most of the 2.5 hour flight catching up on the gossip magazines and looking out of the window at all of the city lights. Flying over cities at night is pretty, but doing so while people still have their Christmas lights up is a completely different experience. There is something so enchanting about twinkle lights and it was just that much better once we landed, hopped on our Canyon Transportation van, and drove through the city where the twinkle lights combined with the snow’s reflection. Oh to live in a state with snow…

While we did have to wait about 30 minutes for our transport van to show up, our shared ride there was easy and warm, which was especially good because it was 0, yes 0, degrees out! We had some good conversations with the local driver and other fellow Snowbird travelers during the ride, arrived at the Cliff Lodge around 10:30, checked in, and then unpacked for our first day on the slopes!

Utah travel tips:

  • Bring eye drops, lotion, and chapstick as the air is very dry.
  • Hydrate starting the day before your trip and drink lots of water throughout. The elevation and dryness in the air will be much worse if you don’t.
  • Ask your hotel if they have a humidifier in the room. Most hotels have them and it makes a huge difference when you are trying to sleep.
  • Decided if you want to rent a car or get a transport to the hotel. If you feel safe driving in snowy conditions and want to go to multiple slopes / places, renting is a good option! If you are not a snow day driver and / or are only staying on-location, do the transport option.

 

View of the coast in Miraflores, Lima Peru

Lima, Peru – Day 1

by The Impatient Traveler, posted in Lima, Peru

I am not typically an early morning person, but on trips, the excitement and need to experience as much as possible gets me up bright and early. By 8 am, we were up and getting our needed nourishment for the day at the breakfast buffet. The hotel had these bright pink sausages that looked very strange but tasted delicious – I am never shy about trying something new and potentially tasty!

As our city tour did not start until after lunch, we decided to walk down to cliffs overlooking the beach. It was quite the journey getting down the stairs from the cliffs to the rocky coastline, but totally worth it. My mom wanted to “test the water temp” and needed my dad’s help traversing the rocks to get to the ocean. Unfortunately for my philanthropic father, my mom accidentally pulled him in the wrong direction and straight into an on coming wave that completely soaked through his sneakers! His sloshing sneakers marked the way back up the stairway to the coast trail lined with sculptures, amazing views, and gorgeous foliage.

The 70 degree, sunny day seemed to prompt everyone with the same “lets walk the coast” idea as us. It was packed! There were slack liners, dog walkers, hang gliders, work-outers, and all other types on the trails with us. We people-watched our way to this great outdoor shopping plaza overlooking the coast that housed our lunch destination – a resultant called Mangos. Not only is the patio view from Mangos out of this world, but the ceviche … the ceviche!! I felt like we were in food heaven “cheers”-ing with our pisco sours. If you visit Miraflores, you have to go to Mangos!

After one of the best meals I have ever had, we met our tour guide, and hopped on the van for our downtown adventure. The buildings in downtown Lima are heavily influenced by the French and Italian and are extremely ornate. Our van dropped us off at the Church of St. Francis for a walk-through. The church is packed with gorgeous, old murals that have both Spanish and Peruvian influence. It was fascinating to learn how the styles of the various cultures merged into the art hanging before us. We were also escorted below the church to the maze of a crypts that held over 25K bodies! Slightly creepy but still amazing to see.

A few blocks down from the church is the main square and Government Palace of Peru. We walked around the square, taking in all of the sights, until the sun set and our van picked us up.

We freshened up at the hotel and headed back to the Cat Park to look at the local art and find a spot for dinner. We ended up at a place called Alfresco based on the hotel’s recommendation – another winner! I had a fabulous sea bass in a shrimp and coconut sauce, while Ryan and my sister had delicious curries. We did have some food envy though when the table next to ours got their branzino… until our apple crumble ice-cream desert arrived! So yummy!

Thankfully, we were able to walk off our big dinner on the way home. In fact, based on my FitBit, we walked over 8.83 miles touring Lima. What a fabulous first full day to the trip!

At the top of Hidden Peak, Snowbird, Utah

Booking Ski Trips 101

by The Impatient Traveler, posted in Snowbird, Utah, Tips & Tricks

When your travel buddy has 4.5 days of vacation left for the year, it’s basically a crime not to take advantage of them. For that reason, I suggested that we embark on a ski adventure. It took some elbow grease to get the idea set into motion, but one hour on the couch and a great deal on New Year’s travel later, we had a 4 night stay booked at a highly reviewed resort called the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird, Utah!

You know the saying “hindsight is 20/20”? Well that really applies to this trip. Immediately after booking, I clicked into the mountain reviews. They were extremely positive but I started noticing that very advanced skiers were the ones writing the reviews and they were raving about how fantastically challenging the mountain was. That is fine and good but Ryan, my travel buddy boyfriend, was a first time skier and I hadn’t thought to look up things like “best places for first time skiing”. (Duh…) I was basically having an “OMG, what did we do?!” moment on the couch approximately two minutes after booking! After researching more about the amazing ski school at Snowbird and learning that about 30% of the runs are green, I felt better about our decision, considering it was basically non-refundable.

Snowbird Mountain Trail Map

Unfortunately, I then had another thought. “What about the nightlife / other activities outside of skiing?”. Ryan and I planned a 4 day stay over New Years Eve and I wasn’t sure exactly how many days we would actually ski. What if Ryan didn’t like it or one of us got hurt? Snowbird had a spa but outside of that and snowshoeing, it didn’t seem as though there was much else to do for an entire day. Also, while its only 30 minutes to Salt Lake City or an hour to Gorgoza Park for snow tubing, the cost of transport to those places was a few hundred dollars – a big limiting factor. Again, our trip was booked so we couldn’t change the reservation, but this still made me nervous.

Fortunately for us, the Snowbird trails ended up being completely amazing and we were able to find plenty of slopes to fit our skill levels. Ryan’s ski class went exceedingly well and he picked it up like a pro! As you will read in the next round of Snowbird posts, we ended up skiing for 3 of the 4 days, but were also able to find things to do at the resort to fill our time off of the slopes.

Things to consider when booking a ski / snowboarding trip:

  • Proximity of the slopes to the airport – depending on where you choose, the slopes can be hours away, meaning lots of travel time through potentially snowy roads. Utah has a bunch of options within an hour drive of the SLC airport which is why we picked Utah in the first place.
  • Cost of lift tickets and gear rentals – prices vary from place to place so do some research before you book if you are on a budget.
  • Local area nightlife – each ski town has its own personality and size. Some places, like Snowbird, are pretty isolated so you stay on the premise. Other places, like Park City, have a much bigger “scene” with lots of options.
  • Non-ski activity offerings – consider the length of your stay vs. the days you will actually be on the slopes and if all of your party wants to ski / snowboard the entire trip.
  • Ease and cost of travel to other places – if you do want to explore other areas for skiing / snowboarding or for other activities, look up how far the distance between the areas is and call and ask local transport (your hotel will have this information) for costing. Snowbird’s slopes actually have a ski-in, ski-out connection to the neighboring Alta Ski slopes, so for $30 more a day, you have the option to ski either range. An awesome perk for a longer ski trip.

Skis on the lift - Snowbird, Utah