Northeast small town winter cabins?

[caleb]

There are two ski resorts in and near Duluth.

https://mdlresort.com/

This is a small resort with onsite lodging. Low key spot.

https://www.spiritmt.com/

This is the city owned ski resort. Larger resort and they’ve had some recent financial difficulties, but looks like they’ll be open this year.

Chester Bowl appears to still be open, too: https://www.chesterbowl.org

[TTX1]

2.5 hours from Boston to Woodstock, VT. Perfect town. It will feel like an old-school xmas with or without snow. There will be amazing trees, and mulled cider, and hot chocolate. If there is snow, you've got the recently re-branded Suicide Six in town, which is A+ for kids. Or you can drive ~30 mins to Killington, which will have more open terrain than just about anywhere - manmade or otherwise.

I also like the Montreal / Mon Tremblant idea a lot, too - with or without a trip up to QC.

Both options are solid memory makers.

[David in Maine]

Camp Mercier north of Quebec City is great. Nice, simple cabins right next to XC ski trails. Also has a sledding hill and snow shoe trails. Downhill skiing nearby. There are small towns nearby, and of course Quebec City. We've had great luck with snow. Another lovely spot is Val David in the Laurentians north of Montreal. Great XC trails and close to Tremblant. There has always been snow there in February when we typically have gone.

David

[cny rider]

I’m late to the party but the most snow in the US east of the Mississippi falls on the Tug Hill plateau in New York.
Fly into Syracuse and drive north. It’s the elevated area east of Lake Ontario.
The towns are very small and isolated but that’s where you’ll often find snow when nobody else has any.
I’d look around Turin.
There’s access to downhill and cross country trails.
There are some restaurants but it sure ain’t Quebec City or Montreal which are also great choices.

[bcm119]

^Yep, especially early in the season (when the lakes are still warm), as long as there's been a shot or two of arctic air, there will be snow on the Tug hill plateau. Lake effect is far more reliable than nor'easters.

[heybusti]

Quick update on this. I found an incredible cabin in Jamaica, VT. Small Swedish-modern looking place in a small town and nearby what seem to be very quaint and cute towns. It's also a short drive (9 miles) from Stratton Mountain which apparently has 99 trails, so I can get simple ski lessons for the kids and spend a day or two on the slopes. It's a 2-hour drive from Hartford and 3 hours from Boston. With some luck we'll have pretty decent snow from DEC 28 - JAN 3, and worst case, the mountain will have a combination of real snow and manmade stuff.

I'll be sure to take plenty of pics and share an update when I return - but I'm really excited about this one!

[SlowPokePete]

Jamaica is such a cute little town.

Back in my whitewater days I went there twice a year, Spring and Fall, for the scheduled dam release on the West River.

Had many good times camping out at Jamaica State Park and paddling ALL weekend.

SPP

[heybusti]

That's really cool SPP. Sounds like a blast.

I'm glad to hear good things about Jamaica. A buddy of mine from Boston said he'd never been, but that he'd visited Londonberry nearby years ago and that it was a great little town. I'm really excited for this. Booked two days of ski lessons for the family at Stratton Mountain, and want to spend the remaining days enjoying the cabin, hopefully playing in the snow, and checking out some of these small towns.

[htwoopup]

A couple of other airports to check if you haven’t yet book flights..Albany which is maybe 2 1/2 hours and Burlington which is like next door.

[Bobonli]

You mention wanting your kids to experience snow. When I was in your position with my twins, my goal was to get them on skis quickly at a place without lots of crowds. That eliminated most of the bigger ski places in NY. We settled on Bromley in VT, a few minutes from lovely Manchester where there are Air BnBs and a few nice hotels. I don't know about cabins in the area. Manchester also has a Lincoln Estate to hike thru and other things to do. There's also Fortuna's sausage company!

But back to kids and snow. We plunked down the Visa card and enrolled the kids in all-day ski academy. When we picked them up at 3pm they were able ski under control on the mellower Blue trails. We waited for the next day to tackle the smooth black diamond. It's a small, but not too small place with a family friendly vibe. Manchester is delightful.

[heybusti]

htwoopup, thank you! Fortunately Miami has direct flights into Hartford which is only about 1:45 from Jamaica. So we're flying into Hartford and driving straight to Jamaica from there. For the return, we're driving to Boston, spending a day there, and flying back to Miami from Boston. It's a 3-hour drive from Jamaica, but the return flights were very convenient and I'm sure we'll have a good time with one day in Boston.

Bobonli, my kids have never seen snow so we went ahead and booked 2 days in a row of half-day lessons. The folks over at Stratton Mountain suggested we do half days since we're from a warm climate and the kids might have a really hard time spending all day in the cold! This is sort of a "test run" ski trip to see how they like it, before we plan something bigger in the Spring and really immerse them.

I'm really excited about this trip. Lined up a nice camera to borrow and looking forward to some quality time and beautiful scenery. I'll be sure to post photos and write a follow-up!

Thanks for all the input here, gave me much more confidence to pull this off... now I just need to figure out how the hell to keep everyone warm!

[j44ke]

htwoopup, thank you! Fortunately Miami has direct flights into Hartford which is only about 1:45 from Jamaica. So we're flying into Hartford and driving straight to Jamaica from there. For the return, we're driving to Boston, spending a day there, and flying back to Miami from Boston. It's a 3-hour drive from Jamaica, but the return flights were very convenient and I'm sure we'll have a good time with one day in Boston.

Bobonli, my kids have never seen snow so we went ahead and booked 2 days in a row of half-day lessons. The folks over at Stratton Mountain suggested we do half days since we're from a warm climate and the kids might have a really hard time spending all day in the cold! This is sort of a "test run" ski trip to see how they like it, before we plan something bigger in the Spring and really immerse them.

I'm really excited about this trip. Lined up a nice camera to borrow and looking forward to some quality time and beautiful scenery. I'll be sure to post photos and write a follow-up!

Thanks for all the input here, gave me much more confidence to pull this off... now I just need to figure out how the hell to keep everyone warm!

Long underwear. Put it on and don’t take it off until spring.

[RSCROSS]

Woodstock Vermont....period