Best in the West Lift Ticket Deals (post turkey day)

Hey everyone,  hope you had a great holiday, it sure was nice to have some turkey, stuffing, and all things calorie-heavy last week.

While the east coast is still waiting on a cold snap and more snow, there are many areas out west that have great ski conditions, and below are some of the best discount lift ticket deals available this week.  There are a bunch of new resorts, and keep an eye on our site as more will be loading in the next week or two.

Colorado Lift Ticket Deals

• Arapahoe Basin lift tickets – Tuesday 12/01 for $20 (59% off)
• Copper Mountain lift tickets – Tuesday through Friday for $54.99 (15% off)
• Crested Butte lift tickets – All dates until 12/16 for $45.99 (22% off)
• Keystone Ticket + $15 Lunch Credit until 12/20 for $60 (33% off)
• Loveland lift tickets – All dates until 12/11 for $29.99 (35% off)
• Monarch lift tickets – Midweek for $43.99 (18% off)
• Ski Cooper lift tickets – All dates for the next few weeks for $34.99 (17% off)
• Sunlight lift tickets – Friday the 4th for $28.99 (42% off)
• Winter Park lift tickets – Friday the 4th for $75 (18% off)

Utah Lift Ticket Deals

• Brighton lift tickets – Most dates this week for $39.99 (31% off)
• Snowbird Early Bird Special – Most dates through December 24th for $39.99 (44% off)
• Solitude lift tickets – midweek for $49.99, weekend for $52.99 (19% off)
• The Canyons lift tickets – until 12/18 for $54.99 (30% off)

Idaho Lift Tickets

• Sun Valley lift tickets – most dates for $49.99 (11% off)

Wyoming Lift Tickets

• Grand Targhee lift tickets – most dates in Dec, $23-28.99 (42% off)
• Snow King lift tickets – Wednesday 12/9 for $15 (25% off)

New Mexico Lift Tickets

• Angel Fire lift tickets – most dates after 12/12 for $49.99 (15% off)
• Red River lift tickets – 12/4-12/6 for $35 (43% off)
• Sipapu lift tickets – Saturday 12/5 for $15 (62% off)

California Lift Tickets (including So Cal and Lake Tahoe)

• Alpine Meadows lift tickets – 12/5 and 12/6 for $49.99 (28% off)
• Mt. Baldy lift tickets – Tuesday 12/1 for $30.99 (43% off)
• Sierra Summit intro package – Saturday 12/5 for $57 (33% off)
• Homewood – Saturday 12/12 for $29.99 (45% off)
• Diamond Peak lift tickets – Saturday 12/12 for $39.99 (18% off)

Alberta lift tickets and British Columbia lift tickets

• Banff, Lake Louise, and Sunshine lift tickets – most dates through December for $66 (save 13%)
• Big White lift tickets – Saturday the 5th for $55 (18% off)
• Silver Star lift tickets – Saturday the 5th for $55 (18% off)

Have fun out there!

 

Liftopia on Techcrunch

So we have been based in the Bay Area for the entire life span of Liftopia.  Throughout that time, we have attended various entrepreneurial events down in the valley, and inevitably have seen the rise of many neat companies.  One of the great wins out in SV, is to be featured in Techcrunch, and we are happy to say Liftopia received a great writeup yesterday.

Jason Kincaid does an awesome job explaining how Liftopia functions, and helps folks really understand the story behind our company’s growth.  It is great to have Jason accurately portray our model, despite not being a skier himself.  This makes us feel comfortable that our business makes sense, and hopefully we can turn Jason in to a skier or snowboarder at some point soon (come on, it isnt so bad to be up in the mountains!).

Obviously getting written up here is far from being a stamp of success (one can note their long list of written-about-but-now-defunct companies in their Deadpool).  It is, however, great to have a tech blog recognize that we can be innovative in a space that isnt exactly considered to be cutting edge.  We still have a lot of work to do, but we hope we can help broaden the business for ski companies, and bring more people in to the sport.  Great job Jason, let us know if you ever want to get out on the snow with us.

Liftopia opens up all its lift ticket deals…

So we have wanted to do this for a while…  While we were back working at Hotwire.com, we noticed a funny thing.  Online travel sites, ski sites, gear sites, etc, all have an interesting challenge – making customers aware of the best deals available on the site.

This is where deal feeds can be very helpful, as they open up a larger set of a companies inventory without requiring customers to “easter egg hunt” around for the best deals.  There are some interesting strategies to get best deals across, a couple of our favorites are Steepandcheap.com and Woot.com (both function on a similar model).  Steepandcheap (a Backcountry.com subsidiary) and Woot.com, list one deal at a time until that deal sells out.  This allows them to focus on one piece of distressed inventory for customers, and both companies make great use of deal feeds to broadcast these around.

In our case, we have some amazing lift ticket and ski package deals, however it is difficult to get all of those deals across to our customer base.

So we decided to just open up our deals to you via a massive set of RSS and HTML lift ticket deal feeds.  Now, that page may not look too sharp, but it holds a HUGE amount of data that doesnt require much digging around the Liftopia site.  You can slice and dice this data as you like, whether you want an RSS feed of all the best lift ticket deals at a time (these are the best deals for each of our resort products available in the next two weeks, based on % savings), by region (again best deal in next two weeks per resort) or by resort.  Resort pages, like this RSS feed for Wildcat, list all deals for the rest of the season.

You can browse all of the regions’ and resorts’ lift ticket feeds, or you can pick your favorite regions/resorts and keep an eye on them.

So what does this mean?  Well, it means that you can have a better handle on Liftopia ticket deals for the places you are interested in.  These feeds update daily, so when resorts adjust price points, you are the first to see them.  Want a quick list of the best deals in New England? Check out the RSS or HTML deal feed for New England. Who knows, maybe you will do a better job organizing these deals than we do!

We hope this makes finding deals easier on Liftopia, and please let us know if you have any feedback.

At the bottom, but it is the New York Times, so we’ll take it…

This just in, Liftopia got a little mention in the New York Times today!

Take a look here, http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/travel/escapes/19ski.html

Still a lot of work to do, but it is great being in such an awesome publication.

Holiday lift ticket cheer (discounts)

So, here at Liftopia we like to explain to folks not only that we have great deals, but why we get them.  One of the most difficult times of year to get discount lift tickets ANYWHERE is during Christmas week.  We have been talking with many of our resort partners, however, and it turns out that many people spend Christmas Day celebrating and spending time with their families.  Soooo, we have some great ski ticket deals on lift tickets, skiing packages, and even some rentals thrown in there for good measure.

So why not celebrate and make it a white Christmas by getting out on the slopes?  Here are some of our best deals for the holiday week:

New York:

Windham Mountain – $28.99 on 12/25 – save 42%!
Greek Peak Learn to Ski/Ride – $19.99 on 12/25 – save 41%!
Whiteface – $47.99 on 12/25 – save 35%!
Whiteface Beginner Package – $77.99 on 12/25 – save 26%!
Windham Learn to Ski/Ride Package – $52.99 on 12/25 – save 20%!

Colorado:

Arapahoe Basin – $25.00 on 12/25 – save 62%!
Loveland – $25.00 on 12/25 – save 55%!
Ski Cooper – $33.50 on 12/25 – save 20%!
Keystone Lift Ticket + Ski Rental Combo – $106.99 on 12/25 – save 11%!
Durango 2-day pass – $119.99 starting 12/25 – save 10%!

New England and Quebec:

Ragged Mountain – $27.00 on 12/25 – save 54%!
Wildcat Mountain – $32.50 on 12/24 – save 50%!
Jiminy Peak – $35.00 on 12/24 – save 37%!
Crotched Mountain – $29.99 on 12/25 – save 33%!
Gunstock – $36.99 on 12/24 – save 32%!
Pats Peak – $28.99 on 12/24 – save 28%!
Bolton Valley – $28.99 on 12/24 – save 26%!
Jay Peak Resort – $50.00 on 12/25 – save 23%!
Waterville Valley – $54.99 on 12/25 – save 15%!

Mont Sainte Anne – $44.00 (USD) on 12/25 – save 16%!

Utah:

Powder Mountain – $45.00 on 12/25 – save 20%!
Park City Mountain Resort – $67.99 on 12/25 – save 20%!
Sundance Resort – $40.00 on 12/25 – save 11%!
Snowbird 2-day pass – $115.00 starting 12/25 – save 20%!

The Canyons – $59.99 on 12/25 – save 26%!

New Mexico:

Angel Fire – $49.99 on 12/24 – save 15%!
Sipapu – $32.99 on 12/25 – save 15%!
Taos Ski Valley – $56.99 on 12/25 – save 14%!
Red River Ski and Ride – $50.99 on 12/25 – save 12%!

West Virgina:

Canaan Valley – $19.99 on 12/24 – save 33%!

Michigan:

Shanty Creek Resorts – $19.99 on 12/24 – save 56%!
Caberfae Peaks – $14.99 on 12/25 – save 64%!

Southern California:

Mt. Baldy – $49.99 on 12/25 – save 22%!
Mt. Baldy Learn to Ski Package – $57.99 on 12/25 – save 16%!
Mt. Baldy Learn to Ride Package – $67.99 on 12/25 – save 14%!

California Lake Tahoe:

Boreal 2 for 1 Ticket Deal – $52.00 on 12/25 – save 50%!
Bear Valley – $46.99 on 12/25 – save 20%!

January is coming… and is Learn a Snow Sport Month

So, I imagine most of the folks reading this are skiers or snowboarders (though we hope the rest of you join us out there soon!).

Some of our friends over at Winter Trails and Winter Feels Good are returning with one of the coolest winter programs to open up recently.  Via this program, January is officialy Learn a Snowsport month.
Here’s the scoop (so share with your non-skier and non-snowboarder friends).  Learning a snowsport doesnt have to be scary/challenging/expensive!  Working with SnowSports Industries America, many resorts around the country are working on getting more people to be active snow enthusiasts.  It is healthy, it is fun, and it is great to get more of our friends out on the hill.  Depending on where you are located, you can find specials on learning to ski, snowboard, or even snowshoe.   Many of the programs are even FREE for beginners.  For details on all of the states offering Learn a Snowsport deals/free clinics, visit Winter Feels Good Learn a Snowsport page.

In the mean time, send this along to your beginner friends so that they can start having fun with you out in the snow.  In addition, take a look at our top 10 tips for beginner skiers and riders.  After all, many people who haven’t skied before can be a bit tentative, so hopefully we can make them see that it is fun, easy, and doesn’t have to be expensive!

A snapshot of early season discount lift tickets…

Sooooo, since the season is off to a start, here are some of the latest and greatest deals on discount lift tickets we have on our site.

Utah Ski Resorts
Snowbird: $39.99 (36-44% off) from now until Dec 25th.
Park City: $29.99/$39.99 first couple weeks of Dec
The Canyons: $43.99 (about 40% off) most dates in Dec

NY/NJ
Windham: $23.99 (54% off) Dec 7-25th
Whiteface: 31-37% off all of December

New England
Smuggs: $28.99 (34% off)for Turkey day weekend and many deals in Dec
Ragged: $23.99 (51% off), Turkey day weekend through Dec 24th
Crotched: $39.99 (22% off) Turkey day weekend
Gunstock: $15 (69% off) first weekend in Dec
Waterville Valley: 31% off most weekdays, 12-14% off weekends in Dec
Wildcat, $28.99 (55% off) most sundays all season

New Mexico
Sipapu: $4.99, this weekend…
Taos: 14% off starting Dec 20th
Angel Fire: 15% off starting Dec 20th

Colorado
Crested Butte: 17-19% off first two weeks in Dec
Ski Cooper: 14% off weekends in Dec
Keystone, lift ticket + rental package: $99, now until Dec 13th
A-basin: 10-20% off most dates

MI
Caberfae Peaks: $12 first weekend in Dec

PA
Shawnee Mtn: $21.99 (56% off) first weekend in Dec

Arthur Frommer knows his stuff…

…so it is an honor for us to have him do a quick blog post about us, stating “The ski season is about to begin, and Liftopia is the most exciting new ski website I’ve seen in years“.

We will keep working hard to improve the site, but it is fun for us to have someone like him stumble upon what we are doing.

$29 tickets for Leap Day (get it? 29th of February for $29…)

Hey everyone,

So we have been running around all week trying to line up some great deals, and have found some awesome options at resorts all around the country. For this one, resorts are taking advantage of the extra day in February (and the typical slow period after February vacation) by offering $29 discount lift tickets on Friday the 29th. We also have some other great deals this weekend, but check these resorts out for the $29 deal.

Resorts that have the $29 deal available are…

• Bolton Valley, VT
• Gunstock, NH
• Ragged, NH
• Jay Peak, VT
• Smugglers’ Notch, VT
• Mountain Creek, NJ
• Windham Mountain, NY
• Arapahoe Basin, CO
• Ski Cooper (not Copper…), CO
• Mt. Baldy, CA
• Powder Mountain, UT

Beyond these, there are some awesome other deals this weekend, so get out there and have some fun!

E

End of February Vacation Ski Lift Ticket Deals (Sunday 02/24)

Hi All,

Things are going crazy lately, the snow has been amazing all over the place.  “But it is vacation week with no deal”  you say?  To cap off the end of the break, we have some awesome deals on discount lift tickets for this Sunday, 02/24.

Plattekill, NY: $25 (48% off!!!)

Wildcat, NH: $34.99 (41% off)

Bolton Valley, VT: $39.99 (32% off)

Ragged Mountain, NH: $37.99 (32% off)

Mt. Baldy Learn to Ski Package: $40 (32% off)

Whiteface, NY: $52.99 ( 26% off)

Mountain Creek, NJ: $49.99 (19% off)

Ski Cooper, CO: $31.50 (19% off)

Arapahoe Basin, CO: $46.99 (19% off)

Waterville Valley, NH: $50.99 (16% off)

Powder Mountain, UT: $45 (15% off)

Angel Fire, NM: $50.99 (14% off)

Jay Peak, VT: $53.99 (13% off).

A ton of others too!  There is pretty much something for everyone out there, so go ski, have some fun, and take advantage while winter is still here!

Evmo