• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

The Sun Valley Lodge   (Photo: Courtesy of Sun Valley Lodge)

Recent concessions to modernity at the venerable Sun Valley Lodge (from $209; $179 at the Inn) include flat-screen TVs in even the coziest British Colonial–inspired rooms. Built in 1936 for Americans who wanted to ski like the Swiss, the resort is now a total Alps experience for the whole family, with winter sleigh rides and summer ice shows.

Satisfy your inner Von Trapp at the floral-motif-obsessed Knob Hill Inn (from $250) in the main town of Ketchum. The location and staff attentiveness, not the European-style amenities (read closet-size “fitness room” and kitschy breakfast nook), justify the Relais & Chateaux rating.

To live more like a local, there’s the Featherbed Inn (rooms from $95), a homey bed-and-breakfast where individual porch decks and patios overlook towering pines on one side and the neighbors’ RVs on the other.

The rooms are small but comfortable and the homemade brownies impeccable at the family-run Inn at Ellsworth Estate (from $85), a 1915 craftsman-style mansion near the airport.

The budget option is Ketchum’s Lift Tower Lodge (from $85; 703 Main St. S.; 208-726-5163), located a few yards from the bike and ski trails where you'll be spending most of your time.

Published on Nov 22, 2006 as a web exclusive.