Sipapu, NM opens this weekend, ski for oh, $4.99 on Liftopia

Sipapu is one of our newest partners this season, and they just loaded up some early season deals.  To start out with a bang, they have tickets for their opening weekend (this Sat/Sun) for $4.99. Buy your Sipapu lift tickets on Liftopia, and have a great weekend.

I wish I were in NM so that I could jump on this deal myself.  They have some more crazy deals throughout Nov and Dec, so keep checking back.

Have fun!

Traveler’s Resource: Tripso.com

So I had never stumbled upon Tripso before, but am excited that I did.  We found them after they did a quick review of Liftopia, highlighting Liftopia’s ski deals, and I spent some time checking out their site for a while afterward.

It is a really cool site for people who travel or are interested in the ins and outs of airlines, hotel companies, and travel trends.  I found a couple of great articles highlighting the recent changes to the travel landscape and their impacts on everyday travelers…  The topics can be anything from what the real checked bag fees are these days, to airline fuel surcharges, to the general state of travel.

They have a pretty candid group of writers and contributors, so I think this is especially useful to learn more about travel without the spin that often comes from travel providers themselves.

In case you arent in shape for ski season yet…

Get in shape!  While many places are waiting to open, the season is upon us!

Check out this video from Snowbird’s opening weekend, not too shabby.

Some press from our friends at Firsttracksonline.com

It is always great for us to have some exposure in the “dedicated to ski” media space, so we are very happy about a great article written in First Tracks Online this morning.

It does feel like we are building some momentum for this season, but we still have a lot of work to do to improve our site (and more importantly our lift ticket deals).

The folks at First Tracks are based out of Salt Lake City, and just to rub it in my face, they sent over some photos they took of opening day at Snowbird…

Not bad for opening day...

Not bad for opening day...

How jealous are you?  If you have been out on the hill already this year, feel free to send us some photos and we will post them up for you.

Remember, Snowbird has an early season special on Liftopia, $39.99 for lift tickets (40+% off) until December 25th.  They can sell out, however!

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.

How about some hotel deals in ski resorts?

So, this has been a long time coming, but Liftopia now sells ski hotels through our site.  It is actually pretty interesting, as we never thought that we would start selling hotel deals on our site.  Having come from an online travel site, we figured there were enough sites out there selling hotels, and that we should just focus on our lift ticket deals.

Turns out, our two favorite groups of people (our resort partners and our customers) both wanted us to start selling hotels through Liftopia.  Basically, resorts are looking for a dedicated marketplace to sell their products, (as ski destinations are often burried below the lists of hotels in Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, etc on most travel sites).  On the other side, customers are looking for a site that is dedicated to ski resort destinations, and often want to buy a hotel room in addition to their lift tickets.

We still are working on the quality and quantity of properties that we are offering through our site, but already have some great deals out there (hint hint, some of our best deals are in Park City…).  Please send us suggestions if you have specific properties that you would like us to try and partner with, and hopefully we can make your ski trip as easy and affordable as possible this season.

One of the coolest features of the site, is the ability to look at a “map view” of hotels on the site.  This way, you can research whether or not a property is truly “slopeside”, and also make sure you are getting the best deal.

Skiing on a budget…

Not sure if you noticed, but it is snowing all over the place these days!  The Liftopia founders have even been out on the hill, spending a couple hours at Arapahoe Basin the week after they opened (by the way, they have early season tickets on Liftopia for as low as $38.99).

Resorts all over the country are starting to load great lift ticket deals, and seeing that we are expanding to 80+ ski resort partners, we are very excited about our deals, both old and new.  We are seeing early season discounts as much as 70% off, and “specials” at various resorts that will sell out fast (see the “Park City Screamin Deal” that is available in limited quantities for the first two weeks of December, ski for as little as $29.99!).  Early season folks can also save 40+% off at the Canyons and Snowbird.

Since everyone is hurting a bit this year due to economic woes, we decided that in addition to posting information about the Liftopia deals on discount lift tickets, we would also put together a Top 10 Tips for Skiing on a Budget.  Check it out, there are some great ways to make skiing affordable for everyone.

Here’s to a great season, and we will start posting more deals here as the season moves along.

A-Basin opens tomorrow!

Not to disappoint, Arapahoe Basin is opening (first in the country, as usual) for skiing and riding TOMORROW!  They have even started off the season with some deals up to 20% off early season (off of an already great ticket price).

Looks like a start to a great season, cant wait to get out to A-Basin myself.

Here is their press release outlining the opening, get out there!

ARAPAHOE BASIN OPENS FOR THE SKI SEASON WEDNESDAY,

OCTOBER 15, 2008

Arapahoe Basin, Colorado – October 13, 2008 – Arapahoe Basin ski area officials announce that its opening day for the 2008-2009 ski season will be Wednesday, October 15, 2008.  For the past two years the ski area has been the first to open in the nation and this year A-Basin continues that trend.

The Exhibition chairlift will open to the public at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday.  Skiers and riders can look forward to an 18-inch base on the intermediate High Noon run and some features in the High Divide Terrain Park.  There will be no beginner skiing at this time.

New last season, A-Basin introduced Montezuma Bowl, 400 acres of lift served groomed runs, glades, chutes and wide-open bowl skiing.  The new expansion is expected to open for the season in early January, conditions permitting.

Opening day adult lift tickets will be available for $49, youth tickets age 15 - 19 will be $44 and child tickets age 6-14 will be $25.  Ski and snowboard rentals and tune shop, food and beverage service, the 6th Alley bar and retail shop will be open to the public.  Snow Sport lessons will begin when the Molly Hogan Learning Center opens later in November.

Local radio station, KYSL will be doing a live morning show and giving away lift tickets on-air.  KSMT will also be on site in the base area with a live remote, playing music and handing out give-aways.  Pepsi will be here with samples. Fox 31’s My Outdoors Colorado will be on site as well with give-aways.

A-Basin’s Bonus Passes are available while supplies last for $379.  The Bonus pass holder receives unlimited skiing or riding at A-Basin for the 2008-2009 ski season and five non-transferable ski days at Keystone or Breckenridge.  One of those days can be used at Vail or Beaver Creek (some restrictions apply).  A-Basin only passes are also available at great prices.  Purchase your pass on site at A-Basin, call 1-888-Arapahoe or order on-line at www.arapahoebasin.com

Arapahoe Basin would like to invite any interested media to attend the opening day celebration.  Please contact Leigh Hierholzer to coordinate lift tickets and any other logistics.

Speaking of deals…

To follow up on our post yesterday about finding skiing and snowboarding deals, there was another fun (for us at least) mention of Liftopia today in the press.

USA Today ran a great article that is right in line with how we are all feeling due to the economy’s woes.  Focusing on budget travel sites, Laura Bly included Liftopia in a long list of awesome websites to help you stay out enjoying yourself without killing your budget.  It is a big honor for us to be listed in the same article as our alma mater, Hotwire, as it is a great service (along with the many other listed) to help people stay sane and have fun while the economy kicks us in the butt.

We obviously still have a ways to go to become what we eventually hope to be (basically helping resorts sell more tickets and helping you get out and ski or ride more), but it is good to be making a little progress towards that goal.

Always good to find a deal on skiing and snowboarding…

… especially given all of this economic downturn.

The interesting thing about leisure activities like skiing and snowboarding is that they are unfortunately what many people cut first from their budget when money gets tight.  This is especially bad, because for me at least, getting out on the hill is about the best escape from everyday stress.

With that in mind, we all need to get crafty to allow ourselves to get out and still have fun in the mountains despite challenges at home.  This is why we worked with Erika Lenkert who writes really cool articles for Glam.com to come up with a list of 10 Insider Tips on How to Save Money on Your Ski Vacation.

Take a look, cuz it is almost that time of year where the snow is flying, and we all need to get out and have a little fun.