I know we are all celebrating the presence of Fall finally making it’s way here. All we can think about is pumpkins, college football, Halloween costumes and leaves. But there is also another thing you ought to be thinking of: your winter vacation. It’s no secret that I live in Salt Lake City and I haven’t really done a post on my own town. Most people know Utah as the mecca of snow sports. This is what I adore about this state and really what has kept me around for these past two years. The powder here is unlike powder in any other place.

You may or may not have known that Utah offers 13 ski resorts many within just an hour or much less of each other. Salt Lake International Airport boasts a good number of flights arriving before noon and with a handful of premier ski resorts less than an hour of the airport you can land in the morning and be skiing in the afternoon. A lot of people get the impression that if they come to Utah for skiing they need to head up to Park City and pay for a super expensive condo right on the resort, and if that’s within your budget and how you prefer to vacation you will have a wonderful experience. But unfortunately, not all of us can spend that kind of cash and I’m a firm believer everyone deserves the opportunity to experience Utah powder.

Here are some tips that will help you save some serious cash on planning your trip. You don’t need to rent a condo in Park City. You can actually stay in a hotel either down in Cottonwood, downtown SLC or you can even try renting a house in either of these areas if you have a big group( try vrbo). This comes with quite a few benefits. Not only will you save on the lodging costs but restaurants, groceries and movies will be a lot cheaper and you won’t be limiting yourself to just the three ski resorts in Park City. You can head up either Big Cottonwood Canyon and visit Brighton or Solitude or up Little Cottonwood Canyon and visit Alta (skiiers only) and Snowbird.  You don’t even have to rent a car if you don’t want to because UTA (Utah Transit Authority) public transportation system has buses to these major resorts, and some hotels even offer shuttles.

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First, I’d like to thank Hilarye for the opportunity to post here on her fabulous blog, Dotting the Map, and welcome you to come visit me anytime over at my blog, Wise Ax

Although this is a travel blog and many of you read it because of the exciting and exotic locales, I wanted to write about a world-class event that happens yearly in our own backyard. Sundance Film Festival!

The 2009 festival just ended, but it’s never too early to start planning for next year. If you are a Utah local, you can register to buy either a film package or individual tickets in the fall. Bookmark the website or sign up for the email alerts so that you stay on top of approaching deadlines (http://festival.sundance.org/2009/). The price of movies is only slightly more than you spent on the last big studio dud (any of you see The Love Guru?). At Sundance you get the chance to see documentaries and dramas from the U.S. and around the world, which in most cases will never make it to the big screen, especially in Utah.

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Since I have been feeling a little land locked lately (mostly because I have been working like crazy), I decided to cheer myself up by listing some of the trips I am planning to take in the next six months, as well as recap the trips I have already taken due to the fact that the year is already half over.

Trips I have already taken this year:

1. Anaheim/Disneyland
2. Washington DC
3. Anchorage, Alaska
4. Saint George, Utah
5. Las Vegas, Nevada

Ok, so the first part of the year was a little slow as far as travel goes, which makes me a little sad. However, when I think about it- we bought a house in February and we spent the winter doing a fair amount of snowboarding, so I guess you could add Park City, Utah to the list.  Anyways, I am gearing up for Fall travel season which includes an awesome trip to Europe (my first time!). I used to say that we are going to backpack through Europe but apparently that’s not true- I was told we are packing our clothes in a backpack and going to Europe. So that accounts for the first five places on the list- and the rest are stateside cities or states I want to visit.

Trips I want/will take this year:

1. London, England
2. Athens, Greece
3. Ireland
4. Slovenia (here is a map- in case you want to know where this is)
5. Paris, France
6. New York City
7. San Diego
8. Seattle
9. Oregon Coast
10.North Carolina