Vermont is home to more than twenty alpine (aka downhill) ski resorts and nearly fifty cross-country ski areas, making it a winter paradise for skiers and snowboarders. From small, family-oriented hills to challenging peaks, skiing enthusiasts will find diverse terrain statewide.

Southern Skiing

Ski resorts in southern Vermont are plentiful and very accessible.

• Bromley Mountain Resort (3984 Route 11, Peru, 802-824-5522,www.bromley.com) is known for affordable family skiing. It offers forty-four trails, ten lifts, and snowmaking on 80 percent of its skiable terrain. Not skiers? Bromley offers a variety of other family activities including ice skating, sleigh rides, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.

• Magic Mountain (495 Magic Mountain Access Road, Lon-donderry, 802-824-5645, www.magicmtn.com) is home to the Ala Kazaam Tube Park and challenging slopes for skiers and snowboarders. Magic Mountain has forty-eight trails, three lifts, and snowmaking on 87 percent of its terrain. Lessons are available for ages five and up.

• Mount Snow Resort (12 Pisgah Road, West Dover, 802-464 3333 or 800-245-SNOW, www.mountsnow.com) is the big mountain closest to major cities in the Northeast. It boasts four mountain areas including North Face, 106 trails, nineteen lifts, four terrain parks, a superpipe, and a tubing park. Skiing and snowboarding lessons are available for children as young as three years old.

• Stratton Mountain Resort (Stratton Mountain Road, Stratton Mountain, 802-297-4000 or 800-STRATTON,www.stratton.com) was the first major ski area to allow snowboarding — back in 1983. Today, you'll find the resort is home to four terrain parks for beginner to expert snowboarders, ninety downhill trails, and fourteen lifts. Ski and snowboard instruction are offered for “Little Cubs” as young as age four.

Central Peaks

The central region is home to some of Vermont's best skiing.

• Ascutney Mountain Resort (485 Hotel Road, Brownsville, 802 484-7711 or 800-243-0011, www.ascutney.com) is an especially good choice for families with teens. You'll find fifty-seven trails, six lifts, cross-country and snowshoe trails, and a tubing slope here. Lessons for children ages three and up provide a solid initiation to the sport.

• Killington (4763 Killington Road, Killington, 802-422-6200,www.killington.com) is the East's largest ski and snowboard resort, and it's among New England's first ski areas to open and last to close each year. Killington consists of a ring of seven mountains with 150 trails, thirty-three lifts, and 752 acres of snowmaking. There are plenty of activities for nonskiing family members, from snowmobile tours and dogsled outings to arcade games and inflatable bounce houses inside the Kids Zone.

• Mad River Glen (Route 17, Waitsfield, 802-496-3551, www.madriverglen.com) has a unique story — it is the only cooperatively owned ski area in America. In 1995, loyal skiers were invited to become shareholders when the resort was put up for sale. Today, you'll find Mad River Glen, which gets about 250 inches of natural snowfall annually, home to forty-five trails, five lifts including the last surviving single-chair lift in the nation, and a ski school that offers small-group instruction for kids ages four and up.

• Middlebury College Snow Bowl (Middlebury College campus, Middlebury, 802-388-4356,www.middlebury.edu/campuslife/facilities/snowbowl) offers an affordable, uncrowded skiing option. The Snow Bowl has fifteen trails, three lifts, and a snow school for ages six and up.

• Okemo Mountain Resort (77 Okemo Ridge Road, Ludlow, 802-228-4041 or 800-78-OKEMO, www.okemo.com) is a family-owned ski mountain with extensive snowmaking capabilities. Okemo has 117 trails, eighteen lifts, and a learning program for children as young as age two.

• Pico Mountain (4763 Killington Road, Killington, 802-422-3333 or 866-667-7426, www.picomountain.com) is a classic Vermont ski area with exciting terrain. Six lifts and fifty trails keep serious downhillers busy, and the Ministars program provides safe, fun instruction for the youngest skiers starting at age four.

• Sugarbush (1840 Sugarbush Access Road, Warren, 802-583-SNOW or 800-53-SUGAR, www.sugarbush.com) offers varied terrain on six interconnected mountain peaks and a relaxed, away-from-it-all atmosphere. Sugarbush features 111 trails, sixteen lifts, and 68 percent snowmaking coverage. The Ski & Ride School offers on-snow learning programs for kids three and up.

• Suicide Six (Fourteen the Green, Woodstock, 802-457-6661 or 800-448-7900,www.woodstockinn.com/vermont-ski-resort.php) is the intimate ski area at the Woodstock Inn & Resort. It features twenty-three trails, three lifts, and a ski school.

Skiing in Northern Vermont

You'll find resorts specializing in family fun when you head north to Vermont's highest peaks.

• Bolton Valley (4302 Bolton Valley Access Road, Bolton Valley, 802-434-3444 or 877-9-BOLTON, www.boltonvalley.com) is a winter wonderland where you can ski downhill, snowshoe, or cross-country ski. You will find sixty-four trails, six lifts, special programs for women, and group lessons for children starting at age four.

• Burke Mountain (223 Sherburne Lodge Road, East Burke, 802-626-7300, www.skiburke.com) is located in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and provides an alternative to some of the more crowded and commercial ski centers. Burke has forty-five trails, four lifts, and a Snowsports Learning Center with programs for ages four and up.

• Jay Peak (4850 Route 242, Jay, 802-988-2611 or 800-451-4449,www.jaypeakresort.com) has the highest average annual snowfall of any ski area in the East, so if you're looking for natural snow, this is the place. Jay provides seventy-six trails, eight lifts including Vermont's only aerial tramway, and ski lessons for children as young as three.

• Smugglers' Notch (4323 Route 108 South, Smugglers' Notch, 802-644-8851 or 800-419-4615) is a three-mountain family ski area with a renowned Snow Sport University. You'll find plenty of alpine action with seventy-eight trails and eight lifts, plus an incredible lineup of other winter adventures including cross-country skiing, snowshoe and snowmobile tours, dogsledding, tube sliding, ice skating, airboarding, and guided nature walks.

• Stowe (5781 Mountain Road, Stowe, 802-253-3000 or 800-253-4754,www.stowe.com) can brag of Vermont's highest peak and longest average trail length. It also offers an entire mountain — Spruce Peak — devoted to beginners. Stowe has forty-eight trails, thirteen lifts, and one of America's oldest ski schools, where children three and up can learn to ski in a no-pressure environment.