Whiteface Mountain has a 3,430-foot vertical drop that's the biggest in the East and has enhanced its lifts, trials, grooming, and snowmaking. While the mountain itself gets rave reviews readers called it "a Western mountain in the East" and noted that it had "no Vermont crowds" the village of Lake Placid and town of Wilmington and their off-mountain activities are what make it ideal for couples to visit.
Site of both the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, Lake Placid is home to an Olympic Center that houses the Winter Olympic Museum and Hall of Fame. The museum celebrates Lake Placid as the birthplace of winter sports competition in America. Its exhibits include original sports equipment, artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, and videos.
If action is more your style, you can take an exhilarating ride on a bobsled at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, site of the bobsled, luge, cross country skiing, and biathlon events during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.
Or ride the Lake Placid Toboggan Chute on Mirror Lake. Other off-hill activities range from bobsled rides, cross country skiing, and skating to shopping and live concerts. The area also earns high marks for dining, après-ski, and scenery.
Skiers who want even more skiable terrain than Whiteface offers can visit Gore Mountain, dubbed one of the "Ten Great Unknowns" by Skiing magazine. Like Lake Placid, it's located within the six-million acre Adirondack Park. Gore, the biggest mountain within a four-hour dive of metropolitan New York, is an hour and twenty minutes north of Lake Placid.
Recommended Lake Placid Lodging:
Mirror Lake Inn
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