No snow? Some destinations offer options, guarantees

NEW YORK -- What if you plan on a snowy vacation but there's no snow when you get there?

That's been happening a lot this winter, and some destinations are responding with no-snow options.

"One day the lawns are covered with snow and the next day it may all melt," said Andrew Ruggeri, proprietor of the 38-room Delafield Hotel in Delafield, Wis. "It makes it hard to offer an ongoing cross-country skiing package." So now the hotel offers a $329 "Rain, Sleet or Snow" package that includes overnight accommodations and snow-shoeing or cross-country skiing for two, but if there is no snow, you get a pair of two-hour personal training sessions at a fitness center instead. The hotel is also offering 60 percent off if the temperature rises above 60 degrees the day of your stay. The offer is good until March 20. Details at 800-594-8772 or www.thedelafieldhotel.com.

If you book a ski package through the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort in Lake Placid, N.Y., the "No Snow Guarantee" package allows you to trade in your lift ticket for either dinner at a local restaurant; a wine-tasting and an "Olympic Winter Passport" covering admission to a variety of local venues; or an appetizer and pint of beer at a local brewery. Details at www.golden-arrow.com/Packages.html.

If you're staying at the Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vt., during the last two weekends of March, the inn's "Ski or Eat Free" package comes with two free adult lift tickets to nearby Burke Mountain Ski Resort and a guarantee that you can have dinner at the inn for free if the snow doesn't cooperate. Details at www.wildflowerinn.com.

Through April 30, anyone who books a stay at a ResortQuest ski resort in Colorado, Idaho, Utah or Canada can relocate their reservation to another ResortQuest ski resort free of charge if the forecasted snow conditions in their original destination are not to their liking. ResortQuest will, for no extra fee or penalty, transfer reservations to a "more snowy" area. (Vacationers are still responsible for amending their own airfare/ground transportation.) Visit www.resortquest.com/snowguarantee.

The Ski.com Web site is offering a $50 per person discount on Ski.com vacation packages if at least one traveler on the reservation is a ski-season pass holder to a resort where lift service is operating at 50 percent or less. Resorts that qualify include those in New England, New York, the mid-Atlantic and some Midwestern states. Details at www.ski.com/land/passholder.aspx or 800-525-2052. To qualify for the $50 per person savings, the vacation package must include a minimum four-night stay, lift tickets and one other package component such as airfare, car rental, ski rental or ski lesson.