13 top-rated ski resorts in America and all over the World

Skiing is the winter verb par excellence. But where to ski this winter or even the next one? Do you need some ideas? 

With family and friends, if you are looking for the perfect ski resort, we have collected a few of the best (according to MSA) ski resorts, which stand out for their beauty and services. Those winter destinations that have now entered the common imagination (of the skier), such as Tahoe, Colorado, to incredible and less-known destinations where skiing will be an adventure, such as New Mexico, Chile, and the most daring Europe. 

Sinking those ski blades into the fresh snow is pure joy for an experienced skier, as well as for a novice. Our favorite resorts will make you discover different locations for the perfect ski trip! 

Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico

Where Native North American and Hispanic cultures blend with European influences. Where the iconic terrain on the slopes of Kachina Peak. Diverse terrain for skiers and riders of all levels. From steep chutes and winding glades to sloping groomers and smooth cruisers, this authentic mountain has something for everyone.

Heavenly Ski Resort, California

You start off by taking a gondola to the top of the mountain and it provides amazing views of Lake Tahoe. You can also hop off about 3/4 of the way up onto a viewing platform. A tip for those looking to skip the gondola lines - if you purchase a ski / snowboarding lesson, you get to skip the long line! And you get a good lesson and advice for any level you you are.

Sierra Resort, California

With a Season Pass the benefits are huge, you can bring two friends in half price any day of the year and get good discounts at the stores. This resort is less crowded than other resorts in Tahoe and the snow doesn’t get as icy as Heavenly because the lower elevation. Skiers / boarders are a bit more relaxed here, more for locals I suppose than tourists. Also, about half the price of Heavenly, which is a plus!

Whistler Blackcomb, Canada

It is the combination of two resorts, Whistler and Blackcomb are two side-by-side mountains which offer over 200 marked runs, 8,171 acres of terrain, 16 alpine bowls, and 3 glaciers combined.

Royal George, California

The largest cross-country ski area in North America, Royal Gorge is known for its sweeping views of the Northern Sierra and eight distinct trail systems. Featuring 92 trails with over 140km of groomed, tracked trails for human-powered outdoor recreation spread across 6,000 acres, guests of all ages and ability levels are invited to try classic cross-country skiing, skate skiing and snowshoeing.
Eight different warming huts offer respite from the elements and a chance to take a break and soak in the peaceful tranquility of the mountains. Make your way to Royal Gorge this winter to stride through towering pines, expansive meadows, and enjoy stunning vistas that include some of the most majestic peaks in Tahoe.

Mammoth, California

Mammoth has the best and most diverse terrain parks in the country; meaning jumps, rails, and halfpipes. It even has a cornice for adrenaline junkies who like to jump off cliffs. If you are lucky you will get to see their “mammoth” mascot go off the big jumps. It’s location in central California is a big plus as well.

Big Sky, Montana

Rank #3 in the North America  Last year, Montana’s Big Sky was number one for size in the US, but the expanded Park City ski resort now overtakes it. Big Sky did something similar to Park City a few years ago and absorbed its defunct neighbor Moonlight Basin, creating an area of 5,800 acres and trademarking it “The Biggest Skiing in America.”

Park City, Utah

This winter, Vail Resort’s $50m+ “absorption” of Canyons Ski Resort into Park City will make the ski resort the new biggest in the US, and second in North America with a total of 7,300 acres. Prior to the merger, both areas were already in the top ten for size in North America: Canyons ranked fifth biggest and Park City Mountain Resort ninth. #10 in the world an d#2 in the north America!

Portillo, Chile

Over the past 60 years, Portillo has earned a reputation as an excellent destination for skiers and snowboarders from all over the world. The snow quality in Portillo is excellent and is often likened to that of the Rocky Mountains. Skiers of all skill-levels find what they are looking for on our mountain and come back year after year.

Squaw/Alpine, California

Rank #9 in the North America and once the tram is complete to connect Alpine and Squaw it will be bigger than Whistler,  also in California, is in ninth place with 3,600 acres. A planned lift connection may join the resort with its neighbor, Alpine Meadows. Squaw hosted the 1960’s Winter Olympics.

Vail Mountain, Colorado 

Rank #4 in the North America Vail in Colorado was formerly the third biggest in North America. With 5,317 acres of skiable terrain, Vail gives you the freedom of living without limits. Carve perfect lines on the front side and enjoy Vail's Five Star Grooming. Hit the Back Bowls to lose yourself in wide open fields of snow. And discover Blue Sky Basin to feel worlds away and explore backcountry-style glades.

Dolomites, Sella Ronda, Italy

This gem in the heart of the Dolomites take you right through the Dolomite mountain range. The unique “Sellaronda” ski tour runs over the four Dolomite passes around the Sella massif. You pass through the Ladin valleys of Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Arabba and Fassa. In total, 40 kilometres of tours await – 27 kilometres of those offer pure, unadulterated skiing fun. The Gebirgsjägertour ski circuit, also known as the Peace Tour, passes beneath the walls of the famous summits Civetta, Monte Pelmo, Tofana and others. Two ski circuits with a unique mountain backdrop and a dream view!

Verbier, Switzerland

Perched on a sunny plateau in the heart of the mountains, with its slate-roofed chalets, Verbier has carefully maintained its charm as an alpine village. This is the gateway to the 4 Vallées ski area – with nearly 100 lifts and more than 400 km of ski runs for all levels of expertise at your feet. A freeride paradise, the resort is a must for skiers and snowboarders from all over the world, and its après-ski and aperitifs are a veritable institution on terraces where a cosmopolitan clientele of all generations is to be found.

Podcast Lovers: the best 14 Podcasts to listen to in 2021

Let's start with the name: the word Podcast comes from the merger of PoD ("Personal on Demand") and Broadcast (transmission, diffusion). So the Podcast is a transmission of content on-demand and periodically updated through "RSS feeds," to which a user can subscribe.

The myriad of informative stimuli we immerse in today spreads through words and - more often - images. Many of us feel the need to escape from an exclusively visual type of communication and rediscover a more abstract, reflective dimension. Usually, the voices lead the Podcast to establish an intimate and intellectual relationship, which is ultimately conveyed by the content. The content is an additional stimulus: podcasts are more or less rightly considered the realm of serious and in-depth content, of articulated and reliable sources. And that's also why the most popular way to hook up with a new audio title is often the advice of those you trust.

With thousands of podcasts to choose from, we've narrowed it down our favorite ones!

The Pat McAffe Show

It’s a sports podcast hosted by ex-NFL player Pat McAfee where he discusses college and professional football.

Ologies Episodes with AlIE Ward

Alie interviews people about the "ology" they are into, such as dendrology (TREES) or Pelicanology (PELICANS). It is an excellent podcast because you learn something new every episode, and Alie is an engaging interviewer. There are 100s of episodes.

WFT with Marc Maron

Marc Maron has been writing and performing raw, honest, and thought-provoking comedy for over twenty years. In September 2009, Marc changed the podcast landscape when he started WTF with Marc Maron.  This Podcast features Marc's revelatory conversations with iconic personalities such as Conan O'Brien, Terry Gross, Robin Williams, Keith Richards, Ben Stiller, Lorne Michaels, and President Barack Obama. It became a worldwide phenomenon, with more than six-million downloads each month and 250 million lifetime downloads within its first six years.

Home Cooking

Home Cooking is Samin Nosrat (from Netflix’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) and Hrishikesh Hirway (from Netflix’s Song Exploder) taking cooking questions from listeners. They have great chemistry and will make you laugh and learn through each episode.

Criminal

Criminal is produced and hosted by Phoebe Judge. She unravels obscure crimes dating back over the last 100 years. Most have a crazy twist to them. She also hosts “Phoebe reads a Mystery” (where she takes classical mystery novels – think Agatha Christie – and reads them in a serial manner).

The Allusionist

Helen Zaltzman dives into the meaning and history of the English language. She explains why we use the words we do and the importance of how we choose what we say.

99% Invisible

99% Invisible is produced and hosted by Roman Mars (my favorite male voice in podcasting). His team takes things in our everyday world and explains them from a design point of view. The show is produced in downtown Oakland.

Spacebridge

Spacebridge tells a largely-forgotten saga of the late Cold War when despair about a nuclear conflict's prospects gripped the world. Both Soviets and Americans grasped at emerging communication technology via satellite and early Internet "spacebridges" that brought together citizen diplomats ranging from New Agers to tech-enthusiasts to astronauts. The urge to "just connect" helped tilt the world from top-down broadcasting to the more horizontal, Internet-leveled society where we all now live…for better and or for worse.

Business of Architecture

Discover strategies, tips, and secrets for running a fun, flexible, and profitable architecture practice. The focus here is simple: discussing ways for architects to create a dream architecture practice: design what you want, when you want, and get paid well for it.

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie is a weekly true-crime podcast dedicated to giving you a fix. Every Monday, Ashley Flowers will tell you about whatever crime she's been obsessing over that week in a way that sounds like you're sitting around talking crime with your best friends. The storytelling is straightforward and free of rabbit holes, so the cases stay suspenseful and are easy to follow.

Serial

They go through different criminal cases and examine questionable evidence to get the listeners to come up with their conspiracies as to whether the defendant is guilty or not.

The first season is the most captivating and tells Adnan Syed's story, sentenced to life in prison. Still, some evidence is questionable, and the Podcast takes you through the entire case with real interviews and audio from the trials.

HBO picked up the first season, turning into a miniseries, and helps you visualize the case!

Club Quarantine

Club Quarantine curated by the DJ Producer team of Gabriel & Dresden. Based in the Bay Area, Dave Dresden is the host and often accompanied by his partner Karin Bash, a DJ in her own right. They perform several live DJ sets each week, and the music genre is in the range of melodic techno, trance, and deep EDM. The podcasts are accessible from Twitch and Facebook. Dave has built a fantastic community of fans and supporters worldwide that populate the chat feed with entertaining banter moderated to exclude inappropriate and harmful comments. The vibe is only positive and affirming. Dave interjects a lot of narration among the tracks, citing music history and describing new works.

The Michelle Obama Podcast

The Michelle Obama Podcast features the former First Lady diving deep into conversations with loved ones—family, friends, and colleagues—on the relationships in our lives that make us who we are.

The Thread

Explore history's interlocking lives and events. Turn back the clock, one story at a time. Discover how various strands weave together to create a historical figure, a big idea, or an unthinkable tragedy. From OZY Media. History. Unwound.

The best spots to shop locally for your holiday gifts!

The holiday shopping season typically has early morning shoppers in line outside of shopping malls to buy gifts.  This holiday shopping season is very different.  Most of us will be shopping online instead of visiting stores.

We want to keep the shops in our cities, so please consider buying your holiday gifts in local stores to help the community during these difficult times.

In supporting our local economy,  MSA created a list of our favorite shops in the Bay Area to find fun gifts for your loved ones. 

Little john’s Candies, San Francisco

They make the best English Toffee, and provide it in multiple box sizes which are perfect for gifts. It is located not in the best part of Market Street, but worth the trip.

Maison d’Etre, Oakland

The name, Maison d’Etre, suggests the store’s reason for being: to celebrate life at home. The beauty and function of our homes and personal environments contribute to our wellbeing, trailing in importance not at all distantly behind the very basics of life.

Box and Bow, Brentwood now online only

Box + Bow rekindles a lost art by providing beautifully packaged, hand selected items sourced from small businesses, artisan crafters and Etsy sellers. They have the CUTEST gifts, they basically have a customized box for any occasion, from holiday boxes to corporate custom boxes.

Oaklandish, Oakland

I love locally shopping in boutique stores like along Piedmont in Oakland. I love buying things that represent the city (like clothing). Oaklandish’s mission is to spread “local love” by way of our civic pride-evoking tees and accessories, while creating quality inner city jobs for locals, and giving back to the people and places that maintain our city’s trailblazer spirit. So, wear it well. When you rock these roots, you're representing and supporting Oakland!

Anchor Brewing, San Francisco

Anchor Brewing’s annual Christmas Ale is a subtly spiced and sumptuously smooth winter warmer. This year’s brew marks the 46th annual release of this Anchor holiday tradition. Each year a new symbolic hand-drawn tree is chosen for the Christmas Ale label. This year’s label features The Three Graces; three iconic towering sequoias from the Mariposa Grove in California’s Yosemite National Park.

Oaktown Spice Shop, Oakland

In 2011, John and Erica opened Oaktown Spice Shop and the business has grown to a full team of employees, two retail shop locations and a growing number of restaurants, bakeries and bar customers -- not to mention chocolatiers, distillers, popcorn producers and candy makers -- who source their spices from the shop.

Isalis, San Francisco

Isalis was created in 2017 with the goal to make the in-store shopping experience fun again. Their stores is an extension of your dream closet. They bring a curated collection of trend-focused pieces every month! In addition to woman’s clothing, accessories and small gifts locally sourced can be found!

Local Take, 2 locations in San Francisco

Local Take is a gallery gift store featuring all local artists and designers. With an ever changing collection of products, Local Take currently showcases over 130 Bay Area artists and designers. We look forward to supporting even more local artists and designers in the years to come!

Best games to play with family or friends during Thanksgiving

Are you ready to challenge family and friends during the holidays? Thanksgiving holidays are the perfect time to spend time with the family. Or with friends. And to indulge in fun board games.

As Thanksgiving day is approaching, we decided to select our favourite board games, to spend a few hours together, in relaxation and fun. So here are some games to have fun with family and friends during the winter holidays.

SKRIBBL.IO

This free multiplayer drawing and guessing game is a great way to interact with your family. Draw and guess words with your friends and people all around the world!

Telestrations

We first played this game on Thanksgiving last year and it’s been a hit at every party I’ve ever brought it to.

It’s described as “The Telephone Game Stretched Out”. One round we started off by sketching a Lady Bug and by the time it got to the last person (12 people), they thought it was a bobby pin?!

The most hilarious part is seeing everyone’s sketches and the range of art skills at the end!

Melissa & Doug Suspend Family Game

About 3 years ago we picked up this game to play with the family at Thanksgiving and it was a hit. 

A family game of tricky hangs and steady hands! Try this hanging balance game and you'll be hooked! Suspend comes with 24 notched, rubber-tipped wire pieces to hang from a tabletop stand. Sound easy? Try adding another piece! Each time a bar is added, the balance shifts, the difficulty changes and the incredible midair sculpture transforms. Can you add all your game pieces without making it fall? This tricky game for 1-4 players is a test of steady nerves and steady hands.

IMAGINE

Imagine a game that becomes the life of the party! Combine, overlap, and even animate the special transparent cards in this fast guessing free-for-all. Is that icon actually a flag pole? Or is it a golf club, a shark fin, or even an ostrich's neck? With 61 unique icons and more than a thousand prompts, it's a game as big as your imagination!

THANKSGIVING ESCAPE ROOM

My family had a great time with this escape game. We split into two teams and each team was able to complete it in about an hour. Definitely worth it if you want a fun escape room without having to invent one. I would definitely recommend this if you’re looking for something to do with your family!

PUZZLES

Put the pieces together in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the Guggenheim museum in NYC, or any image of your choice!

Monopoly deal

Get a handy way to play the classic property-trading game! Be the first collect 3 full property sets of different colors, and you’ll win the Monopoly Deal Card Game. You’ll pick up cards when it's your turn and play Action cards to charge players rent, steal their cards or demand money for your birthday. Build up property sets, gather piles of money and keep wheeling and dealing until you're the Monopoly Deal winner!

The best places for a staycation around the Bay Area

It’s no secret that 2020 hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. Crossing out long-awaited trips and vacations has become the norm. 

Sure, we won’t travel abroad or a road trip across the country, but if you need to get away from your home, consider a staycation! Sometimes, it feels even more luxurious to languish somewhere other than your own home, change scenarios, view, and break the routine. These staycation ideas will help you live your best life within a short drive.

Napa Valley, Hotel Yountville

The suites are large with French doors that open into a courtyard. The spa is wonderful. It is located in a small town Yountville north of Napa. There are several great places to eat there and have a nice lunch or dinner. We like to visit Bouchon Bakery or have a meal at Bistro Jeanty. Or if you desire to experience high end dining, French Laundry is down the street.

Sonoma County along the Russian River, Guerneville

Within a short distance in all directions are fantastic day and half-day adventures.  North is Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve, with protected redwood groves as beautiful as Muir Woods yet without the crowds. Several good hikes are within the park, or one can simply drive to a nearby hilltop with panoramic views. West is an easy +20 mile drive to the coast and Goat Rock State Beach, with staggering cliff, beach, and ocean scenery. Like the redwoods, one can choose among several rewarding hikes or drives through this beauty spot. South is the Russian River itself, which offers lazy rafting and swimming in the summer. East are numerous wineries, the closest being the well known sparkling brand Korbel, with tasting rooms, marketplace, and deli. Wineries are everywhere in this direction, but my favorite excursion is to take the Westside Road that leaves Highway 116 in Hacienda and heads to Healdsburg. It’s a windy, hillside drive of 30-40 minutes along vineyard fields and forested areas that are particularly beautiful in the fall. The communities of Guerneville and nearby Rio Nido or Monte Rio offer the best places to stay, and are sprinkled with many dining establishments catering to all budgets.

Half moon bay, The Ritz Carlton Hotel

When California residents seek reprieve from the city, they head to the northern coastline, drawing energy from the scenic beaches, untouched nature and fresh air. Set amid this tranquility is The Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, a blufftop resort overlooking the ocean. Opportunities to disconnect are abundant: walks along the beach, a few rounds of golf, a day at the spa, outdoor activities designed for kids, a glass of wine and a colorful sunset.

Pescadero, Costanoa Hotel

Great local getaway with everything from the luxury lodge to rustic cabins or tents. With great outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, or walking along the Pacific Ocean, Costanoa is also relaxing with good food & wine and various spa options.

Point Reyes, Olema Cottages

Point Reyes offers a fabulous rustic getaway.  The cottages are comfortable with plenty of amenities and a great location to the seashore and Point Reyes Station.

Yosemite, Autocamp

AutoCamp Yosemite is just a 3 hour drive from San Francisco, California. The property includes fully appointed AutoCamp Suites, canvas tents, and thoughtful accessible units all with plush, modern interiors. The site is approximately 30 minutes away from the national park.

The Clubhouse features modern lounge interiors, outdoor fire pits, and curated shop with gear, food, wine, and beer. AutoCamp Yosemite also features an onsite pool and pond.

Marshall Beach, Point Reyes Camping & Kayaking trip

If you are looking for an adventurous trip nearby, drive to Point Reyes Station and rent kayaks for one or two nights. Once the kayaks are securely arranged on the top of the cars drive to Chicken Ranch Beach and start kayaking from there for approximately 1.5 hours in the tranquility of the bay until you reach Marshall beach, a beautiful and spacious beach where you can start setting up your tents. The location offers restrooms and beautiful views over the bay. Remember to get your camping permit before you start your trip!

Big Sur, Treebones Resort

Favorite local place to camp on the coast. Staying in their yurts is the best. Great dinning onsite, amazing views of the Pacific Ocean, great proximity to hiking and whale watching. Offers onsite yoga and massage as well.