Vermont Ski Resort

Parents' take: Now that the kids are 2½ (or 10, or whatever), it's time to get serious about their education—which is why we're heading for Smugglers' Notch Resort, in the Green Mountains of Vermont, where we are going to enter them in the full-day ski instruction program at the resort's Snow Sport University. Parental responsibilities taken care of, we'll be off to the Black Hole, the only Triple Black Diamond trail in the East, to see if we've still got it. And if we don't, there's still cross-country skiing, or snowshoeing, or dogsledding. It's not about losing courage, though, as we can prove at karaoke night, after the dear ones are safely settled and out of earshot.

Kids' take: We'll be at the teen center with our new friends, hanging out in the no parents' zone.

Smugglers' Notch Winter Club Smugglers' Summit Package, from $570 per night, including lodging, lift tickets, activities, and Snow Sport University for a family of four in a one-bedroom condo with pull-out queen couch.

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