BANFF, ALBERTA
No electricity? No running water? Nope—and none of the nuisances of urban life, either. Instead, Alberta's Skoki Lodge thaws out up to 22 guests with a wood-fired sauna, flannel sheets, and crackling woodstoves. A stay at the remote log hideaway, which sits at 7,100 feet in Banff National Park, should be on the "life list" of anyone with a set of healthy lungs and legs. It's a seven-mile backcountry ski to get here from the Lake Louise Ski Area, but energy stores are quickly replenished with beef tenderloin, lamb, smoked oysters, frozen lemon soufflés, and cups of "Cougar's Milk," a brew of condensed milk and rum. With five valleys spread out below Skoki, lending incomparable views, you might consider renouncing the urban life completely. Doubles from $151.

Skoki Lodge
Tel: 877 687 7669 (toll-free)
Fax: 403 244 3774
info@skircr.com