We review the ski resorts easily accessible from NYC.

East Coast by Car

* Belleayre is 2.5 hours from NYC and accessible by Adirondacks Trailways bus — same day or overnight. $68 will get you there, on the mountain and back to the city in one day. That’s what I call budget skiing.
Total time: ~2.5 hours by car

* Hunter/Windham also 2.5 hours from NYC and there are several groups that make day trips, including NYC Ski & Board (days trips to Hunter & Windham, $81 for the trip & lift tkt), Island Ski Tours, Emilio’s Ski Shop (trips to Hunter, Bellayre, Okemo, Stratton), Paragon and many others.
Total time: ~2.5 hours by car

If you plan on going frequently, you may want to consider joining a ski clubs, some of which have lodging at the resorts.

East Coast by Air

With most of Vermont’s resorts 5+ hours of driving away, it makes sense to consider flying somewhere for a long weekend. Here are the best bets on the East Coast.

* Bolton Valley Why not fly to Vermont and cut travel time in half? Bolton is 25 miles from the Burlington airport (BTV). 64 trails, 165 skiable acres. Several airlines have direct flights, including JetBlue and Continental leaving out of JFK, LGA and EWR. Another option about 45 mins from the airport is Stowe.
Total air + road time: ~2.5 hours (1.5 hours air, 45 mins road)
MAP, 1-day lift ticket: $55 USD

* Mont Sainte Anne is just under two hours by air from New York. The resort is 56km (~ 1 hour) outside of Quebec City and has 66 trails, 32% of which are black or double black diamonds. The altitude is 2,625 ft at the summit. Continental has several daily direct EWR-YQB (Jean Lesages Airport in Quebec City) flights and a Thurs-Sun or a Fri-Mon trip is entirely possible for approximately $500.
Total air + road time: ~3 hours (2 hours air, 1 hour road)
MAP, 2-day lift ticket: $112 CAD

* Le Massif is just another 20mi up the road from Quebec City than Mont Sainte Anne. The same flight options apply. 45 trails, 40% difficult or extremely difficult, 2,645 ft summit altitude, 2,526 ft vertical drop, 352 skiable acres.
Total air + road time: ~3.5 hours (2 hours air, 1.5 hours road)
MAP, 2-day lift ticket: $104 CAD

* Mont Tremblant Under two hours by air from New York. 94 trails, 625 ski acres outside of Quebec. Two options for air travel — fly directly to the Mont Tremblant airport or fly to Montreal. (1) a direct flight from Continental from EWR-YTM (Mont Tremblant) runs about $300; the only disadvantage is the the departure/return times from New York and Mont Tremblant are in the early afternoon. (2) direct flight from EWR-YUL (Montreal Trudeau) is under $300 and about 1.5 hours. Several airlines have direct flights. The drive/bus from Montreal to Mont Tremblant is another 1.5 hours.
Total air + road time: ~2 - 3 hours (1.5 hours air, 1.5 hours road)
MAP, 1-day lift ticket: $64 CAD

Rockies/West Coast

Several resorts are close to airports, but not all of them have direct flights from NYC. Here are two that do.

* Steamboat Fly from NYC direct into Hayden. The altitude (base is 6,900 feet) may mean you need to pad an extra day to acclimate. New direct flights on Delta from JFK to LGA brings you into Hayden/Steamboat (HDN), which is 22 miles from the resort. 2,965 skiable acres, 165 trails, 44% of trails are advanced.
Total air + road time: ~5-6 hours
MAP, 1-day lift ticket: $85 USD

*Snowbird/Alta/Deer Valley/Park City-area Tons of options for ski resorts that are 30 mins - 1 hour driving distance from SLC, which in turn has direct flights out of New York. Snowbird is ~ 30 miles outside of SLC, as is the skiers-only resort Alta. Top-rated Deer Valley is 36 miles from SLC. Delta and JetBlue offer direct flights out of NYC that are about 5.5 hours on the way out and 4 and change on the way back. Another benefit would be the Sundance Film Festival, which this year starts on Jan 17.
Total air + road time: ~5.5-6.5 hours (4.5-5.5 hours air, 45 mins road)
MAP, 1-day lift ticket: $60 - $80 USD

*Vail Denver’s a bit far to fly into (2 hours away), but for a pretty penny you can fly directly into EGE (Vail/Eagle) on Continental. From there it’s about a 40 minute drive to Vail.
MAP, 1-day lift ticket: $92 USD
Total air + road time: ~5-6hours (4.5 - 5 hours by air, 40 mins road)