Montana, Wyoming Lodges Take Guide’s Top Honors

By Amy Linn, 9-10-09

Away.com, a leading website for travel planning, has listed a Montana and a Wyoming destination on its latest list of top resorts. The “Best Resorts & Lodges Guide,” as described by the Away.com press release, offers “in-depth profiles of 200 of the world’s best destination resorts across ten popular travel categories,” chosen by a team of travel experts. And the experts liked what they saw out West.

The Lodge at Sun Ranch in Cameron, Mont., 40 minutes from Yellowstone National Park, was an editor’s pick in the “adventure lodges” category. Seated on 26,000 acres near the Madison River, the luxe eco-lodge includes a holistic cattle ranching operation and a nonprofit research institute, among other green leanings.

The high-end, eco-friendly Hotel Terra in Jackson Hole, Wyo. was an editor’s pick in the ski lodge category.

The other top resorts on the list were chiefly the sun-and-beach variety, including the Grand Velas All Suites Spa & Resort in Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico; the Rosewood Little Dix Bay in Tortola, British Virgin Islands; the Breakers Palm Beach in Florida; Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge in Orlando, Fla.; the Lapa Rios Eco-Lodge on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica; and the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island in Hawaii.

Aside from the Montana and Wyoming picks, the only other Western (and winter-prone) resort to snag a mention was the Ahwahnee Hotel in California’s Yosemite National Park.

To check out the resorts and lodges guide, click here.