These two towering mountains provide the best skiing in North America, with the biggest vertical drop. Whistler's charming village offers everything snowboarders and skiers crave; cafés, international stores and over 100 restaurants. Hope you enjoyed staying at the finest hotels around the world. Few things in life beat the luxury and amenities of fine hotels, except perhaps a visit to some choice ski destinations around the world.

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Kitzbuhel, Austria

While St. Anton holds the crown of "Europe's liveliest ski resort," and Innsbruck is home to one of Europe's most beautiful and lively cities (the International Olympic Committee must have thought so as well, as the city hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976), Kitzbuhel is considered the "Pearl of the Alps" and is the most famous holiday resort in the Austrian Tyrol. This 700-year-old village offers visitors the charm of an alpine village. Skiing began in the winter of 1892.

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Zermatt, Switzerland

While neighboring Gstaad is one of the world's top resorts with its three five-star hotels and St-Moritz is more popular, most rank Zermatt as Switzerland's top resort. A remarkably peaceful getaway, the village is peaceful thanks to its car-free environment. Amazingly picturesque, Zermatt holds the world's second biggest lift-served vertical drop and receives huge snowfalls thanks to its altitude.

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Vail, Colorado

Legendary Vail markets itself as "America's favorite resort" and has a serious claim to be ranked amongst the world's top five all-around ski resorts. As the largest single ski area in the United States, Vail offers over 4,000 acres of skiable, terrain. Let's not forget the fastest high-speed detachable quads on one mountain. No small feat, I'm sure. Vail offers much more with several art galleries, museums, ballooning, dog sledding, ice skating, hockey, snowmobiling, and much more.

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Banff/Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada

Located in the heart of Canada's Banff National Park, Lake Louise ranks as one of the most scenic mountain resorts in North America, if not the entire world. Banff/Lake Louise has three different ski areas (Mount Norquay/Mystic Ridge, Sunshine Village, and Lake Louise) that are roughly 50 km apart. The Insider's Guide to the Best Canadian Skiing has labeled Norquay as "an unforgiving brute legendary for its unrelenting vertical and monster moguls." Incredibly, the mountain has a lift capacity of more than 17,000 people per hour.

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Stowe, Vermont

One of the most renowned and picturesque ski resorts on the map, Stowe offers traditional New England charm and the biggest vertical drop in the area. Stowe's two ski areas are Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak. The latter actually backs onto Smugglers' Notch's terrain. As a result, Stowe is the only American resort that has a lift-link to another resort. Stowe offers over ninety shops and sixty restaurants to make sure that visitors do not trek too far away.

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Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada

French Canadian joie de vivre meets North American service standards. Tremblant, Eastern Canada's best-known resort, has been given a face-lift thanks to a $1 billion investment. Open since 1939, Tremblant was the first resort to open in Canada and the second in North America. What makes Tremblant even more special is that it is an hour away from Montreal. An alternative would be Mont-Ste-Anne, perhaps a nicer mountain and a short trip away form Quebec City, perhaps North America's most historic city as the gateway into the "New World".

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Cortina, Italy

Cortina matches any resort in the Alps and served as the host of the Olympic Games in 1956. Similar to Zermatt in Switzerland, life revolves around a trafficless street. One of the world's first ski resorts, Cortina is also Italy's most stylish.

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Aspen, Colorado

Want to ski with the rich and famous? If yes, then Aspen is the place to be. Aspen is known for its steeps and its four mountains that are not linked. This Colorado ski resort accommodates all by featuring excellent terrain for all skier levels. Filled with steeps and bumps, Aspen Mountain has fantastic groomed intermediate runs as well. The mountain is also a great choice for experts who can access hundreds of acres of terrain off the backside of the mountain. As the resort-of-choice for the "better off," Aspen has a tendency to get slightly expensive.

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Mount Hutt, South Island, New Zealand

Just out of Christchurch, Mount Hutt is one of New Zealand’s premier ski areas and hosts World Cup alpine racing. The season at Mount Hutt is the longest in the country (late May to early November). Mt Hutt is one of the highest ski areas in the Southern Hemisphere. The wide-open faces are great for those learning to snowboard. Mount Hutt's unique location results in the mountain acting as a snow magnet receiving a 400cm plus average snowfall. The ski hill has one of the world's most sophisticated snow making systems to ensure the slopes are always in top condition. At the base of the mountain is the village of Methven which has all the charm of a high country rural service town

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Smugglers' Notch, Vermont

Winter activities center around enjoying the abundant snowfall and the mountains: opportunities for snowboarding, snowmobiling, snowshoeing, ice climbing, and, of course, skiing – both downhill and cross-country – abound. Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak, is a magnet for all who love the outdoors, and the Smugglers Notch Area offers some of the finest skiing and boarding in the Northeast.

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Steamboat Ski Resort, Colorado

Steamboat's huge mountain offers exhilarating mogul fields, inviting tree runs, sparkling powder fields and wide open groomed runs, all spilling from the top of the Continental Divide. During the ski season, Steamboat receives more than 300 inches of snow, creating some of the best champagne powder skiing in the world. The mountain is comprised of six peaks, 142 trails spread out over 2,939 acres served by 22 lifts, including four high-speed quad chairlifts and an 8-passenger gondola, rising 3,668 vertical feet.