STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

If you’re vacationing in Sun Valley right now, you’ve come to the right place.

Sun Valley is one of America’s Best Cities for Winter Travel, according to a recently published article by Travel & Leisure.

“If winter means snow and outdoor fun, Sun Valley should fit the bill,” writes Patricia Doherty. “Non-stop flights from major western cities make Sun Valley accessible, and skiing, snowboarding, ice skating snow biking, Nordic skiing, snowmobiling and sleigh rides await.”

Doherty continues, “Called the birthplace of destination skiing, Sun Valley offers 13 chairlifts and 65 varied runs, as well as its popular ski school. The town boasts a range of dining spots, live music venues and coffee shops. The annual Sun Valley Summer Symphony Festival is set for late February 2019 and the Sun Valley Film Festival will take place in March.”

And, of course, there’s the traditional Christmas Eve ice skating show, torchlight parade and fireworks, pictured in these photos.

Other cities mentioned in the article include Burlington, Vt., with its Ethan Allen Homestead Museum—an exhibit of life on the Vermont frontier, and New York City with its Butterfly Conservatory and ice skating in Central Park.

Asheville, N.C., makes a fun winter destination, thanks to its 1.7-mile walk featuring bronze sculptures depicting historical figures and the 250-room Biltmore Estate. South Padre Island in Texas has its five-story bird viewing tower, and Sarasota, Fla., its Ringling Circus Museum and Mansion.

Pittsburgh has 400 bridges and its Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History—good places to duck out of the snow. Biloxi, Miss, offers a Mardi Gras Museum, and St. George, Utah, its red rock Snow Canyon State Park—named for a Utah pioneer, not for the two to three inches of snow it sees each year.

Other cities on the list include St. Louis, Mo.; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Astoria, Ore.; Louisville, Ky.: Palm Springs and Venice, Calif.; Key West, Fla., and, of course, Honolulu.