Sun Valley Travel News

Spring Forecast: Perfect Corn for Last Tracks

Due to a bountiful snow year, Sun Valley Resort has just announced Bald Mountain will be open through April 20th, 2008. With a base of 225 inches, the skiing continues to be excellent, and with deals such as kids 15 and under ski free, $29 lift tickets for college students and faculty, and $86 for lodging and lift ticket packages, Sun Valley is the perfect place to take your last tracks of the season.

If five months on the mountain hasn't satisfied your ski season dreams, perhaps you should consider booking a few days with Sun Valley Heli Ski (SVHS). A SVHS trip means you'll be schussing down some of the greatest corn snow on the planet, with no crowds and no lift lines.

SVHS offers a Spring Corn Package that includes 3 days of guided helicopter skiing, 4 nights lodging, lunch included on heli ski days, and airport transfers, for just $3765 per person. They guarantee 6 runs daily providing an average of 12,000 vertical feet on each exhilarating day of skiing.


Sun Valley Food & Wine Festival Partners with Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation for June event

The 2nd Annual Sun Valley Food & Wine festival, slated for June 6th-8th, 2008, has become a wildly popular event with both locals and visitors alike. A special partner this year, the Jean-Louis Palladin (JLP) Foundation, will help to bring three renowned chefs to the event. Also appearing will be Food Network Iron Chef Cat Cora and John Tesar, Executive Chef at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas

Sorbonne educated Jimmy Sneed, culinary talent of The Frog and the Redneck in Virginia, will join Anne Callaghan, the genius behind Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino's Aureole in Las Vegas and Larbi Dahrouch, Executive Chef at Agua in Los Cabos, in making their first appearances in Sun Valley. This bright trio will showcase the skills and creativity that have propelled them to elite status among top chefs, performing demonstration events at the Festival.

In honor of chef Jean-Louis Palladin, the Foundation bearing his name was created as a tribute to his own 20th century culinary accomplishments. Palladin was a master chef known for his creativity, passion, technique, and commitment to excellence. In 1974, at just 28 years old, Jean-Louis was awarded 2 Michelin stars for his restaurant Tables Des Cordeliers in Gascony, France, making him one of the youngest ever to receive that honor. Answering his own challenge, Palladin arrived in America in 1979, opening the Jean-Louis at The Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. The JLP Foundation's mission is to develop programs to increase the understanding and appreciation of high-quality ingredients among young chefs and food professionals.

The Sun Valley Food & Wine Festival will also feature a variety of local chef demonstrations, select vintner dinners, how-to seminars, and a Grand Tasting. Tickets are available via phone by calling 866-305-9798. Online registration begins May 1st at http://www.sunvalleyfoodandwinefestival.com/

Complete chef biographies of Sneed, Callaghan and Dahrouch can be found by clicking here

Illuminate, Celebrate, Rejuvenate at the Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival

For the fourth year in a row, the Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival will celebrate the human spirit through film from September 19th-21st, 2008. The festival features over 25 films selected from a global search, some of which come with film-makers who just may attend while their films are shown, ready to discuss and explain their art upon audience request. Thought-provoking panel presentations and engaging speakers compliment the films. This year Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of best-selling works Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessing, and David Shlim, M.D., one of the most respected travel medicine practitioners in the world, will address the film festival audience. This truly inspirational event in a most beautiful setting will entertain, refresh and renew all who attend.


Sun Valley Ernest Hemingway Festival focuses on Cuba

The 4th Annual Sun Valley Ernest Hemingway Festival will be held September 25th-28th, 2008 in Sun Valley, Idaho, and will carry a 'Hemingway in Cuba' theme. The acclaimed author, a Sun Valley legend who both hunted and wrote in the area for twenty-two years, now rests in the historic Ketchum cemetery. The Ernest Hemingway Festival is a well-rounded celebration of Hemingway's life, including lectures and panel discussions by national scholars and family members, focused on Hemingway days in Cuba as well as the Wood River Valley. Hemingway's neice, Hilary, along with her husband Jeff Lindsay, will present her documentary 'Hemingway in Cuba'. Participants will also enjoy a tour of Hemingway sites and museum displays, topped off with a very special 'Evening in Cuba', filled with music, mojitos, and salsa dancing.