For starters, the drinking age is 19. This is good and bad. Good because 20-year-old Yanks won’t have to suffer the ignominy of faffing about with fake IDs. Bad because this means you’ll witness more binge-puke-binging than on Celebrity Rehab. But choose right and you’ve got the best nightlife in the mountains of North America.

When You Go…
3:58 p.m.: Wings and ribs at Dusty’s. [Bottom of the Creekside gondola]

6:00 p.m.: Have a drink and soak it up with Chicken T&A at the GLC. (Shower first.) [Above the Whistler gondola building]

8:00 p.m.: Poke down fresh fish and spicy agedashi tofu at Sushi Village. [4272 Mountain Sq.]

9:30 p.m.: Two pitchers of Kokanee Gold at the Amsterdam. [4232 Village Stroll]

11:00 p.m.: Your pick—Savage Beagle, Maxx Fish, or Tommy Africa’s, depending on levels of floor vomit. Puddle is better than river.

2:00 a.m.: Poutine at Zog’s, often prepared by actual Quebecois, some of them not even on drugs. [50 yards west of Wizard gondola in village]

Best of the Rest

2. Vail, CO

3. Aspen/Aspen Highlands, CO

4. Breckenridge, CO

5. Heavenly, CA

6. Park City Mountain Resort, UT

7. Killington, VT

8. Jackson Hole, WY

9. Steamboat, CO

10. Squaw Valley, CA