Skiing with Tom Hanks and sleeping with Ernest Hemingway

Skiing with Tom Hanks and sleeping with Ernest Hemingway.

Sun Valley Lodge, Sun Valley, Idaho

“I loved you when I saw you today.” I did fall in love with the dazzling 1930s-inspired decor when I first entered the lobby of Sun Valley Lodge, however that quote is not mine. That’s an Ernest Hemingway line from his book For Whom the Bells Toll, which he finished writing while staying in room 206 at the lodge.

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You can’t escape the history and understated glamour of Sun Valley ski resort, but Sun Valley Lodge is the star of the show. Soon after the lodge opened as America’s first dedicated ski hotel in 1936, it became a hot spot for A-list celebrities, including Clark Gable, Jane Russell, Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway. 
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Hemingway, who much like today’s influencers, was given free board and lodging in return for promotional pictures. The society pages of gossip mags were soon filled with pictures of the Hollywood elite fraternising and frolicking in the resort and Sun Valley became the hottest in-vogue holiday destination in America.

The Hollywood stars are all still there. Well, on the walls at least. I spent ages on my first day wandering the corridors of the hotel gazing at framed black and white photos of old (and new) stars who had walked these same corridors. There’s Bing Crosby performing in the courtyard, Louis Armstrong entertaining crowds inside the dining room, Marylin Monroe sipping champagne in a floor length dress, Clint Eastwood swinging a golf club and Tom Hanks drinking at the bar.

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The hotel was meticulously renovated from 2012 to 2015, and guests now live it up better than the silver-screen stars of yore. That’s because they doubled the size of most of the rooms. There are now 108 rooms to choose from, including the Celebrity Suites. You can bed down in the Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe and Ernest Hemingway suites. The Hemingway suite is the same suite that Papa stayed in and comes complete with a writing desk and an old-school typewriter. Maybe Hemingway’s ghost will help you write the next New York Times bestseller.

If you do get writer’s block though, you can always just go bowling in the lodge’s very own bowling alley, get pampered in the extensive spa, perform pirouettes on the ice rink or splash around in the famous signature round heated outdoor pool. Finish your day at the bar in the Duchin Lounge, and if you’re lucky Tom Hanks might even shout you a round.

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Oh, there’s also some skiing out the back door. Sun Valley Resort features 19 lifts and 120 runs across its two mountains, Bald Mountain and Dollar Mountain. Hemingway even has a run named after him.

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After staying at Sun Valley Lodge, you’ll agree with another Hemingway quote: “The world is a fine place.”

Ski Pass:
Sun Valley is on the Ikon Pass