Come for the great outdoors, stay for the great pasta, prime rib, and local fish in Idaho’s glitziest getaway

Sun Valley, Idaho, has been a clutch winter travel destination since the 1930s. But with fewer than 25,000 full-time residents in the whole of Blaine County, the local restaurant industry relies almost exclusively on tourism dollars year round. Ernest Hemingway was famously a fan of the summer fishing season, and today, the appetites of vacation homeowners like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill and Melinda Gates are more than enough to maintain a food scene that’s surprisingly vibrant considering the low headcount. In Sun Valley as well as the neighboring towns of Ketchum and Hailey, winter and summer visitors can fill up on mushroom poutine and Korean fried chicken, as well as plenty of local goodies like trout, salmon, beef, elk, and bison.

1.               The Ram

2.               Gretchen’s

3.               Michel’s Christiania

4.               Town Square Tavern

5.               Cristina’s

6.               The Kneadery

7.               Rickshaw

8.               Pioneer Saloon

9.               Enoteca

10.             Warfield Distillery & Brewery

11.             Tundra Restaurant

12.             C.K.’s Real Food

13.             The Smokey Bone BBQ

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Sun Valley, Idaho

By March, the ski-mad crowds have thinned out from Idaho’s premier ski resort, but assuming global warming hasn’t completely ruined the season, you’ll still have loads of snow on the mountain. That means ample opportunity for skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, and even cold weather fly fishing. It’s also prime time to spend a night at Idaho’s Dark Sky Reserve, where the best stargazing in the northwest seems especially bright on a cold, clear night.

March is also when the Sun Valley Film Festival comes to town, a severely scaled back version of Sundance with all the great films and celebrities but minus the hoards who come just to party. Only about 4,000 people attend the festival, but it still draws names like Clint Eastwood, Geena Davis, and Gwyneth Paltrow every year.

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The Fire that Saved Sun Valley

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Published on January 3, 2019 by FREESKIER

FREESKIER is teaming up with the crew at Visit Sun Valley to give one lucky winner and a friend of their choosing a three-day, two-night trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, to ski one of the most beautiful resorts in North America! Enter your information below to be considered to win complimentary lift tickets for two days of skiing at Sun Valley, a two-night stay at the brand new Limelight Hotel in downtown Ketchum, a $75 gift card to use at the delicious Sawtooth Brewery and a fresh pair of Crosson Skis of the winner’s choosing. The dates of the winning trip are March 7th through March 9th and all you have to do is get there!

https://youtu.be/rRBVlCAVMTM

Flocked in a frosty coat of white and adorned with shimmering lights, wreaths, and a passionate reverence for time honored tradition and family gathering, few places are as magical during Christmas as Sun Valley. As the streets lined with lights welcome visitors to town and the village teems with festive activities and traditions, the spirit of Christmas is infectious to all who enter.  So come to Sun Valley and rekindle your love for the most wonderful time of the year while bonding with your loved ones and enjoying the skiing and ice skating, caroling and worshiping, dining and shopping–even late night bar hopping.
See what Sun Valley has in store for your family this winter!

Papoose Club Christmas Bazaar

A fundraiser for the Papoose Club–come out and shop the wares of local artists and craftspeople for unique presents for that person who has everything.

Ketchum Christmas Lighting Ceremony

Join in the start of the Christmas season at Town Square in Ketchum with the lighting of the Town Square, Santa arriving on his traditional fire truck sleigh, and hot cocoa and cider with cookies for everyone!

A Christmas Carol

Holiday fun for the whole family! Come join the tradition.

Tree Lighting Ceremony – Sun Valley Resort | December 15

Featuring Santa, live holiday music, ice carving demo, free cookies & hot cocoa, and no-host outdoor bar. Festivities begin around 5:30pm with Tree Lighting to follow.

Sun Valley Winter Wonderland Ice Show and Christmas Eve Torchlight Parade | December 24

The Sun Valley ice shows are a sight to behold any time of the year, but the Nutcracker on Ice is one spectacle that brings a smile and a warm heart to everyone who attends.  This is truly a time honored family tradition that lets us all know the Christmas is here, while free admission celebrates the giving of the holiday season. Fireworks and a light show of skiers wielding torches down Dollar Mountain is the last thing children for generations have seen before crawling into bed to wait for Santa to arrive in the night.  Free to all!

Gallery Walk | December 28

Each year, the Sun Valley Gallery Association hosts seven gallery walks (exhibition openings for all SVGA galleries), which are eagerly anticipated and free to the public. Locals and visitors alike take in thought-provoking exhibitions of newly installed art, enjoy wine, mingle with friends, and often meet the artists.

Night-Skiing on Dollar | December 31

Hit the slopes to and enjoy some night turns, music under the stars and fireworks. Admission includes skiing and riding on Quarter Dollar, face painting, New Year’s Eve party hat decorating, photo booth, bouncy twister and so much more! Ring in the new year with family fun and festivities. 4-9pm

Bubbly Bash | December 31

Welcome in 2019 with fellow supporters of the arts at the New Year’s Eve Bubbly Bash, which promises once again to be the valley’s most festive holiday celebration. The annual sold-out event benefits the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and is co-hosted by Sun Valley Resort and The Center’s Junior Patrons Circle.

The ‘Sixth Sense’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’ star’s 20-acre lakefront ranch sold after seven years on the market.

Actor Bruce Willis has officially sold his 20+ acre lakefront ranch property in Hailey, Idaho, just 12 miles south of Sun Valley. In 2011, Willis listed the estate for $15 million with Sotheby’s, then re-listed it in 2016 as a co-listing with Engel & Völkers Sun Valley and Keller Williams for the same price. While the home’s final sale was only a fraction of the original listing price, Willis’ listing represents the single biggest residential sale ever in the Hailey area. Travis Jones was the listing agent with Engel & Völkers Sun Valley.

The far-from-modest, 8,400-square-foot home was fully rebuilt by Willis in 2003, and currently features six bedrooms, a guest house, and a gym. Willis also added several streams and ponds to the property, along with an impressively grand heated pool that features waterslides, waterfall features, and a rope swing.

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SUN VALLEY, IDAHO — Mountain peaks pierce the sky like emerald pyramids as we weave through Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest, more than two million acres of gorgeous green that’s home to Baldy, one of the Smoky Mountains’ highest summits.

After spending a day discovering the hipster comforts of Boise, we’ve driven three hours east to this massive wilderness, where the blue sky is free of clouds and mountain goats scale the golden granite, for a late summer getaway. Sun Valley is the posh resort area that includes Ketchum and Hailey, towns that Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks and other Hollywood elite call home.

To wrap one’s head around how much nature is here — and just how deeply your soul will surrender to it — crunch the numbers: The region is home to more than 1,000 lakes, 3,000 miles of rivers and countless mountain trails and equestrian routes. There is so much to do in the summer, you almost forget about the world-class skiing that’s defined Sun Valley since 1936.

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KETCHUM — The dates have been set for Sun Valley Center for the Arts’ 50th Arts & Crafts Festival — a cultural highlight of the Wood River Valley’s summer season. This free event will take place Aug. 10–12 on the lawns of Atkinson Park in Ketchum. Festival hours 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 10. Weekend hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Center uses a rigorous jury process to select artists and craftspeople to exhibit work at the Arts & Crafts Festival. According to the Art Fair SourceBook, a comprehensive guide to the top-selling art fairs and craft shows around the country, the event is ranked in the top 100 fine art festivals in the U.S.

Each year, the three-day outdoor fine arts show gives Wood River Valley residents and visitors the opportunity to interact directly with artists and learn what’s new in the world of arts and crafts. In addition to the exhibition, the festival includes artist demonstrations, food vendors and a free kids’ craft area.

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First 5 months of 2018 outpace prior years in city

Looking across Ketchum, the story of new commercial property development is no longer solely focused on new hotels.

The construction of the Limelight Hotel on Main Street and the anticipated construction of the Auberge Resort Sun Valley hotel were the major new commercial development projects in Ketchum in 2015 and 2016, according to building activity reports maintained by the city government.

The city recorded those projects when their developers paid their building-permit fees; the Limelight wrapped up construction in 2017 and the Auberge will have until 2021 to complete construction.

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