West Shore Café & Inn, Homewood, CA

You won’t find this anywhere else on Lake Tahoe: Across the road from the downhill runs of Homewood Mountain Resort, an intimate six-room inn that feels like your very own home. Or, well, like the woodsy-elegant waterfront home of your very wealthy friend. You know, with flickering gas fireplaces, slate-stone bathrooms, and floor-to-ceiling windows (in your room and at the downstairs restaurant-bar) that reveal every glorious ripple of Tahoe and the peaks beyond. Pad around in slippers, if you like—lots of après-skiers do, as they sidle to the bar for a Bloody Mary. Local activities include reduced-rate skiing and snowboarding at Homewood, as well as cross-country skiing and ice-skating nearby. From $249; westshorecafe.com