Hotel Portillo

To find the world's best Chile dog, you must take a bus up the switchbacks of the trans-Andean highway nearly to the top of Uspallata Pass, where South America's oldest ski resort squats in a valley of almost frightening beauty. During the Northern Hemisphere's summer months these rugged, black peaks soften into snow-clad slopes that run gently into Laguna del Inca, a glacial lake that proves God was, from time to time, simply showing off. Clinging to the edge of the lake is the Hotel Portillo, a grand ocean liner of a building painted a startling yellow. Clustered around the hotel are bunches of blue sheds, one of which houses that fabulous Chile dog, a golden retriever named Reggie, the country's only working avalanche rescue pooch. Off duty, Reggie sniffs along the snow--ears up, tail twitching--at an unhurried clip, which befits Portillo's pace of life. There's no predawn rush to make the first tracks in Portillo's fresh powder; in fact, most skiers don't hit the slopes until late morning, assuming they hit the slopes at all. More like a private club than a resort (the hotel has room for only 450 guests), Portillo is a self-contained world (cinema, pool, disco, spa, day-care center, indoor soccer field....) with the quaintness of an Old World inn. What Portillo doesn't have are trees, which is swell if you're a skier, but no fun at all if you're a dog. --Franz Lidz