Forget the beach—nature lovers know that the best way to experience the great outdoors in the summer is to spend some quality time in the mountains.

If your idea of summer bliss involves hiking, biking, and swimming, these gorgeous resorts should be just the ticket. And if exotic scenery is a must, you’ll be happy to know that great mountain escapes can be found in tropical locales, too.

The Ahwahnee - Yosemite National Park, California

Nestled deep amongst the pine trees, cliffs, and canyons of Yosemite is the 123-room Ahwahnee Hotel. The impressive stone and wood structure was built in 1927 and is now considered a National Historic Landmark. Rooms with views of the Half Dome and El Capitan mountain peaks are filled with gorgeous dark wood and rich tapestries of Native American design. Highlights here include the Great Lounge with its 24-foot-high ceilings and a large stone fireplace. The grand dining room, flooded with natural light, is a must-see. This hotel is on the expensive side, and parking is limited, but the prime location and views are well-worth the price tag. A cool tidbit for movie lovers: parts of the Ahwahnee's interior, particularly its vivid red-and-black-framed elevators, were used as inspiration for the fictitious Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.

Mountain Lodge - Telluride, Colorado

Located in Mountain Village, Mountain Lodge at Telluride is a classic Colorado mountain getaway. This log-cabin style lodge offers spacious condo and cabin rentals for groups from two to 14 people. Most rooms have kitchens, gas fireplaces, and private balconies in addition to small touches like humidifiers to battle the dry Colorado air. One highlight of this hotel is the year-round outdoor pool and hot tub with sweeping mountain views. The hotel's cozy restaurant, aptly named "The View", has a huge fireplace and plenty of space to lounge and enjoy a local beer. Additional perks here include a small fitness center, steam rooms, and free Wi-Fi.

Hope Lake Lodge - Finger Lakes, New York

The 106-room Hope Lake Lodge is practically a town unto itself. Guests have free access to a pool and several whirlpools, and for a small extra fee they can splash at the attached water park. Outdoor activities in the area abound, as the property sits next to the highest point in the county — the ski resort — which is attached to a year-round adventure center for zip lining and snow tubing that makes it easy for kids to stay entertained. More adult activities include signature cocktails next to the lobby’s cozy fireplace and an array of spa treatments. The property has a Northwoods decor throughout, and many details were crafted by local artisans. The staff is made up of family members, students, and long-time locals, and the resort exudes a relaxed home-away-from-home vibe.

San Francisco may have some great restaurants, galleries, and shops, but it's also the most pretentious city in the country — at least according to Travel + Leisure readers.

The city recently took the top spot on a list of America's Snobbiest Cities, which the magazine compiled by asking readers to rank 35 major cities across the U.S., voting on everything from how charming the local accent is to the quality of microbrews and the attractiveness of residents.

The survey determined the snobbiest cities by evaluating things like the quality of high-end shopping, how tech-savvy the city is, and how showy the residents are.

T + L readers deemed San Francisco as the snobbiest city in America—but, they said, at least it's gay-friendly. New York City took the No. 2 spot on the list for its fast pace and do-or-die attitude. Boston ranked No. 3. Other "winning" cities included Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., Austin, Texas, and Charleston, S.C.

Here's the list of the top 20 snobbiest cities:

1. San Francisco
2. New York City
3. Boston
4. Minneapolis/St. Paul
5. Santa Fe (TIED)
6. Seattle (TIED)
7. Chicago
8. Providence, RI
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Charleston, SC
11. Portland, OR
12. Savannah, GA
13. Nashville
14. Kansas City, MO (TIED)
15. Philadelphia (TIED)
16. Los Angeles
17. Houston
18. Portland, ME
19. Austin, TX
20. San Juan, PR

SEE ALSO: The 15 Healthiest Cities In America >

Join the conversation about this story »

Planning a patriotic getaway this 4th of July weekend?

These hotels are super convenient to the holiday action — whether you’re planning a trip to Lady Liberty or planning to catch one of the country’s many spectacular fireworks shows.

Ink 48, New York City

Ink 48 (named for its location on 48th Street in New York City) is close to the river and has a beautiful rooftop offering partial views of the 4th of July fireworks (shown from 24th to 40th streets).

Tickets to its private 4th of July reception are $200 plus fees, but that includes an open bar, hors d’oeuvres, and live DJ music. Its free wine receptions, swanky spa, and pet-friendly features make it a great place to stay as well.

The Hotel of South Beach, Miami

Centrally located in a historic Art Deco building, this is a darling little hotel by designer Todd Oldham and developer/hotelier Tony Goldman.

Staying here and planning on celebrating the 4th of July? Bring beach chairs and towels to the fun (and free) 4th of July event beginning at 7:00 pm on 8th Street and Ocean Drive (fireworks start at 9 p.m.).

Andaz Wall Street, New York City

Hoping to visit Lady Liberty on your Independence Day visit to NYC? The Statue of Liberty is reopening to the public on July 4th 0f 2013 after flooding from Hurricane Sandy.

Andaz Wall Street is located conveniently near Battery Park, where the ferries for the statue depart, and boasts striking design by The Rockwell Group and big, handsome rooms with stylish bathrooms.

Need a hookup buddy?

There's an app for that.

Want to thumb up or down pictures of women's cleavage?

There's an app for that too.

Yes, people have created every offensive and controversial thing you could fathom.

Lulu is a girls-only app that lets women anonymously rate and objectify men.

Who created it: Alexandra Chong

Where you can find it: OnLuLu.com

More about it: On Lulu, men aren't allowed in, and women can anonymously rate them without their consent.  The men, who are all guys the women know via Facebook, are rated on a scale of one to ten. Their profiles are automatically pulled in when the women they know access Lulu. Hashtags women are encouraged to use to describe men include #Big Feet and #One Woman Man for pros, and #Obsessed With His Mom and #Napoleon Complex for cons. It is a venture-backed startup that has raised multiple millions from investors.

Bang With Friends helps you turn friends into hook-up buddies.

Who created it: Colin Hodge and Omri Mor

Where you can find it: Bangwithfriends.com

More about it: Bang with Friends (BWF) is a Facebook app that does exactly what you're thinking it does. It helps people on Facebook find friends to hook up with rather than date. It pulls in profile pictures on a single page and you can click on the friends you'd like to "bang." If that friend wants to have sex with you too, your intentions are made clear and you can message each other. It's gained so much traction that a few investors have decided to give it some funding.

Tinder lets you scroll through Facebook profile pictures and judge people's looks.

Who created it: Sean Rad, Justin Mateen, Jonathan Badeen, Christopher Gulczynski

Where you can find it: Tinder.com

More about it: Here's how Tinder works: Tinder shows you someone nearby it thinks you should know, who's single and about your age. You can anonymously like this person or skip to the next suggestion. If someone you like happens to like you back, then Tinder makes an introduction& lets you chat within the app. It may be controversial to judge people's looks, but the app has already produced more than 50 engagements and 75 million matches.

The new version of iOS, the operating system for iPhones and iPads, coming this fall is going to completely overhaul the design you're used to.

What we haven't seen is how developers will change their apps to better match Apple's new look. 

Apple has released new software for developers that will let them update their apps to include the new features, controls, and icons that are coming in iOS 7, but few if any developers have publicly spoken about what this will mean for their apps. 

Some designers on the design showcase site Dribbble have decided to show what popular apps will look like when their teams utilize Apple's new software. This Tumblr page decided to round up up the best examples.

So far, the results are rather pleasing to look at.

This Facebook redesign shows the app transitioning more smoothly into the notification bar and using thinner fonts and fewer icons. Interesting is the move to using round pictures to represent people. This is something that Facebook was already doing with its "chat heads" feature, and now Apple is doing something similar for iOS.

This Spotify redesign simplifies the user interface, gives greater emphasis to the music controls (like Apple's new Music app), and uses iOS 7's graphics blending features to make the whole app match the look of the current album.

The Nike+ Running redesign is a great example of the simplification that will come to iOS 7 apps. The borders surrounding buttons are gone and all of the "shadows" in the app have been removed, making everything flatter.

The jetpack, the flying car, free electricity for the world – all these ideas are way ahead of our time in the practical sense.

With time on our side, however, the idea of what's out of our technological reach is always changing. Circuits get smaller, engines get more efficient, bored scientists find new and interesting solutions to unusual problems.

Then that cutting-edge stuff becomes commonplace and gets used as a foundation to go a little deeper, rattle a few more technological sabers.

For example, we couldn't explain to you how a flush toilet works, but ancient Minoans were building them in 18th century BC.

Here's a collection of this and 7 other inventions that were simply ahead of their time.

Contact lenses – 1632

Rene Descartes, the "I think therefore I am" guy, is actually the first on record as having come up with the idea of corrective lenses in a 1632. (Leonardo da Vinci had a similar but ultimately different idea before him). Instead of using semi-sexy language like "corrective lenses," Descartes described them as glass tubes filled with liquid, placed in direct contact with the cornea.

Solar cells – 1883

The solar cell was first demonstrated experimentally in 1839. But Charles Fritts, in 1883, was first to build a functioning solid state version.

Vending machine – some time in the first century

Forget your Cokes and Mike & Ikes – the first vending machine dispensed holy water. It was a device invented by Hero of Alexandria in the first century.

If anyone's especially interested in vending machines, make sure to look into its culture in Japan. Yes, it's a culture.

The youngest daughter of Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov is supposedly the new owner of an extravagant Bel Air mansion that was listed for $58 million last June, celebrity real estate blogger The Real Estalker reports.

There's no word yet on the final price Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva paid for the over-the-top abode, which was designed by celebrity designer Mohamed Hadid and is registered to a corporate entity, according to the Real Estalker.

Hadid, known for developing Ritz Carlton Hotels and his appearances on Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," originally designed the home — called Crescent Palace — for himself, but later decided to sell it. The mansion has seven bedrooms, a 90-foot art gallery, and a subterranean mecca with a screening room, a ball room, and a Mediterranean-inspired indoor pool.

Welcome to the Crescent Palace, on Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills.

The home took designer Mohamed Hadid 15 months to create.

The home was built for entertaining.

Tennis players are some of the most physically fit athletes alive.

Despite the trappings of their quaint surroundings at Wimbledon — the strict fashions rules, the complicated etiquette — they're amazing physical specimens playing a brutally physical sport.

Some of them are absolutely ripped.

David Ferrer

Eugenie Bouchard

Tommy Haas

Not wanting to be left out of latest social media marketing trends, the TSA launched an Instagram account last week.

The subject of the filtered photos? Terrifying guns, knives, and inert grenades that people have tried to sneak onto planes.

While the TSA could be commended for preventing these weapons from getting on board your cross-country flight, there's something jarring about seeing a government agency encouraging the world to share sepia photos of stun guns designed to look like cigarette packs (with carefully selected borders) accompanied with literally 25 different hashtags.

Does snarky social media commentary — "#Fireworks don't fly (On planes)"— still work when it pertains to flight safety?

The TSA adds borders and multiple hashtags to every post.

Turning weapons into art.

It has also adopted internet-friendly snark that many marketers use on social media.

Roger Goodell has pushed the boundaries of his power more than any NFL commissioner before him.

While he has presided over a period of massive success for the league, he has also been a lightning rod for controversy.

He has cultivated the sense — fairly or not — that he makes decisions unilaterally and sometimes outside the bounds of league protocol.

1. He was the judge and jury on the botched Bountygate decision. Most of his penalties were later vacated.

Source: CSN

2. He fined Bill Belichick $500,000 and had the SpyGate tapes destroyed after just a five-day investigation.

Source: NFL

3. He reportedly "went ballistic" when Terry Bradshaw questioned the league's dedication to safety on "The Tonight Show." His remarks were scrubbed from the online clip.

Source: ESPN

Jay-Z's newest venture is Roc Nation Sports, a sports agency that's just four months old.

The agency has already signed stars like Robinson Cano and Kevin Durant, and Jay even ditched his stake in the Brooklyn Nets so he could represent basketball players.

Despite making waves as a "part owner" of the Nets, this agency will probably be his legacy in the sports world.

Jay is signing players who grew up idolizing him as both a rapper and a mogul. His lifestyle — the houses, hanging out with Obama, getting married to BEYONCE — makes him an aspirational figure for young athletes, and is a big part of his appeal as an agent.

He broke into the sports world by buying a stake of the Brooklyn Nets.

His share was a actually shockingly small 0.067% (worth about $355,000).

Source: Darren Rovell

But he was still a huge part of the branding of the team, and the "Nets owner" label stuck despite how small his ownership stake was.

At age 50, Michael Jordan hasn't lost the legendary competitiveness that defined his as a player.

He's still talking trash, challenging guys half his age to one-on-one games, and throwing down cash on the golf course.

At this point, it's clear that his primal desire to beat people wasn't limited to the basketball court.

He made a $500 bet that he could hit the green with a fan at a charity golf event in 2011, and won

Watch the video here >

He played a Bobcats player one-on-one recently, and had to get treatment from the trainer the next day

Source: ESPN

He forced Dream Team coach Chuck Daly to play him in golf by pounding on his hotel room door

Rick Reilly reported that Jordan lost to Daly in golf in Monte Carlo. The next morning, he pounded on Daly's door at their hotel until Daly finally agreed to go play him again. Jordan won.

Source: SI

After a 30 year reign atop the NBA, David Stern will step down as commissioner on February 1, 2014.

The average NBA player salary increased from $275,000 in the 1983-84 season (the year before Stern was named commissioner) to somewhere around $5 million today.

While that alone should label David Stern as a "player's commissioner," his name has instead become synonymous with the terms "controversy" and "boos."

From the mandatory "business casual" dress code to the bizarre veto of the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers, David Stern will go down as one of, if not the most controversial commissioner in sports history.

David Stern first became involved with the NBA in 1966...

... as an outside counsel at law firm Proskauer Rose.

In 1978, Stern became the NBA's top lawyer when he was named the league's general counsel, and by 1980, Stern became executive vice president of the NBA.

As EVP, he helped institute a salary cap and drug testing.

David Stern succeeded Larry O'Brien as commissioner of the NBA on February 1, 1984.

Stern's first draft as NBA commissioner included future hall of famers Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, and John Stockon.

With Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird carrying the NBA to new heights, Stern began adding new franchises.

The Charlotte Hornets (now the New Orleans Pelicans) and Miami Heat formed in 1988, and the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic began play the following year in 1989.

Sir Alex Ferguson retired after last season.

In his 26 years as coach, he won over 30 trophies and turned Manchester United into a $3-billion juggernaut.

But he's still going to be an incredibly influential figure in English football. He's still on the Manchester United board, and he's reportedly helping mentor coach David Moyes.

For decades to come, Sir Alex will remain the benchmark by which commentators judge every EPL coach.

He makes friends with Turkish policemen

He can barely hold all his trophies

He plants a smooch on his daughter-in-law

Mark Cuban lives a life most people envy. 

After selling his dot com company in the late nineties for $5.9 billion, Cuban has been able to live large. And live large, he has.

One of his biggest purchases was a majority stake of the Dallas Mavericks, and ever since, he's become a huge voice in the sports world.

But how did he get to where he is today?

Just like everyone else, Cuban had humble beginnings. After graduating from the University of Indiana, he took a job as a bartender in Dallas

He also had a job as a salesperson at a PC retailer in Dallas, but he was fired in less than a year when instead of opening the store, he met with a client about new business

So this is when Cuban decided to take matters in his own hands

Cuban's first business was called MicroSolutions. But a few years later, in 1990, Cuban sold this company to CompuServ for $6 million.

But what really got Cuban his money was his next endeavor...

Broadcast.com was Cuban's big moneymaker

Cuban started Audionet.com with his college friend, which eventually turned into Broadcast.com. The idea for Broadcast.com was to put live sporting events online for anyone to listen to. 

By 1999, Cuban grew the company to $13.5 million revenue in the second quarter during the dot com boom. 

And then, Yahoo! picked it up for $5.9 BILLION in '99 just before the dot com crash.

Here's our comprehensive list of the most shocking science "facts" that are actually wrong.

These myths, old wives tales, and misconceptions have been passed down through the ages, but we are here to put an end to that.

For the list we used Wikipedia's great list of "Common Misconceptions" and this great reddit.com thread, along with our own brains. You can find the source of our facts under the images.

Have some we missed? Send them along to Science (at) businessinsider.com.

Most diamonds aren't formed from compressed coal. Rather they are compressed and heated 90 miles below the surface of the Earth, while Coal is found about 2 miles below the Earth's surface.

(SOURCE: Geology.com)

Being "blind as a bat" means not being blind at all. While many use echolocation to navigate, all of them can see.

(SOURCE: USA Today)

Poinsettias won't kill you or your pets, though you still shouldn't eat them. The flowers might make you a bit sick with some gastrointestinal issues.

(SOURCE: The New York Botanical Garden)

A lot of unusual athletes occupy a special place in the hearts of American sports fans.

They aren't necessarily the best players, or the players who embody all that is good in the world.

In fact, most of them are deeply flawed.

But they show emotion, say whatever is on their minds, and carry themselves with a weird authenticity that only Americans can appreciate.

#20 Lindsay Vonn

#19 Chris Bosh

#18 Metta World Peace (Ron Artest)

Fireworks are the biggest and brightest of all Independence Day traditions, and each year people gather across the country to see the amazing pyrotechnics that commemorate the birth of our nation.

Fireworks have reportedly been a part of July 4th celebrations since 1777, and today they're a key part of almost any July 4th celebration. 

While shows vary in size and length around the country, some places go above and beyond to light up their skies.

NEW YORK: Macy's "lights up the night" over the Hudson River with the nation's largest fireworks show every July 4th. This year's spectacle will involve over 40,000 shells and over 3 million people are expected to watch.

Learn more about the NYC fireworks show here.

WASHINGTON, DC: This show is among the largest in the country, costing $255,000 and lasting over 17 minutes. The fireworks are set off from the Reflecting Pool, so those who can score a seat on the National Mall the best view, but the lights can be seen from miles away.

Learn more about the D.C. fireworks show here.

BOSTON: The Boston display is one of the nation's most expensive, costing a record $2.5 million this year. The 20+ minute display is televised and is accompanied by the music of the famed Boston Pops.

Learn more about the Boston fireworks show here.

Everyone knows Google isn't just a search company.

Besides developing the Android smartphone software and Chromebook Pixel laptops, Google has a ton of other projects and services in the works.

These products are being developed by Google's secret skunkworks group, Google X.

Google X is tasked with building products and services that make the world a better place for everyone. Take for example, blimps that fly high in the sky and provide rural areas with wireless Internet, or the development of new drugs that help doctors to better diagnose patients.

And those are just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the other things Google is hard a work at through Google X and its various other product divisions. 

The Driverless Car Program will one day allow us to drive safer.

Google's Driverless car program has been in the works for a few years now. The company has been working with lawmakers to allow testing of autonomous cars on public roads. Google has approval for the project in two states, California and Nevada.

Google has a test fleet of at least ten vehicles that can drive themselves. As of August 2012, the team completed more than 300,000 autonomous-driving miles.

There is no word on when this technology will be commercially available.

Google Glass is already changing how we interact with our smartphones.

Google Glass is a wearable computer that lets you read your tweets, check calendar appointments, the weather, and a ton of other things without pulling your smartphone out. The screen rests right above your field of vision making it easy to glance up to get info.

The gadget is ushering in a new wave of wearable technology for the masses. So far, only a few thousand developers and journalists have access to an early version of Google Glass.

Google is expected to release a consumer version of Glass next year.

Android@Home wants to fully automate our homes.

Android@Home is Google's home automation technology. It aims to connect your entire house to the internet like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Imagine a day when your refrigerator can order milk for you when you're running low. This is the type of technology that Android@Home will offer.

It also includes connected light bulbs, coffee pots, and other household items.

Rapper and producer Pharrell Williams has lowered the price on his Miami penthouse from a staggering $16.8 million to $10.9 million, according to Curbed National.

The three-floor home is 9,080 square feet in total, and has been on the market since last December.

The home is massive, with five bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, and unparalleled 360-degree views of the Miami skyline.

There's also a pool, elevator entry into the foyer, and massive terraces. The pad is still available through Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate.

Pharrell's pad is right on the ocean.

His house has an "opposite fishbowl effect" where he can see out, but no one can see in through the glass windows.

The expansive dining room can seat 12 people easily and has 180-degree views.