With the temps in the 90s outside, I figured I’d try thinking of cooler things.
We are considering taking a vacation to a ski resort this winter, and I would appreciate your help in narrowing our options.
Background – family of 5 in Chicago area, parents early 40s, kids 11, 13, 15.
Mom, skied quite a bit when young
Dad, skied less than 10X in life, but not a complete klutz.
Youngest daughter has skied a few times, and seems to have a flair for it.
Older 2 kids have never skied, but are reasonably athletic/coordinated.
We own no downhill gear or ski-specific clothing.
So, where should we go? And for how long.
-In my ignorance, I figure it will be either the Denver or Salt Lake City areas. Am I missing other destinations?
-Where will most likely have the best conditions between X-mas and New Years?
-I can take off work any days. Will it be cheaper to go during the week and not stay over a weekend?
-Any opinions concerning staying at a resort, as opposed to renting a condo/cabin?
-What gear/clothing should we buy? Keep in mind, just about every year or 2 we need to buy the kids winter coats/snow pants/boots/etc. But, as you might expect, we would just as soon not spend a whole lot of $ on stuff that will not be used after the trip.
-Given our general lack of experience, I believe it would be best to go to a resort that has a good selection of easy runs, instead of challenging black diamonds.
-Ease of transportation to and from, and cost of skiing and lodging are relevant – tho not controlling factors.
-Are there other questions I should be asking that do not immediately come to mind?
The only real option is Lake Tahoe. Fantastic skiing, and round the clock entertainment for the whole family. Don’t miss Heavenly or Alpine Meadows. Squaw is okay also, and Kirkwood is fun in spots. Plenty of shows, good food, nice places to see. I think there is even year-round golfing within a half-hour drive.
If you ski the SLC area, you are stuck staying in SLC. Worst place in the USA I’ve been to. No good food, no entertainment and a nothing to do after sundown, unless you want to drive accross the 40 mile desert to the Nevada state line.
I suppose the rockies would be good for the skiing, but I doubt it offers the other aspects of Tahoe. See you at Heavenly! (smokin’ deals on season passes this year!!)
fly into reno. about an hour drive to the lake, or if you are staying at a major hotel, they have shuttles, but you probably want to rent a car anyway.
plenty of hotels in the area, the ones on the nevada side have nice casinos. Harrahs, Harveys, High Sierra and Caesers are the nicest. You can ride shuttles to Heavenly from these or catch the new gondola from Stateline.
Heavenly has lots of beginer/intermediate terrain. great place for everyone/all skill levels.
you can rent EVERYTHING you need if you want, right down to jackets and gloves.
i’m pretty sure you can get multi-day tickets at a discount. you get a ticket thats good for 5 of 7 days or something like that. i think the website is “skiheavenly.com” but it sometime doesnt work (or maybe its just me) this link should work http://www.skiheavenly.com/
the only problem is the time frame. xmas/new year might be tough to get a hotel. carson city and reno are close, and if you stay in reno, you can hit the north shore areas like Diamond Peak, Squaw, Alpine easier.
I suggest Mt. Tremblant in Quebec. It is EXTREMELY well-priced, with a comprehensive village at the base and numerous on- and near-hill accomodations of all types (including units with kitchens). Its about 1 hr. drive from Montreal’s Dorval airport. Tremblant offers an exceptional ski school (Ski magazine recently rate #1 on east coast) and substantial beginner and intermediate skiing. There are also other activities available, such as ice skating, a spa, etc. Ski rentals are available on site and the staff is jumping out of their skin with helpfulness.
Another excellent choice in Canada is Banff/Lake Louise. 1 hr’s very easy drive from Calgary airport. Your tri-area lift pass gives access to 3 resorts, with shuttles from your hotel door. 1/2 hour drive takes you to the Olympic cross-country skiing venue, if you’re interested. Banff is very cute town where development has been carefully reined in and prices are not insane, even before the exchange rate. The scenery, skiing and value cannot be beat!
Personally, I find Lake Tahoe overpriced, hard to get around (you might need chains on the pass from Reno, and the pass to Sierra-At-Tahoe can be closed in bad weather) and snooty in attitude. Its a total pain in the ass if you need to rent skis, since you have to rent in town and then go through the trouble to return it etc. Plus, most hotels are kinda dive-y, esp in S. Lake Tahoe, except for the casinos which have a… casino-like atmosphere (fun if you’re into it). Not every hotel is on the shuttle route.
Tix at Heavenly are about $53… at Lake Louise, the largest single-mountain ski resort in N. America, $33US.
x4 people, x4 days = saves you $360.
The most beautiful place I’ve ever skiied was Lake Louise in Canada, as mentioned above. We actually got a pretty good deal at Banff Springs Hotel and there was plenty to do at night for the entire family.
Another option would be the summit area of Colorado, like staying in Frisco, and then you’re close to Keystone, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, A Basin, Vail and Beaver Creek. Youy could ski a different resort every day.
Big Sky in Montana is a great for all ages place, although the night life is very well-hidden.
Anything more than about 5 days of skiing and you’ll need a day off in there somewhere. As for clothes, borrow what you can and dress in layers. The week between Xmas and New Years is typically the busiest of the season. Lift line times may have an impact on just how much skiing you’ll actually get in. We typically rent a cabin for the extra room and privacy, although a resort will likely be closer to the slopes. Good luck!
Thanks for all the replies so far.
One clarification that might help in the recommendations is my wife and I aren’t too big on nightlife. So bars, clubs, shopping, and fancy restaurants aren’t a major factor. Our speed is more to have a couple of beers or glasses of wine in our hotel room, maybe reading or waching a movie in the evening, hitting the sack relatively early and not losing the whole morning the next day.
And with 3 kids, we aim more at reasonably priced family dining, over pricey, slow paced “dining experiences.” Lodging with kitchen facilities can really help hold dining expenses down.
My wife and 2 of the kids are into skating - speed and figure, so that would be an added diversion.
I guess I’ll have to check air fares into the various places.
Frisco and Dillon are both in the middle of the Summit area and have a wide variety of lodging and restaurants. Keystone and Copper Mountain are probably two of the best family oriented slopes. Keystone boasts the largest outdoor maintained ice skating facility in the US (5 acres) and Copper has one as well.
Being a Colorado resident and having skied Summit County for several years, I recommend Keystone and Copper Mountain. Both of these resorts offer a good variety of terrain. My personal favorite is Keystone because:[ul]
[li]the geography of the resort does a good job of grouping skiers of equal skill-- three mountains each having its own relative level of difficulty[/li][li]sophisticated/fast lift system-- you can end-up riding a double chair if you like, but only if you choose to avoid highspeed lifts[/li][li]significant snow making facility-- sometimes nature just doesn’t come through, but thats nothing a firehose and a cold night can’t fix![/li][li]night skiing![/li][/ul] Day and night trailmaps available here: trailmap (day) trailmap (night)
(no, I am not a Keystone sales rep-- just a guy who loves the mountain ;))
I should point out that Copper is also a lot of fun (17 glade…) but lacks night skiing and some of the snow-making abilities of Keystone.
You might also consider Breckenridge, but I fear even beginning skiers I have known begin to find its greens annoyingly flat by the end of the day-- work those triceps!
(All views expressed here are simply the opinion of a single skier. Also, this is my first post so I feel it necessary to apologize in advance for any horrendous typographical/formatting errors I am about to perpetrate against this board by pressing the “submit” button)
since you added the “not into nightlife” part, I would say rule out Tahoe. You will find better deals elsewhere. Kinda puts SLC back in the running…(make sure you BYOB)
Have you thought of Steamboat, CO? It has a decent little village, a real town within a couple miles, and a hot springs that you absolutely shouldn’t miss. They have a lot of great easy to intermediate terrain, and enough to keep an expert busy for a while.
Grand Targhee in Wyoming would be another option. Great skiing at all levels. Jackson (the town and the ski area) is a hour away for a change of pace. Targhee usually has some good specials available via the web, but it is a little more remote than a lot of other destinations (as in there’s no real mountain village, but it has a great atmosphere).
Much will depend on how rustic or urban you want your surroundings to be, as well as how old your kids are and what they like to do for apes ski.
But I gotta say, if you want a quiet atmosphere (and reasonably priced!), check out Targhee.
(And thanks p@c812 for making responding to my query your introductory post. Now don’t be a stranger, ya hear?)
Lots of good ideas.
Tho I’m sure the missus will make the decision, at the moment I am probably leaning towards Summitt, and Keystone/Copper.
I looked on the net, and even the “budget” lodgings at both of those places looked more than adequate.
Either of those resorts would give us a true “mountain skiing experience.” We are right in the middle of the period where we are taking big trips with our kids. In another couple of years, they will start getting jobs and going to college. In addition to having fun and seeing the country, we want to expose our kids to different experiences/cultures/lifestyles.
The Denver area seems well suited for giving my kids a good example of skiing options. If they choose to pursue skiing as a hobby, or if we choose to do it more as a hobby, we can pick and choose what elements we like best, and will have a quality benchmark to compare future experiences to.
If we or the kids are discussing our vacation, all skiers will be familiar with Summit. And then they can compare their preferences to it. I can imagine it would be annoying if we went somewhere more obscure, and had to continually sort of defend our choice.
Finally, airfare and times to Denver seem far above destinations such as SLC/Calgary.
It seems to me that it would be best to stay as close to the slopes as possible. Or off a shuttle line. Any opinions on lodging options?
I figure we’ll just rent a car in Denver, instead of taking a resort shuttle. Correct choice?
Hello Again beat me to it. Banff/Lake Louise is your best value skiing up North, on REAL mountains (not like those hills called the Laurentians in Eastern Canada). It’s near to Calgary, you can find billions of places to stay, and it’s where I’m from. Go there.
I love skiing and have skied many of the areas in the U.S. mentioned so far (I would love to ski Canada, but haven’t had the chance yet). As a native of Colorado I hate to admit it, but my one great reservation about Colorado ski resorts is the expense. Socially, the Breckenridge/Keystone areas sound right down you alley, however.
The Utah, Wyoming and Montana areas are markedly cheaper, though and have very good areas. Another one of my favorite ski getaways is northern New Mexico, Taos, Angle Fire and Red River. Priced very reasonably and there is easy flight access to Albaquerque. They have car/van rentals there and there used to be shuttles that head up there from the airport, but I don’t know if they still have that.
Regarding your question about shuttle vs. rental. Do you like driving in the mountains on ice and in snow? Is the expense a a major factor? Shuttles are thick all over the area and often when I drive up to one of the areas my car will remain in the parking lot no matter how much traveling around I do. But I like knowing my car is there so if something happens I can go. But I grew up driving in the mountains, so…
One final warning, beware of coming here much before Christmas. Sometimes we have adaquate skiing before then, but often we do not. Most Coloradans schedule their extended skiings vacations in January or February. Those tend to be our best snow months. However, if we have another winter like this last one, be sure to bring swim suits and bicycles.
I might be chiming in a bit late here, but I would strongly suggest Alta in Salt Lake City. Gorgeous mountain, fabulous trails, and it’s close to some other mountains if you get bored.
Also, the Alta Peruvian lodge is an excellent place to stay. Pretty cheap, rustic lodge-type place with outdoor pool and hot tub, and they serve breakfast, make you a bag lunch to take on the slopes, and serve a pretty quality dinner. All this plus tickets for the ski lift are included in your price, and it’s pretty reasonable. I highly recommend it.
Wow!
Just ran a quick Travelocity search. They come up with round trip to Denver for our family in the area of $1100, as opposed to 1500 for Calgary and 1900 for SLC!
You might check flying into Colorado Springs as well. It used to be much cheaper but has also become more popular as of late. It doesn’t add that much distance to your trip.
Airfare prices change ALOT when you get closer to skiing season. Airlines run specials, outfitters run specials, etc. I wouldn’t let current prices influence your descision at this stage. Also, the money you “save” on airfare might be more than offset by higher accomodations and skiing prices.
check www.skican.com for awesome deals on Canadian skiing. I know you’re leaning towards Alta, but I’m gonna just keep on plugging Canada, LOL! (BTW, Alta does not allow snowboarding. make sure none of the wee ones want to try it before you go that route).
Another organizer that seems to run good deals is: www.skimoguls.com. Twice I’ve almost booked a trip through them, then changed my mind at the last minute when Northwest ran a fare sale. ::shrug:: But they do have good prices, from what I’ve seen.
Just for example, 7 nights at Panorama thru skican are $490/person including airfare, hotel, skiing, taxes, and transfers from the airport. At Copper Mtn thru skican, its $1400 a person. No, really.
