best family ski resort-need advice
 

My wife and 2 daughters ages 7 and 10 will be going on our first ski trip over christmas break. Where would be the best place to go? I am the only one of the group who has skiied before. We are also interested in other kids activities, like sledding, ice skating etc.

East Coast or West Coast?

East Coast -- I'd suggest Mont Tremblant. The pedestrian village is super fun, you can even swim/hot tub outside. There are fun little shops, candy stores, and of course a ton of outdoor activites ranging from ice skating to dog sledding. It's COLD though!

What happened to your April trip to Snowbird? Rescheduled?
Are you looking for a resort in Utah again? Colorado?

Spring break didn't work out. We are going to toronto to see family over spring break. We want to go skiing out west over christmas break.

One consideration is getting there. Can you fly non-stop to Denver, Reno, Vancouver, Salt lake City?

Vail has a village to walk around, and lots of activities at Adventure Ridge.

Although we love Tahoe and would highly recommend Northstar as a family ski resort (it's where our kids learned to ski), I would not recommend planning a trip around skiing Tahoe at Xmas -- the snow is just too iffy. We've been there at Xmas when there has been more mud than snow.

I recommend Steamboat Springs, CO. That was my very first ski trip "out West" with my Mom & Dad and I have great memories of that vacation.

There are flights into Hayden airport. Hayden is about 20 minutes away from Steamboat.

There are a lot of accomodations at the Mountain. There are plenty of restaurants & shops at both the Mountain & the Town. There are plenty of places that rent ski equipment. There is an excellent free shuttle bus service that runs between the Mountain & the Town.

Plus Steamboat has a lot of intermediate terrain. The kids can go to ski school all day (with lunch).

Some of the available activities include Horseback Riding, tubing, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, Snowmobile Rides, Sleigh Ride Dinners, Hot Springs (really nice), and Spa Services.


The only thing that might be a problem is the altitude. The base elevation is 6900 ft. Mt Werner is 10500. I am usually a little out of breath my first few days there (coming from an elevation of about 710ft!).

http://www.steamboat.com/

Park City Utah is a great place to ski. I am not a big fan of driving on snow and ice and Park City has a really safe drive from Salt Lake.

I absolutely agree with dmlove. Tahoe is not a reliable enough choice at Christmas to plan a family vacation around. Some years have been down right disappointing but at least for us who live here we haven't paid to travel and for lodging.

Is park city good for kids? How far a drive is it fro the airport?

It's fantastic for the entire family. I LOVE Park City -- there are 3 ski areas (Park City, Deer Valley and The Canyons), a lot of intermediate skiing, Park City mountain has a great village, the town of Park City is a 10 minute walk from the mountain, and best of all, it's a 35-minute drive from Salt Lake City airport. We rented a house that we loved (if you want more information on our specific lodgings, email me at [email protected] --- that's my "public" email address).

I second or third the advice for Park City/Deer Valley. We have taken two family ski trips to Deer Valley, one to Park City, and other trips to Big Sky, Mont., Steamboat Springs, Snowmass, Keystone and Beaver Creek, CO, and for sheer ease of transportation (both the flight to Salt Lake City and the easy drive to Park City/Deer Valley) and lack of altitude issues, the Utah trip can't be beat. All were fabulous trips, but if asked which was easiest/most convenient, I'd say Utah tops the list. Deer Valley is more upscale, has groomed slopes and prohibits snowboarders and the ski school is great. The prohibition against snowboarders is good if you have children learning to ski (unless they want to learn to board) because there are a lot of downed snowboarders dotting the green slopes and you have to ski around them.

Have a wonderful trip! Let us know what you decide.

I am leaning now toward Utah. I would like a ski in ski out accomodation. Where would be the best and easiest place to stay? Also, do I need to rent a car in SLC or are there shuttles? We would like to do other activities as well like tubing, sleigh rides, ice skating etc.

The Utah ski areas are very close to SLC. You can also fly into Steamboat, Vail, Aspen. Wherever you go budget in ski lessons every day for everyone, including you. And you probably need to get cracking--it will be top dollar time, and top crowd time.'
If you don't have a car, then you will pay a big shuttle cost each way. are you going to eat out every meal, or will you want to go to a grocery store. Even at Vail, I want a car!!

The shuttle service in PC is excellent. We really liked staying at The Grand Galleria condos (look on vrbo for one your size) because one door leads to Main St, where so many restaurants are, and the other door is across the steet from the transit center, where you can catch a bus to PC Mtn, DV or the Canyons without having to transfer.

If you want si/so, I'd recommend staying at PC Mtn.

Whistler is great for a family vacation. The village is self-contained so once you're there you never need to use a car (you can even take a shuttle bus from Vancouvr airport). Most of the hotel rooms include a kitchen or kitchenette and there's a full size supermarket in the village. Plus lots of ski in/ski out options.

If you want to stay/ski in the US PArk City hands down. My BIL owns a condo ski in/out right at base of the mountain: has a nice ice rink right in front: easy access to the mountain base restaurants: can take a bus to downtown PArk City and nearby outlet shopping mall.

Whistler has the nicest village set up in Canada. We stayed at the Westin Wistler and had a nice 2 bedroom suite with kitchen which i would recommend as the price of groceries food was high..lower village which we preferred

For both PArk City & Whistler look at teh online maps to mk sure you are hotel/condo where you want to be

Just returned from Mt. Tremblant. This is a great place to learn to ski and I second all the kudos for the village. We had a wonderful time...went snow mobiling and dog sledding too and it was much less expensive than Whistler. Plenty of snow this year too.

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS!

I've been to Vail, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Wolf Creek, Banff, Whistler, you name it.

There is no doubt Steamboat Springs, CO. gets my vote! The town is just big enough to find what you need and small enough to still feel friendly.

With the direct flights into Hayden you can avoid the Denver airport mess and the hassle of driving hours to those other ski resorts

It is a great little town for kids, too! Our daughter skis free with my lift ticket.

They usually get the most snow of all the resorts to Colorado, with this season measuring in at an unbelievable 450 inches, a record-breaking snowfall. http://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/2..._450inch_mark/


Steamboat is fantastic. Book Winter or Summer. . .there is so much to do, you will love it!

It's hard to go wrong with most any of the places named above. We've been to Park City, Steamboat, Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Crested Butte - and all have excellent facilities, family activities, and great options for other things like sledding, sleigh rides, ice skating, etc.

I will add to comments others have made about Steamboat. The snow IS unbelievable, probably the best we've seen. Great family town - it was a mining town long before skiing was "invented" so its not just a resort. And getting there is very, very easy. As others mentioned, you can fly into Hayden (HDN) from all over the country and avoid DEN, which is a big plus IMO. CO has non-stops from IAH and EWR; DL flies non-stop from ATL and SLC. AA flies non-stop from DFW and ORD. UA does offer connections through DEN.