Kid friendly Ski trip
 

We are new skiers and taking our 8,6 year old daughters. We are looking for a family oriented Ski town and Moderate Hotel/lodge with an indoor pool. <BR>Suggestions?

Are you looking for an Eastern or Western resort?? I'll put my plug in for the east. Smuggler's Notch in Vermont has consistantly been rated the #1 ski resort for families by the major ski magazines. www.smugglersnotch.com The only thing negative I have heard about it is that it's a little expensive. Stowe Mountain Resort is on the "backside" of Smuggs--you used to be able to buy an interchangeable ticket to ski both (there is a trail that connects the 2 areas), but am not sure if that type of ticket is still offered. It would be worth checking into though. Unfortunatly, the direct road through the actual Notch to Stowe is closed in the winter, so you have to drive about 30 miles "around" to Stowe in order to go there! <BR>In the west, I hear Steamboat Springs, CO is a good place for families. Hope this helps!!!!

PS. Forgot to mention that if you're looking for a more "ski town" atmosphere, Smuggs might not be what you are looking for. Smuggs a self-contained resort, with the nearest "town" a few miles away. Great ski towns in Vermont include Stowe (Stowe Mountain Resort), Woodstock (Killington, Suicide Six Ski Area), Ludlow (Okemo), and Manchester (Stratton/Bromley/Magic). Hope this helps!

Steamboat Springs, CO is a good choice. We stayed there with our small kids and put one in ski school, and the baby in daycare. Neither had been in any kind of daycare situation and did great. Their ski school has a good reputation, and the resort has the reputation as being more laid back, friendly and more authentic than other ski resorts in Colorado. We had a nice time there. <BR> <BR>We also like to ski Copper Mountain & Vail in Colorado. Have never used it, but have heard that Copper Mountain has a great kids' program as well. <BR> <BR>In Steamboat we stayed at a place with an outdoor hot tub only. There is a hotel that's right at the Gondola practically, the Sheraton Steamboat Resort. It has a great location in the heart of the resort and a heated outdoor pool. Outdoor pools and hot tubs might now sound very appealing in the cold, but they really are great. Our kids love it, it's just a little cold walking back to the room, but managable. Hope this helps. <BR>

Keystone Resort in Colorado. Not too far from Denver airport and has a shuttle bus that can take the kids around the resort by themselves. There's not too much they can get into and you can relax plus there's a great ski school for kids. Our kids loved going over to the "village" to ice skate and have lunch on their own. All perfectly safe and doable and lets the adults have time to themselves.

You don't say where you live or how far you're willing to travel, but I would suggest Whistler, BC. It's a planned ski community with a great selection of restaurants, shops and hotels--all connected via a series of walkways. Most of the hotels are located very near the lifts so you can walk out the door and right on to a gondola. They have a wonderful children's ski program with a huge kids' activity center that looks like a castle. It's located between the two mountains. Plus, the exchange rate is very favorable for the US dollar, making it a good deal.

Dan, <BR> <BR>Again, lacking knowledge of where your preferred location is, I would also suggest, like Sal, that you consider a Canadian location. We are a family of 6 so doing anything quickly becomes very pricey. My research for a ski trip we are planning this spring led us to the Canadian Rockies. The strength of the American $ is so incredible in Canada and I think that many of the Colorado resorts are so pricey that the choice was easy for us. We looked in the Alberta/Eastern BC area to combine skiing with visiting family and found fabulous and (relatively) inexpensive choices in the Banff and Lake Louise areas as well as Canmore and Panorama. We ended up selecting Panorama (www.panoramaresort) for the wonderful skiing as well as beautiful resort with outdoor hot pools, etc...Good luck with your search, skiing is such a great family activity! <BR> <BR>Maria

We were thinking Colorado but that is because we live a short flight from Denver.

How 'bout Breckenridge? It's a great, little funky town. So you'll have something to do other than just skiing. Plus, it's a modest drive from Denver. Since I have no kids (well, there's Sulu and Chekov) I can't really address the family oriented issue. I will say this, when I'm at Breckenridge and falling, er, skiing down the mountains I sure see a lot of kids (who are usually skiing a heck of a lot better than I.) Have fun.

As a Coloradoan - I have to second Captain Kirk's vote for Breckenridge. It is a terrific place to learn to ski, especially for younger kids. Because it has many long, long gentle and wide slopes, the kids get to practice skiing with plenty of room and for a long time before they have to get on the lift again. <BR> <BR>I love, love, love Steamboat also, however, when our kids were small I thought it was a bit of a frustrating place to take them. While the ski school was terrific on the lower slopes, Steamboat really doesn't have a whole lot too offer between the bunny slopes and the intermediate 'blue' slopes. Its Beginner 'green' runs are almost all narrow roads, that quite frankly scared my kids because they were always worried they would run into someone. <BR> <BR>Reading about the Canadian Rockies above, however, also makes me think!! I am going to talk with my family tonight! It would be terrifice to find a place that is beautiful, less crowded and affordable to ski! Anywhere in Colorado is going to be really expensive. We are always amazed how many people are able to afford to ski for a whole week - That would be a real strech for us!

I second Kam's vote for Keystone. Our daughter learned how to ski there when she was 4 and had a great ski school experience. Our 7 year old son got separated from the rest of our group on the same trip and had no problem eventually hooking up with us at the bottom, thanks to the easy-to-navigate slopes (no matter that I was panic-stricken--he was fine and skiied right to our designated "come here if we get separated" spot). We love the family atmosphere and it's not nearly (underline, exclamation point) as crowded as Breckenridge. Haven't been there for ages, but in my mind, nothing can beat the sheer beauty of Jackson Hole for skiing--don't know what their ski school is like, though.

All ski areas up the I-70 corridor in Colorado are crowded. I guess I have never noticed Breckenridge as any more or less crowded than Keystone or Copper Mountain or Vail. Crowds in the actual ski areas really depend on what time of year they are visitied - with Christmas week, President's weekend and spring break time as the worst. I-70, however, (no matter what time of year) is pretty much always a near parking lot on any weekend. Jackson Hole or the Canadian Rockies sound pretty wonderful!

While Whistler does have a kids ski program, it really is not a family oriented place. And, depending on when you go it can be rainy and slushy. I would opt for Steamboat and go midweek when the crowds are down and you can get a decent deal. Steamboat was rated the #1 family ski place by several magazines including Ski, Snow Country and Family Circle.

We find Whistler to be very family friendly. They have an excellent ski school and daycare on the mountain. We also have plenty to do with the kids on non-ski days. Our problem is that we never have enough time to do everything.