Anonymous wrote:What is your skiing level?

What does that matter? It sucks to ski in crowded, icy conditions with hillbillies flailing around no matter what your skill level.

What is your skiing level?

I posted the thread on Canaan Valley, WV, and surrounding ski areas, although you may be interested in going further away. I've been interested in going to northern MI for x-country skiing (Traverse City/Grand Rapids area /Boyne).

I have no idea why, but nobody in DC seems to know about Mont Tremblant in Canada. Number one rated ski resort in Eastern North America for like the last 25 years. Yes. The West is the Best. I get it. But sometimes I don't love spending all day traveling or taking multiple flights--particularly with kids. MT is way easier/closer. Plenty of direct flights from DC airports to Montreal, then you rent a car and drive about 75 minutes. Plenty of different hotel price ranges. Lots of dining. A real mountain, with tons of trails for every skill level. Usually nice snow and not icy like other eastern ski areas. Plus, you're visiting a foreign country, which is fun, but with none of the hassle. Everyone is super friendly. Everyone speaks English. Tons of kids. The ski resort has an Alpine village like vibe and stores, dessert places and an indoor pool play area for kids. Beautifully decorated for the holidays. Lots of other easy to plan nearby adventures including sleigh rides, dog pulling, horses, snowmobiles, tubing, etc. I promise you--your family will have the time of their lives.

Created butte.

Park City or Whistler

Anonymous wrote:We will be in Keystone that week, but only because we lucked out and were able to purchase 4 all day kids lessons per kid for $359. To contrast, at Breckenridge a full day lesson for one child with our reduced rate because we are Epic pass holders and the kids own their equipment, is $200/day. Thats $600/day for us with three kids. Its a super easy flight to Denver and the drive is less than two hours.

If Colorado doesn't interest you, maybe Park City? Easy to get to also.

That's a great deal.

Check conditions - hopefully things will improve but CO is pretty thin right now. They had to cancel a World Cup race that was supposed to be at Beaver Creek this week. Vail only has 7 runs open (out of 195). It will take a lot of snow to get things fully open in 3 weeks.

I wouldn't spend the money to come to Colorado right now. The mountains are open but there's not much snow yet, at least in Summit County. Breckenridge has 7 of 178 runs open right now, for example. DS is on a ski team has been up there but he says it's dangerous because there are too many people on the mountain.

I prefer skiing at Breck over Keystone, but I haven't explored as much of the mountain at Keystone because we usually ski there at Thanksgiving just to get warmed up. I do think Breck has gotten much more crowded the last couple of years. We're actually planning to spend most of our time at Copper Mountain this year and so far I really like the atmosphere, but I haven't put on skis yet. Maybe this weekend.

Keystone is more kid and family oriented than Breckenridge--Breck has great lessons and instructors too (and they're both owned by Vail), but Keystone has more kid-friendly off mountain activities.

Anonymous wrote:Do you think Keystone is better than Breck? Breck gets really crowded right?

Breck does. Its a great place but my kids are young and still learning, we prefer the smaller towns. Plenty of good places on AIRBNB. Breckenridge is about 12 miles away if you want to go into that town for more to do at night.

Wow, you can afford to just jump on a plane to fly out West, get lodging, rental car, etc for a family of 4 less than a month away??

Are you novice skiiers?

We usually just drive to Snowshoe.

Do you think Keystone is better than Breck? Breck gets really crowded right?

We will be in Keystone that week, but only because we lucked out and were able to purchase 4 all day kids lessons per kid for $359. To contrast, at Breckenridge a full day lesson for one child with our reduced rate because we are Epic pass holders and the kids own their equipment, is $200/day. Thats $600/day for us with three kids. Its a super easy flight to Denver and the drive is less than two hours.

If Colorado doesn't interest you, maybe Park City? Easy to get to also.

Hi - we are a family of 4 and are thinking of going skiing somewhere the week before Christmas (just noticed there is no school!). Any advice on somewhere family friendly? Happy to jump on a plane (direct) or drive (reasonable <8 hours)

thanks!