How to plan a snowboarding vacation
Hypatia
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, I've never been on a snowboarding or skiing vacation before (I've been on a day pass before when I was living 2 hours away from Vermont). I've been snowboarding about 3-4 times and my boyfriend has never been.
I'd like to plan a trip for us to go, but now that I'm in the mid-west I have no idea of where to go to get an optimal experience. Ideally I was thinking it'd be nice to do a 3-6 day trip out of state to somewhere with mountains. Of course, I vaguely know that there are facilities in Utah and in Colorado, but when I've done searches online and tried to figure out how much it would be, where we should go, etc.
Basically, I'm looking for some people with some experience in this who can clear some things up:
1) Where would be best (and cheaper with a still good experience) to go? Colorado? Utah? Some place else?
2) Where should we stay? I've been poking around and have seen a range of stuff from renting someone else's timeshare/apartment to camp grounds to hotels. What's generally the best situation? This timeshare/apartment stuff seems very dodgy, is it? Do you need a car for this stuff? What's a reasonable price for lodging at ski/snowboard places?
3) Is it better to get a package deal for lift tickets, lessons, and rental equipment? How much should that stuff run approximately?
4) Are there certain times during the season when it's better to try to go?
Any other advice/insights from people?
I'd like to plan a trip for us to go, but now that I'm in the mid-west I have no idea of where to go to get an optimal experience. Ideally I was thinking it'd be nice to do a 3-6 day trip out of state to somewhere with mountains. Of course, I vaguely know that there are facilities in Utah and in Colorado, but when I've done searches online and tried to figure out how much it would be, where we should go, etc.
Basically, I'm looking for some people with some experience in this who can clear some things up:
1) Where would be best (and cheaper with a still good experience) to go? Colorado? Utah? Some place else?
2) Where should we stay? I've been poking around and have seen a range of stuff from renting someone else's timeshare/apartment to camp grounds to hotels. What's generally the best situation? This timeshare/apartment stuff seems very dodgy, is it? Do you need a car for this stuff? What's a reasonable price for lodging at ski/snowboard places?
3) Is it better to get a package deal for lift tickets, lessons, and rental equipment? How much should that stuff run approximately?
4) Are there certain times during the season when it's better to try to go?
Any other advice/insights from people?
Hypatia on
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2. I've stayed in timeshares, condos, hotels and they're all fine. Prices will range drastically depending on how close you are staying to the slope. You'll pay more if you can walk to the lift than you will if you have to drive or take a shuttle bus.
3. Yes. Prices vary significantly depending on where you go. Most reputable places will post their prices online for all this stuff.
4. Late December-Mid January will probably be a lot more expensive and a lot busier, because schools are on Winter Break. Late January and early February are probably the best times to go, it won't be too busy and the snow will be great, although it might be very cold.
I go to Big Sky, MT. It's very nice, I've never had to wait more than 3 or 4 minutes for a lift. It's a little on the pricey side though.
- Anywhere in the Rockies is going to be expensive, considerably more so than on the east coast (even Vermont). That being said, conditions out west are almost always far superior. If you have the money, it's worth it.
- I've snowboarded at the following places with excellent results: Park City UT, Vail CO, Aspen CO, Snowmass CO, and Beaver Creek CO. I liked Beaver Creek the best. It's near Vail, but less commercialized and crowded.
- The snow is the most important part. Check the current, previous, and upcoming weather. If it hasn't snowed in a week, and it's 50 Fahrenheit, don't go there. The snow will suck. Check the base snow depth. Most resort websites actively track and report this information (though be wary, they often embellish).
- As far as your accommodations go, if it's a resort town, just about any place you rent will have some sort of public shuttle to the lifts. Often this shuttle is free. You shouldn't need a car, except for the actual getting to the mountains part. Or take a plane. If you do go to Colorado, regardless of resort, it's often best to fly into Denver, and rent a car so you can drive yourself to the mountains. Flights directly into these resort towns are limited, ridiculously expensive, and fill up fast.
- Don't buy lift tickets for one day at a time, it's usually more expensive that way. A lot of times you can get 2 or 3 or 5 day passes. And a lot of people don't realize it, but most places will give you a chunk of your money back if you turn in your rental gear and lift tickets early. Say you bought a 3 day pass for $250 and on the 3rd day, you decide to ski early, and then turn in at noon. You might get $40-60 bucks back. It's not always possible, but be sure to ask about those policies. They usually don't advertise them.
- When to go? Not during the holidays. The end of the season is usually the cheapest (usually starts after February). Avoid weekends if possible.
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now. Hope it helps. If for some reason you want advice on East coast snowboarding, I may be of greater help. Let me know.
look for something like a room+ticket deal on tahoe resorts
this will also give you options on places to go to find the best snow
On that note you could look for a place with a bunch to do other than skiing/boarding.
I might be partial but if you are planning on flying to your destination come up to Canada our dollar is in the basement right now, $0.79 compared to the U.S dollar, and we have some wicked places. Sunshine Village is my favorite around here. You take a gondola to the resort and you can either stay on the mountain or you can stay in town about 25 minutes away. Link for Sunshine Village.
The highest level without leaving the country will obviously be the West. People will bitch about Utah versus Colorado but I can assure you that they will both be big ass awesome places to you. Since you're looking for cheaper, avoid Aspen and Vail. I would recommend a place like Keystone or Breckenridge, where the ski villages are still very good but not quite as price-inflated. Denver flights are also real cheap, and I've done the drive to Denver tons of times.
There's no such thing as a reasonable price AT the actual resorts. You listed the full range of options. Campgrounds are as cheap as it gets, but you have to be hardier...you are going to beat yourself on a slope all day, and after a couple days have accumulated soreness, and THAT'S what you'll be heading into. Apartments can work or not; you can try couchsurfing.com or other venues and it could work out great. I would recommend for a first trip, limiting the number of variables that could go wrong, and get a cheaper hotel miles away from the resort. Depending on where you go and such, you should have a shuttle service or if you drove you'll have your car.
For lift tickets and rental equipment, yes. For the lessons, it depends. Packages *usually* put you in group lessons, which are good at first. However, my experience has been that the benefits of a group lesson quickly ebb, and that shelling out for even one private lesson a trip or season can give you a much better set of things to work on.
Times of the season was plenty covered already. Presidents Day and MLK are considered holiday weekends by ski resorts, so prices will be upped.
A good tl;dr from me on this would be, if you're living in the eastern midwest, including Indiana-Ohio, and maybe Illinois, make a reservation for a cheap hotel in Stowe, VT and DRIVE THERE. If you're living in Illinois or anywhere west, make a reservation for a hotel in Winter Park, Keystone, or Breckenridge or any other number of places (ask about them here if you're unsure) and DRIVE THERE. And if by chance you fly to Denver, do not rent a car. Use the Colorado Mountain Express shuttle service to get yourself to and from the airport to your hotel. It will be cheaper, and you don't have to worry about doing the mountain driving.
PSN: TheScrublet
Just for clarification, I'm in Wisconsin - would you still recommend driving there if we don't own a car? In that case we'd need to rent one so I wasn't sure of how much money we'd end up saving. Is it only Denver that has an express shuttle?
Is it generally expected that all of these places will have shuttles or buses from the hotel/apartment/B&B/whatever to the mountain/snowboard location?
Yes I would drive if you're going to CO. The worst case is you're from Green Bay, which still puts you at about the same distance I've pulled driving. Get up and on the road at 6am and drive till 10-11pm, quick stops, plenty doable.
Denver is not the only place that has an express shuttle, but every place is different. As an example, I just checked Snowbird at Salt Lake City, UT and their airport shuttle is $68 round trip. While I'm pretty sure you won't need a car there any more than CO I can not make promises as I am much more familiar with CO.
It is generally expected you will be able to get to the mountain, however CALL AND ASK. That way you know for sure what the deal is.
Also, if you're willing to drive just a bit farther, Big Sky Montana IS within your reach from Wisconsin. If it was me I'd just go do somewhere in Summit County Colorado tho.
PSN: TheScrublet
Also, one thing you may not know is that some mountains have multiple resorts on them. Big Sky, for example, has 2 resorts open to the public, spread over three mountains: Big Sky (which I already linked) and Moonlight Basin (which is smaller, but cheaper and better for beginners).
Think about whether you're going to spend all day, every day snowboarding. Do you want to do other stuff, like see a national park, go dogsledding, or cross-country skiing? Some places are much better for sight-seeing than others.
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Mont Tremblant in Quebec was cheaper for similar packages last time I checked.