Bing
Angel Diva
Hi Divas -
Just back from our best family ski vacation to date - it was awesome.
We had been to SunPeaks in March of this year and had not planned a big mountain ski trip this year but the deals at SunPeaks were too good to pass up.
Our family of three usually goes for a week, gets a 2 bdrm condo through vrbo.com, rents a car, does groceries & eats in most meals when we ski vacation. That changed this trip as we were not going for a week and wanted a cheaper/easier situation - it was so awesome.
The deal we got was 4 nights in a studio condo, full kitchen, right in the village, skin in/out (Fireside Lodge) for the price of 3 nights. It was $ 99/night for all three of us - what a deal! We also got 4 days of skiing for the price of 3.
We decided to eat two meals/day in our condo and also decided not to rent a car as the money didn't make sense compared to the SunPeaks shuttle. Our family eats mostly organic and while SunPeaks has a great grocery store, the organic offerings are not enough. So, 5 days before we left, I used the SunPeaks online grocery service. I provided details about what I wanted. The groceries were put away in the condo when we arrived - how perfect is that? The cost was not huge in my opinion, $ 10.00 delivery fee & 35% of cost of groceries. If you get liqour (we didn't because the liqour store at SunPeaks is awesome for amazing wine (we are kind of wine snobs & really look forward to shopping there) as well as cheaper offerings & beer, spirits, etc at not hugely inflated prices.
Our flight to SunPeaks was AirCanada Toronto-Van-Kamloops. We chose that route as we didn't want to risk being snowed in at Calgary. Only issue with using AirCanada is they fly Dash-8s into Kamloops so skis can get left behind due to space - ours did not. WestJet flies jets in, so the cargo is not as big an issue.
We were greeted at the airport by the shuttle - you arrange it ahead of time, but they stay to meet each flight it seems. We had the luxury of being the only three in the 9 passenger Sprint Van and were whisked up the mountain at at Bear Country Lodging check in in about 40 minutes or so.
Now, here is where I almost hugged the Bear Country lodging people. They had our lift tickets waiting for us. No need for us to wait in line in the a.m. - we could just clip on our skis and head to the lift.
The shuttle took us from check in (it's in a separate area of the village) to the Lodge and we were home for the night. Aaaahhhh.
The snow was good on the groomed runs, all the greens we skied and most of the blues. Early conditions exist on many of the steeper runs but the snow just kept getting better as it snowed non-stop. The only bummer of that was that the clouds were super low, making it white out in the bowls and as we didn't know them, we stayed away - though had been hoping to ski them this visit.
We stuck to the plan of one meal out/day for the most part. We love Masa's for lunch. The Steakhouse is under new ownership & was a really awesome meal, though the priciest we enjoyed. Morrisey's Pub is everything you can hope for in a put. Globe Tapas is incredible food but really expensive. We went for lunch as dinner would have been "stupid money" and enjoyed it - the kids fare at Globe is really creative & our 11 year old loved it. As always the Mountain High Pizza Co. is a great quick lunch or dinner & our favourite place for coffee & a treat is still Tod Mountain Coffee Co.
We had daily trips to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate co as well - lots of well deserved treats were enjoyed by the entire family.
We made good use of the Fireside Lodge's Hottub on the main floor - it was pretty quiet and we didn't mind sharing (we're used to private hottubs in the vrbos we rent).
Yesterday the shuttle picked us up and whisked us to our flight, which was smooth, as the entire trip had been.
We learned from this trip we definitely don't need the private hottub we thought we did. We also don't need as many bedrooms as we're all exhausted after skiing and just want to eat, relax, play board games, then sleep. We don't need a car, in fact, it's more relaxing to take the shuttle. It is much better to have someone else do the groceries.
Money wise, this was cheaper than the March trip as well - big time. Our condo in March located in Settler's Crossing ($ 285 per night) claimed to be ski in/out but was off the East Village Skiway which is not ski in/out in spring conditions. The March condo is so far removed from the village you have to drive to get there, so you don't enjoy the same vibe.
The time to rent the car, drive to the grocery store, shop, drive up the mountain, put away groceries is not fun time & not having to deal with that was worth the price of grocery delivery - plus they shop at a reasonable spot - total bill for the groceries for the week through them bearing in mind it was mostly organic, so pricier than most, $ 143.00.
I'll post more about how my skiing improved in another thread because that is a Christmas miracle post unto itself <g> !!!
Just back from our best family ski vacation to date - it was awesome.
We had been to SunPeaks in March of this year and had not planned a big mountain ski trip this year but the deals at SunPeaks were too good to pass up.
Our family of three usually goes for a week, gets a 2 bdrm condo through vrbo.com, rents a car, does groceries & eats in most meals when we ski vacation. That changed this trip as we were not going for a week and wanted a cheaper/easier situation - it was so awesome.
The deal we got was 4 nights in a studio condo, full kitchen, right in the village, skin in/out (Fireside Lodge) for the price of 3 nights. It was $ 99/night for all three of us - what a deal! We also got 4 days of skiing for the price of 3.
We decided to eat two meals/day in our condo and also decided not to rent a car as the money didn't make sense compared to the SunPeaks shuttle. Our family eats mostly organic and while SunPeaks has a great grocery store, the organic offerings are not enough. So, 5 days before we left, I used the SunPeaks online grocery service. I provided details about what I wanted. The groceries were put away in the condo when we arrived - how perfect is that? The cost was not huge in my opinion, $ 10.00 delivery fee & 35% of cost of groceries. If you get liqour (we didn't because the liqour store at SunPeaks is awesome for amazing wine (we are kind of wine snobs & really look forward to shopping there) as well as cheaper offerings & beer, spirits, etc at not hugely inflated prices.
Our flight to SunPeaks was AirCanada Toronto-Van-Kamloops. We chose that route as we didn't want to risk being snowed in at Calgary. Only issue with using AirCanada is they fly Dash-8s into Kamloops so skis can get left behind due to space - ours did not. WestJet flies jets in, so the cargo is not as big an issue.
We were greeted at the airport by the shuttle - you arrange it ahead of time, but they stay to meet each flight it seems. We had the luxury of being the only three in the 9 passenger Sprint Van and were whisked up the mountain at at Bear Country Lodging check in in about 40 minutes or so.
Now, here is where I almost hugged the Bear Country lodging people. They had our lift tickets waiting for us. No need for us to wait in line in the a.m. - we could just clip on our skis and head to the lift.
The shuttle took us from check in (it's in a separate area of the village) to the Lodge and we were home for the night. Aaaahhhh.
The snow was good on the groomed runs, all the greens we skied and most of the blues. Early conditions exist on many of the steeper runs but the snow just kept getting better as it snowed non-stop. The only bummer of that was that the clouds were super low, making it white out in the bowls and as we didn't know them, we stayed away - though had been hoping to ski them this visit.
We stuck to the plan of one meal out/day for the most part. We love Masa's for lunch. The Steakhouse is under new ownership & was a really awesome meal, though the priciest we enjoyed. Morrisey's Pub is everything you can hope for in a put. Globe Tapas is incredible food but really expensive. We went for lunch as dinner would have been "stupid money" and enjoyed it - the kids fare at Globe is really creative & our 11 year old loved it. As always the Mountain High Pizza Co. is a great quick lunch or dinner & our favourite place for coffee & a treat is still Tod Mountain Coffee Co.
We had daily trips to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate co as well - lots of well deserved treats were enjoyed by the entire family.
We made good use of the Fireside Lodge's Hottub on the main floor - it was pretty quiet and we didn't mind sharing (we're used to private hottubs in the vrbos we rent).
Yesterday the shuttle picked us up and whisked us to our flight, which was smooth, as the entire trip had been.
We learned from this trip we definitely don't need the private hottub we thought we did. We also don't need as many bedrooms as we're all exhausted after skiing and just want to eat, relax, play board games, then sleep. We don't need a car, in fact, it's more relaxing to take the shuttle. It is much better to have someone else do the groceries.
Money wise, this was cheaper than the March trip as well - big time. Our condo in March located in Settler's Crossing ($ 285 per night) claimed to be ski in/out but was off the East Village Skiway which is not ski in/out in spring conditions. The March condo is so far removed from the village you have to drive to get there, so you don't enjoy the same vibe.
The time to rent the car, drive to the grocery store, shop, drive up the mountain, put away groceries is not fun time & not having to deal with that was worth the price of grocery delivery - plus they shop at a reasonable spot - total bill for the groceries for the week through them bearing in mind it was mostly organic, so pricier than most, $ 143.00.
I'll post more about how my skiing improved in another thread because that is a Christmas miracle post unto itself <g> !!!
