Best resort for skiing with kids ages 9-11?

[Mamabear3]

We loved Breck last year, for our first family ski trip. We are planning another trip this Christmas and wondering if there are other family friendly reports we should we consider? We need easy access to the slopes, and lots of easy runs for the kids.

 

[Jilly]

Where are you coming from? Do you want to fly or drive it?

 

[Mamabear3]

Coming from Dallas Texas. Planning on flying to save vacation days.

 

[santacruz skier]

Northstar at Tahoe is very family friendly. Check it out.

 

[marzNC]

We loved Breck last year, for our first family ski trip. We are planning another trip this Christmas and wondering if there are other family friendly reports we should we consider? We need easy access to the slopes, and lots of easy runs for the kids.

On Epic, Keystone is geared to families. So is Copper, which is on Ikon. How many ski days? The Epic Day Pass is 1-7 days, while Ikon offers a 4-day option. Reservation will undoubtedly be required at any destination resort during the holiday weeks.

Big Sky has the advantage of being a bit harder to reach. It really is a big resort with a fair amount of slopeside lodging. The long greens are really long, which can be good fun for kids. @bsskier can tell you more if she stops by.

Have you seen the Epic reservation overview? The info for what's going to happen for Ikon locations hasn't been announced yet. But likely to be different across locations, unlike for Epic resorts.

 

[bsskier]

Big Sky has all the terrain you’d ever need, but there’s not much outside of skiing. I’ve struggled trying to keep my niece and nephew entertained. But then there’s Yellowstone, and that makes up for the lack of activities at Big Sky.

 

[marzNC]

Big Sky has all the terrain you’d ever need, but there’s not much outside of skiing. I’ve struggled trying to keep my niece and nephew entertained. But then there’s Yellowstone, and that makes up for the lack of activities at Big Sky.

Have they ever done the zipline? That's what my daughter would've wanted to do had I taken her to Big Sky as a tween.

As it turned out, she went to Big Sky during Christmas week with a family we originally met at Alta Lodge. They stayed at the Huntley. The highlight of the trip was a few hours on a snowmobile somewhere near Bozeman. I think they only skied 4 days out of the 1-week trip. She and the older boy were in middle school at the time and the only advanced skiers. So the others weren't that into the skiing.

They all rode up the tram to see the view off Lone Peak on a clear day. A local friend of the father took my daughter and the boy down Liberty. It was early season so picking the way down the rocks near the summit was an effort. She had to lead as the more experienced tween so that the local man could sweep.

 

[marzNC]

We loved Breck last year, for our first family ski trip. We are planning another trip this Christmas and wondering if there are other family friendly reports we should we consider? We need easy access to the slopes, and lots of easy runs for the kids.

Do the kids want to return to Breck? For beginners, there is something to be said for sticking with the same resort for a few trips. It's easier to progress when don't have to take the time to learn a new place in terms of logistics of getting to the slopes and which trails are the most fun during a given ski trip. This winter, I think Vail Resorts will be working very hard to make sure those guests who make advanced reservations based on having an Epic pass have a good time. So will other destination resorts not on Epic, but VR has an advantage based on their experience in Jun-Aug in Australia.

I didn't take my daughter anywhere but our home hill, Massanutten in northern VA, until she could ski both of the short black trails on the upper mountain. She started at age 4 so that happened when she was 6. Helped that she loved ski school. Exploring new ski areas in the southeast was good fun since she could ski any blue in the region by then. I was only an intermediate back then. Our first spring break trip to Alta together was when she was 7. After a day of ski school, she was having fun on any groomed blue.

 

[bsskier]

Have they ever done the zipline? That's what my daughter would've wanted to do had I taken her to Big Sky as a tween.

As it turned out, she went to Big Sky during Christmas week with a family we originally met at Alta Lodge. They stayed at the Huntley. The highlight of the trip was a few hours on a snowmobile somewhere near Bozeman. I think they only skied 4 days out of the 1-week trip. She and the older boy were in middle school at the time and the only advanced skiers. So the others weren't that into the skiing.

They all rode up the tram to see the view off Lone Peak on a clear day. A local friend of the father took my daughter and the boy down Liberty. It was early season so picking the way down the rocks near the summit was an effort. She had to lead as the more experienced tween so that the local man could sweep.

Big Sky has easy slope access for kids. I forgot to recommend Moonlight in my response. Slower pace with residential trails to many ski in and ski our properties. Moonlight is quiet though. I recommend having a car.

Big Sky is not in the league of other family centric hills in winter in my opinion. The BS site lists activities by season. Zip line and tram open in both seasons. Not sure how tram operates in COVID-19 world. A few winters ago we had a tiny tube hill, an arcade, and snowshoeing on the full moon. These were the places we sent the kids, but gone now. In our experience, for our family, when not skiing, we found more things of interest off the mountain than on it, like winter hiking Ousell Falls and snowmobiling. There’s is a horseback riding outfit as well as a local snowmobile tour right down in Gallatin Gateway area, but I have no experience with either.

 

[marzNC]

Big Sky has easy slope access for kids. I forgot to recommend Moonlight in my response. Slower pace with residential trails to many ski in and ski our properties. Moonlight is quiet though. I recommend having a car.

I agree that having a car at Big Sky makes for a better experience. I wouldn't want to make a family trip there without one.

Since Moonlight was created as a separate ski resort, I imagine it can work well as the home base for a family trip. The access to the ski school is certainly simpler since the parking lot is right there, unlike at the main base.

 

[santacruz skier]

If you want to travel as far as Tahoe (Reno airport 45 min away) , Northstar is a great family resort with trailside lodging, village lodging as well as condos and homes. BF's family has house there with g'kids ages 8 and 10.

https://www.northstarcalifornia.com

 

[marzNC]

If you want to travel as far as Tahoe (Reno airport 45 min away) , Northstar is a great family resort with trailside lodging, village lodging as well as condos and homes. BF's family has house there with g'kids ages 8 and 10

Normally, I wouldn't recommend Northstar during Christmas. But with the Epic reservation system, could be a good season to be there during a holiday week.

Always thought Northstar would be fun for my daughter when she was a tween. But once she was hooked on Alta Lodge during late season, wasn't much reason to fly to Reno from the east coast.

 

[santacruz skier]

True about any Tahoe area during Christmas including small resorts like Homewood ,Diamond Peak, and even Sugar Bowl. Northstar has an excellent children's ski school and with the reservation system could be great for a family. Pretty sure @SkiBabyMD and family ski there as well. It has a separate little area for beginners in addition to many runs that are marked intermediate that a beginner skier could navigate. In the old days (70's) we used to call it Flatstar. That changed after they opened advanced terrain about 1000 acres on the backside and another 1000 or so acres on Lookout Mtn. (All connected).
Not only numerous close accommodation choices , Northstar also has an on mountain Ritz Carlton with a private gondola (sort of) that would work for a family.

 

[gingerjess]

My take as a relative beginner: I really like Northstar and think it's been a good place for me to take lessons and develop my skills. There's a lot of different terrain, including some really nice long runs that you can take either fast or slow depending on your comfort level, and you can work your way up to more difficult runs that take you back to familiar terrain at the bottom.

I saw from your first post that both your kids are classed at level 3, so hopefully if they get another few days of lessons to start your trip, they'll be comfortable to try some blue runs, which will really open up a lot of the mountain for them. There are some lovely mellow blues; I particularly enjoy Powder Bowl (which has a slightly steep opening, but which can be accessed via a mellower start from The Flume), Christmas Tree, and Logger's Loop. Logger's Loop also gives access to The Woods, which is a nice alternate route to get back down to the village at the end of a day.

I agree with @santacruz skier that there are a fair number of blue-marked runs that a practiced beginner skier could handle, but the variety of explicitly-beginner routes on the map is somewhat limited; there's just one main green drag that you can make a couple minor directional choices on. Of course, if the kids are in lessons for the whole trip, that becomes a lot simpler because their instructors will be able to pick terrain that will push them just enough to develop new skills.

 

[Skier31]

Snowmass is great for families. Lots of easy access condos (which this year will be important for lunch breaks and warm ups), tubing, Coaster, ice skating and plenty of restaurants all in the Base Village. Children’s ski school is fantastic. You do not need a car. Please PM me for more details.

 

[marzNC]

Snowmass is great for families. Lots of easy access condos (which this year will be important for lunch breaks and warm ups), tubing, Coaster, ice skating and plenty of restaurants all in the Base Village. Children’s ski school is fantastic. You do not need a car. Please PM me for more details.

Agree that Snowmass is a good family resort. Buttermilk is really quite fun too for a change. I would guess that improving kids like being able to ski almost an entire mountain, from green to blue to maybe even an easy groomed black.

Any news yet about changes for buses around Aspen this winter?

 

[santacruz skier]

My take as a relative beginner: I really like Northstar and think it's been a good place for me to take lessons and develop my skills. There's a lot of different terrain, including some really nice long runs that you can take either fast or slow depending on your comfort level, and you can work your way up to more difficult runs that take you back to familiar terrain at the bottom.

I saw from your first post that both your kids are classed at level 3, so hopefully if they get another few days of lessons to start your trip, they'll be comfortable to try some blue runs, which will really open up a lot of the mountain for them. There are some lovely mellow blues; I particularly enjoy Powder Bowl (which has a slightly steep opening, but which can be accessed via a mellower start from The Flume), Christmas Tree, and Logger's Loop. Logger's Loop also gives access to The Woods, which is a nice alternate route to get back down to the village at the end of a day.

I agree with @santacruz skier that there are a fair number of blue-marked runs that a practiced beginner skier could handle, but the variety of explicitly-beginner routes on the map is somewhat limited; there's just one main green drag that you can make a couple minor directional choices on. Of course, if the kids are in lessons for the whole trip, that becomes a lot simpler because their instructors will be able to pick terrain that will push them just enough to develop new skills.

Two quads service beginner runs... The Big Easy and Arrow ! Plus the village run at the top of the Gondola.

 

[gingerjess]

Two quads service beginner runs... The Big Easy and Arrow ! Plus the village run at the top of the Gondola.

True. Big Easy is very much the bunny hill, though, and is an incredibly short run for a 7 minute lift ride. Vista serves the top of Skid Trail which runs into Main Street/Lumberjack, so that is a nice extension.

 

[santacruz skier]

Yes quite a few beginner runs.... but you will find all levels on some of the aforementioned areas except the Big Easy which moves at a snails pace because it is for Beginners!

 

[SkiBabyMD]

Of the Tahoe resorts, I would rank Northstar as the most family oriented! This is my home resort, so I may be a teeny bit biased, but when DH and I were deciding on a resort for our kids, Northstar came out ahead.

Rarely any wind closures compared to the neighboring resorts. Ample beginner runs with enough challenging terrain to keep it interesting. They also have an "awesome park" according to my DS11. Resort isn't huge enough where you get lost or it takes a few lift rides to meet up with everyone (ahem Breck). Plenty of staff for helping kids on lifts and helping them up if they fall on runs. Good instructors. Ritz Carlton Spa for me . Free ski lockers at the base of the gondola. Apres ski includes a skating rink, movie theater, arts and crafts store, family friendly restaurants, etc. -- but who knows what will be available with Covid.

Definitely stay in the village if you can. Much easier access to the lifts.

It is the priciest resort in Tahoe though. I will say, if I were travelling, I'd maybe explore Beaver Creek. I was told it's the Northstar of Colorado and I'm sure the snow is better. Having said that, altitude may be an issue.

Good luck and feel free to ask me any questions or if you need recommendations!