Driving >250 miles for a family ski vacation, is it worth the effort?

[marzNC]

For a family who skis, sometimes the only way to make a ski vacation fit into the budget is to spend at least a day driving. I thinking about drives that are over 250 miles, so well beyond day trip distance. Let's say that the families of most interest have kids who are ages 6-16 and that the ski vacation is at least a full week, including travel days.

Below are a few questions for those parents who have planned and enjoyed a ski vacation with lots of driving. Please share your experience or ask other questions.

* How involved are/were the kids in planning the trip?

* Is it worth driving an extra day for better skiing?

* Do you ski in only one place? If so, why? If not, how many nights in each place?

* Besides ski gear, is there something you bring on ski trips that you don't need on summer driving vacations?

 

[altagirl]

I don't have kids so this is probably not super relevant, but even though we travel less than we used to, DH and I packed up the dogs and drove to Whistler last month for a bike trip. 1,05o miles each way. And we have done it for 8 years now.

For reference - 250 miles is the distance for us to go to Moab (each way). And I've done that as a day trip, solo. Though usually it's just a regular weekend trip and we drive down Friday afternoon, ride Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning and then drive home. For a ski trip we just drive Friday evening, would ski Saturday and Sunday and drive home after skiing Sunday.

Anyway - I guess it depends largely on your tolerance for driving. And your kids tolerance for driving. For us, it's only factoring in dealing with driving with the dogs, ad then it's only an issue when we have a new one being trained up in behaving in the car. For us, our concession is that we now add an overnight stop in our Whistler trip drives and break up the drive. We used to just do it straight, which was a little crazy.

When we go on winter trips, the only addition would be chains/shovel/blankets and such as the just in case items in case you get stuck. Generally, you'd have plenty of warm clothes on a ski trip, and we generally have our avy shovels.

And clearly we think it's worth driving long distances for a better experience....

 

[marzNC]

Good point about chains. The long drives that I've done regularly are between NC and Lake Placid, 800 miles one way, usually not in winter. During the last couple winters, I've been in New England but essentially deliberately timed my trips or chose routes to avoid big snowstorms.

Having done long drives with dogs and children, but never together . . . harder to keep on going more than about 200 miles with children.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I agree it depends on tolerance for driving as well. We don't have kids or even dogs for that matter at the moment. I am more of the driver than DH. I think nothing of driving 300 miles in a day on a friday, ski saturday/sunday and then drive home sunday night. So if we ever do a trip like this I will be the one to drive. All that stuff aside I think it's totally worth it to drive 250 plus miles for a weekend ski trip.

 

[Jilly]

I drive almost 500km one way to ski on weekends. I try to make them long weekends, but that doesn't happen all the time.

As a kid my parents took one summer holiday. Usually by car to far off places. PEI from Ontario is a day and 1/2. Lake Placid is the same as Tremblant from home. DH and I did Sugarloaf with the Diva's. Day's drive. I would rather drive than fly to some extent. Less hassles. I have a fully packed emergency kit in the car all winter and a lighter version in the summer. I travel places that do not cell reception too.

But with kids....I know a lot that do it. The kids may or may not be part of process as to where. Parents may decide where based on a lot of things. Dollars are usually the reason.

I know this year, you will not see too many Canadians, unless they are accepting dollars at par. Jay, Mt Snow might.

 

[SkiBam]

We used to, from time to time, take the kids on a ski trip - usually for a week, but occasionally for something like Easter. More than once, this was to Killington from Montreal. Forget the distance but four/five hours at least. I don't recall any problems. And we often travelled farther for summer trips, or even just to visit relatives in Toronto.

Agree with Jilly that the number of Canadians travelling to the US this year will likely be lower. So glad I got lots and lots of US trips in when our exchange was more favourable.

 

[marzNC]

For a family who skis, sometimes the only way to make a ski vacation fit into the budget is to spend at least a day driving. I thinking about drives that are over 250 miles, so well beyond day trip distance. Let's say that the families of most interest have kids who are ages 6-16 and that the ski vacation is at least a full week, including travel days.

Below are a few questions for those parents who have planned and enjoyed a ski vacation with lots of driving. Please share your experience or ask other questions.

* How involved are/were the kids in planning the trip?

* Is it worth driving an extra day for better skiing?

* Do you ski in only one place? If so, why? If not, how many nights in each place?

* Besides ski gear, is there something you bring on ski trips that you don't need on summer driving vacations?

Guess I'm thinking more about a family who don't ski that much. Possibility they only plan to ski on a couple weekends, plus want to take a ski vacation of about a week during a school holiday period. Flying is too expensive to go every year. Let's say they live 200 miles from a small ski resort but could drive another 300 miles to get to a bigger ski resort. Obviously there would be more terrain at the bigger resort. But driving 500 miles in one day with kids would be a pretty long day.

For example, driving from DC to Camelback, PA is about 240 miles. DC to Smuggler's Notch, VT is about 550 miles. For a family of beginners and intermediates, perhaps one parent who is advanced, is the extra driving worth it? Or does it make more sense to save up and fly somewhere out west every other year?

Obviously, every family has different priorities. Just trying to think of the pros and cons that may not occur to parents who haven't done a long driving ski trip yet.

 

[altagirl]

Well, I think the terrain difference is going to make a much bigger difference to the intermediates and up. As a beginner, you can work on the fundamentals on just about any mountain. So I'd say it's worth it, unless the advanced skier in the group really doesn't mind more limited terrain.

And I guess my parents just threw us in the car and we went on 250-1000+ mile trips on a regular basis from the time I was a little kid, so it's always seemed normal to me. Also - the driving vs. flying thing probably depends largely on your comfort level with driving. Air travel seems like a big hassle to me these days and I honestly prefer to drive when it's reasonable to do so. Though I know plenty of people who feel the opposite way, so I'd think that would factor into whether flying somewhere makes more or less sense.

 

[lynseyf]

This is really normal for loads of families who live in the UK and drive to mainland EU every year to ski. I don't have kids so can't help much with the logistics but if you take a look on snowheads.com you will find lots of threads about driving for ski holidays, usually for much longer than 250 miles

 

[MI-skier]

So much depends on the kids and what you want. Last year we went beyond our usual 250 miles to a 490 mile trip from Detroit to Snowshoe WV. Was it worth it, yes and no. 15 yr old loved the longer runs. Unfortunately, it was the only place we could ski. I picked up a rule of thumb: ski at least 1 more day than needed to drive. We skied the 3 full days and by the last, skiing the same runs got a little boring. It was worth it in the sense we could gauge how much our kids want to ski and it was a new place for us. Would we do it a 2nd time, no. Now we'll fly and take them out west. The 8 hours was at my max for driving. Plus we had blizzard conditions which prolonged the drive an extra several hours. Multiple car wreck deaths reported later.

As for what to pack....ha ha...I am the excel spreadsheet queen. I have excels for all sorts of travel and so I do have a specific/Car driving/skiing/with kids one. ...Lots of dvds, snacks, meals if renting a condo/ALL our boot dryers to dry out 4 pairs of boots and mittens (I have 3 dyers, 1 bigger 4-boot/a more compact 2-boot and then a 2 boot slip in) Box of hand warmers. Bin of spare clothing/gaiters/etc. We don't rent so we bring all our own ski equipment.

 

[marzNC]

Good point about a big boot dryer. Definitely like having that on when driving for a ski trip.

After thinking about the question more, it's clear that where a family lives is a major factor. For folks in the midwest or Texas who can make it to Colorado in 10-14 hours, it's a different decision process than for a family in the southeast who would be choosing between flying out west versus a long drive to a large ski resort in the northeast or a small one in the Mid-Atlantic.

 

[Skier31]

While driving can look better and less expensive on paper, there is also a time factor in addition to the actual drive time. There is packing/unpacking the car, driving to and from the ski area if you are not staying near, parking, loading/unloading again, bathroom breaks, eating breaks etc plus the fatigue factor the whole process. It adds up really quick and can impact a vacation.

I am not a fan of driving from snow to find snow. I would prefer to stay 4 or 5 days at one place as opposed to driving several hours to another place just for a change of scenery. I get exhausted just looking at some of the trip plans for people. Yes, GT is only 5 hours from SLC but that is time that could be spent skiing at a SLC area resort. It does not sound so bad until you have to do it.

 

[santacruz skier]

So much depends on the kids and what you want. Last year we went beyond our usual 250 miles to a 490 mile trip from Detroit to Snowshoe WV. Was it worth it, yes and no. 15 yr old loved the longer runs. Unfortunately, it was the only place we could ski. I picked up a rule of thumb: ski at least 1 more day than needed to drive. We skied the 3 full days and by the last, skiing the same runs got a little boring. It was worth it in the sense we could gauge how much our kids want to ski and it was a new place for us. Would we do it a 2nd time, no. Now we'll fly and take them out west. The 8 hours was at my max for driving. Plus we had blizzard conditions which prolonged the drive an extra several hours. Multiple car wreck deaths reported later.

As for what to pack....ha ha...I am the excel spreadsheet queen. I have excels for all sorts of travel and so I do have a specific/Car driving/skiing/with kids one. ...Lots of dvds, snacks, meals if renting a condo/ALL our boot dryers to dry out 4 pairs of boots and mittens (I have 3 dyers, 1 bigger 4-boot/a more compact 2-boot and then a 2 boot slip in) Box of hand warmers. Bin of spare clothing/gaiters/etc. We don't rent so we bring all our own ski equipment.

Ha! I create excel spreadsheets for ski resorts, skis, just about everything.......

 

[MI-skier]

Is there an option to upload files? I see you can upload pictures but I'd be happy to share my ski excel. If you car drive, don't forget the humidifier!!! Makes it so much more comfortable to breathe/sleep.

 

[ski diva]

Is there an option to upload files? I see you can upload pictures but I'd be happy to share my ski excel. If you car drive, don't forget the humidifier!!! Makes it so much more comfortable to breathe/sleep. View attachment 4296

Unfortunately, you can't upload an excel file.

 

[MI-skier]

Unfortunately, you can't upload an excel file.

What about a word doc?

 

[ski diva]

What about a word doc?

Why don't you turn it into a pdf? You could do that.

 

[Ringrat]

I'm the wrong perspective here, with no kids, but I'm going to add another voice for the tolerance of the kids being a deciding factor. A full days drive can be easily broken up with stops in interesting places - those rest and food stops also make a drive less boring. My local ski hills were 400-500 km away when I was a kid and we went regularly for weekends, usually driving on Saturday morning before skiing and home Sunday night after skiing (or Monday on a long weekend). In the car, we slept for a while in the mornings (and at night), did homework (since otherwise it meant a boring night in the hotel room doing it), and generally amused ourselves. If it's not something that a family is doing all the time, then there are lots of new things to see out the window too.

The nice thing about driving is that you can bring more stuff and options - different layers, shoes, etc. You don't have to pack liquids in small volumes in plastic bags for flying, etc. Flying is going to take a whole day anyway, with travel to the airport, waiting there, possibly connections, and then getting all your stuff sorted at the other end. Then you either have to rent a car or be reliant on resorts and shuttles. If it was a 2-day drive each way, then flying becomes more appealing. If you're headed to an area with multiple places fairly close, where you wouldn't have to take a rest day to drive, then moving around or doing day trips to other places can be fun.

 

[santacruz skier]

Awesome avatar @Ringrat !

 

[marzNC]

While driving can look better and less expensive on paper, there is also a time factor in addition to the actual drive time. There is packing/unpacking the car, driving to and from the ski area if you are not staying near, parking, loading/unloading again, bathroom breaks, eating breaks etc plus the fatigue factor the whole process. It adds up really quick and can impact a vacation.

The flip side for a family flying with a couple kids under age 12 is that the travel day can be pretty stressful for parents and kids. Having to change planes adds to the complexity of the flight. Not to mention the packing process trying to anticipate everything needed for skiing, which involves some bulky stuff. For families who ski often and/or travel by plane regularly, not as big a deal. But for a family going on a ski vacation for the first time, driving could be much simpler than flying as well as less expensive.

Planning a family ski vacation is a matter of compromise. There is no right or wrong answer.