re: Family Ski Trip Ideas

I’ll throw out a recommendation to fly to SLC as you can find reasonably price AirBnB there. You can then take the ski bus in the morning to Snowbird, Brighton or Solitude and ride it back down at the end of the day. If you purchase Ikon tickets in advance your ikon tickets includes the fee to ride the bus. My boys are close to the same age as your kids and we have done this trip a few times and it’s great because we lodging is cheaper, food is cheaper and you have things to do on any off days by staying in SLC.

Another suggestion is Winter Park, CO. 75 minutes from DIA and can stay in Frasier just a few minutes down the road for even cheaper lodging. Free bus system around town as well

My bad, thinking back when we did the trip a couple seasons ago, I think my base pass came with a kids discounted base pass that he used to ride the bus. But like you said a good deal still if you have to pay $5 especially at the end of the day when you are tired

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Another suggestion is Winter Park, CO. 75 minutes from DIA and can stay in Frasier just a few minutes down the road for even cheaper lodging. Free bus system around town as well

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I think WP is a great option, won't get quite the ski town vibe of a place like Steamboat but that is how you save some cash. I've also saved some money when staying at Keystone but WP is the better resort. Only advantage of Keystone would being able to mix in a day at Breck if you wanted to.

It's definitely not ideal. We did Park City a few years ago around this time and there were 19/300+ runs open when we arrived and only 36 when we left. Was a bad snow year but still better to go in January/February or head somewhere like A-Basin that's at a higher elevation.

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In a further attempt to save cash, they could also spend a day skiing at Granby Ranch instead of the whole time at Winter Park. Granby has some beginner terrain and is reasonable price-wise. Not somewhere I would want to spend several days skiing, but would work for a day.

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Thought about saying that as well, I stayed up by Granby a few years ago. Didn't ski Granby since I had an Ikon pass but it would be a decent place to shake off some rust on your first day of the trip and then spend the rest of the trip at WP.

Nobody has mentioned Crested Butte. We skied there several years ago and it was great. I don't remember it being too terribly expensive and there is the town of Crested Butte is very nice.

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I’ll throw out a recommendation to fly to SLC as you can find reasonably price AirBnB there. You can then take the ski bus in the morning to Snowbird, Brighton or Solitude and ride it back down at the end of the day. If you purchase Ikon tickets in advance your ikon tickets includes the fee to ride the bus. My boys are close to the same age as your kids and we have done this trip a few times and it’s great because we lodging is cheaper, food is cheaper and you have things to do on any off days by staying in SLC

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With a family and kids? I'm as low maintenance as it gets, but no fricking way I'm riding the bus 1 hour each direction from SLC and to Park City and back. That sucks. Certainly if you are 19 with a bunch of buddies on a college budget.

Park City Area has quite a few options for lodging well off the slopes so I haven't personally looked but I'm going to assume you can likely find some fairly affordable options.

OP, its usually $100/ day for 2-4 day ski passes. IT's a PITA to rent gear daily and pick up and drop off daily, much better to rent it for 3-4 days straight but you have to pay for every day. I generally get a ski pass for every day I have my ski gear, and then I may only ski for 2-3 hours some days. But its not THAT much more if you are already there. I just tell my kids if we go ski we are skiing hard, its why we are here....lol. I'm not even a great or huge skier, but I can go relax for a hell of a lot less somewhere else. I go on ski vacations to ski.

Ski Santa Fe in New Mexico. Also a very family oriented resort and won't break your bank is Pajarito about an hour west of Santa Fe. We loved them.

Steamboat? There is a mountain coaster, horse drawn sled, dogsledding, snowshoeing, snowmobiles, hot springs, and snowtubing. Not all of those are at the resort, but all within the vicinity of town. The town is a great mountain town too.