ski/snowboard resort reccomendations

C

CleverNickname

500+ Posts
I'm looking at booking a condo for a week sometime in Jan. Things we want:
1. easy/cheap to fly to from Austin/Houston
2. snowboarding OK
3. good beginner/green runs (an amatuer heavy group)
4. fun resort / evening activities
5. less rental car if possible. More interested in a place we can mostly walk around.

I've boarded Steamboat before, and liked it. Would have liked more variety in beginner and snowboard friendly slopes (long flat tables ruin a good snowboard run). From searching it seems like flights from Aus to Den to Steamboat aren't that bad (<$300 roundtrip).

I've heard the resorts near Salt Lake City offer good skiiing and its very easy to find cheap tickets into SLC. We've got our passports ready, so Canada is an option.
 
Lake Tahoe

1. You can fly Southwest into Reno
2. Snowboarding is definitely ok
3. Heavenly has decent beginner runs
4. Gambling
5. They have shuttles from the Reno airport to Tahoe and you can walk to the gondola in town as well as to the casinos, restaurants, etc.
 
Crested Butte, CO.
Great mountain, with lots of mixed terrain. Snowboarding permitted.
You can fly into Gunnison, and take the cheap shuttle to CB.
There are free buses running through town that take you anywhere.
The town is a lot of fun, good restaurants, with some clubs for nightlife.
 
Tahoe is a good trip. I would go ahead and rent a car though. There are several other places to ski within an hour or so from LT, but yeah, you can walk to the gondola for Heavenly.

Kirkwood has a big terrain park for boarders, iirc and is about 45 minutes away.

Not sure how $$ it is now, but Whistler is a great place to go. They have 2 giant mountains with a lot of runs. some decent night life as well. We took a big coach type bus from the airport in Vancouver and it took about 2.5 hours to get there. But after that, you could walk around to most stuff or take the local bus. We went there in Jan because the rates were cheaper.
 
I would be wary of hitting Tahoe in January. Snow-wise, It is typically a better place to go later in the season.

Park City is great for couples and/or families. Excellent skiing and great dining/nightlife, but I would not define it as a singles place. Colorado would probably be your best bet for that..
 
Park city has everything you want. Delta flies direct to SLC from Austin and it's 30 minutes to the resort. Easy. Steamboat would have been my second pick.

I hate the Denver airport and the 2 hour drive to Breck/Summit county. Tahoe is a long flight and a 1 hour drive from Reno. I can never find cheap flights there, either. You also have to deal with Californians (SF'ers at Squaw and LA-types at Heavenly).

The thing about skiing in January is snow. Park City may not have a ton but Alta/Snowbird seems to always have snow. No snowboarders at Alta though.

Stay in Park City near the Town Lift and you can walk everywhere.
 
I think for what you want Breckinridge would be perfect. It is an incredibly easy mountain with lots of green and very easy blue trails. you can confine yourself to teh town and walk just about anywhere. I do not know if the singles scene is grerat there, but when I was there it appeared to be pretty good.

I would not recommend Park City for you for a number of reasons. Park City Mounatin is okay, but not great. A few miles over the Canyons is incredible, but they have only a few green/beginner type trails. I ski Park City, Deer Valley, Canyons and Alta/Snowbird 10-15 days per year. I love the place probably more than any other ski area. I love the town and everything about it, but I do not know that is necessarily fits what is required in this case. Deer Valley and Alta do not allow snowboards, and I think the terrain at Snowbird and probably the Canyons would be a bit much for beginners. That leaves only Park City Mountain which had basically no decent on mountain food or amenities, and offers the poorest terrain of the lot. It is nice to have the town lift, and the town is great.
 
Thanks for the reccomendations folks!

To clarify, we are actually two couples, not singles. But we are not diehard skiiers either, so something to do around town beyond skiing is important.

I'm looking into all the places suggested above.
 
does american fly from houston to vail/eagle county?

they do from dallas, and the rates usually arent too bad. the airport is only about a 30 min drive to beaver and vail.
 
American doesn't fly to Vail from Houston but Continental does. The Link

Vail, Vail Vail. Breck sucks. They have the sane # of visitors on the mountain as Vail, all crammed in 1/3 of the same acreage.
 
I like breck quite a lot. if you stay off peak 8 (the center hill) it's quite empty. however, it is very high, so it gets COLD quickly, and the wind can blow off a lot of snow.

I don't know about nightlife, but Copper Mountain has the snowboarding and fantastic green runs. It might be my favorite mountain for pure relaxing skiing.

i would rank my mountains overall as
1. steamboat
2. copper
3. breck
4. vail/bc
5. WP/MJ
 
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