yukmonkey said:
Think he's referring to the fact that the lodging in Frisco or Dillon will be way less expensive than staying in Vail itself. Then you have the option of multiple hills as well.
OP, you need to consider what type of vacation and your budget. Some of the places being recommended here are very nice but very $$$ (Vail, BC, etc) and others are $ but may not fit what your family is expecting.
Vail and BC have a snooty reputation due to the money there, but Vail is probably the best overall mountain experience on the planet. The ski school at BC is just awesome.
Exactly. All of the above.
If you want cheap there are lots of options but they may not be that good. Not joking, I learned how to ride a snowboard at Ski Butler, Kentucky when I was in the Army at Fort Knox in 1994. They did a rental + lift for $25 with military ID.
Of course, you get what you pay for
But, the first three days that you're trying to find an edge on a snowboard, it doesn't matter if you're at 11,000 feet in Colorado, at Heavenly with Lake Tahoe in the background, or on a 300 foot hill in Kentucky. The pain and suffering will be the same. What does matter is that you're with friends/family and having a good time and - not going broke doing it.
For more affordable accommodation, that's where I was talking about renting a condo in Summit County.
I'll say it like the "Drink Girl" told me in a Budapest, Hungary strip club when she hit me with the bill for a $90 glass of champagne - "If you buy girl drink, you know what it cost".
By that I mean, skiing isn't a poor person's sport. You're going to be dropping some coin just to get in the game.
Save the real nice/expensive places for AFTER you know what you're doing. You don't need to pay for ski-in/ski-out if you don't even know how to ski yet.
For a learner and/or a party with mixed experience levels, I'd stick with Keystone/Breck. Full disclosure, i learned how to ski at Keystone in 1986 and I still love that 3 mile long Schoolmarm run. Took me forever to master the flat sections on a snowboard. I also had a terrible experience on a work outing to Winter Park on the Ski Train so I'm going back to Winter Park on the first of Never.
With skiing/snowboarding, there are so many places you can go, I've been to Alaska, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Nevada, California, but you've got to start somewhere. Heck, I still remember how afraid I was of falling off the chair lift on the bunny slope at Keystone. Good Luck!
