Love Your Next Family Ski Trip (Even If You Don’t Love To Ski)

Even though I personally gave up skiing a few years ago, our family still goes to Telluride every February.  Yes, ski trips are expensive, cold and labor intensive (ugh all that equipment), but somehow we end up having a great time year after year! Here are some tips to put the “luxury” and “fun” back into your ski trips: 

Luxury Lodging – Family Style

Your usual hotel room or suite, no matter how luxurious, is not going to cut it on ski trips. Look for these essentials when booking your ski lodging (whether staying in a hotel, condo or rental home): 1. location, location, location (ski in/ski out is best or at least very close to a gondola, lift or ski school); 2. your own laundry (bring less and wash all those layers every night); 3. some sort of kitchen and a comfy communal hang out area  (great for breakfast and those nights you are so tired you or your kids want to stay home and eat in); and 4. a hot tub and/or pool either on property or on your own deck (no explanation needed here – a soak and a cold beer are the best way to recover after a day skiing).  Some notable luxury ski hotel options: in Telluride, we love Auberge Residences at Element 52 (luxurious accommodations. plus an excellent ski concierge); in family friendly Deer Valley, stay at perennial favorite, Stein Eriksen Lodge (love the heated walkways; suites feature kitchens and private hot tubs); for challenging terrain, try Four Seasons Jackson Hole (perfect ski in/ski out location; the residences include kitchens and laundry); or check out Lake Tahoe’s first luxury ski hotel, The Ritz Carlton, Lake Tahoe  (ideal mid-mountain location at Northstar California; residential suites offer kitchens and laundry).  Rental homes are also a great option, but then you will miss out on my favorite of all ski resort perks: the ski concierge.

Meet Your New BFF: The Ski Concierge

Before you book, make sure you ask about the resort’s ski concierge services. When done right, a great ski concierge can be the key to a happy, luxurious ski experience.  During our stay at Element 52, their awesome ski concierges helped put on our daughter’s boots, served the kids hot chocolate and us cocktails (and oh yeah delicious warm chocolate chip cookies), plus they insisted on charging and installing my son’s new GoPro on his helmet in time for us to surprise him on his birthday.

Element 52’s ski concierges insisted on charging and installing our son’s new GoPro camera on his helmet in time for us to surprise him on his birthday

Hire A Professional

If you do this right, you can ski with your husband, friends or head straight to the spa without an ounce of guilt (how many times can you say that on a family vacation?). I don’t care if you used to race against Lindsey Vonn, you should seriously consider hiring a professional to teach your kids to ski (and consider booking some private instruction no matter how good they get – we hire the same guys for a few days every year). Teaching your own kids to ski will only lead to arguments, lost gloves mid-mountain, and plenty of tears, and trust me, it might not be your kids who are doing the crying. Since vacations are actually supposed to be fun, go ahead and put your kids in ski school or hire a private instructor. Besides, you can always hire the instructor for half days and enjoy skiing together as a family after lunch.

Plan Ahead

The more you can prepare ahead of time before arriving at your ski destination, the better. To avoid dragging our bulky clothes and equipment with us, we ship our bags ahead of time. Shipping is as easy as packing your suitcases and boot bags and calling your local Fed Ex or UPS (or drop it off – they’ll take it either way). Another option is to find out if there are any private shipping companies servicing your ski resort. We have used High Country Shipping for years in Telluride – they send us the tags, arrange our pick up, and then make sure our bags are waiting for us at our rental home or hotel. Keep in mind, however, that this option works best for those who plan ahead.  Either way, you will avoid paying the ever-escalating airline baggage fees by pre-shipping, but you may also pay a premium to get your bags there on time if you wait until the last minute. Another way to avoid first day hassles is to purchase your lift tickets in advance online. This is one convenience that could also end up saving you money: we have saved hundreds of dollars by purchasing our Telluride lift passes by mid-October every year. Besides, how great does it feel to ski right by those long lines at the lift ticket window?

Be Equipped

One year, we rented our equipment at a local ski shop and then brought it with us on vacation. Our kids were thrilled because this shop’s equipment was way cooler than what we had rented in years past at ski resorts (my daughter still talks about the year of the hot pink skis). Unfortunately, our bliss was short lived when our son’s binding broke, we realized the hot pink skis were actually too large, and we still ended up having to rent replacement equipment. Now we just make an appointment with Black Tie Ski Rental. With locations in most of the top Western ski resorts (Aspen, Tahoe, Park City, Telluride, Vail, to just name a few), Black Tie is the way to go. They meet you at your hotel or rental home whenever you get settled, even if your flight is delayed or cancelled, they’ll make sure you are fitted for your equipment before your first day on the mountain. Black Tie’s truck is filled with a variety of the latest skis, boots, boards, as well as any other equipment you might have forgotten at home (goggles, ski socks – they have it all). Unhappy with your choices? No problem, they will come back with new stuff for you to try. And now when something goes wrong while skiing (and you know it will), we know just who to call.

Fun Off The Slopes

I am happy to report that I have never enjoyed our annual ski trips more then now that I have officially quit skiing (I wasn’t tearing it up out there anyway). No matter how you will be spending your days, you should pick your ski resort carefully. Again, you are going to pay a small fortune wherever your family skis so why not insist on a beautiful setting, a variety of activities and delicious restaurants? Now I will only visit resorts that also offer outdoor activities other than skiing (such as my current favorite, snow shoeing, and cross country skiing, next on my hit list). Plus, with all that extra time on my hands, I really like a ski town with a spa or two to keep me occupied (after all, it’s my vacation too). And even though we tend to go to bed pretty early on ski trips, we love having a variety of great restaurants to choose from every night. Some of the hottest chefs in the country now have outposts in ski towns, a few to try: 221 South Oak in Telluride; Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s J&G Grill in the St. Regis Deer Valley;  and French Laundry trained Ezra Duker’s Truffle Pig in Steamboat.  Plus, Aspen and Vail feature outposts of the legendary Beverly Hills sushi restaurant Matsuhisa.

Our happy place for the past seven years happens to be Telluride, a town known for its unique combination of breathtaking vistas, surprisingly sophisticated restaurants and an unpretentious, funky vibe (read more about Telluride here).  Who knows? Maybe next February I’ll try “not skiing” in Deer Valley, Whistler, Jackson Hole, or Aspen.