Ski Week 2024 and the quest for no lift lines: Park City, UT.

For a family of four, skiing is an expensive endeavor. Waiting in 45-minute lift lines on a mountain not only steals our joy, but also becomes a lesson in financial value. Thus, our quest for the last 4 years of “ski week” vacation has been to find a mountain that is logistically easy to get to AND is relatively light on foot traffic. Canyons in Park City is that mountain.

Flight

Those of you who’ve been following my blogs past will know that I am loyal to United Airlines because I lived their hub city of Chicago for 8 years post college. I am a million mile flier on United and will choose them, to a fault, over more direct routes on other carriers. HOWEVER, Delta Airlines is my recommended conduit to Salt Lake City (SLC) from just about anywhere in the USA because SLC is a hub. A direct flight on Delta going from Orange County, CA to SLC is 2 hours. My 7 and 8 yr old love that every seat back has a television, unlike United. Travel tip: You can check each boot bag/ski bag pairing for free on Delta. If you have all skis in one bag, then you can only pair with one boot bag. My husband got a Delta Miles credit card 2 years ago for one free checked bag per person and priority boarding. http://www.delta.com

Rental Car

Park City is a 35 minute drive from SLC Airport. We choose to rent a car because Park City isn’t self-contained. There is cute “Old Town” with shops, hotels and restaurants; two Park City mountain base villages with the same; Deer Valley’s mountain base and places like Stein Erikson Lodge, with kid-friendly Champions Club, to explore.

We rented our car from Fox Rentals, a shuttle ride away from SLC, primarily because the daily rental rate was 50-30% less than the rental places located at the airport. We walked past the SLC rental area and the shuttles to off-airport rentals were waiting. Pretty convenient. They gave us an SUV with 2,000 miles on it. Great cars and great prices. http://www.foxrentalcar.com

On our way to Park City, we stopped at Moki’s Hawaiian food in a strip mall, because our kids really just wanted to be in Hawaii! This is quite the find. Owned and operated by Polynesians, everything we tried was authentic and excellent. Their spam musubi is the best we’ve had! http://www.mokis.com

Hotel Recommendations

We have stayed at the Peaks Hotel Park City twice and appreciate the central location to Park City and Deer Valley mountains. The rooms are all the same size (not large) and it’s not ski in/ski out. Amenities include a direct shuttle to base of Park City mountain, a heated indoor outdoor pool, two hot tubs and steam/sauna. After a long day of skiing, the hot tub and sauna are appreciated. We don’t use the shuttle because we’ve found it easier with kids to drive direct to the mountain and leave on our own schedule, not the hotel’s. The hotel has washer/dryers, but not in the rooms. Breakfast is free and the quality isn’t great. Price point is mid-tier, about $450 a night in season for a room with 2 queen beds. http://www.parkcitypeaks.com

There are few options for ski in/ski out at Park City base or Canyons and those they have are priced 2 times higher or more than the Peaks Hotel. One of those options is the 3-year old Pendry at the Canyons’ base. On this trip, friends of ours stayed here in 2 adjacent rooms for their family of 5. They reported that the standard room at $1,200 reminded them of a NYC hotel room…where the bed almost touches each wall. Their one bedroom suite for $1,600 was much better. Pendry offers 2 and 4 bedroom suites as well for around $3-4K per night. Non-hotel guests can enjoy all the benefits of Pendry’s cozy apres ski bar (kids allowed, excellent food) and the shops and restaurants in the mini-village around it. We also parked in the Pendry’s convenient covered parking garage for $35 a day. http://www.pendry.com

There are also a couple Marriotts, a Hilton, a Waldorf Astoria, the Sundial Lodge at Canyons Village, home rentals and a Hyatt to research at or near the base of Canyons or Park City. http://www.hotels.com

Mountain

We chose to ski Park City this year over nearby Deer Valley because we only bought an Epic pass and Park City is on Epic. Deer Valley doesn’t allow snowboarding and they are on the Ikon pass. Deer Valley allegedly has the best ski lessons in Utah for kids, but our kids don’t do lessons anymore. Download the Epic Pass app to track ski lifts taken and vertical and mileage skied on your phone. http://www.epicpass.com http://www.ikonpass.com

Park City has two mountain bases: Park City and Canyons. Each has its own parking, base restaurants and base hotels, but they are connected on the mountain through a series of ski lifts, runs and gondolas. It took our family about an hour to ski from Canyons to Park City base and about 45 minutes to return. A shuttle will take 15 minutes.

Restaurant recommendations

At the end of a long ski day, we aren’t thinking gourmet, we are typically thinking quick and easy. With this in mind, know that my restaurant recommendations aren’t extensive. We often roll into an apres ski spot in our ski clothes and order drinks and food then race back to the hotel for hot tub then showers and a movie in the room.

Dos Olas Cantina: located in Canyons Village in Park City in the Pendry shopping area. Easy to get to post-ski. Go around 4:30/5 to avoid a crowd and definitely bring a group to share the Nacho Grande and Ceviche. Everything we had here was excellent, including margaritas, and it’s extremely kid-friendly. http://www.dosolasparkcity.com

Champions Club at Stein Erikson: go for the entertainment, not the food. It’s like a baby Dave and Buster’s for the kids and, while they are playing you can enjoy adult conversation and beverages with friends. The pizzas are probably the best option. No reservations. Put your name in with the waitress upon arrival. There is typically a cue. Warning…you have to drive up a windy hill to get here and in bad weather, it’s treacherous to get back down. http://www.steinlodge.com

Five5eeds: we love this breakfast/lunch spot. Walkable from Peaks Hotel and on the way to Canyons. It’s in a nondescript strip mall. The espresso drinks are expertly made and the muesli, shakshouka, breakfast sandwich, pulled pork benedict…all so good. http://www.five5eeds.com

Bangkok Thai on Main: AVOID. We should have known when we tried 8 other restaurants in Old Town at dinnertime and couldn’t get in…then walked right into this basement-located Thai place…that it wasn’t going to be great. Overpriced. Disappointing. The only decent thing on the menu was the fried rice we got for the kids.

Conclusion

Again, this is certainly not comprehensive as a guide to Park City with kids. There are so many restaurants, villages and even additional nearby ski resorts to explore. I’ve written about many of them in this blog in years past. I would say, for variety and volume of runs for a family of skiers at all levels of expertise, Park City is an excellent option.