One of my family’s favorite vacations has always been snow skiing. We love it. Thank you mom for taking dad skiing when you were dating, so that we would have such a fun, exhilarating family love for those white powdery mountains. My husband, Shane, had not ever skied until our second year of dating as well, and now he loves it probably more than I do. We have skied the Appalachians, the New Mexico slopes, and the Colorado Rockies, but this year, we went to Utah for the first time and loved it.
The main focus of 2017 was our wedding, but we had this vacation planned long in advance for 2018. My mom and I looked high and low to find a great condo to stay in near the slopes. We always like to be within walking distance of the slopes for multiple reasons: You can walk home if you get hurt, tired, or too cold on the mountain without dragging the whole group with you…You don’t have to load all your gear and clothes and drive somewhere just to unload and walk some more… You can come in at lunch instead of eat on the mountain and rest for a bit if you want… and lastly, the town is usually built around the ski resort so there’s always great food and drink around. Here is where we stayed in Park City and it was prime location. Close to the slopes, close to the town shuttle stop, and close to the resort where there was great food and drinks. I will say, from the photos you cannot tell how many levels the condo is and there are a lot of stairs. The owner was great to work with and we were very comfortable and loved staying here. We had another house full of family friends staying on the Canyon’s side of the mountain that we had a great time with their group over there as well.
Where We Ate & Drank
When we have group trips like this my mom is always amazing and cooks so much food and always has snacks out. But we do like to eat out at least once to experience the local vibes and nightlife. Shane and I ventured out a little more this trip and ate on the mountain instead of packing a lunch, and also found a couple of cute spots in the village when we came off the mountain for the evening.
Cloud Dine (Top of Dreamscape Lift)- Normally we pack sandwiches on ski days to have a little bite to eat and save money. But we didn’t one day and happened upon this lodge with the besssst fries and steak sandwich. Be prepared to spend about $20 per person.
Butcher’s Chop House (Downtown) – We had a great dinner in the bar area before it got super crowded. The prime rib was phenomenal and the service was very good.
The Hungry Miner- (PC Village) We came down from the mountain, stored our skis, and went on the search for coffee. I smelled something similar to a funnel cake and followed my senses to this little place downstairs. While the sign says “Hot dogs” we were delighted to find a make-your-own cake donut shop inside. We got one each, devoured them, and went back and got 6 more to take back to our group at the condo. Shane picked out this variety of flavors below. My favorite was the chocolate with Oreo crumbles. SO good!
Campos Coffee vs. Bumps N’ Grinds- (PC Village)- Campos is a coffee shop with inside seating and light bites. They have basic drinks, but for some reason no syrups like vanilla to make flavored lattes which I thought to be odd. Bumps N’ Grinds is a cute walk up shop with all kinds of flavored coffee & espresso drinks or basic ones as well. Both were good, just depends what you like.
Devanzas- (Downtown)- We stopped in here for pizza on our last day and was surprised how tiny this place is on the inside, but man the food was good. I’m talking like maybe 5 tables and a bar. Their crust is super thin and crispy and the perfect amount of light sauce. We all enjoyed our personal pizzas and Shane had the Philly which was also very good.
Harvest- (Lower Downtown)- My brother and his girlfriend went here for brunch and said it was fantastic and super cute. It is a farm to table style healthy brunch/breakfast spot with coffee drinks.
The Spur Bar & Grill- (Downtown)- We came here for the dueling pianos with about 30 people in our group which made it SO fun! They have this every Thursday and Sunday night in the back.
The Corner Store- (PC Village)- This is a great spot with live music to grab a drink and people watch. They have a large patio full of after skiers and riders. Drinks are reasonably priced, and though we did not eat here, the wings looked really good.
Tips Around Town
The town is very easily drivable unless you are going to Main Street. If you can, take the shuttle, it is super safe and you don’t have to worry about parking. There is an app you can get for the shuttle schedule called MyStop. If you have a group that would like to purchase alcohol, the grocery stores here only sell beer. If you want liquor or wine, you have to go to the liquor store. There is a grocery store that has a liquor store in the same parking lot called The Market. If you are in the village, the best place to get souvenir shirts is at Shirt Off My Back. The other ski shops there sold snow gear items more than t-shirts and nicknacks.
Ski Rentals & Lift Tickets
We reserved our rentals online here in order to get the online discount and have our paperwork ready when we arrived. This place was awesome and I highly recommend renting here. Our ski’s were great, but the best thing was that they had free storage and they were at the base of the mountain. So you can walk down off the slopes and drop off your skis and walk up in the morning and pick them up. SO convenient! You can also reserve an early pick up the night before so that you aren’t in that morning rush of people trying to get fitted for skis and boards. We also booked our lift tickets online which I highly recommend doing. You have to book them one week in advanced to get a major discount. If you book further out, you will likely get your ski passes in the mail before your trip so you won’t even have to wait in line to pick them up. We booked right at a week, and ours were in our mailbox when we got home from the trip. No biggie, just a tip!
Colorado vs. Utah
Skiing: We had heard that the snow this year in Utah was not as great as it has been, which I hoped was the truth because it wasn’t that great. This area of Utah is known to be the largest ski resort in the US. I loved certain runs here, but I felt like it took forever to get to and from anywhere. It is a very wide resort so the runs are shorter, but there are more across the mountains. Cost: Park City seemed to be more expensive than other places we had been including housing and lift tickets. Convenience: One of the many things that drew us into Utah is the convenience of flying into SLC and only having to drive 30 minutes to the ski resort. That is one of the biggest negatives of Colorado is having to drive 2 hours from DEN to get to the ski resorts. Food: Park City seemed to have more of a town life as far as bars and restaurants near by. We enjoyed ourselves a little too much out on the town, and loved how many options we had compared to some smaller mountain towns. Overall: We are there to ski, and I would say the majority of our group preferred the resorts we like in Colorado (Breckenridge, Vail, & Keystone) better than Park City skiing, but there’s no way of knowing who is going to have great snow when you plan your trip months in advance. We had an amazing trip and were all just thankful to be together and doing something we all love.
If you’re traveling to Park City soon, I hope you found some helpful tips for your trip and that you have an amazing time with your loved ones. Share the post on Pinterest if you want to save for later. For more like this, follow my Instagram to see it there first.
