Travel Guide: Skiing in Park City, Utah

Hello there!

This is my first of hopefully many travel guides. I am already in the process of planning some exciting trips for 2019 so stay tuned!

This past week, I met my family in Park City for a ski vacation. We have skied in Park City for the past five years so we have learned how to maximize the most of our five day vacation.

Before you go

Skiing the week of Christmas is crazy. The holiday week prices are significantly higher than the week before so we have found skiing the week before Christmas is the cheapest and way less crowded than the Christmas crowd.

I would highly recommend to pre-buy your lift tickets. Pre paid tickets are significantly cheaper than buying them the day of or even the day before you plan to ski. I’ve used lifttopia which has the cheapest deals and you can usually score discounted rates.

Getting there

My family and I always fly out on a late flight and land around 9 or 10 pm. We stayed at the Marriott in Downtown Salt Lake City. This allows us to spend one less night in our house we rented and allows us to maximize on deals in the big city versus a ski town.

We rent our skis from Canyon Sports. I have my own boots and skis but recently have been bringing my boots and renting skis because my skis are old and sometimes going through the process of checking them, getting them waxed etc. is more of a hassle than it’s worth. We rented skis for $180 per person for 5 days. The biggest piece of advice I have for any ski vacation is to always rent skis outside of the ski village. Renting them in a big city is always more affordable than renting them right next to the mountain.

Where to stay

We rented a house in Deer Valley which is a ski resort in Park City. I love skiing Deer Valley because there are no snowboarders allowed on the mountain which allows for better snow for skiers. Deer Valley also has the friendliest nicest staff. There are so many features included with your lift ticket such as complimentary ski valet overnight and guided mountain tours.

The house we rented is right off the Jordanelle Gondola which is on the back side of Deer Valley. This made getting on the mountain in the morning so easy because you completely bypass the main ski village which tends to get crowded.

Our house was located in a neighborhood across the street from the gondola and was an easy 2 minute drive with complimentary parking. The house we rented was a beautiful four bedroom four storied house with high end appliances and amenities. The house was $350 a night during the peak season and for a family of six is a great deal. The house also came with a hot tub which we enjoyed immensely apres ski.

You can view the house on VRBO here. We have used VRBO in the past to rent houses and they are so easy to work with.

Where to eat

Because of our beautiful kitchen we ended up cooking at home for most of the nights. We also have long time family friends who live outside of Park City and enjoyed a night at their house.

On the mountain at Deer Valley we enjoyed eating at Royal Street Cafe. You will need a reservation because it does get crowded but the food was outstanding. I ended up getting this Lobster Tower and my dad got the Ahi Tuna which was also amazing.

Our favorite place Apres Ski was right next to the Jordanelle Gondola the Rime Raw Bar. The view was gorgeous and we enjoyed oysters and wine. They are only open until three pm and the Jordanelle Gondola closes at four.

Where to ski

The first day after flying in we skied Brighton which is a “locals” mountain. This is much less of a resort vibe compared to Deer Valley, there will be no one offering to carry your skis but lift tickets run at about $75. This is an affordable mountain and has challenging runs. On our last day when we checked out of our house we skied Solitude which is next to Brighton and lift tickets are also around $75. These two resorts are about 45 minutes from where we stayed and it was a great way to break up the trip by skiing different terrain and saving money on lift tickets. These two resorts are also higher in elevation so the snow is usually better this time of year.

The two days we stayed in our house we skied Deer Valley. The snow was great and the whole mountain was open which was great for preseason. Our favorite run was Tycoon which is a Double Blue off the Sultan Express.

On our last day when we skied Solitude, we only skiied in the morning and then enjoyed an afternoon of snowshoeing. Our snowshoes were only $8 to rent with the $8 ticket to the trails that Solitude has for snow shoers and cross country skiing. We only hiked for about an hour and a half and took the purple trail. View the full map here. There was so much more to explore and we wish we had more time!