winter park resort

Wonderful family trip to Winter Park. We got snow so perfect conditions. The village at the base is very nice, upscale typical ski resort/Intrawest village with some shops and restaurants. The town of Winter Park/Fraser is really just a collection of strip malls, no walking town center but everything you need is close by car, town bus or depending on where you stay like the wonderful Best Western, walking distance.

Even tho it was close to 50 degrees today, the snow was great! I've been skiing Winter Park for 12 yrs. Mary Jane, Panoramic lift ... All of it. Proud that my town- Denver owns it.

Enjoying my time here and there is plenty to do, but in the end, this is just another ski resort. Everyone we meet is very friendly and helpful. Very good selection of places to enjoy a drink or eat a meal.

We headed to Winter Park, really excited to be taking a week long ski vacation. We planned ahead, splurged and enrolled our two children in three days of ski school, to maximize our time there, hoping they could really learn a lot. I really do not need to say much - the GPS tells the story. The ski school puts GPS devices on the children so I was able to see for myself how little actual skiing my daughter did during her day, let alone the fact that she received almost no instruction during the time she was on the slopes. On the first day, my 12 year old skied 1.75 hours during a 6 hour day of ski school. She spent 1 1/2 hours at lunch and an hour in the warming hut. The rest of the time was spent trying to figure out which group to put kids in and moving around from here to there. When the 2nd day started similarly, with it taking over an hour to figure out who should be in which group, my son decided he'd had enough and bailed out of the lesson. When I approached the ski school about our experience, they seemed eager to hear our story and rectify the situation. The manager gave me his card, told me he'd check on my daughter in her current lesson and wanted me to be in touch at the end of the day to see how the rest of her day had gone so we could figure out a plan for the following day. When I sent him an email at the end of the day, as he requested, I never heard back from him, ever. We did not have our children return to the school for the third day. We skied with them ourselves and had a great time in the snow.When we returned home, I called the manager who had given me his card. He was perfectly willing to give me our money back and not very interested in hearing my feedback. Because of this I can only assume that our experience is to be expected and most people have low expectations of what their children will actually learn while attending the ski school. The purpose of sending our kids to ski school was for them to spend the day with trained professionals learning new skills, not merely being cared for on the ski slopes. In my opinion the ski school at Winter Park qualifies as overpriced childcare. On the upside, we took advantage of the tour offered twice daily, meeting at the top of Zephyr in the morning and again in the afternoon, and it was fantastic. The host was a volunteer from the area who was very knowledgable. We learned a great deal about the history of the resort and the area while enjoying some nice skiing on slopes we might not have ventured to had we not taken the tour.

Winter Park is very conveniently located from Denver. We went up on a Friday evening and came back on a Sunday morning and took an hour and a half each way. One of the easier to get to resorts from Denver. Lots of free parking lots with shuttle service.The lifts weren't overcrowded and lines moved quickly. There were runs (away from Mary Jane) that hardly had anyone else on. The food prices on the mountain seemed a little overpriced even for a resort. Two mediocre cheeseburgers and shared tator tots were $26.Overall, nice trails and beautiful views.

Worked well for my husband (a veteran skier) and me (a novice); busy but no waiting for lifts. Recommended for all levels of experience.

We had perfect ski weather and snow conditions. The lines weren't too bad, we had a blast and will definetly come back.

Love the snow, run variety during the week. Ugh, on the weekends, the resort is only convenient if you lodge at the base but the dining, bars are pretty limited at the base. The parking situation from the C lot where you take the cabriolet to the base forces a long walk past the few shops and restaurants and Starbucks. You can grab a wagon to lug equipment but only if you have kids. The north bench parking lot drop off is somewhat convenient but get there early or grab the bus from that area like blue spruce lot or bus barn. If you're staying for a week, I strongly recommend that you reserve a ski locker at $16/day as it's worth every penny! It saved us from lugging all our equipment to the car or shuttle after an exhausting day. The lines on weekends are crazy. Wonderful new lodge "lunch rock" at 11,000 feet but a salad costs about $16 and soup $13. Delicious but spendy as well as The best Bloody Mary. For a family and a week trip, best to buy a season pass. We probably would return now that we figured out the way to approach this resort and only if mid-week.

very family friendly...but not the place to go just to ski...especially on the weekend. I guess that is why they have the Mary Jane side. It is as crazy busy as Breckenridge with skiers from the front range...so go mon-fri

Thank you for letting us know about your recent experience at Winter Park Resort, I am sorry for your disappointment. Winter Park is popular with Denver area guests, especially families participating in Kids Lesson Programs and Competition Center, and we always expect weekends to be the busiest time of our week. We absolutely staff to meet demand, but some facilities and lifts simply meet capacity at certain times of the day. We'll continue to strive to have the best plans in place to offer great weekend experiences.Thank you for your visits - we sure appreciate your time and business. I do hope we see you on the slopes of Winter Park again sometime soon, perhaps for a better and mid-week experience.

We just arrived home from a week vacation in Winter Park, Co. My husband and 3 sons had never skied before last week. We had the most wonderful experience working with ski school. Each of our instructors were knowledgable, friendly, and FUN! Our whole family was skiing together by day 4 and having a blast. Instructors are some of the most friendly people I've met in a service/instruction role. They really knew how to make a very intimidating sport the most fun. My son rode with an instructor on his 10th Birthday. He claims it was his best day EVER! They truly go above and beyond! Youngest son loved the hot chocolate breaks! Great place for families.

HI TC415. Thanks for taking the time to let us know your concerns with Winter Park Resort. We really appreciate you giving Winter Park a try and are sorry you're disappointed. Weekends are popular, so lift lines and restaurant tables can be maxed out. We have 5 new snow cats and have been selectively grooming more steep and cruiser terrain. Lifts and trails were planned many years ago, with approval from our landlords - USFS - however, if we can make getting around the mountain easier we make approved changes, e.g. the Lariat rope tow. We feel we're providing the most more reliable Cirque Sled service by having a finite number of riders. Our goal was to limit passes so that the majority of the time no one would wait for more than one cycle of the sled.With so many world class choices in Colorado, right here in our backyard, there's an amazing variety of experiences to enjoy. I do hope you'll take the time to visit us again at Winter Park Resort. We'll miss you!

The resort is quite cute, offers plenty of types and skill levels Of skiing and boarding, even tubing, several restaurants, a few cute stores. The folks are friendly. People are positioned with giant question marks signs, to help answer questions. This park is known nationally for it's facilities and staff for the disabled. Amazing to see blind skiers, chair skiers, and more. We had prebooked online for lift tickets, rentals etc. this provided a nice discount this way, 8 in our family group. Once there, the online booking had most of the order wrong. Took a great deal of time, effort to straighten out and we had to pay the buy on site rate. Lost the discount for prebooking. However, later in the day, we're able to get staff to rebook and get things straightened out, compensated us on a few items and turned out to be an ok deal. But the next week, checking in with second part of group, we encountered the same prebooking issue. But, this was handled quickly and without loss of discount. The skiing, boarding, facility etc all perfect. Just a bit of a headache at the beginning there .

We love the variety of terrain here. Our first ski day starts with the easiest slopes, and there are plenty to fit this category. We are intermediate skiers/boarders. There is a great variety of intermediate trails to keep us busy 3 days. Lots of moguls, if we want, but our favorite is Perry's Peek. This is a long run that starts at the top of the mountain. Starts out very wide and open with breathtaking views, followed by more narrow area with trees and mild bumps, ends with a very steep but wide area with an occasional tree to weave around. Absolutely perfect! I can't wait to go back! One thing to think about, however, is that snowboarders need to be prepared and pre educated. We took a trail map to one of the employees that is an avid boarder. He marked all the trails to avoid. There are some flat areas that our boys needed to stay away from. For example, he recommended that beginner/intermediate boarders should avoid the Vasquez side of the mountain. The black diamonds there are great but others have flat spots. I left the boys at the condo one morning and spent an hour skiing Vasquez. As a skier, I loved it! I had the mountain to myself, because it has not yet become well known. The value here is excellent, also. I compared rental rates and lift tickets with the other resorts in colorado and Utah. This is cheaper. There is no night skiing here, but this is something in their future plans. No night life here. Rent movies, play games, or relax in hot tub, but don't expect to be entertained. Better yet, get some sleep so that you can be on the slopes early!!

We were brought in from Denver house by then, both pick up and drop off, it is quite a hike to get to the ski lifts wearing boots and caring skis but skiing on all these different lives and mountains and trails was worth it. The food and drink were high dollar but I guess that is expected in a place of this high quality! Really the best ski place we have ever visited and would highly recommend it if you enjoy skiing. and they have trails for any level of ski person so you're good to go family or friends!