Not like that. In a good way!
We’ve touched a little bit about our very first Christmas ski trip- We’ve always tossed the idea around, but our families are so important to us, that it never seemed like the best option.
This year, we found ourselves in an interesting situation- a ‘gap’ year, if you will.
So, we decided… why not! We’ll give it a shot.
In actuality, it wasn’t that easy. We weighed all of our options, many times. The conversation went back and forth, and we went back and forth. After everything, we decided this was the best of all of the not so great options we had.
Don’t get me wrong- we were thrilled to spend a week at Smugglers’ Notch. We were thrilled to get on skis for the first time this winter. We were thrilled to give the kids a chance to try out skiing. We were thrilled to have a family vacation that wasn’t centered around TT Dad’s work. We were thrilled. But at the same time, we realized we were also sad to be spending the holidays without our amazing extended family, without cousins, or our usual traditions.
But we did it.
Planning a ski trip at Smugglers’ Notch sounds like it would be completely overwhelming. There are countless activities, programs, and events that occur throughout your stay, that the most difficult part of planning is deciding what you want to do at any given moment!
Smuggs’ offers a range of options from room-only to packages that include lessons or camp for everyone in your party. The resort is small enough that you are never all that far from anywhere you may want to go, and they employ a fleet of shuttles which will pick you up, on demand, and deliver you to your destination quickly and efficiently. As you can imagine- this is a dream for a family with two small children, in a very cold and snowy location.
There is a reason Smuggs’ has won top awards in Service, Kid-Friendly, and Overall Resort, by Ski Magazine for 2018. Every employee we came across was friendly, professional, and extremely helpful.
We weren’t thrilled with our accommodations this time around- but we may have been spoiled by our previous condo. Even so, the location of our unit this visit was perfect. We were an easy walk to the base lodge, meeting area for lessons, and chair lift. The unit itself was poorly situated, with little to no space near the coat rack for getting suited up, never mind if someone wanted to walk by you. We could be nit picky and point out a few other oddities with the condo- we felt there was a definite lack of drawer space, but there was nothing that made our stay anything less than wonderful.
We sampled quite a bit that the resort had to offer, including Treasures (child care), group lessons, private lesson, and a number of the included activities, as well as many others- but we didn’t even begin to cover it.
Guess we’ll have to go back!
Up next, we’ll dig a little deeper into our stay, highlighting the holiday events!