Posted by on Mar 19, 2011 in Reviews, Travel | Comments Off

Smuggler’s Notch

Every year, sue and I have been going skiing with the group from DC events. Every year we have gone on their Jay Peak trip. This year we figured we would change it up and go to Smugglers Notch for a change. We always enjoy the trip and thought it might be fun to try another resort.

Here are my thoughts comparing the two.  First, what I like about Smuggs.

  • The resort is very family friendly. You can see that everywhere. If I had a family, this would make sense for me.
  • The slopes are a good variety, in great condition and not too busy. Getting up and down isn’t hard at all.
  • The restaurants here are ok. Haven’t tried all of them but they do their thing. can’t really ask for more.

But that’s about it for the positives. Here at the negatives.

  • It is terribly inconvenient. From long flat trails between different sections of the mountains to getting in and out of the ski slopes and your apartment, this place just hasn’t figured it out. Everything you want to do around here is difficult to do. You need to take shuttles everywhere. The shuttle bus system is friendly by totally crazy since it’s basically like a taxi system instead a bus route meaning that you have to negotiate with each driver about their route. Sometimes they’ll help, other times they just tell you to call another bus; even when their own bus is totally empty. Its a really bad system that even the drivers don’t seem to like.
  • All chair lifts are two person and very slow. They need to upgrade the chairs.
  • 10% surcharge on CND dollars. Wtf?!?
  • lots of walking and rough dark roads to get anywhere. The need for shuttles is worse because the slopes are far from the hotels.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s great to be out and on the slopes. The skiing is quite good and it’s not too crowded. but i think we will get a larger crowd together next year and go back to jay peak.