Skiing in the US or Canada for New Year - any recommendations on who to go with and where to go?

[OneLieIn]

We want to go skiing in the US or Canada for New Year with our friends. 3 children aged nearly 2, 6 and 8 so we need childcare. any suggestions from anyone?
Thanks

[jicky]

We have skied with kids in

a) Smugglers Notch, Vermont - great kids clubs, poor snow when we went.

b) Tremblant, Quebec - will be very cold at New Year and possibly mainly man made snow. Kids lessons were excellent, day care for 2 year old not as good as other places.

c)Big White & Silver Star - Okenagan - great skiing and childcare - a long journey, but we think worthwhile.

d)Sunshine (Banff), Alberta - we do ski in-ski out only with our kids so stay up the mountain - tend to go mad if more than 5 days up there. Banff itself is great but can't face dragging ours up the gondola! Snow great, child care great.

[hopeandpray]

You can get a direct flight to Newfoundland from London...and it's amazing! Very friendly quiet slopes at Marble mountain and not at all expensive. We went on dog sleds and snowboarding too. I'm not sure about childcare and clubs but you could e mail?

[OneLieIn]

Hope, is Newfoundland the name of the resort?

[LunarSea]

Like jicky we do Big White and Silver Star (have had season tickets there for years). Bothe very child friendly - not just the childcare, but village centres are car free, and there are things like free kids activities put on in the evenings.

[berabear]

Agree with jicky on Silver Star. Long journey but worthwhile. Also Sunpeaks in canada a lovely resort - we did a 2 centre holiday spending first week in Silver Star and second week from Sunpeaks as they both fly from Vancouver/Kamloops. Sunpeaks also has car-free village centre.

[SofiaAmes]

You MUST go to California. It is miraculous skiing. You may even find yourself in a t-shirt on some days. Go to Lake Tahoe or Mammoth. There will be lessons and/or childcare at the ski places for the kids. All the restaurants will be child friendly anyway. Look on www.craigslist.org and rent yourself a house to stay in.

[schwotz]

If you build yourself a DIY holiday at least book your flights with a UK ATOL holder. Have a look at ebokers for those destinations.

[willali]

Stowe vermont - great snow (but VVVVVVV cold) and escellent childcare / ski school. Fly to
ontreal to avoid US immigration queues

[LilRedWG]

Winter Park in Colorado. We used to ski there every week and there were always lots of children around.

[baby01gem]

I would recommend Whistler, and staying in Blackcomb Lodge. Really lovely resort, with great apres, superb childcare.

[SqueakyPop]

Smugglers Notch, VT - fab resort.

[MrsGhoulofGhostbourne]

Willali - interesting! One of the things that totally puts me off travel to the US is thought of the 'welcome' at immgration after a 7 hr flight...

[souroldtrout]

Re. the idea of flying in to Montreal for Vermont - the 'welcome' at US immigration will be no nicer if you cross the land border via Canada. The queue might be smaller, but no guarantees (Depends on time of day etc). You will be pulled from the main queue at the border point and sent to wait in line in the immigration office - no idea how this is working for UK nationals since the recent changes to the visa waiver programme. You will need to prove that you are flying home from Canada. It isn't necessarily quick or straightforward.

(I lived in Toronto until recently and often crossed to the US so do have some experience of this).

[SqueakyPop]

I have flown into Toronto for a holiday in Cleveland. It was no trouble crossing in the US and back again. They issue a VWP on the border and charge $6 for this (it may be more now, and if you are an air traveller, it is included in your ticket).

When we flew to Boston last year, immigration was fine. I was expecting a hard time because I had abandoned my green card (this was the first trip back to the US in 4 years), and didn't do it formally at the embassy. They simply asked our itinerary and welcomed us to the US.

Montreal is 2 hours from the northern resorts, whereas Boston is closer to 4 hours.

The key thing with US immigration is that you look like a tourist, act like a tourist, and have a return ticket out.

[willali]

RE border crossing via Montreal we were through in about 20mins (family of 4) as by the time we got there it was quite late at night - there was a coach load of school kids from UK too but they were being dealt with elsewhere in the building. Going back we didn't have to get out of thecar - just a drive thru with passport check and a few questions about our luggage. Would definately do itthat way again - the drive from Montreal was very easy

[ladyhelen2]

Am biased as my brother is resort manager ther but you can't beat Whistler with SkiWorld. They do chalets so thats easy with kids - home from home and all that. The chalet staff are all top notch too. And Whistler Kids ski school was one of the best run ski schools I have ever seen ( wish we could have used it but DS was only 21 months when we went and the child care option run by Whistler Kids was fabulous too ) From a logistical point of view with three kids the creche is a minutes walk from the ski school drop off and pick up point.
Enjoy whereever you decide!

[maltesers]

Vail... or Lake Tahoe... (very pretty my dp says!)
Most tour operators go there.

[neverknowinglyunderdressed]

The lake itself is stunning, the resorts strung out along the main road - not so much!