Our Family Ski trip at Smugglers’ Notch

March break was last week, but in a way it already seems like ages ago. Mostly because we had so much fun on our family ski trip at Smugglers’ Notch. It wasn’t the typical “re-location” you have when you go away on a trip with the kids. Sure there was still some whining and tantrums, but mostly, it felt like an actual vacation.

As a family focused resort, Smuggs knows that the key to making your vacation successful is to make your experience fun, easy and stress free from booking to check-out. So lets start at the beginning – booking your vacation.

Winter Vacation Packages

Smugglers’ Notch take the hassle out of booking your winter vacation by offering a variety of bundled packages that give you everything you could possibly need and want for your vacation!  You can select between a base, family fest and summit. Each includes accommodations, access to the Ozone at Fun Zone 2.0, snow tubing, daily entertainment, snowshoe and cross country trails, ice-skating and lift tickets. The latter two packages also include lessons for kids and the summit package includes group lessons for adults.

Accommodations

Upon arrival at our condo unit, The Kestrels at North Hill, we couldn’t believe how big it was. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full size and well stocked kitchen, living room and dinning room. Even though we were a family of five, we could have easily had another family stay with us. My favourite part was that the condo also came with a washer and dryer. There was also a shared hot-tub for our entire unit, but usually, we got to enjoy it all to ourselves. While we weren’t located right on the hill for ski-in and out, we easily got to the hill through the village’s amazing shuttle bus service. All you have to do is call for a pick-up, and the shuttle is there within a few minutes, if not right outside after you hang up. I was a skeptic about this service at first, but it really was so great. The shuttle bus drivers were some of the friendliest people ever. They were always so helpful and accommodating and I really can’t say enough good things about the service. Although, I have to say that for young kids, it’s nice to have the ski-in and out option as they don’t typically last the whole day on the hills. I think that when we will return here next year (I already know we will because that’s how much we loved it), we will opt for a room located on the hill. I have so much more to say about our accommodations, but to do it any justice, I will have to write a whole separate post about it, so stay tuned!!

Skiing

This is sort of what sealed the deal for John. In his own words, he said that this was some of the best skiing of his life, and he’s been doing this for over 30 years. I’ll get to the “why” shortly, but first, I need to back-track… Smugglers’ Notch has three main chair lifts for their three hills. There’s Morse Mountain, Madonna Mountain and Sterling Mountain, and a total of 78 trails. I pointed this out because these three hills offer something for everyone, regardless of your skiing abilities and levels. Morse Mountain is the perfect hill for beginners and little ones. It’s full of Green (level) runs.

Madonna and Sterling on the other hand, are better suited for the more experienced skiier. There are tons of black diamonds (double and triple black too), glade runs and unmarked runs that if you ask most of the locals, they will be more than happy to point them out to you. This latter point is what made the difference for John. He was totally in his element exploring and skiing down unmarked runs. Not to mention when we were there, Smuggs got dumped with 6 feet of snow (over 7 days). It was pretty much perfect!

The one thing that we noticed is that the all of the chair lifts are for two people only. This made it slightly difficult as a family of 5 with all three of our kids still young. We often had to wait for a single rider to go up the chair lift with Kyle. However, we did learn that there are lot of benefits to having a double-only chair lift which include its ability to operate during windy conditions and the fact that it keeps the hills fairly uncrowded.

Ski Lessons

So here’s the thing… while we have taken the boys skiing since Kyle was three, we have never put our kids in ski lessons. Yup, true story. That’s not to say that they haven’t learned to ski just by going down the hills with us (John is a certified level one ski instructor after all), but they’ve never received any formal lessons.

Since the lessons were included in our package, we couldn’t pass up on the opportunity. Not to mention, it meant we would have two hours to ski by ourselves.

Nathan was enrolled in the Discovery Dynamo program. It’s a full-day ski learning child care program with a break for lunch. At drop off, the kids are eased into the program by playing with toys like animal figurines, blocks or drawing. Nathan’s instructor Sean was super amazing with Nathan, even though he had a difficult time at drop off. The best part is that the kids get driven to the learning hill on a cute tractor.

Kyle and Ryan were dropped off at Morse Mountain group lessons based on ability level. We came to Smugglers’ with Ryan skiing down by a harness but we left with him able to ski down independently and turning. It was amazing and it made him feel great! Kyle enjoyed the lessons so much that he asked for us to sign him up for another day! While both John and I could have signed up for lessons too (they were included in our package), we decided not to (because two hours of alone ski time…). If you come here, you really need to take advantage of the ski lessons. I know we will when we return.

Fun Zone 2.0

After a long day of skiing, there was only one thing my boys wanted to do (besides watch TV) – go to the Fun Zone 2.0 Fun Complex. The only way to describe this building is that it’s what apres ski looks like for kids. On the bottom floor is the arcade area (additional cost to play the games and win tickets for prizes). At a cost, you can also try a variety of fun activities like the climbing wall, a warrior course (that Kyle did), a lazer maze or enjoy a family friendly battle of lazer tag.

On the top floor, included with your package, is the Ozone. There’s a variety of blow up mazes, slides, bouncy castles and an obstacle course (that I may have raced against my kids multiple times and I may or may not have lost). There’s also mini golf and an air blowing ball shooter. There’s also an area that’s reserved specifically for kids ages 8 and under. There’s a small grocery story, a blow up bouncey house and a pirate ship along with tables for drawing and large blocks. We probably spent as much time at the Fun Zone 2.0 as we did on the hills. For the kids, it was the best of both worlds, and it was a great way to keep them active and entertained.

Food

Since skiing starts so early in the day and by night time everyone is exhausted, I always appreciate the fact that the condos come with a fully equipped kitchen. We stopped along the way at Hannaford to grab groceries and beverages for the week.

However, we would typically eat lunch at one of the restaurants located at the bottom of the hill. During our stay, we ate pizza at Riga-Bello’s and had wraps, burgers and chicken nuggets at Green Mountain Deli. Both reasonably priced and delicious! For the third day on the hill we packed our own lunch which we ate at the Bootlegger’s Lounge (below the pizza restaurants). However, at night, Bootlegger’s is the place to go for some drinks and fun karaoke which I got to experience with my fellow blogging friends (it was a first for me). And while I do have video evidence of that night, I’m afraid that you will stop reading my blog if I show it, so we’ll save that for another time 😉

If you are looking for a nice dinner out, I highly recommend making reservations at Hearth & Candle. The food is locally sourced and seasonal. I honestly loved every single thing we had there, beginning with a platter of (locally made) cheese, followed by soup, a steak, and dessert that was to die for! I also tried some wine produced in Vermont which I loved. If you can get a sitter for the night and head out with your partner or friends, I would highly recommend that you come and eat here!

Cat Trax Express

I think that by far, this was the most unique experience I had at a ski resort. We got to ride up Madonna Mountain in a 12 passenger snowcat for a sunset view. We had a guide with us in the back who provided us with a ton of information about the resort, the hills and the surrounding area. At the top of the mountain, we go out to take pictures, and the kids ran around and played. We had the hill to ourselves and the feeling was surreal. The best part is that on the way back down, besides getting treated to a beautiful sunset, we got to take turns riding in the front of the snowcat. It was such an amazing experience that neither my kids or I will soon forget! Tip: bundle up the kids in their snow suits and winter gear as they will most definitely want to run around and play at the top of the mountain.

Other

While there’s so much more to write about, I really tried to keep this post concise and to give you as much information as possible so you can plan your next trip. The other thing I wanted to mention is the pass system that is used at Smuggs. Unlike most ski resort which have a print-out ski pass that you attach to your jacket, Smugglers’ Notch use RFID technology. This allows hands-free gate access to the mountain lifts. It also gives you entry to the Fun Zone 2.0 if you purchased one of the packages.

Every Thursday night during the winter, There’s a really cool family event that you should attend. The Instructors ski down Morse mountain carrying torches. As they reach the bottom of the hill, a big Fireworks show begins. It’s not too long and the fireworks are pretty spectacular that they kept the kids engaged and entertained for the whole show (they usually get bored or cold or tired and want to leave – that didn’t happen here).

For a full list of family-friendly activities that take place daily both at night and in the morning, click HERE.

So while we didn’t get to experience everything that Smugglers’ Notch offers, I think we got a good idea of how amazing this place really is. It’s also great to know that we have so much more to look forward to when we come back as John is already planning our next trip back.

If you’ve been here, I would love to hear about your experience and what your favourite part was – perhaps there’s something that I missed out. Leave me a comment and let me know! 

Safe Travels & Happy Skiing!

Disclosure: My family and I received a vacation package at Smugglers’ Notch in exchange for our honest review. All opinions are my own.