Resort guide to Snowmass -
USA
Excellent family slopeside hotel accommodation. The biggest vertical of any US ski resort
Overview
Snowmass resort guide - a general overview
Snowmass is one of the best family friendly resorts in Colorado. With ski in ski out convenience, a fantastic ski school, great accommodation, and the best ski mountain in the area. Furthermore, one has access to the whole Aspen ski area within a short bus ride.
Snowmass is a modern, purpose-built resort, with low-rise buildings set along the home run down. There is not the choice of restaurants you would find in Aspen down the road but the restaurants and shopping that you do find in Snowmass are absolutely fine, certainly enough choice for a ski holiday duration.
What ski holidays in Snowmass do offer in abundence is skiing to suit all levels; with the biggest vertical in the US! Furthermore, the resort has some of the best slopes we know of for young families to learn and improve on. The childrens ski school also offers amazing ski programmes to get little ones up and running quickly and in a safe environment.
4780 acres
2,600m - 3,815m
Airports
- ASPEN
- (20 minutes)
- EAGLE
- (1hr 30mins)
- DENVER
- (4 hours)
Resort statistics
Level of skiing
- Beginners
- Intermediates
- Experts
- Snow sure
- Off-piste
- Ski area
Qualities
- Charm factor
- Non-skiers
- Nightlife
- Resort layout
- Fine dinning
- Short transfer
- Resort value
Pros
- Big mountain (1,340 metres vertical drop biggest in US) with lots of options
- Uncrowded slopes
- Lots of ski-in ski-out accommodation
- Great for families and some great ski school instruction
- Aspen's three mountains easily accessible by resort bus
Cons
- Snowmass offers very little in the way of shopping or nightlife
- Aspen has great shops, bars, nightclubs and restaurants but is a 20 minute bus ride away
Snowmass Resort Restaurants
There is a pretty good choice in Snowmass with Italian, Tex-Mex, Provencal and pan-Asian restaurants. If you enjoy seafood then Butch's Lobster Bar comes highly recommended. Brothers' Grille is also popular as are Eight K in the Viceroy, Il Poggio and the Arisan. If you like Japanese we recommend Buchi. A good choice for breakfast is the Sno Beach Cafe.
Snowmass Mountain Restaurants
Snowmass has a number of mountain restaurants with the majority being American style restaurants serving items such as pizza, burgers, grills and warming soups. Gwyn's High Alpine is an elegant above average table service restaurant. Other recommendations are the Sam's Smokehouse at Sam's Knob, Cafe Suzanne on Elk Camp has a 'French flavour' and UP4Pizza on Big Burn.
Snowmass Apres Ski
Next to the home slope 'The Cirque' has live bands most days so is a popular apres-ski haunt, but it does close at 6pm. Sneak's Tavern is a newish option at Base Camp which also has live music.
Snowmass Nightlife
Other than the restaurant bars the Margarita is popular with 30 different tequilas. The Blue Door, a new nightclub, sometimes has live music.
