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Utah Brighton vs Solitude?

Slim

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Solitude base = eat, drink, jacuzzi, sleep

He is going with kids, so I assume he’s not looking for nightclubs.

There is a small pool and slide at the resort too, make sure your accommodation includes access.

Once you have a pool, dinner and play in the snow, that pretty much covers all the activities my kids do on a 10 day ski trip.
 

Mike75

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Question for you people with UT experience. Do we rent a car there or not? Is there enough to do at the Solitude base area to not need a car to travel around? Or would you recommend we get one?
Not really necessary. They've got a couple of restaurants, a pool, hot tubs, ski shop in the village. At the end of the day, everyone will be pretty beat. If you're staying in one of the condos, you may want to consider hitting the grocery store and eating in. The Smith's on Bengal is on the way.
 

SnowbirdDevotee

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If I were to fly to UT with the family would these resorts be a good option for us? We're a family that enjoys exploring, groomers and tree skiing.

Also, how do ticket prices compare for these two vs Alta? What's the cheapest option for skiing 3-4 days in UT?

You could stay at La Quinta Midvale for about $80/nt in 1 room, breakfast included, 30 minutes away in good weather. (there are other places too) Rent a car for $30/day. Or, I got an SUV for about $60/day, for insurance in case it snows a lot. Although Big is easier to get up than Little C. Or get the cheap car and drive to bus stop 1/3rd mile away from hotel. Odds are, the small car will be fine.

If $ is a big importance and you want to take family on spring trip, you won't go wrong with Solitude/Brighton - but you could still get not so good conditions with wrong weather. Sol/Brighton don't measure up to the other resorts, but the snow conditions are the same as Alta/Bird. And you are getting good skiing for your money. Maybe you can splurge one day and do Alta or maybe Bird (plenty of intermediate terrain but harder to navigate than Alta). Go!
 

agreen

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He is going with kids, so I assume he’s not looking for nightclubs.

There is a small pool and slide at the resort too, make sure your accommodation includes access.

Once you have a pool, dinner and play in the snow, that pretty much covers all the activities my kids do on a 10 day ski trip.
Right, I was saying that as a positive! That's all I need. But, when he stated "is there enough to do" it kind of implies he may want more than that ie. sightseeing or bowling etc. which you aren't really going to get at the Solitude "village".
 

Slim

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@SnowbirdDevotee said: Sol/Brighton don't measure up to the other resorts, but the snow conditions are the same as Alta/Bird. And you are getting good skiing for your money. Maybe you can splurge one day and do Alta or maybe Bird

I have read similar statements a lot. In what way does BCC not measure up to LCC? I know it’s about 10% less snow on average, but that still puts it ahead of most resorts in the world. Anything else? From a crowds standpoint it seems BCC is way better.
 
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Slim

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Oh, and @Ski&ride and @focker , for car rental, send AWDrentals.com an email.
They got me an AWD SUV for the week for $300. Unlike other places, they actually guarantee AWD too, and they are convenient and locally owned.
 

pete

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I personally enjoy a rental for or changing things up, however 3 or 4 days can readily be filled up with only Brighton and Solitude.

Depends on what's wanted for activities? @focker ?

For my kids, a shorter trip would be fine just skiing, eating and pool/hot tub time. But longer we do like to hit a town or such. Presume you'd shuttle out to Solitude? Brighton isn't really walking distance but I believe bus runs 4 times an hour: https://www.rideuta.com/Rider-Info/UTA-Ski-Service

renting a car let me stay in town and I just mixed up resorts and the hotel had decent discounts on tickets that I'd just buy in the AM on way out. Course, if it snows good then one has to contend with crowds on the drive.
 

tromano

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@Slim The BCC resorts are certainly worth the price of admission. But they fall behind compared to what you get in LCC. They are smaller acreage wise, have less of the long vertical runs. Solitude has a reputation for a weird lift arrangement that is more difficult to navigate. In the case of Brighton it has the reputation as the snowboard riders area while Alta is for skiers and has that aura. Snowbird has the tram, is a big mountain, and has that reputation. So the BCC just get over shadowed.

I think most skiers and groups will have a wonderful time in BCC and it will over achieve their expectations.

My personal ratings of ski areas are: Snowbasin, Snowbird, Alta, Soli, Beaver Mt., Brighton, Powmow, DV, PCMR, the rest.
 
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mdf

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We did Brighton before the Gathering and Solitude after. A little less steep terrain than LCC, but still plenty. I like them both a lot.
 

focker

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Hard to say what we're really looking for. My kids have recently discovered tree skiing and really really like it. Other than that, we do like ski in ski out. At times my wife or younger son have wanted to quit earlier in the day than I or my older son did. Having ski in/ski out allows them to quit early and some of us to still ski for a couple more hours. It also allows us to take a nice relaxing lunch break in our own condo with a pretty inexpensive lunch. We also like cooking our own dinner maybe 1/2 the nights we are there. My wife and I also enjoy the privacy of having our own bedroom for at least part of a 5-6 night trip.

We were planning a trip to Montana to ski Bridger and Big Sky 2 days each, but now we're looking into UT since we've never been there and have already been to MT. Wife likes the idea of seeing SLC as well as we have friends/family there we could visit also.

We'd probably fly in and get a hotel for a night or two to see the town and visit the people I mentioned. Then drive up and ski Sol/Bright for 1-2 days each. Having a rental car would allow us to drive to Alta for 1 day which is very much on my bucket list. Snowbird is probably a little over our heads as a family at this point still.

We don't mind not having huge continuous fall line skiing. When you're used to skiing in MN 600' seems like a lot. 1200' is perfect for us. 2000' requires a break 1/2 way down :huh:

We might want to drive to Park City for dinner or something as well, but probably not for skiing. It's just not worth it for what they charge and with us not having passes for either place there.
 

focker

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Not really necessary. They've got a couple of restaurants, a pool, hot tubs, ski shop in the village. At the end of the day, everyone will be pretty beat. If you're staying in one of the condos, you may want to consider hitting the grocery store and eating in. The Smith's on Bengal is on the way.

Thanks for the advice Mike (and everyone else). I love the idea of the hot tubs and outdoor pool at Solitude. I noticed you can rent properties on VRBO for less than Solitude charges and still have access to the pool which would be nice.

We would likely ski 2 days, then take day off and go to park city or SLC sight-seeing and then ski another 2 days. That seems to work best for us.
 

Slim

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I’m prettty much exactly same spot as @focker. I looked at places to stay in SLC near the mouth of the canyon, but like him, we want a separate bedroom to put kids to bed before adults. Once factoring that in, Solitude base was the same price.
Combined with a day or two visiting friends in Park City, we will be happy for a week for sure.

We also find that for the kids, short but sweet laps can actually be better than super long sustained runs.
 

marjoram_sage

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I just wanted to say thanks for a great discussion. We have bought the epic pass for this year but the cost of lessons plus lift ticket at Brighton is less than the cost of lesson at Park City. We will go to Brighton for one trip this season and we will convert next year to the Ikon Pass for Brighton plus Solitude. We are beginner/intermediate skiers so AltaBird and Jackson aren't very appealing.

Can anybody compare crowds at the Colorado I-70 resorts to Brighton? I wish to avoid crowds since we have to deal with them at Tahoe.

Another resort I'm considering is Grand Targhee as that resort is said to never have any crowds. But you need to buy a seprate resort pass for that resort.
 
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cantunamunch

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Can anybody compare crowds at the Colorado I-70 resorts to Brighton? I wish to avoid crowds since we have to deal with them at Tahoe..

Night and day. Brighton just about never gets the crowds you see at the PCMR 6-pack and the only real crowds are school kids accessing the park terrain.

That said, remember that Brighton is both significantly smaller than either PCMR or Canyons (let alone combined) and higher up. Practically this means two things - there is notably less intermediate terrain, and when there is no fresh snow, the intermediate terrain stays hardpack-frozen longer in the day. There is no such thing as 'stay low for soft snow' at Brighton.
 
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marjoram_sage

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Night and day. Brighton just about never gets the crowds you see at the PCMR 6-pack and the only real crowds are school kids accessing the park terrain.

That said, remember that Brighton is both significantly smaller than either PCMR or Canyons (let alone combined) and higher up. Practically this means two things - there is notably less intermediate terrain, and when there is no fresh snow, the intermediate terrain stays hardpack-frozen longer in the day.

to confirm I understood you correctly you are saying there isn't as much beginner terrain at Brighton compared to PC? So beginners would be better off going to PC/DV until they have learned enough to ski at Brighton.

We are taking lessons at Keystone Colorado during Thanksgiving week. I hope to bring the family to Utah in March and April.
 

cantunamunch

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to confirm I understood you correctly you are saying there isn't as much beginner terrain at Brighton compared to PC?

Proportionally they're similar but the overall resort size is vastly different. Brighton is smaller so at Brighton you'll be repeating the same 3-4 runs over and over.

So beginners would be better off going to PC/DV until they have learned enough to ski at Brighton.

At both the I-70 resorts and at Brighton the fun really starts at about L6 - but PCMR, Canyons and DV have more variety for lower levels than Brighton does. Unfortunately, that variety happens to be the most crowded sections of the I-70 resorts. :(

We are taking lessons at Keystone Colorado during Thanksgiving week. I hope to bring the family to Utah in March and April.

Then staying high up altitude wise in late March is an advantage. The lower bits of the I-70 resorts can get pretty sunbaked and pretty gloppy.
 

silverback

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You might want to download the trail maps for Brighton and for Park City and compare to get an idea.

Park City is over 7000 acres with 41 lifts and 324 runs.
Brighton is 1000 acres with 6 lifts and 66 runs.
 

New2

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to confirm I understood you correctly you are saying there isn't as much beginner terrain at Brighton compared to PC? So beginners would be better off going to PC/DV until they have learned enough to ski at Brighton.

We are taking lessons at Keystone Colorado during Thanksgiving week. I hope to bring the family to Utah in March and April.

It's probably worth holding off and seeing how the family's doing before making big commitments. But if they get lessons at Keystone at Thanksgiving and somewhere else December/January, there's a good chance they'll be comfortable pretty much anywhere, and maybe without additional lessons right away. PCMR certainly has plenty of terrain to keep everyone entertained, the bigger question will be snow quality late March and April.

Proportionally they're similar but the overall resort size is vastly different. Brighton is smaller so at Brighton you'll be repeating the same 3-4 runs over and over.
At both the I-70 resorts and at Brighton the fun really starts at about L6 - but PCMR, Canyons and DV have more variety for lower levels than Brighton does. Unfortunately, that variety happens to be the most crowded sections of the I-70 resorts. :(
Then staying high up altitude wise in late March is an advantage. The lower bits of the I-70 resorts can get pretty sunbaked and pretty gloppy.

I agree with what I think you're saying, but referring to PCMR, Canyons, and DV as "I-70" resorts is confusing since they're a long way from I-70. Closer to I-80. But when people talk about "I-70 resorts," they're usually referring to Summit County, Vail, and Beaver Creek in Colorado.
 

cantunamunch

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I agree with what I think you're saying, but referring to PCMR, Canyons, and DV as "I-70" resorts is confusing since they're a long way from I-70. Closer to I-80. But when people talk about "I-70 resorts," they're usually referring to Summit County, Vail, and Beaver Creek in Colorado.

Quite right, my slip.
 

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