We have been to Park City the last 3 years as a family, wife doesn’t ski, so the location of our condo was pretty much #1 priority, as she wanted stuff to do during the day. When we started going there, our kids were 10-14 and we put them in ski school the first 2 trips. It was great for me as I got to single ski a couple days in a row, which is wonderful if you can do it…though I must say watching your kids ‘get it’ is pretty gratifying as well. One of the reasons people go to PC imo is the family friendly environment, ski school and customer service. PC is top notch in my book and I have skied Mammoth, Purgatory, Steamboat, Vail, Alta and a couple other CO resorts on Younglife trips in HS.
When you book Ski School through Park City, your package will include lunch and rentals through Legacy Sports. They do a great job of fitting, adjustments if needed etc.. plan on picking your gear up the day before SS starts, usually after 2 pm. IMO, trying to cram it in the morning of will be a huge stresser. You can store Skis and Poles in a locker if you want, back up stairs (Legacy Sports is down the stairs directly across from ticket booth at base), as you exit the main entrance from Legacy sports. Skis are awkward for kids, but it does teach them about hardwork. I would suggest lockers and leave the lessons for later. Park City base has plenty of options for food, but I think it shuts down in the early evening, so plan accordingly if you stay right at the base. The parking is pretty good if you plan on driving, they have a good system for drop offs and two decent size parking lots if you plan on driving to ski each day. Park City does have an extensive free bus system, but we didn’t take it much.
As far as places to stay, we stayed directly across the street from the PC base our first year in a less expensive condo. I forget the name, but it was older, had cheap windows and we would not recommend that place. For our first time, it was fine as the wife and kids had no previous experience. We just needed to be able to walk to the base each day. At night we had great views of the mountain until it got too dark, and it was cool knowing the mountain was right there. Here is the downside of staying at the base…it is noisy. PC base is pretty active after 4pm with deliveries, garbage and buses etc..running non-stop….so keep that in mind. From the base, it is walkable to town but with kids, not ideal, who really wants to do that…its probably less a mile to town from the base, but then its another ½-1 mile up and down main street and all the cool side streets, plus you are walking “up” main st at a slight grade, so plan on good winter walking boots, no tennis shoes.
The last 2 years we have stayed at Park Station Conds. We have thoroughly enjoyed this complex. This would be my recommendation. It is priced reasonably well for PC. It is literally at the base of Main st, could not be more convenient to EVERYTHING. One day we walked back from the PC base after dropping our skis in the locker (me and kids couldn’t get hold of my wife, we had called it a day a little earlier than we thought). We walked in Ski boots, not ideal , but not the crazy far either. Park Station has 2 and 3 bedroom units, a little dated but the location is great. Nice large outdoor hottub and plenty of parking. We walked in to town each night for dinner, drinks , shopping. The wife loved it, she would drop us off at the base by 9 and head back to the condo, less than 5-8 min drive, then do her thing, read a book, coffee, shop, lunch, nap, dinner prep and then pick us up at 4:15-4;30 back at the drop off.
This year we are skiing Feb 26-Mar 3 (Our mardi gras break). We are staying literally at the Town Lift. We are paying a lot more, but we wanted to see what this unit/complex was like and we wont be doing ski school. There is literally a ski shop on the ground floor (underground parking for renters) where we have our gear reserved, and then step out of the shop and your on the Town Lift, literally. There is also a diner (Bridge Café) right there as well. This will be the best location we have stayed at thus far, so im curious to see how we like it. Down a short stone staircase from the Town Lift is main st and allthe shopping, eating etc.. Park Station to the town lift is about 200 yards, if youre following me, so Park Station condos and the town lift are close to one another as well, we just wanted to step up in quality of the unit, ski in ski out….we’ll see if the extra $$ is worth the extra convenience.
We have 2-3 other families skiing with us this year, though everyone is staying different places (Montage in DV for 2 groups and Town lift condos for the other party, down the street from us)…we will likely not mess with the PC base this year as we can take Town Lift up and then traverse to the canyons and back, again no ski school and Pay Day lift gets crowded.