Attitash and Wildcat for family beginner Ski vacation. Better option than Vermont?

My family and I are 2nd year skiers. Although we do have a few days experience I would consider us all beginners! Last year we skied 9 times and this year we decided to upgrade to the epic season pass and are all super excited.

I have two young kids ages 9 and 7. It seem like Attitash and Wildcat are better values for a family vacation compared to some of the resorts on the pass in Vermont (like Okemo and Stowe). I am booking a 10 day vacation there over New Year's. Is this too many days for this mountain? Do these mountains offer enough "beginner to intermediate" variety for a family of mostly beginners to spend 10 days skiing at? Is it worth spending the extra money to ski in Vermont? Thanks!!

I personally love the Cat and Attitash isn't bad - but I think a beginner to low intermediate would find both mountains a little on the difficult side and quickly run out of enjoyable terrain (for that difficulty level). Just my opinion.

Okemo and Mount Snow have a plethora of terrain in that category - might be worth a look.

N. Conway is one of my favorite towns but having beginners for 10 days WildCat and Attitash may be challenging. Just my opinion. A lot depends on the weather too and how much terrain will be open. I've seen plenty of Christmas weeks that were miserable due to warm temps. If it were me, I'd try to throw in some time at Okemo to break it up a bit, if its not too far out of the way for you. Okemo has loads and loads of beginner terrain and does a great job with snowmaking in case the weather does not cooperate. Its also pretty kid friendly.

Okemo, Okemo, Okemo. There are lots of relatively inexpensive places to stay in Ludlow (the town at the base of Okemo). And the town its self has that quaint Vermont look/feel but with lots of "amenities" you'd be used to living in Suburbia not present in a lot of Vermont ski towns (a full supermarket, multiple gas stations, a 7-11, a Subway, a Dunkin Donuts, a couple inexpensive dining choices).

The mountain is huuuuuge, one of the largest in the East, and it's truly a beginner/intermediate skier paradise. Beginner and intermediate ski families are quite literally what Okemo exists for (Okemo gets a bad rap on this site due to it being not challenging and having excessive grooming and snowmaking).

Definitely find a place soon for New Year's. I'm going to shamelessly plug in my ski club lodge, it's 15 minutes south of Okemo. $30 a night per adult, full kitchen- https://dsc.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=607388&module_id=82050

ss20 said:

Okemo, Okemo, Okemo. There are lots of relatively inexpensive places to stay in Ludlow (the town at the base of Okemo). And the town its self has that quaint Vermont look/feel but with lots of "amenities" you'd be used to living in Suburbia not present in a lot of Vermont ski towns (a full supermarket, multiple gas stations, a 7-11, a Subway, a Dunkin Donuts, a couple inexpensive dining choices).

The mountain is huuuuuge, one of the largest in the East, and it's truly a beginner/intermediate skier paradise. Beginner and intermediate ski families are quite literally what Okemo exists for (Okemo gets a bad rap on this site due to it being not challenging and having excessive grooming and snowmaking).

Definitely find a place soon for New Year's. I'm going to shamelessly plug in my ski club lodge, it's 15 minutes south of Okemo. $30 a night per adult, full kitchen- https://dsc.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=607388&module_id=82050

Click to expand...

What he said. Plus Mt Snow is an 1:15 south of Okemo if you wanted to break it up with a day trip down and back to Ludlow. You have lots of good options but don't wait too long to book lodging. Stuff fills up fast.

Killingtime said:

N. Conway is one of my favorite towns but having beginners for 10 days WildCat and Attitash may be challenging. Just my opinion. A lot depends on the weather too and how much terrain will be open. I've seen plenty of Christmas weeks that were miserable due to warm temps. If it were me, I'd try to throw in some time at Okemo to break it up a bit, if its not too far out of the way for you. Okemo has loads and loads of beginner terrain and does a great job with snowmaking in case the weather does not cooperate. Its also pretty kid friendly.

Click to expand...

If in the MWV you could do Cranmore, GREAT Mt for beginners !!!!
Located right in town

Another option is stay in Burlington VT and ski Bolton Valley. Could stay in Stowe or Waterbury and do the same.

I also like Gore for a mountain that has a good amount of lower angle trails.

North Conway is a good idea, as someone mentioned Cranmore is a great beginner mountain, and you can mix it up a bit and ski Attitash, Wildcat, Black Mountain, Loon for some variety. I'd be getting bored of the same mountain after 10 days.

I expect that over 10 days the beginners will progress somewhat and take on some blue square trails.

2Planker said:

If in the MWV you could do Cranmore, GREAT Mt for beginners !!!!
Located right in town

Click to expand...

I was going to say. Sure, they're Epic but Cranmore is fun-historic and good for kids, Bretton Woods is another good learner/intermediate mountain with its own snow machine hovering over it much of the time, and Sunday River's an easy trip. Hell, take em to Shawnee on a Monday and introduce 'em to night skiing, I remember that being a really inexpensive ticket. North Conway's great for a bunch of reasons, but the fact that you can stay there a week and pretty easily hit a different area every single day is a big one.

2Planker said:

If in the MWV you could do Cranmore, GREAT Mt for beginners !!!!
Located right in town

Click to expand...

I was going to say. Sure, they're not Epic but Cranmore is fun-historic and good for kids, Bretton Woods is another good learner/intermediate mountain with its own snow machine hovering over it much of the time, and Sunday River's an easy trip. Hell, take em to Shawnee on a Monday and introduce 'em to night skiing, I remember that being a really inexpensive ticket. North Conway's great for a bunch of reasons, but the fact that you can stay there a week and pretty easily hit a different area every single day is a big one.

bdfreetuna said:

Another option is stay in Burlington VT and ski Bolton Valley. Could stay in Stowe or Waterbury and do the same.

I also like Gore for a mountain that has a good amount of lower angle trails.

North Conway is a good idea, as someone mentioned Cranmore is a great beginner mountain, and you can mix it up a bit and ski Attitash, Wildcat, Black Mountain, Loon for some variety. I'd be getting bored of the same mountain after 10 days.

I expect that over 10 days the beginners will progress somewhat and take on some blue square trails.

Click to expand...

I think he was trying to stay within the Epic Pass Resorts if I interpreted his question correctly, but I do miss Loon though. Gotta find a free weekend to go this year.

Okemo and Mt Snow are a better option. Okemo is beginner paradise.

Attitash is “good value” partly because it’s not really a beginner mountain and Wildcat not family oriented.

Price out the Okemo area lodging to see if you’re better off paying a few days lift tickets in the smaller mountains near Attitash.

Good feedback so far.

A few more comments:

Polecat trail at Wildcat is IMHO one of the best and most scenic beginner runs in all of the East! That one run makes Wildcat worth 2 or 3 days of skiing for a low level skier:smile:

If OP's family is likely to ski 6 or 7 days out of 10, then North Conway may be an entertaining location for "off" days when they aren't skiing. There may also be more affordable lodging options there compared to Stowe or Okemo areas in VT.

OP could consider 5 days in NH and 5 days in VT.

10 days is a long time at any eastern resort ski area. If you want to stay exclusively on the Epic pass Mt Snow, Okemo, and Spruce Peak at Stowe are a beginner/intermediates dream. I would try and mix my 10 days up between those 3 resorts. Maybe stay 6 days in Ludlow which is striking distance to Mt Snow and 4 days in Stowe.

Tony

If you do decide to stay at Attitash/Conway area, consider a day or two of dabbling in x-c skiing. Bear Notch touring center is right at the bottom of Attitash. Jackson Touring center at the village of Jackson, has a lot of beginner trails, with view of Mt Washington. And Mt Washington hotel is a place worth stopping even if you don't (xc) ski there.

Tonyr said:

10 days is a long time at any eastern resort ski area.

Click to expand...

Agreed, you will need than skiing to keep everyone interested.

We have a two year old and a six year old. My wife is a causal skier, the six year old is an excellent skier maybe better than her father but that is a topic for another thread. We have had peak passes for as many years as I can remember. The only time we ski attitash is when we are staying at the hotel. I don’t know what type of accommodation you are looking for but the hotel is a decent value, if I recollect it was about half the cost of the same hotel at mount snow. Our vacation routine is we eat buffet breakfast in the dining room as a family, I ski with the six year old from first chair to lunch, wife takes younger daughter to pool. The pool is outdoor and heated year round, you get in the water indoors and swim through a short tunnel, there is an adjacent year round outdoor hot tub. We meet back up for lunch in the room and head into town for a family activity and dinner. Usually bring a few cocktails back down to the pool after dinner.

Family activities: children’s museum, weather museum, ski museum, walk around downtown, shopping, etc. An aquarium opened recently, I haven’t checked it out but suspect it will be worth a few hours one afternoon. None of these activities are full day, they are two hour endeavors you would expect in rural northern new England. Santas village is also open around Christmas, about an hour drive from attitash. There is an abundance of dining options, easily enough to have a good family style meal at a different place each night – also some good breakfast options.

Polecat was mentioned above, it is a spectacular trail for a beginner but it would be rated blue at many places. The green off the bobcat chair at wildcat is better start for a beginner. Start on the attitash side for beginner terrain, not bear; maybe give polecat a shot later in the vacation. Use some of the money you saved over Vermont to pick up tickets for some combination of Bretton woods/cranmore/black. Buy in advance and hunt for deals.

Sunapee, Crotched, Okemo, Mt Snow for beginners. Mt Snow gets crazy busy though on weekends. Okemo can as well. Sunapee has a whole beginner area as well across the parking lot.
Wildcat does have a separate chair for beginners and as someone mentioned Polecat which is the best green trail in New England. More an upper beginner/ low intermediate trail.
Black Mountain is a fun little mountain and Cranmore can be as well.

Isn’t Bretton Woods close to Attitash? Isn’t that a really good beginner hill?

Yep.

But its not on Epic pass. And it’s not cheap (not like Black and the others)