During our recent trip to Park City, we stayed at Canyons Resort – Utah’s largest largest ski resort. The resort has several lodging options on the property, including the Waldorf Astoria Park City, the Grand Summit Hotel, the Hyatt Escala Lodge, the Sundial Lodge, the Westgate Resort & the Silverado Lodge (told you it was big!).
Grand Summit Hotel
We stayed at the cozy Grand Summit Hotel, a very traditional feeling ski lodge filled with modern amenities, rooms with kitchenettes & lots of Starbucks coffee. The stunning main lobby of the Grand Summit is filled with a two-story fireplace, beautifully hand crafted chandeliers featuring mountain scenes & lots of warm wood. The couch right in front of the fire place is one of the comfiest, coziest places I’ve ever found.
Our room, a King Studio, was perfectly sized for the two of us. The kitchenette had everything you needed to make coffee – or really, a full breakfast if you swing by the grocery store on the way into town – although it could have used a little bit of updating from the tired white appliances. The bathroom was awesome, though, with lots of room & double sinks (ahh… the things that excite you when you live in a tiny house with only one bathroom!). We had a great view of the mountain, along with the gondola bringing skiers over from Waldorf Astoria & the Orange Bubble Express ski lift.
Our room was extremely quiet, both below & above (I was a little concerned about people stomping around in ski boots) & out in the hall. However, the refrigerator did pop & run throughout the night, so if you’re a light sleeper, that might bug you. The bed was super comfortable once we got the pillow situation figured out – if the soft pillows that come on the bed aren’t your cup of tea, request foam pillows from housekeeping. Oh, & while you’re on the phone with housekeeping, order a few robes to be delivered to your room. You’ll want those for après hot tub!
The Grand Summit was truly a four star experience – good, but not over the top luxury. The service was good for the most part – night front desk staff was quick & friendly to deal with an HVAC issue in our room. Service at check-out fell a little short, as there was only one person working at the front desk who was very flustered & there was lots of confusion on our bill, but the vast majority of people were smiling & friendly.
Canyons Resort Village
Canyons Resort has a unique way of shuttling skiers from the parking lot to the base camp. Meet the cabriolet. It’s like a standing gondola with a grated floor that moves horizontal instead of vertical. We took a little ride on it one day to enjoy the views & it was a fun way to kill a few minutes. Bonus: also free!
One day we spent an hour in the hot tub après ski. It’s always fun to socialize with random strangers. We met a father & son on a father-son trip, a fellow East Coaster escaping the crazy winter & a group of friends from California. Everyone was having a good time crammed into the three small hot tubs. I think Canyons could have built three more (or made them three times as large!) & still not had enough room! Hot tubing is definitely popular after a long day of winter sports.
Get your ski on
Canyons sits at 6,800′ with the highest peak stretching to 9,990′. There are 182 ski trails, with over 50% of those being beginner or intermediate terrain. They also have a few terrain parks & natural half pipes & it’s one of two resorts in Park City which allow snowboarding (Deer Valley does not). Lift ticket prices vary throughout the season (they’re currently around $115), but best way to get a good rate is to purchase online in advance of your visit for the lowest price guarantee. You can get discounts available up to midnight the night before you hit the slopes &, as an added bonus, if you purchase before 7 days in advance of your visit, they’ll ship tickets to you directly so you can skip the ticket office & go straight to the slopes. If you purchase within the 7 day window, you can pick up your ticket in an express line at the ticket office. Lift tickets are valid at both Canyons & Park City Mountain Resort (& vice versa). After a big upgrade this summer, the two resorts will be fully connected via gondola.
The Canyons Resort Village has everything you need while visiting. In fact, it’s so ample, it makes the resort pretty much self-sufficient. There are a few different gear shops selling everything from boots to gloves & hats & everything in between. There’s a little coffee shop (which we visited almost daily), several restaurants (a tiny sports bar with a great patio, a huge après ski bar, a steakhouse) & a liquor store. All the shops are in the first floor of the Sundial Lodge.
I loved these fire pits right at the base of the gondola, but it was such a bummer that there were only two of them with seating for about a dozen people total. I’m a sucker for a fire pit & Canyons could definitely use a few more of them! They also offered s’mores for one hour during the afternoon on the weekends. It would have been great to have extended hours for that activity – who doesn’t love a little sugary goodness after a hard day on the slopes?
Eats at Canyon Resort
The Cabin for breakfast
We ate breakfast twice at The Cabin, the Grand Summit’s breakfast buffet. For $24, including beverage and gratuity, you can stuff your face with custom made omelets, pancakes, a variety of breakfast meats & the most amazing chocolate bread pudding ever. It was a pretty standard hotel breakfast buffet, but definitely a reliable option if you need some hearty before a day of skiing (or, in our case the second time, an entire day of travel). If you’re not a coffee drinker, make sure and grab a mug of hot chocolate. They’ll be happy to throw some mini-marshmallows or whipped cream (or both!) on top.
If you don’t need a huge breakfast, the coffee shop on campus, Murdock’s, also serves breakfast sandwiches.
Red Tail Grill for après ski
We ate at Red Tail Grill twice – once for a late lunch the day we arrived & once for an après ski beverage & giant plate of nachos the day we skied & snowshoed. While the place was always bustling, service was always top notch & the food was great. I can highly recommend the mini-shrimp quesadillas & chicken nachos.
We also had a great lunch at Farm, which I’ll write about in another post.
We’ll be back
We really enjoyed our stay at the Grand Summit & could see ourselves staying there again in the future. The only downside – & it’s a small one – is that the resort is about as far out of downtown as you can get, so nothing is walkable. However, if you’re not from a big city like we are, you probably aren’t used to walking everywhere anyway!
Know if you go…
– If you’re heading there during the height of ski season, make sure to make your lodging reservations in advance. Research your options to make sure you’re getting exactly what you want.
– If you’re skiing, make sure & look at vacation packages which include lift tickets.
– This is definitely not a business traveler hotel – there was no desk in the room & no good place to work. But my biggest complaint would be that the wifi was really lousy. I usually only got one or two bars of coverage throughout the hotel – in our room, in the lobby, in the coffee shop, everywhere. I heard a few other guests mention wifi issues as well, so perhaps we were just there on a funky weekend. Besides, lets be honest, you’re not going on a ski vacation to hang out on wifi all day. But, bonus: the wifi is complimentary!
– If you’re staying in one of the Canyons Resort lodging properties, you can take a free shuttle into downtown. The shuttle leaves at the top of the hour & reservations are a must during ski season. Plan for the whole trip to take about 20 minutes to get there (it could take less, depending on where you are on the pick up route).
Thank you to Canyons Resort & Visit Park City for their hospitality during our stay. Some things they covered, some things we covered. Everything, regardless, was great. All opinions are my own.
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