Best Vermont Family Ski Resorts

No sports bring families together quite the way skiing and snowboarding do. Lifetime memories happen not only on the slopes but also in the lodges, as you sit together drinking hot chocolate and planning the next day’s trails. Parents don’t simply watch their children on these mountains, they join in the journey: the easy greens, the more challenging blues, then the steeper blacks and moguls and glades. With patience, practice, and good instruction, there’s no terrain that families cannot conquer together.

Finding the right Vermont ski area for your family depends on what you’re looking for. If you have younger kids, you might prefer a cozy mountain where every trail is visible from the main lodge; for teenagers, on the other hand, you may need a place with multiple lifts and more trails than anyone can do in a week. Fortunately, Vermont offers a veritable buffet of choices. Here are some favorites to get you started.

Smugglers’ Notch Resort | Jeffersonville, VT

For years, “Smuggs” has been the gold standard of family ski resorts. It strikes the perfect balance between a supportive learning environment for beginners (as young as 2½ in the “Little Rascals on Snow” program) and a choice of terrain for all ages and abilities. All-day instruction includes the use of GPS devices for young students so they can track their runs (and instructors can keep tabs in case they get separated). Smuggs also features a program geared to children with special needs. Best yet, this is a park-your-car-once resort, where everything you and your clan could want is right at the base village.

Jay Peak | Jay, VT

When you run a ski mountain in one of Vermont’s most remote regions, it helps to have the highest average snowfall in the East (roughly 350 inches of powder each year); glade runs that are considered among the best in the country; one of the longest vertical drops in the state; ski-out-your-door lodging; an ice skating rink; and, oh yes, an enormous indoor heated waterpark that is a bona fide kid magnet.

Stratton Mountain Resort | Stratton, VT

There may be no better mountain for families who want to ski together than Stratton. While new-to-the-sport skiers are often relegated (at least at first) to low slopes that offer scant views and few “oh my gosh” moments, the Mike’s Way green trail takes you from the summit of southern Vermont’s tallest peak, with spectacular views across to New York state, to the village with soft, easy turns that show you the joy of the sport.

Bromley Mountain | Peru, VT

There’s a special quality to a cozy mountain where the lodge feels like a home, and the mountain itself is a neighborhood where neighbors wave as you glide by. What makes this 47-trail resort especially popular with families is its south-facing slopes—Bromley’s known as “Vermont’s Sun Mountain” for a reason.

Okemo Mountain Resort | Ludlow, VT

Spread across two mountain areas, Okemo’s 121 trails have something for everyone: top-to-bottom winding greens, long intermediate groomers, steep blacks, and, for the acrobatic boarders, half-pipes. And then there’s a heated indoor pool with a splash pool and a frog slide for wee ones … and a heated outdoor pool where you can float and see snow drifting down … and a tubing park … and the Timber Ripper Mountain Coaster … and a heated six-person high-speed covered lift, so your family can ascend warm and comfy together. 

Mount Snow | West Dover, VT

Older children and teenagers who may be drawn to half-pipes and terrain parks have Carinthia — a mountain-face park that’s considered among the best in the Northeast — all to themselves. But even here, the younger ones and beginners have a space within the space: Grommet Park, which comes with its own chairlift and sized-down bumps and slides. Meanwhile, no-skills thrills await on Mount Snow’s tubing hill, one of the biggest in Vermont, with up to eight lanes of fun for the whole family.