Enjoy Ski Resorts Over The Summer

By Author: Steve Robinson
Total Articles: 468
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Given the wide availability of cheap travel deals, including cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, cheap auto rentals, and cheap vacation packages, deciding where to go is often more difficult than being able to afford your next vacation.

If you would like to beat the heat, consider taking your family to a ski resort this summer. Over half of American ski resorts offer summer activities ranging from zip lines, alpine slides, and summer tubing hills to mountain biking, bungee trampolines and golf. Other benefits include stellar views, cooler temperatures, and far fewer crowds than your average beach.

The following are a few of the top kid friendly mountain resorts and what you will find, according to minitime:

• Smugglers’ Notch (referred to as “Smuggs” by those in the know) in Jeffersonville, Vermont offers eight heated outdoor pools, four water slides, and a variety of water playgrounds designed for younger and older kids. Rum Runner’s Hideaway is a six acre reservoir where guests can canoe, paddleboat, fish, swim, and jump on a gigantic water trampoline.

To top it all ...
... off, Smuggs also offers one of the best and longest zip line canopy tours in the country, as well as a tree climbing program, and a treetop obstacle course.

• Keystone Resort in Keystone, Colorado does not limit its activities to hiking and biking. Keystone has its own stables and offers horseback riding as well as pony rides. Guided river rafting tours are available on the nearby Arkansas or Colorado rivers.

Low key kid friendly activities include Discovery Days (offered on Tuesdays through the middle of August) where different entertainers and puppeteers put on shows. Friday mornings the local Lake Dillon Theatre Company performs a family friendly musical in the resort’s amphitheater.

• Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah holds special appeal to thrill seekers. Older kids and teens tend to love the ZipRider, which zooms 100 feet above the slopes at up to 45 miles an hour. The entire family can delight in riding Park City’s 3,000 foot alpine slide; one of the world’s longest.

There is also an alpine coaster which comes with 4,000 feet of curves and loops. Some prefer the lift serviced hiking and mountain biking and an Adventure Zone which challenges kids with boulders and a climbing wall. Younger children tend to enjoy the carousel and miniature train ride at the Little Miners Park.

• Northstar in Truckee, California is home to a Robert Muir Graves designed par-72 course, with two 9-hole settings where visitors can really take in the impressive mountain and meadow surroundings.

At the Kid’s Adventure Club children can be dropped off to learn about bird watching, wilderness survival, local plant life, and forest fire prevention via fun activities such as scavenger hunts and nature journaling. Family activities include outdoor roller skating, mountain biking, gem panning, mini golf, and a ropes challenge course.

• Sunday River in Newry, Maine is an eight peak island resort that offers a zip line, bungee trampoline, and disc golf, as well as a bike park with 20 miles of lift serviced terrain.
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