Hidden Valley Resort has an extensive, community of homes and resort is very family oriented. Seven Springs and Laurel Mountain are close by. I own a home at HV and love the master planned community, the architecture, walking trails, state parks and forests, and family atmosphere. While the HV mountain may be less challenging, again, the Highland lift ticket allows you to ski LM and 7s. Try hiddenvalleyrentals.com. Or perhaps VRBO or air bnb.
The Laurel Mountain resorts are also much more accessible than Snowshoe which for me is a 5.5 hour drive on 2 lane COUNTRY roads. Hidden Valley is only 10 miles from the PA Turnpike and is a little more than 3 hours from DC and Baltimore. After exiting the turnpike and On the way is a grocery store and the town of Somerset which has restaurants. PM me if you need more info.
I assume HV has lessons? And good learning terrain. HV, 7s and LM make snow whenever they can, so they are committed to proving a good skier experience. Of course weather is the key.
Depending on what percentage of the group is kids silver creek at snowshoe might be worth looking at, I think they were starting lessons over there this past weekend and it might be less crowded, more affordable, and potentially better snow than the other options.
i know they were offering some silver creek only tickets on “sold out” days
Hidden Valley is a reasonable suggestion if you were considering 7S. They are definitely doing lessons. If all of the kids are similarly situated skill wise you should be able to negotiate what is essentially a group private lesson at group rates. I would think.
As snowsmith pointed out, this would still leave you the option of 7S one day, it's a brief drive from Hidden Valley and under common ownership.
Hidden Valley weekends have been selling out but not until shortly beforehand. They've also done a good job of staying on the snowmaking as best they can and do have some of the best snowmaking in the area.
Check out Bryce Resort. There should be rentals available via AirBnB and VRBO. They do offer classes (need to be booked 14 hours ahead) and is a perfect family friendly resort for beginners/intermediates. Approximately a little over 2 hours from Bethesda/Potomac.
cbyrne0609 wrote:
Hi! We are a group of 5 families from Bethesda/Potoma. with 2-4 kids each, ranging in ages from 4-10 yrs old. We are trying to find a local ski resort with decent home rentals or lodging (we can stay together or split into a couple of houses), and offers ski lessons for kids. It seems Snowshoe is sold out the weekend we wanted to travel. Our next option was 7Springs, but they aren’t offering ski lessons for kids. Does anyone have any suggestions? We can’t seem to find an option that has a substantial amount of trails open to make a weekend out of it, that also has lodging & lessons. Any help would be so appreciated!
Also, Bryce does offer family/friend pod lesson package.
COVID-19 Changes: We are only offering “Individual Private Packages” and “Family/Friend Pod Packages” (2-6 people for those who traveled to the resort together).
squeakywheels wrote:
Check out Bryce Resort. There should be rentals available via AirBnB and VRBO. They do offer classes (need to be booked 14 hours ahead) and is a perfect family friendly resort for beginners/intermediates. Approximately a little over 2 hours from Bethesda/Potomac.
cbyrne0609 wrote:
Hi! We are a group of 5 families from Bethesda/Potoma. with 2-4 kids each, ranging in ages from 4-10 yrs old. We are trying to find a local ski resort with decent home rentals or lodging (we can stay together or split into a couple of houses), and offers ski lessons for kids. It seems Snowshoe is sold out the weekend we wanted to travel. Our next option was 7Springs, but they aren’t offering ski lessons for kids. Does anyone have any suggestions? We can’t seem to find an option that has a substantial amount of trails open to make a weekend out of it, that also has lodging & lessons. Any help would be so appreciated!
rbrtlav wrote:
Depending on what percentage of the group is kids silver creek at snowshoe might be worth looking at, I think they were starting lessons over there this past weekend and it might be less crowded, more affordable, and potentially better snow than the other options.
i know they were offering some silver creek only tickets on “sold out” days
I agree, SC is best suited for families wanting beginner lessons. Less crowded, good terrain and night skiing option.
cbyrne0609 wrote:
Hi! We are a group of 5 families from Bethesda/Potoma. with 2-4 kids each, ranging in ages from 4-10 yrs old. We are trying to find a local ski resort with decent home rentals or lodging (we can stay together or split into a couple of houses), and offers ski lessons for kids. It seems Snowshoe is sold out the weekend we wanted to travel. Our next option was 7Springs, but they aren’t offering ski lessons for kids. Does anyone have any suggestions? We can’t seem to find an option that has a substantial amount of trails open to make a weekend out of it, that also has lodging & lessons. Any help would be so appreciated!
What month are you thinking about? January or February?
My home mountain is Massanutten. I usually stay in a timeshare condo. But there are houses on VRBO on the mountain. Some are pretty big as I remember.
Mnut is only doing private lessons this season. They have very good ski instructors but not sure how many are on board.
What Mnut has over Bryce is that there are more activities besides skiing. Of course, that means more money. The waterpark is a draw for some families. Check out the website for what's available.
My daughter started at Mnut at age 4. My friend's kids started at ages 4 and 6. The progression of terrain from easy green to steeper green to easy blue to harder blue is very good. Advanced intermediates and advanced skiers can enjoy the trails off Lift 6 without a lift line since it only serves two black trails. Diamond Jim is in pretty good shape available. Hard to know what Paradice will open. Will be more obvious after the next cold front that coming in this week.
I was just waiting for the 1st one to state the obvious. This is absolutely insane. This is a Super-Spreader event if there ever was one. What are these "parents" thinking? While they may die an agonizing death in the ICU, the kids left behind may be OK.
Ryanga wrote:
I’ll be the one to say it....5 families on a ski trip together sharing a home or 2 in the midst of a pandemic? What could go wrong?
Hidden Valley's your place for families and kids. Offering lessons for kids, excellent snowmaking and grooming, and lodging on the mountain. Purchase a Highlands ticket and you can ski a 7Springs and Laurel Mountain as well. Skiing at Laurel is like stepping back in time... brilliant.
snow.buck wrote:
I was just waiting for the 1st one to state the obvious. This is absolutely insane. This is a Super-Spreader event if there ever was one. What are these "parents" thinking? While they may die an agonizing death in the ICU, the kids left behind may be OK.
Ryanga wrote:
I’ll be the one to say it....5 families on a ski trip together sharing a home or 2 in the midst of a pandemic? What could go wrong
I appreciate that they are not flying anywhere to ski and think it’s an awesome idea to get the kids skiing
Vermont wrote:
snow.buck wrote:
I was just waiting for the 1st one to state the obvious. This is absolutely insane. This is a Super-Spreader event if there ever was one. What are these "parents" thinking? While they may die an agonizing death in the ICU, the kids left behind may be OK.
Ryanga wrote:
I’ll be the one to say it....5 families on a ski trip together sharing a home or 2 in the midst of a pandemic? What could go wrong
I appreciate that they are not flying anywhere to ski and think it’s an awesome idea to get the kids skiing
Flying is of questionable additional risk. It’s 5 families together that is a known, absolute risk. It’s great to take the kids skiing, but this year it should not be done with groups of families together. If one person gets or has covid, there’s potential for exponentially greater spread when you’re talking a group of at minimum 20 people, vs a single family of 4
