smugglers' notch resort

Today, 3/13/15, was an amazing day on the slopes. The weather was perfect, the views spectacular, and the lines within reason for the 7 hours we skied 22 runs here. The longest run was 3.6 miles, and the fastest was Snake Bite at 61 MPH. The grooming was done well, the food great, and the staff friendly. (I noticed the Wyndham badges?) There was a lot of skiing, without a lot of traffic. Fun, interesting runs. One more off my bucket list, 3 hours and 200 miles from home.

Smugglers' Notch is recognized as a great place for families and with good reason...there is so much to do. I have been skiing here for 30+ years and I love it. It is not geared as a day-trip resort (especially on weekends). The double chairs are a throwback to simpler times, but during the week, you hardly ever wait. The 3 mountains offer challenges to any level of skier and it is a fantastic place to learn to ski (whether child or adult). If staying at the resort, the quantity and variety of activities is impressive...you can always find something to do. I can't wait for my next trip to Smuggs.

My wife and I and our 2 adult boys and our 2 teenage daughters have skied many times out west, New York State and northern Michigan. We recently stayed and skied for the first time in northern Vermont at Smuggler's Notch. We had a blast and I would highly recommend Smuggler's Notch as a skiing destination. Our accomodations were perfect, the staff helpful and the skiing was great. There is plenty to do after skiing with hot tubs, swimming and snow mobile night cruises. The skiing and snow conditions were as good as we have ever experienced. We spent a day skiing at Stowe as well and would suggest to anyone when in the area to do the same. The family is already talking about when we can get back to SN. If you enjoy skiing, ('Dad, we snowboard') SN is a great place to shred cord, ski some powder or navigate the glades. Tony A. , Ohio

I heard good reviews of this place but sadly disappointed. The resort is split between a green run family area and an experienced upper mountain area where we spent two days of skiing. There are three lifts all of which are slow two seaters which caused long lines at peak times. Highly recommend you get there early when the lines and short. The runs are ok. No real good black runs that you can ski at speed, too many ungroomed moguls. If you like tree skiing you'll love this place but we prefer steep groomed runs. Tough walk up a hill from the parking lot. Recommend lot 3 for the shortest walk. The food and beer in the two restaurants at the base of the Madonna lifts was excellent. I'd recommend Stowe above smugglers if you can afford the higher ticket price.

I have been visiting Smuggler's Notch Resort for the past 14 years. I especially like visiting in the summer months. The resort offers guided hiking trips of the trails in the area. The resort provides transportation to the trail head and expert guides who are familiar with the region. My family loves spending time at the pools and hiking the beautiful mountains. The units are excellent and are constantly being updated. This area of VT is gorgeous. It's the best place for a familly vacation!

There really wasn't anywhere for me to hang out while my husband skied - the bar was too noisy and the cafe closed over an hour before the lifts shut down.

After hearing great reviews, We decided to make Smuggs the spot for our children to get their first experience skiing. It was nothing less than spectacular. The staff was great with the kids and very helpful to us as we were arriving. We can't wait to get back.

Staying at Smuggler's Notch is worth the long drive by our family. We found that their ski/snowboarding school provided a patient and professional environment for our kids, who in turn had a blast on the mountain. There were plenty off-mountain activities as well, including an indoor pool and arcade. The on-site restaurants were great, featuring many locally grown/ raised ingredients. The rooms/ accommodations were immaculate and spacious. This is our fifth trip there and we will be back.

Room was more than expected. Large table in dinning room, kitchen well stocked, livingroom had large tv, fireplace, comfortable sofas, chairs, view outside windows was spectactular mountains trees, squirrels scurrying around. Master bedroom bathroom large jetted tub, tv seperate shower vanity, toilet. Heated floors. Washer dryer worked well.

Smuggs is a bit out of the way, but great for skiing/snowboarding. While the chair lifts are old, that means that there are no crowds to deal with on the slopes. Due to the cold Presidents' Day weekend, we almost had the slopes to ourselves with a few passing skiers every once in awhile. Lots of terrain from green to triple black diamonds with good vertical drops.You get the benefit of on-slope condos, so once you arrive, you don't need to get back into your car until you leave. Everyone can follow their own schedule for skiing/snowboarding and eating rather than waiting for the last person down before driving to your unit or waiting in lines for restaurant food.Decided to rent shaped skis this year, instead of trying to use my 180 straight skis (which I used last year). What a great difference! Skis seemed to float above the snow and there weren't edges to catch. Felt 10 years younger.

The family took some time during winter break to have some fun in the snow. The mountain was absolutely wonderful. It was cold however. My 2 boys 11 and 14 along with my wife rented equipment and the staff made sure everything fit right, no one got blisters. We had daily lessons and everyone enjoyed them for the most part. My 14 year old was placed in a class that he was uncomfortable with (it was above his skill, level 5 going down black diamond glades) but he was able to easily move in to my lesson (adult 6-7) that was not as difficult and he enjoyed it. My instructor took some extra time after out lesson was done to show my son and I us some glade action which was awesome. My 11 year old likes his instructor so much that he refused to move up despite the fact his skills improved enough to warrant such a move. The room was well kept and very comfortable. The only complaint was the family above us that had 6 people living there. We could count the foot steps and crying, next time I should request a top floor. There was a country store, fancy Hearth and Candle restaurant that was wonderful and many places to catch a bite to eat. We had one experience that took 2 hours for lunch but everything else was quicker. The deli was a much better experience for lunch than the Grille. Although we ate at the Grille for dinner and had a good experience. I will say that the one down side is the price. Expect to pay 3X's what you would at another restaurant or store. Examples are a $3 cookie and $3 fountain drink, refills were not included at the cafeteria. However, I expected to pay a lot. You can bring your own food and cook your meals and save a bunch. We ate breakfast we brought but had lunch and dinner either at one of the dinning spots or from the country store. There are other things to do for kids but my teen was not interested. I took my 11 year old to the fun zone and it was OK, it was crowded with younger kids that were being watched while parents had a night out. There is swimming, ice skating and other fun activities, but for the most part we just sat around by the fire place reading, talking and watching TV after skiing all day. The skiing made the trip of course. I think we are very much willing to go back next year and may consider it for a summer trip.

We just finished 6 days at Smuggs. We actually added an extra day at the last minute because we we had to spend one day indoors due to the chilly temps. We have a 10 year old, 8 year old, and 5 year old, each at varying levels of snowboarding. The oldest has been snowboarding for 4 years, the youngest just 2 years. This was absolutely the best choice of mountains for our family. The lessons and instructors were amazing. We received an automated email each day detailing the kids' routes. The instructors were true professionals as opposed to other mountains that only have young students working. We received great feedback for each day for each of our children to help improve their skills. I can honestly say that they made more progress here than at any other mountain they have ever snowboarded at. The facilities are also incredible. We had dinner twice at The Hearth and Candle and both nights it was delicious. We are from Long Island so we have high expectations for dining. We also ate lunch at the Meeting House (pizza) and the Morse Mountain Grille and both we great. Usually mountain food is cheap reheated garbage, but this was actually very good. Since we're from NY, our pizza expectations are pretty high. This pizza wasn't quite NY pizza but was definitely edible. The kids spent a few hours at the Fun Zone which was an awesome way to get out the restlessness that kids have before we settled into the condo for a fire and a glass of wine.The accommodations were fantastic. We booked a 1 br, but got placed in a 3 br, 3 bath trailside executive unit. The place was so big that the kids thought we were sharing it with someone! We didn't have time to check out the pool so I can't comment on that. Basically, if you are a skiing/snowboarding family, you won't be disappointed. My husband, who is an expert, had plenty of crazy runs to keep him happy. Myself, who is a moderate, and my kids who are level 1- level 4, all had trails that met our abilities. A very well maintained mountain with very well organized operations. I even had to rent one day after my bindings broke and the rental operation was also great. Enjoy!

Since 1992 our family has looked forward to our trips home to Smugg’s. Since our earliest trips we have been touched by how friendly, caring and helpful the staff is. We’ve brought family and friends along on numerous occasions. After one family members second trip to Smugg’s they bought a week of their own. On several occasions our Nephew has come up from Boston to ski with us. He is used to skiing at a neighboring resort. During his second trip up and after spending some time hanging with us, skiing, Lunches and brews at the Black Bear, night entertainment at Bootleggers and meeting our ever growing group of friends, he made the observation “Now I know why you keep coming back and don’t miss a trip”. The trip from New Jersey can sometimes be quite an adventure due to the winter weather conditions but it is accepted to get to this special resort. The snowmaking has been upgraded and expanded over the years and is now nothing short of awesome. The nightly grooming keeps the mountain in tip top shape. The double chairs are rarely full except for weekends and holidays and you easily become spoiled by the empty midweek trails. Dinners are available on site ranging from Rigga-Bellos Pizza, the Calzones are to die for, to the Morse Mountain Grill for Breakfast Lunch or Dinner and The Hearth and Candle for a more cozy meal and then there is always Ben and Gerry’s. The country store is right on site for most anything you forgot to bring or could possibly need. To move around the resort, shuttles are only a phone call away and are usually waiting by the time we get outside. Bootleggers lounge offers adult entertainment every evening ranging from acoustics by Charlie and Sam to Magic by Marco. Thursday night fireworks on a subzero night are well …. Cool! Our grandson really enjoyed the “carnival” at the end of one ski day and hot chocolate and a fire pit on others. A week is simply not long enough to spend at Smugg’s and last night we were lucky enough to book our second week this winter. From our comfy condo to the excellent skiing, entertainment and everything else offered, Smugg’s will always be our Winter Home.

This resort is great for families. We were so impressed by the staff here. The visitor center, ski patrol, ski store, shuttle driver, housekeeping and ski school staff went out of their way to be polite, helpful and informative. My 6 year old son's ski instructor gave him his own ski goggles when my son's goggles fogged and froze. Our kids came out of ski school wanting to ski more despite the freezing cold weather. When we locked ourselves out of the condo someone from housekeeping came right away to let us in. If you are not traveling with beginner skiers I would recommend staying closer to Madonna or Sterling lifts as it is a bit of a ski trek from the village lift to the Madonna/Sterling lifts. However, there is a free on demand shuttle from mountain to mountain and from the condos to the pool, Funzone etc. The Funzone was fun for the kids as was the indoor pool. We ate in the condo so I can not comment on the food. The small food stores close to Jeffersonville were quite expensive. If you prefer to eat in as we do then best to stop at the Hannaford's that is about 40 minutes away or just bring plenty of food with you.

I first went to Smugglers' Notch 17 years ago in the summer for their tennis program. After that, we became owners with weeks and eventually a winter share. Both our kids learned to ski and snow board at Smuggs. Best group instructors ever! The kids (now grown) frequented Smuggs right through college and loved the 3 big mountains. There is nothing like skiing in and out of your unit. No cars needed: Smuggs now has Shuttle on Demand which is great. Great condos.Great snow and much improved snow making ability. Just returned from a weeks of powder!I still go back when I can for summer tennis, but have not missed a skiing year since we started. Truly the best family resort in the world.