Zach & Julie Ruhl

Taking a trip to Loveland Ski Area with kids starts with one fact that surprises almost everyone: Loveland runs a licensed childcare center that takes walking one-year-olds, and charges $105 for a full day. For comparison, Beaver Creek won’t take a child under 24 months and charges $277 to $305. Loveland childcare is roughly a third … Read more

Deciding where to stay in Steamboat with kids starts with one simple fact: the little-kid ski programs don’t happen at the base. Check-in is at Mountain Camp, beside the Gondola Transit Center, but the lessons themselves run at Greenhorn Ranch, mid-mountain. Therefore, getting a three-year-old to ski school involves a gondola ride, not a walk … Read more

Figuring out where to stay in Beaver Creek with kids comes down to one unusual advantage this resort has over every other mountain in Colorado: there is only one children’s ski school building. It sits on the Promenade, between the Haymeadow Gondola and the Centennial lift, and that single fact removes the thing that wrecks … Read more

Working out where to stay in Vail with young kids comes down to one question: which of the two children’s ski school centers your lesson is booked at. A Vail ski trip with kids runs through either Golden Peak or Lionshead, the two are on opposite sides of the resort, and Vail’s own guidance is … Read more

Figuring out where to stay in Copper Mountain with kids is the first real decision of any Copper Mountain ski trip with kids, and it’s a more forgiving one than at most Colorado resorts. Copper is laid out as three villages in a row, Center, East and West. To walk from Center Village to West … Read more

Planning a Winter Park ski trip with kids means making one decision before any of the others: which of the four lodging areas you book. Winter Park splits into Base Village, Old Town, the town of Winter Park and Fraser, and the right answer depends less on your budget than on how far you’re willing … Read more

Breckenridge is a great choice for a family ski trip. It is the other Colorado resort that takes babies from 6 months, and the only one where you can realistically put a baby in daycare and a 3-year-old in ski school and still ski yourself before lunch. The complication is that Breckenridge has three kids’ … Read more

Picking between Colorado ski resorts for families with toddlers could be a full time job. If you have a child under 5, two numbers decide your entire ski trip: the minimum age for ski school, and the minimum age for daycare. Everything else, terrain, village, vertical feet, is noise until those two numbers work for … Read more

Skiing with young kids should be an Olympic Sport. Especially when you’re doing it at nearly 10,000 ft of elevation.  Figuring out where to stay at Keystone for a ski trip with kids is the decision that shapes your entire ski week, and it’s the one most families get wrong. Keystone has six separate lodging … Read more