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Susan
from Palm Beach FL
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Apr 30, 2008 |
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Overall Rating: 2.0   |
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This was our third trip to Colorado and Steamboat is our least favorite ski area so far. We have been to Vail and Telluride. The town of Telluride is outstanding and Vail has the best mountain. Outside of skiing, there was very little to do in the town of Steamboat. We actually drove down to Vail on one of the days. The skiing is OK in Steamboat, but the mountain is so much smaller than Vail. It may be worth a weekend excursion from Vail, but a full week is too long.
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Kent Newcomb
from Mound City, MO
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Feb 10, 2008 |
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| Overall Rating: 4.8 |
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Skiing / the Mountain:
This was our first time at the boat but I have wanted to ski here for 20 years. It was worth the wait. We spent 6 glorious days here and experienced fresh snow daily or at least nightly. Thus, some days we were skiing powder even on the lower mountain runs, while on other days there were groomed slopes for those that havent tried powder. Both were excellent conditions for skiing and the mountain didnt disappoint. The lift lines were short; the staffs on mountain, in shops, and at our condos were friendly and attentive. If you are a skier and havent skied at Steamboat, you must put it on your bucket list or must do lists. Remember Steamboat was a ranch town first and a ski destination later. For those from elevations closer to sea level you will find acclimatization much easier since the base elevation isnt as high as some other ski destinations, but DO NOT THINK this means short ski runs, or low snow counts! We skied six days and only repeated runs on the lower mountain, and didnt hit all the runs available within our skiing ability. (Greens, Blues, and Blue/Blacks)
Ski Lessons:
To tune up we all took a single days lesson and knocked the dust off our memories. Both the adult instruction staff and the kids staff were experienced, open to feedback, and obviously enjoyed their job and enjoyed people.
Ski Equipment Rental:
We used "Black Tie Ski Rentals"for the kids gear. We arrived on Sunday evening and the representatives from Black Tie arrived at our condo and within 10 minutes had the kids outfitted with all the needed gear and were gone. At the end of the week a simple phone call to them assure the gear would be picked up from the units ski locker without any need to meet with us. I've had good night kisses that were harder! We highly recommend this service for ease, convienance, and product quality!
Shopping:
There are plenty of the normal ski shops and gift stores at the Gondola Square base of the mountain. Though we didnt spend much time shopping during our trip we must tell you that in our opinion some of the best bargains were found at:
Awesome Shirtworks upstairs at Gondola Square, this is a shirt store and not a ski gear type vendor, but if you want a great souvenir to wear home this is the place and the prices wont cause you to search for your next breath. The staff was more than just pleasant to the tourist, they were genuine in their interest in your Steamboat experience.
Gondola General is just on youre left as you walk down from the bus and shuttle lot. This store has more general items as the name implies and if you seeking more than clothing souvenirs this is a great place to find it. Also, if you need sun screen, lip balm, something for that aching back or sore shins they will gladly provide it and have a coffee shop right their to help the medicine go down.
Other shops may be great to visit with great prices. We only can comment on those we visited to be fair.
Excursions:
So you want a day off the skis or really just out of those ski boots? We highly recommend:
Saddleback Ranch, their shuttle picks you up at your hotel or condo and takes you about 10 minutes outside Steamboat to their real working ranch. We did a two hour horse ride through the ranchs valley and hills and loved the experience. The guides are true ranch hands, and know their horses and riders. Our lead guide went to college on a rodeo scholarship and she was originally from the great cow town of Abilene, Kansas. Our trailing guide is a retired Colorado native and can be described as a humble, friendly man with 20 stories per weathered line on his smiling face. These folks felt more like family you see once a year than business persons.
During our ride we had time to talk with new acquaintances while viewing the beauty of snowy Colorado. On our ride we saw Elk at a distance, and met a porcupine spending the day in a tree just off our trail.
So you arent a horse person? The snow mobile tours cover about 20 miles and though we didnt ride these the group that did had large smiles on their red faces when we returned. They all said they would return and at least one group had done the tour the day before and liked it so much they returned with friends again the next day. The ranch also has a tubing hill and shuttle service to this location from the ranchs horse back and snow mobile riding meeting point. The coordination of the tours was well done. The snow mobilers didnt have a long wait for those of us on horse back. They were back at the meeting point minutes before us allowing them to warm up with hot chocolate, and freshly baked oatmeal cookies. The shuttle did come a little later than expected, but the driver stopped and pulled a stranded vehicle from the snow. Hey, we certainly can wait on someone that still has that kind of chivalrous nature.
Dining:
Well if you enjoy dining out, take out, or delivery when vacationing you wont be disappointed here. As a family we decided to push the fun factor to its limit and take a more casual dining regime. In other words, we actually ate out once, but kept the delivery drives hopping. Here are places we certainly recommend:
Old town pub 6th & Lincoln in Steamboat Springs, Some of the greatest burgers we have bumped into in our travels. We ate lunch here and found the food excellent along with the people and ambience.
Beau Jos Mountain Bistro 7th & Lincoln in Steamboat Springs, , Beau Jos claims to have the best pizza in Colorado for over 30 years. We agree their pizzas are excellent along with their pasta dishes. Beau Jos delivers and they came to our condo more than once during our stay.
Blue Sage Pizza Excellent food and yes they deliver!
Double Z BBQ Good burgers and they deliver!
Accommodations:
We opted for the Ski Condos. The units are ski in, but a short pole ski to the slope, or an easy walk. The staff is attentive, friendly and very helpful. The condos were well stocked with amenities, and in good repair. Any issues were immediately attended to by their maintenance staff. Minor items such as smoke detector low battery and a bathroom door handle with a mind of its own were promptly fixed when reported. Price of accommodations was a bargain. Booking is available through Steamboats reservations.
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Todd
from Dallas TX
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Jan 21, 2008 |
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| Overall Rating: 2.4 |
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The staff was rude (I had two insulting comments about Texas). The terrain was pretty average compared to other areas, and the snow was good for the first three days, then icy for the others. The weekday crowds were fine, but the weekend was very crowded. We were here 5 years ago and had a much better time before. Steamboat has gotten very crowded and expensive, so we will be looking for a different resort for our trip next year.
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Glorria
from Orlando, Florida
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Dec 6, 2007 |
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| Overall Rating: 4.4 |
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Steamboat is a great skiing mountain with a nice little town. They've put a good effort into making it easy to get around. Good for families and singles.
Terrain and snow are terrific, good variety. Mountain nicely laid out and I understand they've done some work on the bottom to make it a friendlier. Just based on the slopes and lifts it's good for mixed skill-level parties. Great ski school instructors.
Now for the less positive. Unfortunately, while it suffers less from the huge influx of dangerous skiers/snowboarders than some resorts that get more day guests, it has it's problems and there is little or no monitoring of the slopes or attempts to curb aggressive riding.
I've skied for 20 years at probably 100 different places around the world. I had never been hit by another rider in all that time. At Steamboat I was hit twice in one week - once by an out-of-control skier on a near-empty slope and once by a snowboarder going at extremely high speed, looking everywhere but downslope, on a green run in a slow zone. If he had hit the child in our party instead of me it is likely she'd be crippled or dead given the speed that he hit me at.
At no point was there any ski patrol on any of the slopes. The green run they advertise as the easiest way down the mountain (which is then filled with slow, uncertain beginnners and children) is nothing more than a high-speed freeway for teenage skiers and boarders and there is no effort made to enforce any of the slow zones. Despite being relatively uncrowded, these places are icy deathtraps due to the aggressive gangs of riders going through.
My party had mixed skill levels and so I often found myself riding on slopes I'd otherwise avoid and I was terrified one of the less-skilled members of the party would get hit just because they were going slower or maybe fell.
I am completely dissatisfied with Steamboats safety and slope monitoring and I would not bring a mixed group there again. That's unfortunate because in so many ways it's perfect for that sort of thing.
I will go back myself, however, in January for a advanced women's only workshop. I'll put in a review of that when I get back.
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Joe
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Dec 6, 2007 |
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| Overall Rating: 4.8 |
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Steamboat is a great example of how a good mountain should be.
Terrain: The terrain is tough, but not so tough that beginners can't enjoy it! I am not a beginner, but I loved the blacks and had first
thought they might be too hard. Also the conditions are great. The conditions are normally powder, and there is not much ice. The terrain on this mountain is perfect. To call it anything else would be a BIG FAT LIE!
Service: I loved the service here, the ski schools
and the food were great. The hotel was very nice, and the baselodge was good too. The reason why, however, I gave it a 4, is because the baselodge
takes up about half of the beginner zone, and it
will get bigger as time goes on. Also, the chairlifts don't have safety bars.
Crowds: I very rarely ran into any crowds big enough to ruin the day. Its not a mountain
where you have to be worried about other skiers and riders hovering above you on a steep trail either. If you can't stand crowds, this might be a good break for you.
Activities: The only thing I really did was skiing, which was good so I gave it a 5.
Value: I can't remember much about how much it cost now, but I think it was a fair price.
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Kim Rogers
from Monument, CO
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Jul 27, 2007 |
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| Overall Rating: 5.0 |
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I've skied many resorts in Canada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Caifornia, Utah, and Colorado and I must say that Steamboat, by far, has the lightest, driest, fluffiest powder of all the places I've skied. Did I mention that it was also the deepest I've ever skied? Great variety of terrain. Something for every level of skiers and more. Completely worth the visit!
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Ian Higginbotham
from Leicestershire, England
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Feb 21, 2007 |
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| Overall Rating: 3.2 |
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This resort promises so much but delivered a disappointing overall result. I note a previous reviewer talked of poor grooming.
We visited Steamboat for 2 weeks in February 2007, the first 3 days were good skiing on groomed powder and then came a warm spell. Runs that were groomed during the night were good until 10:30am, then became soft and lumpy by 11:30 and cookie dough by lunchtime. Grooming was done so late at night on some runs that the following morning the groomed snow was like skiing ice cubes.
Imagine our delight when new snow fell overnight and the grooming reports said most runs had been groomed. No such luck. The runs were left with 4-6 inches of powder on which were fantastic from 9:00 to 10:30, lumpy for the next 2 hours and totally skied off by 1:00pm so you were on the yellow ice underneath. On days it snowed all day not one groomer was out preserving the new snow. In 35 years of skiing all round the world, including periods as an instructor, this is the first time I have been to a resort for 2 weeks and NEVER saw a Pisten Bully during daylight hours. The Gondola opens at 8:30am, you ride to the mid point and ski to any other lift (if the runs are open) and wait in a queue until 9:00 for any other lift to open. What is THAT about?
I completely understand not grooming many runs for the powder hounds, and I enjoy it as well, but to leave an entire mountain ungroomed is serious madness and means that I will not return to Steamboat ever again because parties with mixed ability people will suffer. There are too many other resorts that look after their snow to ski snow as bad as this at $880 for a 2-week ski pass.
The resort is in the process of being sold I do hope the new owners read this and spend money on looking after their snow and clients, otherwise they will suffer the same fate as ASC.
P.S. Phoenix Condos provided us with superb accomodation and the warmest of welcomes during our stay. Thoroughly recommended.
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Red Mun
from Steamboat, Colorado
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Feb 20, 2006 |
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| Overall Rating: 4.8 |
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Best resort I've ever been to.
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Sean Davis
from Cherry Hill, NJ
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Nov 29, 2005 |
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| Overall Rating: 4.2 |
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Steamboat is awesome. Went there in january for a college ski week thing which was cheap, $480 for lodging, and 5 day lift ticket. Best mountian i have ever skiied and there was so much snow. Powder Powder Powder. Went to Arapahoe basin the day before we came here and it couldn't compare to here. Woul come back again but looking for crazier terrian. Great place to go though and great hidden staches of powder in trees and off the double blacks.
