Terrain	3.0
Service	4.0
Crowds	5.0
Activities	2.0
Value	5.0
Overall Rating	3.8

1 Viewer Reviews

Greg K. from Cleveland, Ohio	Mar 27, 2007
Overall Rating:  3.8

Living in Cleveland has always produced a very short list for skiing. There is the day trip to Peak n Peek which is a two-hour drive. Then there is Holiday Valley, Holimont and Seven Springs all a 3 hour drive for weekend overnighters. After learning about Bristol Mountain and its published 1200 vertical drop, I wondered if it was worth the four and a half hour drive and whether it should be added to the list of weekend get-a-ways. So late in February 07, I went to find out. To my surprise, the answer is a very resounding yes!

Terrain: 3
Bristol is in a whole different skiing category than the resorts in Ellicottville or Pennsylvania. While Holimont, Holiday Valley and Seven Springs fit into the category I call “foothill” skiing, Bristol fits into a “low mountain” rating that makes it more comparable to say Windham Mountain in the Catskills. Because Bristol actually is a real mountain, most of the main runs are two to three times longer than the average runs at Holiday Valley. The high-speed quad, the Comet Express, measures 6000 feet as compared to the 4400 foot length of the longest lift, the Mardi Gras express, at Holiday Valley. The 33 trails claimed at Bristol is somewhat misleading. In reality, there are about 10 to 12 interesting ways down the hill that are comparable to short western groomed blues. If you are a beginner, there are half a dozen long green trails. If you like moguls, Meteor is going to be your only run. This double diamond black is also equivalent to a western mogul blue and would be a very nice warm-up for any trip out west. The Morning Star lift services a massive terrain park and most of the green runs thus making a good separation between the beginners and kids and the more advanced skiers on the Comet Express and other lifts. All the runs are lit until 10:00 pm so you can ski until you drop. The snow quality was excellent on all of the runs and the views into the valley were lovely. Bristol is a nice little mountain that can give an advanced skier a decent 2-day workout without becoming too bored while giving beginners and kids plenty of nice runs as well.

Service: 5
The locals are proud of their little mountain and it shows. The lifts were modern and the operators were polite and handled the chairs well. The Demo center was well stocked and the service was excellent. The mountain grooming was superb. Every trail was corduroy perfect in the morning. There are three cafeterias in the two lodges at the base offering a wider range of food than the typical ski food of hamburgers and hot dogs. One cafeteria had more entrée dishes such as meatloaf, spaghetti and lasagna. Of course burgers, hotdogs, pizza and subs were available as well. Breakfast is also served. Although we ate all of our lunches in the condo, the food looked a step above your typical lodge food. The lodges are medium-sized, clean and serviceable and could probably handle a heavy lunch crowd pretty well. There was a small ski store, and lockers were available. The customer service reps for the Northstar townhouse village were easy to work with and very accommodating.

Activities:2
The town of Canandaigua is a fifteen to twenty minute drive from Bristol and has four or five various specialty or upscale restaurants and some boutique shops on the main street. It also has the biggest grocery store, a Wegmans, that I have ever seen. This store could hanger a few 747’s. If you cannot find what you want there, it does not exist. “The Inn on the Lake” hotel looked accommodating and a decent enough place to stay. But Canandaigua is a summer town so don’t expect a lot to be happening.

There are very few options for lodging right near the resort. If you want ski-in ski-out then your only choice is the small but cute Northstar village. The Condo we stayed in was nicely furnished, clean and accommodating. The only other options are the two B & B’s the Filagree Inn and Acorn Inn. They are 2 and 5 minutes respectively from Bristol and both looked nice. Also, nearby Bristol was the lone restaurant-bar, the Lock Stock and Barrel, that had a nice family style menu. The food was fine and reasonably priced. There is nothing else near the mountain.

Crowds: 5
Because we skied on a Monday and Tuesday the crowds were zero. The longest wait, 2-3 minutes, happened late in the day when the school buses arrived at the same time for the night skiing and this wait only happened once. Bristol appears to have plenty of capacity to handle even it's peak periods and it is doubtful that the lines are ever more than five minutes. You get a lot of skiing in at Bristol.

Value: 5
The value was great. The cost of Northstar with discounted ski tickets made this an extremely affordable trip for our group. Even without the discounts, the ticket prices give you some really nice skiing at a good price. If you are not going out west or to Vermont and the après ski scene is not a must, Bristol can scratch that big mountain itch in a way that foothill skiing never can. At least once a season, instead of stopping at Ellicottville, I’ll definitely be driving on through to Bristol. (I hope this review has been helpful. For my other reviews see Gore & Whiteface. Happy Skiing!)