You should bring your family to Park City. Or your girlfriend. Especially if she doesn't like to ski much. She'll love it there. And so will your kids. Hell, if you're not a big skier you may even love Park City yourself! There's a tremendous amount of beginners on the mountain in Park City, more so than I've seen anywhere else. There's a tremendous amount of people in general too on the mountain in Park City, more so than I've seen most places. The place is super easy to get to, just a quick 30min Uber ride from the airport in Salt Lake City. The convenience of getting there is a huge plus for the place and once you're there you can walk or take the bus anywhere you need to go. There's also ample accomodation options within walking distance of the lifts both ont he Park City side (mostly Airbnb's/condos) and the Canyon side (both Airbnb and luxury hotel options). No need for a rental car in other words. The town is also quite cool. Mainstreet has your classic see-and-be-seen ski town vibe with restaurants, apres spots, fancy clothing stores, all nicely nestled in between art galleries and real estate business selling luxury condos. Apres is also quite decent there, despite the many convoluted Utah liquor laws.

In many ways I find Park City to be Vail's little big brother. With the combination of Canyons, Park City technically offers more terrain than Vail does, hence the bigger brother reference. But although Park City has more terrain, Vail's terrain is better. Park City has many decent groomers, but Vail's groomers are better. Apres and the see-and-be-seen vibe in Park City is cool if you're into that sort of stuff, but Vail's is better. The town of Park City is cool, but Vail is again better. And finally, offpiste in Park City is actually not great at all, and it can be quite spectacular in Vail as long as you are willing to stand in line for first tracks. If your intent is to go to a high end US mega-resort, Vail wins in my book any day.

I've been to Park City many times, both in January, February, and March. The ease of getting there combined with being on the Epic pass (which i've had some seasons now) was the draw for me. This last trip however may have been my last one there. I went to keep my legs fresh before my upcoming big ski trip to the Alps this season. And while the groomers are OK, most of them are not very challenging. With some notable exceptions, most groomers consist of a short steep section (sub 30sec to ski down) followed by a long far less steep section where one basically straight-lines and tries to steer clear of all the beginners. Offpiste/freeride is also quite limited. On the Park City side, there is some decent terrain off the McConkey lift and the Jupiter, but again the vert in the steep part is limited. Canyons offers perhaps a tad better freeride, there's some good stuff off the 9990 lift and some decent hike-to terrain off the Super Condor. All of this of course assuming that the freeride areas are not roped off, which they very often are. There's also decent tree-skiing on most parts of the upper mountain on both sides (again with limited vert of continous steep terrain).

Snow is decent, but i've never really had great snow in Park City. The Utah powder is fluffy and all, but it just doesn't seem to fall that much of it in Park City. Especially not compared to other Utah resorts like Alta and Snowbird.

And then there's the crowds... They are MASSIVE!!! There's very limited lifts to upload to the mountain at the beginning of the day. Be prepared to stand in line 30-60 min just to get up on the mountain. Once you're there, you can find quieter areas, however; there are major traffic jams on the mountain too, perhaps most notably by the Silverlode on the Park City side and the Tombstone Express on the Canyon side. On weekends the mountain looks like an anthill, skiers and snowboarders everywhere. The unusually high concentration of beginners makes this extra fun, people wiping out in front of you with no warning and otherwise swaying unpredictably around on the slope make it very difficult to charge hard. For whatever reason, Park City seems to draw the attention of people who love all aspects of skiing, just not skiing itself. The more extravagant the outfit, the poorer the skiing skills..

This last time i stayed Wednesday through Sunday. Skiing Wednesday-Friday was actually decent. I got many good laps in, although I often did not feel very challenged due to the vert-limits discussed above. Saturday and Sunday were both absolute S**T-shows and it hit me once and for all that i am never going back to Park City. At least not on a weekend.
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This place deserves zero stars and I regret coming here. On Saturday January 13, 2024, we were on the Canyon Village side ready to begin skiing at 9 am. All of the lifts except the Red Pine Gondola were completely closed. As a result, thousands of people were lined up at Red Pine Gondola with the line snaking around through Canyon Village. We waited in this long line for over 2 hours to get on our first lift of the day. When we got up into the mountain we skied for a little bit but then Tombstone lift also closed down, so everyone was stuck waiting for that lift to reopen or otherwise wait in the lodge. Several lifts remained closed all day. We were told by Park City officials that the closures were due to "high winds" but from what we could see and feel, there was almost no wind at all. In fact, the conditions seemed perfect. There was a ton of fresh snow on the ground from the previous 48 hours and the snow was continuing to fall.

The next day, we got up earlier to try to beat the lines. We were out in Canyon Village ready to ski by 8:40 am. Nevertheless, there was already a line snaking around the buildings again. And again, the other lifts were closed. We made a quick decision to leave Canyon Village and hop on the shuttle to go to the Park City side. We waited approximately 45 minutes for the shuttle. When we arrived to Park City, all of the lifts (except for the small one that goes to the terrain course and PayDay) were closed, including the Crescent lift that was necessary to go up the mountain. Like Canyon Village, there were thousands of people in line at Crescent waiting for the lift to open. Since the lift was not even open, and the line at Crescent not moving, we decided to wait inside the lodge. By the time the lift opened and the lines began moving, it was 12 pm before we could get on Crescent.

On January 15, the lifts in Canyon Village never opened even though the sky was blue and there was very little wind. It would have been a perfect ski day, but apparently Park City doesn't care to open. We lost the entire day of skiing.

I will not be returning to this resort.
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This resort is so massive that it has something for everybody. Plenty of wide open groomers for beginners and intermediates, steeper groomers and solid trees on the Canyons side, moguls galore up high. The trees and bowls on Jupiter and McConkey's are super fun if you're advanced, along with everything on the Canyon's 9990 lift. There are lots of great restaurants and bars, albeit many cater to a higher-end crowd. Your pizza place will be near a high end art gallery or a Rolex store.

The only issue is that everyone knows this place is a blast. There are massive crowds that descend on this place on the weekends and holidays. They do thin out once you get higher up the mountain, especially on the Canyons side. If you go to Park City (and I think you should!) take some vacation and go during weekdays.
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We stayed at the canyon's side and my only complaint is getting up the mountain. Once you get off the base the crowds are spread out well because of how massive of a mountain it is. The snow was absolutely immaculate the whole time. We got a foot of fresh powder and it was awesome. Could not have asked for better conditions. Not a lot of piste on canyons but the off-piste is so amazing. Plenty of big powdery bumps to go around. If you want the freshies though 9990 is the way to go. It's the gnarliest part of Canyons and had some knee deep freshies waiting if you did a little hiking to get to it. Canyons night life is limited. If I went back I would want to shuttle into Park City.
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For my first trip to Utah, we started at Park City and I rented skis, boots and poles. I would never do this again. Staffed by kids, the process was chaotic, slow, and unprofessional. It took forever. Non one working there seemed to be concerned or motivated to move. No one appeared to be in charge. In contrast, I went for my second and third day to Deer Valley and the rental process was the opposite - well managed, staffed by employees who looked and acted professional, quick.

Going forward, I would never to to Park City because of this experience.
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Park City is big. Like crazy big when you add in Canyons. Also big? The crowds. It verged on ridiculous, even for big name resort crowds. That alone led me to not enjoy my trip as much as I would otherwise have. When you wait 15 mins in line for a lift, followed by 15 mins to buy a beer, it starts getting to you after a while. This wasn't even a holiday weekend or Christmas or anything. I'd hate to see what's it's like then. And the lift prices are sky high as well. Sure it's Utah, but still, for that much money, I'd expect fewer crowds.

As far as the skiing goes, not much to complain about. It was a good mix of runs for all ability levels. What I liked was the abundance of mogul runs. Even a lot of blues, which you don't often see. For the advanced/experts several fund bowls are available. What was lacking for me was tree skiing. It's there, but you have to search for it. The majority of trees are not really skiable, it's more forest than glades.

Overall a good experience, but not quite great.
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If you want one spot, where beginners, intermediaries, experts, and non-skiers can have fun...there might not be a better choice than Park City. Breckenridge, Whistler, and Steamboat would be the only other options in this same category. The rest need not apply for those who have non-skiers in their group. You could force Vail into the discussion, but I wouldn't.

I have been there twice, both during early January. The first time was quite epic. Tons of snow that year, and a real nice powder day. I really liked the variety of terrain that was open. The second time was quite different, not nearly the amount of snow. To be fair the entire SLC area was light on snow, including the Cotton Woods. But there was a huge difference between both Cottonwoods and the other side of the mountain. The second time was still fun, but mostly because we only spent one day at PC and it was the first day of the year, so I didn't need too much challenge or adventure to satisfy my appetite that day. Overall I am not holding this against them, but this did personally highlight the large snow difference between the Cottonwoods and PC. Trip with buddies, I'm going to the Cottonwoods 100% of the time. Trip with family, I'm going to PC 100% of the time.

Due to its size and lift infrastructure, this place has never felt crowded to me.
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My review is on the Foundation lesson with the ski school. My adult daughter hadn’t skied for many years. I found a lesson that was supposed to help this category of skier refresh their skills and address some new skills. The group was at the same level with same abilities. The instructor however, told them he was an advanced instructor and never took them anywhere on the mountain but the First Time lift, he was very uncomfortable with beginners. I spent $250 for a lesson & $160 lift ticket for someone who had skied before to spend all day on one beginner slope. There was no instruction at all, the group wanted to go somewhere different but Brian refused. After lunch only 3 remained and he still wouldn’t take them anywhere else on the mountain. Total waste of money!!
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The trail map posted all over the mountain and handed out to ticket holders really needs to be redrawn. They do not differenciate between groomed runs and those that are nothing but a mogul fields. It's a real hazard the intermediate skier looking for blue runs.
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Vail resorts invested a chunk of change to connect both mountains, but their lift operations get 2 of 5 stars. Seems like lifts stop frequently for lift maintenance issues and on the 4 and 6 high speed lifts, there are no lift monitors to "help" organize the chaos on busy days. Occasionally, one person is there, but does very little crowd control.

Lots of high speed boarders too, which makes it kind of dicey at times. Hopefully Vail can get it together and improve their operations.
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