Last week we packed up the car and headed away as a family to Crystal Springs Resort in Vernon, New Jersey. We wanted to take Richie skiing for his 4th birthday, and we picked Crystal Springs Resort because it's not too far away, and the mountain and resorts are very close to each other with a shuttle bus that takes you to and fro.
Mountain Creek is where you ski, and then there are a couple of resorts to chose from nearby- Minerals Resort and Spa and Grand Cascades Lodge. We stayed at Grand Cascades Lodge. Minerals Resort and Spa is what they consider more of a "family friendly" resort because it has indoor basketball courts, tennis courts, a very nice pool and an arcade room (we checked it out while we were there and we were happy with where we chose to stay instead). I think it may have been okay if our kids were older and would have been able to use those facilities.
Grand Cascades Lodge is a bit fancier (no basketball, tennis or arcade room), and it has more dining options and a biosphere pool with a slide which is one of the coolest pools I have ever seen!
The cost to stay at Grand Cascades Lodge is more, and we had originally considered going Friday thru Sunday. But that wouldn't be the "JetSetSmart" way to travel and save, right? Well, if you go Sunday thru Thursday, you can either buy one night and get the second night half off, or buy two nights and get the third night free. We went Sunday thru Tuesday, and the price was half of what it would have cost us if we went Friday thru Sunday. The other plus was that the hotel had less people, so they upgraded us to a room with a fireplace, terrace and full kitchen, and the restaurant and pool was pretty empty so we felt like we had the place to ourselves at times!
As for the skiing, Richie got to do a two hour drop-off ski camp (which starts at age 4) where after a few falls ;-) he basically got the knack of the sport by the end. He seemed to really enjoy it!
We had a great little getaway, and look forward to more ski trips next winter!
