Everything You Need To Know About Visiting Winter Park Resort

Looking for a great place to take a ski trip? Winter Park Resort was named the #1 Ski Resort in North America by USA Today!

With over 3,000 skiable acres, 7 distinct areas for every skill level, and more than 315 inches of annual snowfall, Winter Park Resort is sure to impress on your next ski trip! Here’s the rundown on everything you need to know about visiting Winter Park Resort:

I was invited by Winter Park Resort to visit their property in exchange for coverage on social media and my blog, however, all opinions and statements are my own!

Visitor's Guide: Winter Park Resort, Colorado

How to Get to Winter Park Resort

The best way to get to Winter Park, CO is by flying into the Denver Airport. From there, you have several options on how to get out to Winter Park Resort (about a 2 hour drive).

Rent a Car in Denver

You can rent a car right at the airport, however, take into consideration that you will be driving on snowy, icy roads. If you’re someone like me, who’s from Texas and have never driven in snowy conditions, this might not be your best move.

Also, at first glance, it may look like it’s cheaper than some shuttle options, but you’d probably need to get an SUV with 4-wheel drive, and that is considerably more expensive than the budget vehicle!

Take a Home James Shuttle

This is the option we chose. We booked with Home James Transportation and were pleased with the experienced! It was a little tight inside, but not too uncomfortable. Both drivers we had were incredibly kind and very knowledgeable about the area. Plus, Home James drops off right to your hotel!

Though you have less control over when you leave and arrive (see schedule here), it’s so worth it to take a shuttle and not have to worry about driving in snowy conditions.

If you have a group of 6 or more, it works out that renting a private shuttle is cheaper, which would be even better! Above photo from the Home James Facebook.

Take the Winter Park Express Train

During the peak winter months, you can take the Winter Park Express Train from downtown Denver’s Union Station. While it’s less expensive than the other two options ($29 one way when I checked), it only runs on Saturday and Sunday and the first two Fridays of every month.

You would have to take the A-Line train from the Denver Airport to get to Union Station downtown, then switch over to the Winter Park Express train. If you have a lot of luggage, this would definitely be a hassle. Plus the train only drops off at the station, meaning you’d then need to carry your luggage from there to wherever you’re staying.

I think this is really only a good option if you already live in Denver, but wanted to lay out all the options!

Where to Stay in Winter Park Resort

We stayed in a Zephyr Mountain Lodge condo, and would definitely recommend it! We had a nice two-bedroom condo, that overlooked the mountain. It had TV and Wifi, and was just steps from the base of the mountain and gondola.

It also had a nice hot tub overlooking the slopes too — perfect for after skiing!

They have many other lodging options, browse them here. I would definitely recommend staying in or near “the village.” It’s close to everything and super convenient! PS: my cute pom pom hat is crazy warm and under $15 on Amazon!

Skiing in Winter Park Resort

As Winter Park Resort was named the #1 Ski Resort in North America by USA Today, of course, you MUST ski when visiting!

We rented our ski gear from Mountain Adventure Center, right at the foot of the mountain. They even held on to it there for us until the next day so we didn’t have to lug it all up to our hotel room and back!

We rented our ski pants and jackets from Kit Lender, read more about it here.

We did a 2-hour guided mountain tour. This was a great option, but, if you haven’t skied in awhile, I would highly recommend doing a lesson first.

If you are pretty comfortable on skis, then I would say definitely go for a guided tour! They take you all around the mountain showing you the best runs for your comfort level. Plus, you get to skip all the lines when you’re with a guide!

It is so beautiful up on the mountain, I can totally see why it was voted the #1 Ski Resort!

After you finish skiing, you MUST head to Sunspot Lodge! located on top of the mountain, Sunspot offers amazing views of the continental divide and all of Winter Park at 10,700 ft!

More Activities To Do

Of course skiing is the main attraction at Winter Park Resort — they weren’t ranked #1 for nothing 😉 — but there are so many other fun things to do while visiting Winter Park Resort!

SnowCat Tour

The SnowCat Tour is an awesome way to see the mountain from the comfort and warmth of being inside a vehicle (I think that’s what it technically is? haha).

However, I do not recommend booking a tour for the evening. It gets dark around 5:30, so 75% of our tour was dark and we couldn’t see anything. Had we gone during the day though, it would have been amazing! So book either the 10 AM, 12 PM, or 2 PM tour!