Can’t say enough great things about Jay Peak!
This was my third time skiing, my second time skiing on the east coast and I’ve “skied” once in Colorado. And as many people know it is very different skiing on the east coast over Colorado.
The first time I skied in Colorado, I let my friends talk me into not taking lessons because they were expensive, and they had gone skiing many times. So, they could teach me. I ended up with a torn meniscus.
But let’s get to why you came here… JAY PEAK. It’s about 4 hours from Boston if you take the straight shot.
We stopped in Lincoln and Conway, New Hampshire, to go through the White Mountains, I highly recommend this! While it is not as beautiful a leaf peeping season in October, it is quite amazing to see the snow capped mountains.
Jay Peak Resort is very nice, pretty much has everything you need for a several days stay.
Multiple restaurants (we ate somewhere different every night), ski and snowboard rentals, multiple lifts, a spa, water park, general store (lots of groceries and alcohol), movie theater, and ice rink.
There is not much of a town around the resort, but that didn’t affect our stay.
We stayed at the Tram Haus because of all the rooms have a kitchenette (I highly recommend this to save time and money on breakfast) and ski-in ski-out abilities.
Tram Haus is connected via a few tunnels, stairs, and indoor passageways to the water park, restaurants, and the general store.
But there are several other places you can stay on the mountain. Hotel Jay and Penthouse is directly connected to the water park, it is a little bit harder to ski in and out of than Tram Haus. Stateside hotel and the base lodge is on the opposite side of the resort from Hotel Jay & Tram Haus but also has great ski-in and ski-out access; this is also where you pick-up your skis if you reserve them online.
There are multiple shuttles to take you from one side of the mountain to the other, however, during high occupancy days, they can take a bit of time to get to you.
We took ski lessons, super helpful for my husband who hadn’t skied before. Jay offered a few different deals/packages when it came to lessons, lift tickets, and rental equipment… I recommend you look into those before purchasing anything.
On another note, the resort received over 2 feet of snow (Yep, that is right FEET) in 36 hours, this was amazing and made for great fluffy powder.
Which also made it a lot easier for me to ski, I’m not a fan of icy snow because I’m not the best at slowing down. Our instructor, however, said that the compact snow is the best to learn on, which were the conditions on day 1… day 2 was a different story, it was allll fluffy
Foodie Review of Jay
- Alice’s table: A nicer dining experience, more romantic and pretty tasty – things like chicken, steak, etc.
- The Foundry: Slightly more causal than Alice’s table, but the food was still a bit more on the expensive side – things like steaks, burgers, seafood, etc
- Mountain Dick’s pizza: This is your typical pizza place with wings and thin crust pizza
- Cafeterias: It’s pretty much what you think of when you think of cafeteria food. All the locations have the same, chicken fingers, burgers, hot dogs, soup/chili, and pre-made salads.
- Howies… disclaimer we didn’t eat here. But it looked similar to the Foundry
What you should know about the rentals
If it’s your first-time skiing make sure you buy your goggles, whether it’s just a bright day or snowy day, they came in handy. And you can’t rent goggles.
The rental comes with skis, boots, a helmet, and poles.
I can’t recommend enough that you take your time trying on boots and follow the try-on guide that they have at the rental shop (if available). My shins and legs were killing from the way my boots fit at first. After a bit of googling and YouTubing, I figured out how to get them to fit a bit better… that was a game-changer!
What you should know before skiing
- Make sure you do some leg workouts or cardio before going if you are not in the best shape.
- It was the workout of if you were in shape
- Watch a few YouTube videos or read a few articles about skiing before you arrive
- Here are a few of my favs
- Study the map of the mountain
- You want to make sure you don’t get on the wrong lift/one that you will never be able to ski down from
- You also need to know how to get back to your side of the mountain
Happy skiing and I hope you enjoy Jay Peak!
Where is Jay Peak?
