For the holiday season, we’ve decided to go do another Home Exchange, this time to Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve done a few successful Home Exchanges, like to Paris and to Washington, D.C. and this time, we wanted to go out west for a ski vacation. Since skiing can be quite expensive, we thought it would be a great idea to do an exchange to offset the cost of flying and skiing.
Salt Lake City and County Building and Library Square with view of Winter Wasatch Mountains. Photo credit: Adam Barker | Visit Salt Lake
We found a great family with two young teens to exchange with us. They also have cats so that means they are able to take care of our two kitties as well, which is a great plus for us. They also are avid skiers so they were able to tell us which their favorite mountains are to hit. We’ve got an action packed seven days, so this cold that I’ve been fighting has to end!
I am partnering with Visit Salt Lake and the Utah Office of Tourism who have provided me and family resources to further enjoy our stay! Make sure to follow my posts with the hashtag #TTMskisUtah to see what we are up to! These are the things that we are planning to do during our seven days in Utah:
We’ll be using the Visit Salt Lake Connect Pass to visit Salt Lake’s The Connect Pass provides us an all-in-one ticket that give us major discounts on admission prices on 13 of Salt Lake City’s best attractions. We’re thinking the Clark Planetarium or the Natural History Museum of Utah.
Ski School at Alta Ski Resort. Photo Courtesy of Alta.com
Do some skiing with the Ski Salt Lake Super Pass will be a lot of fun, because this pass is easy to use and can be redeemed at four ski resorts: Alta, Brighton, Snowbird and Solitude. It also lets you have free transportation to the resorts, and 20% off rentals in participating resorts. Since we are 100% skiers, I am partial to the ski-only Alta resort, although our Home Exchange family suggested Brighton which is where their kids had learned to ski. We’ll decide when we get there since both Alta and Brighton don’t need reservations for ski-school.
The Super Pass also lets our family into EVE, the three-day New Year’s Eve Celebration that has events like a Utah Jazz game; a whole BOUNCETown (that’s right a huge room full of those bouncy, inflatable toys; Fireworks; concerts and showings at the Clark Planetarium, to name a few!
Photo credit: Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation
We are also SUPER excited to go to the Olympic Trials at the Utah Olympic Park specifically to catch the US Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping event where spots for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Japan will be fought for. This is also the first time that Women’s ski jumping will make its Olympic Trials debut – and how perfect to have our girls watch this historic event!
And if that wasn’t enough, we’ll definitely be hitting more slopes at Park City Mountain Resort because we want to hit as many mountains (and ski-schools!) while we are in Utah. Tubing at Gorgoza Park is also a must from what everyone is telling me, as well as this looks like a great way to get a break from skiing while still enjoying the snow.
Ski school students ride the Magic Carpet lift in Park City Mountain Resort’s Beginner Learner Zone, just over an acre of instruction space reserved for beginner skiers and snowboarders of all ages. Photo Credit: Park City Mountain Resort
Tubing at Gorgoza Park: Photo Credit: Park City Mountain Resort
Read about my Top Tips on doing a Home Exchange. And click here for more information on Visit Salt Lake, and the Olympic Trials at the Utah Olympic Park