Serene view from our balcony
Overview: The Montage Deer Valley is a full service ski in, ski out resort. They provide equipment. They provide ski school for children and adults. They provide private small group lessons for adults. The ski school service is top-notch for beginners like us. We felt perfectly comfortable sending the kids out with them for the day. And the Montage service meant that Ski Valets handled all of the gear to and from the slopes, warmed boots before heading out and stored everything for us so we never had to bring anything to and from the hotel room. The hotel itself is beautiful. The views from our suite, the grounds, the lounge areas were all breathtaking. If you are not familiar with The Montage brand, they are known for upscale comfort without being completely over the top ornate. This location is no different.
Accommodations: We were in a 3 bedroom suite. The suite included a living room that included a cozy gas fireplace, a balcony w/sliding doors and a table and chairs for meals. The nicest touches were that we had ordered a holiday decor package offered through the hotel (they use an outside decorating company). This included a full size live Christmas tree decorated with pretty rustic ornaments and twinkle lights. The mantel was decorated with real garland swags and there were stockings for the children filled with an odd combination of things like Old Spice spray and chocolate coins…but still a nice touch. Even with the odd stocking stuffers, the holiday decor was well worth the extra money.
Living room with Christmas tree and spectacular view from patio doors
Bedrooms: While the living room was very basic with its comfy sofa and chair in front of the fireplace, the bedrooms were all wonderful. Very spacious. Each had its own sitting area. Great mattresses. Sitting in front of my very own fireplace sipping tea at night was lovely as the snow fell outside my balcony doors.
Sitting area in bedrooms
The tv system is ideal for kids. It has AV hookups easily accessible and some are even wall mounted by the desk so you have a place to put things like Wii consoles (not provided). I travel in reality…and this is what my kids like to do to unwind in the evenings. They’re young teen boys who do NOT find it exciting to spend their down time socializing with Mom after a day of family activity. So once we’ve finished our day’s activities and had a nice dinner together, they disappear to their room and play Wii and I’m left to some quiet relaxation which is a perfect compromise. Just keeping it real parents. Game console friendly as well as DVD, etc. for plenty of alternative entertainment. Can we talk about the bathrooms for a second? Yes, the bathrooms. The bathrooms were some of the best I’ve had in a 5 star accommodation. As a Decorator and avid traveler, I’m always making mental notes about decor and I left talking endlessly about these bathrooms. Beautiful use of beautiful materials. Spacious. Pristine. Well maintained. There really is only one other hotel bathroom that beats it out so far. I won’t name names…but there was definitely mention of it in one of the adult getaway resorts I reviewed. (In Mexico…) A++.
(Hhhmm…I think I’m going have to blog about resort bathrooms now…sigh…)
Restaurants: Excellent atmosphere and excellent food selections. we never felt like skipping a meal and opting for room service because both places were lovely! Lunch upstairs in Apex included a buffet or order from menu option. We did the buffet once and it was packed with good selections. We ordered off the menu other times and the portions were huge and full of flavor. They have specialty drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) that were wonderful! For all you avid skiers this is a ski in, ski out restaurant. Many people joined us right off the slopes in ski boots and all. It made it very casual and comfortable but the food offerings were still upscale. Downstairs is an amazing restaurant called Daly’s Pub & Rec. Classic pub feel but very large, bright and roomy with pool tables, a full game room (Wii stations; etc.) and wait for it…A BOWLING ALLEY. The food matched the surroundings…handmade brick oven pizzas, burgers, fries, hotdogs, soups for the most part. But there were also delicious heartier options as well. The Vista Lounge is a beautiful, sprawling, comfortable living room style bar and lounge where you can get drinks and snacks like fondue. Two other bar type restaurants – one featuring sushi and a To Go specialty coffee, tea, pastry and sandwich shop round out the food options. You could of course also order room service. We did not have a bad meal all week.
Game room in lower level restaurant area
Bowling!
Room service: We only used room service for breakfast because A) the morning started soooo early with ski school times and B) the restaurants in the hotel were GREAT. So I can only speak to the quality and selections of the breakfast menu. Portions were big and very well prepared. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, omelets, waffles, cold cereals and hot teas were our normal selections throughout the week and all were marvelous. Service was very slow (about 45 mins) as is always the case in large hotels but always came with a smile.
Ok now for the seasonal stuff: There was a special New Years Eve dinner celebration. The kids program, which is for ages 5 to 12, had a New Years Eve party that the kids could attend as well. Both were very nice. The hotel was decorated for the holidays and even included a life size gingerbread house on our floor!
“Life size” gingerbread house
They have regular shuttle service to nearby activities like horse-drawn sleigh rides and into the town of Park City to enjoy the shops or night life. We did both and thoroughly enjoyed the ease of getting there and back and the activities themselves. Man, it was COLD! Be sure to take hand and feet warmers to put in your gloves and boots! But that sleigh ride was beautiful. You won’t forget the beauty of that countryside covered in snow. Just gorgeous. They held daily snow tubing runs out on the back lawn area of the property which the kids THOROUGHLY enjoyed.
Tube sledding hosted out on the back lawn
They even had the hotel photographer out catching the fun so that you could purchase a great professional photo of your child flying down the hill in delight. Parents could sit nearby right off the tubing hill at fire pits to keep warm. We appreciated the heat! There are hot tubs and heated swimming pools outdoors…and shockingly people spent time in those as well as we were bundled up to our eyeballs and shivering by the fire pit.
Customer service: Top notch. Anything we needed was no problem. One morning my son had a severe nose bleed (from the altitude…he gets them everywhere it seems). He became so light-headed he couldn’t stand. I called downstairs and within a minute a member of the security team trained as a medic came to the room and assessed his condition. He got the nosebleed under control, got my son some food and juice and waited in the room for a few minutes to be certain he was really OK. He was fantastic with my son and did a great job calming our nerves. He even called our room about a half hour after he left to check up on us. It was nothing but a heavy nose bleed, but the service and attention was again, top-notch.
Overall: it’s a 5 star property with 5 star accommodations and 5 star ski valet service. The food was fantastic. The children enjoyed the ski school. The kid’s program was fine as well, although we’ve seen better. It might be the only thing I even think of to bring up that was slightly out of line with the 5 star-ness of it all. The Montage image is well upheld at this location. We could not have asked for more.
edit. your. life. 