swix":3mcxansp said:
My wife and I are going to slc febuary 19-27th , during president's week . I want to know if they expect crowds at the ski station ? We bought 4 days with the super pass. Which stations do you recommend for the three other days?
You've got the Ski Salt Lake Super Pass, which covers Snowbird, Alta, Brighton and Solitude, and you've got 3 other days to ski as well. (I'm assuming that you ski, not snowboard, otherwise Alta and Deer Valley are out as neither allow snowboarding.) Crowding around here is more fiction than fact, in my opinion. For example, I never waited more than 5-10 minutes for any lift at Alta or Snowbird over the entire Christmas/New Year's holiday, and in most cases skied right onto a lift.
That said, the least crowded will be Powder Mountain, Snowbasin and Solitude. I've got a personal soft spot in my heart for Powder Mountain -- the day lodge will make you feel right at home from Mont-Adstock. :wink: The most crowded will be the three Park City-area ski resorts (Park City Mountain Resort, Deer Valley and The Canyons). The biggest congestion points at those three will be at the base of the mountain in the morning, so should you opt to visit any of those three you should get up the mountain early in the morning and stay up there until you're ready to quit for the day -- i.e., don't return to the base until you're done. At PCMR, avoid Payday other than to get up in the morning. At The Canyons, avoid the whole area surrounding Red Pine Lodge atop the Flight Of The Canyons Gondola -- use it only as a transit point. Dreamcatcher has been empty every time I've seen it, for your typical tourist doesn't venture that far.
Crowding at the four Salt Lake City areas will depend on what the weather does. If we get a big storm, expect local powder hounds to flock to Alta and Snowbird to track it out for a few hours and then go home or go to work. It's still worth it to be there on those days in my opinion, as places like Solitude will still have fresh powder to ski the next day. The vibe at Alta on a powder day is unmistakable and shouldn't be missed. I'm assuming that powder is what you want. If it's long groomers that you're looking for my advice will have to be different.
swix":3mcxansp said:
Is it ok to rent a car with Advantage? We reserved a 4x4 Jeep liberty and heard that there were airport fees, is this true?
It sounds like tseeb has experience with Advantage in SLC, I don't. They're one of the "second tier" rental companies. Yes, there are airport fees for renting a car at the Salt Lake airport just as there are at just about any U.S. airport. Some rental companies include the total cost in their quote, inclusive of the fees, and some don't.
You can save a bunch of money, eliminating the airport concession fee and some of that tax, too, by renting off-site away from the airport at the expense of the convenience of stepping off your plane and into you car.
For example I just played around by making a reservation on Advantage's website,
http://arac.com/. They add the following for an airport rental in their price quote:
VLF UTAH 1.50 Per Day
SLC CRF 9.25 Percent
Sales Tax 16.10%
The "VLF UTAH" listed is the vehicle license fee. the "SLC CRF" is the Salt Lake Airport Concession Recovery Fee. "Sales tax" is of course self-explanatory. Those are all the fees.
If you saw something like that on your price quote when you made a reservation, then the fees are already included in the price. If not they're tacked onto the price. I used your travel dates of Feb. 19-27, 2008 and they quote "$299.00 per week/$458.94 total" which equates to 1 week @ $299/week plus 1 day @ $55/day, plus all taxes and fees:
VLF UTAH 1.50 Per Day = 12.00
SLC CRF 9.25 Percent = 33.47
Sales Tax 16.10% = 63.64
for $458.94 true total cost
including all of the fees.
Notice, though on their reservation page the option for "Suburban/City Locations". Click on that and you'll see that they have a Downtown Salt Lake City location. A quote for a rental at that location lists the following additional fees:
VLF UTAH 1.50 Per Day = 6.00
Sales Tax 11.60%
So, by renting downtown instead of at the airport you save 4.5% sales tax and the entire 9.25% airport concession fee. Seeing as you're staying downtown anyway it might make more sense to pay for a cab or an airport shuttle to get to your hotel (downtown is quite close to the airport) and then rent the car downtown to save those additional fees on your car rental. Then again, the difference is only about $50 so it might not be worth the inconvenience. I don't know your travel schedule, but if you arrive in the evening, or depart early morning you could potentially eliminate a whole day of rental, too, so now we're talking savings of about $100.
(On a related note, one of the most expensive fee arrangements I've ever encountered was at the Albuquerque, New Mexico airport when I flew in to ski Taos. It basically doubled the quoted rental price.)
swix":3mcxansp said:
We were thinking of staying at Chase Suites downtown slc, would you recommend it?
I'm not personally familiar with the property. By staying downtown you are farther from the skiing, but close to exceptional dining choices. Suburban hotel properties in Sandy, Draper, Midvale, Murray, and Cottonwood Heights are all closer to the ski areas.
I just mentioned to my wife, who's from Donnacona QC that a new user from Thetford Mines was inquiring about a Utah vacation. She says that I should reply in French. I told her that if I want to make sense I'll have to reply in English. :lol:
