February 2020 we took an epic family road trip around California. One big draw for us as a family is that we could have sea/beach and mountains in one trip. So ten days into our trip we arrived at Heavenly Mountain Resort, south of Lake Tahoe and around a 3 hour drive from San Francisco. Heavenly lives up to its name with over 4,800 acres full of ski and boarding terrain and the most incredible views of Lake Tahoe, you can see why it’s a popular choice for families who love to ski and snowboard like us.
This being the 5th time we’ve skied with our two boys aged 8 and 10 we knew we needed to make it as easy as possible in regards to our accommodations proximity to the lifts and hire shop. With that in mind, we stayed for 3 nights at the Forest Suites.
The location is perfect, we were within a five minute walk of the main shops, restaurants and lift base, which as we’ve learnt the hard way in the past, makes all the difference not having to carry kids skis for miles. The suite we had was divine, it was huge and had a separate kitchen and dining area which was perfect for the evenings we didn’t fancy going out and eating in. On-site here they had all the amenities too, a great restaurant with a well stocked buffet breakfast each morning, great games room our boys loved, and a laundry….. Now this probably isn’t high on everyone’s list but it was on ours after ten days on the road and very mucky little boys!
So our first day after getting suited and booted in the hire shop opposite the main lift, we headed up the mountain.The gondola from the village takes around ten minutes to reach the ski area. We were so lucky with the weather for the 3 days we skied here, we had wall to wall sunshine and great snow. Our boys really found their confidence on the blue run and spent hours just going up and down the easy lift whilst I had a chance to relax with a coffee whilst watching them. Heavenly is really set up well for families, the perfect easy runs for kids, the great selection in the on mountain restaurants and overall ease of getting there and skiing was just ideal.
At the base you can find Tamarack Lodge offering amazing food – especially the burgers!
Aside from the skiing we walked down the Lake, and oh wow, what a view. We walked down just before sunset from the Forest Suites which took around ten minutes. The lake is just simply stunning, the stillness of the water with the reflection of the snow capped mountains which seem to flank the entire lake was just magical.
Heavenly ski resort and Lake Tahoe makes a great choice for families to enjoy the area. If we had more time we would have like to have tried the sledding and snowmobiling and maybe a dabble in the local casinos as we bordered Nevada, but as we had the boys with us that’s for another day. The only thing I would recommend to families considering Heavenly, Lake Tahoe for ski or boarding holiday is it really isn’t a good shout for first timers or beginners as the terrain in the most part is limited and more suited for intermediates, the green slopes here are limited in their numbers.
