Traveling With Kids: Bromley Mountain Ski Resort

Though we were eager to ski right out of the gate as soon as the snow started falling in December, one issue we ran into repeatedly this season—given that the weather wasn’t as cooperative as in previous winters—was trail coverage. Don’t get me wrong; we were happy to ski on whatever snow was available but boy was it a treat to head to Bromley Mountain Ski Resort this past weekend, where almost all trails were open! Contrary to many people’s perceptions, ski season goes well beyond February vacation and I’m hoping this report will inspire you to book a trip in the coming weeks (my husband skied as late as April last year). Here are my recommendations for visiting Bromley with kids!

1. Distance

Bromley Mountain Ski Resort is about 3 hours from Boston. It’s located in an incredible area of Southern Vermont with immediate access to 3 ski mountains. From Bromley, you can see Magic Mountain and Stratton Mountain; which are just under and over a 15 minute drive away, respectively.

2. Sun Therapy, FTW

One of the distinctive features of Bromley is that it’s the only south facing ski resort in New England; it’s not called the Sun Mountain for nothing! So seriously, if you even vaguely experience any level of winter blues and need some Vitamin D therapy, head to Bromley. It was positively glorious to feel the sun on our faces all day while we skied! I didn’t ask, but I can only assume their mascot is named Sunny.

Bromley Mountain; also known as the Sun Mountain

3. SCOPE

Bromley is a mid-sized ski resort. There are 9 lifts and 47 trails that cover 178 of their total 300 acres; there are also terrain parks that my kids loved zipping through. It truly is a great mixed mountain, with the terrain breakdown being: 32% easiest (green), 37% more difficult (blue), and 31% most difficult (black). One of the things I love about mountains of this scope is that there’s just a lot less worrying. All trails lead to a centralized base so all we ever needed to do as a family was agree whether we were meeting at the base of a particular lift or in front of the lodge. I also love that skiing offers a wonderful way for kids to experience bigger spaces. My kids just love scampering off and then reconnecting at different parts of the mountain.

4. Trails

The snow at Bromley was fantastic. I mean, the weather was PERFECT while we were there…gorgeous bluebird days and the snow conditions were amazing; perfectly groomed and I didn’t hit a single icy patch. For the most part we were on green and blue trails, though Laurel and Jon skied some black trails and reported that they were sufficiently challenging. My favorite trail of all was their longest trail—a 2.5 mile green trail called Run Around, which is labeled in four parts because it zig-zags in four stretches. It was so fun to ski and there were a number of little cut-outs that allowed Violet to ski in and out of the woods, which she loves.

5. Perfect Learning Area Set-up

One thing that immediately caught my attention at Bromley was how well-delineated and separate the learning areas are. If you’re at the base facing the mountain (or looking at the map) to the far right is a distinct, separate learning area (including the lifts East Meadow Chairlift + Star Carpet). And if you look to the far left there’s another area (including Lord’s Prayer T-Bar and Kids Carpet), at the base of which there is a completely cordoned off Kids Center where the really small skiers were working. This really stood out to me because it’s not uncommon at other mountains for the central traffic to merge right into or run adjacent to learning areas and one time Violet was nearly taken out in one of these situations. So, high fives, Bromley!

6. Lessons

Speaking of learning I cannot recommend enough how helpful it is to take lessons...and more specifically, let me put in a plug for private or semi-private lessons. Yes, they cost money, but you will accelerate your confidence, ability, and enjoyment as a skier as a result. Bromley has a number of lesson options and they offers something really cool—a Friends & Family private lesson where you can do a one-hour lesson with up to 3 people at the single student rate. We split up by ability and Jon and Laurel worked with Billy and Violet and I worked with Mike and it was really wonderful. I will just tell you straight out that Violet really does not like being in a big group lesson herd (last year, she referred to the ski school vests as "humiliating," which was further confirmation that she was a 60-year-old lady living in an 7-year-old body). And even when she has had opportunities for private or (vest-free) semi-private kids' lessons she has not been wild about it, knowing that Jon, Laurel, and I would likely be grouped together in an adult lesson. So being able to take a lesson together was really fantastic and our instructors Billy and Mike were really wonderful in helping us work on fundamentals and tweak techinque. I was especially grateful to Mike for telling me not to worry about speed (I had mentioned fretting that I was too slow) and also helping me let go of the idea that I need to keep tackling harder stuff; that it was better for me to stay on greens and work on my form. Seriously, ski therapy is a thing. Just LET GO.

7. Base Lodge

The base lodge at Bromley is large and accommodating. There are four food outlets; we primarily ate at the lodge marketplace, and let me just say that the chips that accompanied the sandwiches are fried fresh and are AMAZING. Jon and I also enjoyed sitting outside at The Waffle Shack with drinks, sitting in the sun! There’s also a gear shop at the lodge, though sadly we were a bit pressed for time and didn’t manage to pop in and get our usual souvenirs. Oh, and also, again this might sound like a small matter but I think this is the first base lodge I have been to where the bathrooms are on the main floor and OMG I was living my best life not having to clomp up and down stairs whenever I needed to pop off the slopes to use the bathroom. (I will never, ever win a foot race in ski boots.)

8. Lodging

We were so delighted to stay in Bromely Village, which is immediately adjacent to the mountain. Bromley Village offers a range of accommodation sizes and offer a lovely way to enjoy the conveniences of a home. After skiing all day on Saturday we got takeout and it was wonderful to just spread out and relax in the quiet! Amazing added bonus: our condo at the Arlington building was just steps from the top of Plaza Chairlift, which meant, WOO HOO we could ski on and off from the condo! That said, if you are staying at Bromley Village but aren't in walking distance to ski on/off access, there is shuttle service, or you can drive and park at the mountain.

The gorgeous view as soon we hopped on Bromley Mountain from our ski-on access point!

9. Other Activities

I know I’m reporting for ski season here, but since we could see glimpses of their summer programming through the snow and trees, I wanted to mention that Bromley hosts a bunch of summer activities, including an adventure park, an alpine slide (you could see the long winding track running under the Sun + Alpine chair lifts!), a water slide, aerial adventure park, disc golf, and more. Bromley Village also offers proximity to a pool, tennis court, and playground.

In a nutshell, Bromley is a fantastic mountain for families. It’s expansive enough to offer a range of ski abilities, compact enough so you will feel more confident letting your kids roam, the structure of the lessons and learning areas makes for fun, accident-free skiing, and the chips at the marketplace are off the hook!

Disclosure: Bromley Mountain kindly accommodated our family as I explored the property for editorial. All opinions on the property are, of course, my own.