Winter Break in Lake Tahoe

I know I’m Canadian so I should be used to the cold…but I don’t like it. I find the winter to be dreary, boring and sometimes just too cold to handle. I had to find a way to survive the winter and did so in skiing. As soon as my children were old enough, I put them on skis and said, let’s do this boys. We’re now going to spend every winter, on the slopes.

The kids picked up skiing really quickly. I had put them into ski school every weekend for an entire winter at our local mountain just 90 minutes away. Gavin started when he was 5 and Luke was 3. I think hockey plays a big role in their strong balance, and so many of the moves are similar between the sports. We have reached a point where I can no longer keep up with them so we always have a safety plan and meeting spot when we’re on a large mountain.

Every February my kids get the week off for winter break. For the past few years, I’ve taken them to ski in a different city and it’s been such a joy trying new mountains together. We’ve now skied in Whistler, Lake Placid, Telluride and Lake Tahoe, each making for an incredible experience. Of these trips, 3 out of the 4 cities hosted the Olympics! Pretty neat.

For this trip to Lake Tahoe, I booked us a room at the Squaw Creek Resort. It was perfectly located in the Squaw-Alpine mountain and had a chairlift right at the entryway to the hotel. Every morning Gavin would call the ski valet to bring up our skies and they would be right there by the chair lift waiting for us…next to a hot cocoa station.

What I loved most about skiing in Lake Tahoe was the weather. High 40’s / low 50’s every day. Now that’s a true delight in February. One of the days we had to rent lockers just to ditch our coats. The sun was beaming down on us while riding the chairlifts…it was blissful.

The resort had several restaurants, a heated outdoor pool with a waterslide, hot tubs, a skating rink, fire pits everywhere, tons of outdoor bars, games for the kids to play and tons of organized activities. It was the most perfect place to stay with a family.

We met up with our friends from California while there. Our kids are the same ages so they spent time skiing together and hanging out at night.

I had looked into a few things for us to do before getting there. One, was the snowmobiles for the kids. They were so excited for this. Truth be told, it was a bit of a schlep and the course was kinda a joke. Very small and the snowmobiles kept breaking down. I would not suggest this HOWEVER…my kids totally loved it.

I booked the kids a ski instructor for the first day of our trip and I’d say this was the most brilliant thing that I did. They got the BEST instructor who truly enjoyed skiing the mountain with the boys, showed them all of the best runs and took them on the black diamond mountains that I refuse to ski on out of fear that I’ll break every bone in my body. While the kids skied with this instructor, name was Ilya, I skied with my buddies. When the kids were done, they begged me to rebook with Ilya so I did…but this time, hit the spa for a massage while they were on the mountain. Now that…was a treat.

In the evenings, my kids loved skating and swimming. They were so active on this trip, I’m not sure anything could beat it. So much better than spending hours on their devices. Every night the hotel had organized activities for kids and Luke was all over them. One night he jumped right onto the ice for a game of broom ball with a group of people he didn’t know. That kid has no fear and I admire him so much for it. Another night, Luke and his buddy Cristian did the “Mountain Buddies” program. We dropped them off at 6pm in a room that felt like a daycare but a little more sophisticated. They had dinner, went sledding, skating, did arts & crafts, had hot cocoa and played board games. We didn’t pick them up until 10. Now that was a babysitting service I would highly recommend!

I can’t say that the food was anything to write home about in Squaw Valley but that’s not what we were there for. So I won’t be able to suggest any restaurants for you to try if you go but I will say that I so enjoyed spending time with my friends, unwinding with a glass of wine and chilling out by the large fire pits every night. I enjoyed every moment of being out there…there’s something magical about ski trips on the west coast.