Bromley

If you have younger kids and worry about getting lost in the huge resorts, Bromley may just be your place.  Just up the road from all the tourist attractions in Manchester, Bromley is right-sized for families ... big enough to have some trail variety, but small enough to make it truly easy to navigate.  This is not a resort with a big village, but all the restaurants and shopping you could want are in Manchester.  There is one lodge (Bromley Sun Lodge) and a few condos available to stay on-site, but this is a commuter mountain. 

Bromley offers 45 trails, and there is enough to address the interests of beginners, intermediates and advanced/expert skiers.  There are a few older, double chairs, but the Sun Mountain Express quad gets you to the summit and gives access to a nice variety of cruisers for all skill levels.  There is even an Expert glade (The Plunge) accessible off to the left of the lift.  For advanced/expert skiers, however, the Blue Ribbon Quad allows access to the East side of the mountain.  There you can find black diamond cruisers, bumps and a glade (Avalanche Glade) which will be a nice surprise in terms of variety and challenge.

The base lodge is quaint, older-style, and, again, easy to navigate.  You feel comfortable getting around anywhere on this mountain, and that is a real plus for families.  They do a nice job with kids lesson programs as well.   I thoroughly enjoy skiing at Bromley for 1-2 days.  If you stay in Manchester, it's very easy to try out Bromley, Stratton and Magic to make up a ski week with a lot of variety.

Bromley is a great mountain for skiing with kids.  All trails eventually lead to the base lodge so kids cannot get lost if they take a wrong turn. Because the mountain faces south, it is sunnier and warmer than most other mountains in Vermont.  The kids' day and weekend lesson programs are good.  The lodge, although small and a bit out of date, is easy to navigate. I suggest that you bring your own food though as the prices are pretty steep for what you get at the cafeteria.

There is a good variety of trails and thus something for everyone.  The front side of the mountain has a number of blue trails that are good fun for both intermediate and advanced skiers. There are a bunch of easy beginner trails as well.  There are three terrain parks with jumps, banks, rails and other features. There is a high speed quad chair that goes to the top as well as several low speed doubles and a t-bar that services one of the terrain parks.  The east side has a number of challenging runs and consist of a variety of black trails -- here there are groomers, bump runs and a few glades .  This side of the mountain is serviced by an older quad chair.

Access is pretty easy.  Bromley is only 6 miles from Manchester, VT which has many inns and restaurants to accommodate visitors to the area.  There are shopping outlet stores in Manchester which can keep the non-skiing family members happy as well.