European ambiance without the jetlag

Wouldn’t you love to take your family to Europe to ski the snowy Alps and to immerse in another culture? Yeah, that’s probably not happening.

But just over the border, seven hours from Boston, is Tremblant. This Quebec ski resort is tres chic with a slopeside pedestrian village, a plethora of winter activities, lots of lodging options, and 654 acres of skiing.

Families will find the mountainside resort village is very well-designed, equipped to handle the skiing masses from Montreal (1 ½  hours away) without losing its European charm. Enroll your kids in ecole de neige (ski school) which is a bit like going to foreign ski camp only bi-lingual. In fact, you will find most everyone can speak English at the French-Canadian resort, and the U.S. dollars is accepted at par (our declining dollar is now even with Canada’s). 

After skiing Tremblant’s four faces and 2,116-foot vertical, served by m

odern lifts  – including a base-to-summit gondola, take the kids ice skating on Lac Tremblant, or splashing in the themed Aqua Club with rope swings and slides (plus hot tubs for Mom and Dad). Then stroll the animated Intrawest village, treat the kids to a Beaver tail (a fried dough confection shaped like a beaver’s tale), browse the boutiques. Then dine like the French in a café, a Swiss Chalet serving Fondue, or indulge in adult après ski at La Diable or Le P’tit Caribou to kick up your ski boots. There is even a casino reached by gondola if you are a high alpine high roller.

Have your passports for the border crossing. It’s not quite Zermatt, but there is an Alpine ambiance, a joie de vivre, that you don’t get at ski areas in the states.

For more family ski articles from Heather Burke, go to http://www.familyskitrips.com/ Photos by Greg Burke.

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