All in a day — Squeezing additional activities into ski vacations a growing trend

With both his rental and private ownership, Hill said he is seeing a growing number of families out enjoying the winter experience.

Families traveling and playing together is, in fact, a growing trend for both those coming from out of state and from within Utah.

Parry agreed there is an influx of families coming to resorts and that people are taking shorter trips — the average is around five days instead of a full week and in that short time they want to cram in as much as they can in the way of recreational activities ... "They want to experience everything they can."

According to a survey taken by Orbitz, while family trips may be stressful at times, they are far more popular than the second choice of traveling companions — friends.

Of those polled, 50 percent opted for family vacation as opposed to 29 percent choosing friends.

When families do go on ski vacations, they plan to make them memorable and fun-filled.

And, while most trips are based around cultural themes (36 percent), sports activity-related vacations (19 percent) are the second trip of choice.

There are a lot of things that have gone into making multiple activities possible at ski areas, not the least being new updates in ski areas.

The new high-speed lifts make it possible for people to get in as many runs in a single morning as they used to make in a whole day riding on the old slower lifts. Resorts also groom runs, which makes skiing easier and therefore requiring less time to make a run.

Access is another reason for activity-filled days.

Visitors can fly into Salt Lake City and within 30 minutes of leaving the airport be standing at the base of a world-class ski area. Locals can leave home, and depending on location, be skiing within the hour.

Deer Valley resort has taken scheduling to yet another level. It offers both skiing and snowmobiling on its activity schedule.

And, said Erin Grady, communications manager, while skiing remains extremely popular this year, "our snowmobile operation is growing. It is usually very busy most weekends. We offer one-, two- and three-hour tours.

"What we're seeing, in most cases, is people are skiing in the morning and snowmobiling in the afternoon. We're also seeing a lot of families on our snowmobile trips. It goes along with the trend we're seeing where people want to get out and do more things."

Snowbird offers another twist to the combination package.

It offers a package, said Laura Schaffer, director of public relations, where people can ride the Tram to the top of the mountain, then ride down a lift into Mineral Basin where they get on snowmobiles for a guided two- or three-hour tour. The cost is $119 for a two-hour tour and $149 for a three-hour tour.

"We're seeing an increase in business," she said. "It goes with the trend that people want to experience more variety in their vacations. We're also seeing more people, especially families, ice skating and going out on snowshoe tours."

Last year some of these opportunities were cut short because of limited snow covering. This year the snowmobile program could run into early June if the interest is there, Hill said.

Daily rental rates at Daniels range from $139 to $189.

Consensus is that the ability to do all these things is possible because there are so many great things to do here in Utah, which, of course, at this time of year, includes skiing and snowmobiling.

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E-mail: grassx@desnews.com