Best Things Nearby:Cabot Creamery (where they make that award-winning Vermont cheddar cheese), Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Cold Hollow Cider Mill (free cider pops for kids in the summer), Alpine sliding at the Stowe Mountain Resort, just over the notch, Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, and of course the lovely Green Mountains of Vermont.Best Things About the Resort:The staff is incredibly helpful, and the resort has a very "safe" and "family-friendly" feel to it. Most of the on-site activities are *free* so visitors don't feel like they are being nickel-and-dimed for every little thing.Resort Experience:The resort offers many varied activities for families and chi
...Read More
Cabot Creamery (where they make that award-winning Vermont cheddar cheese), Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Cold Hollow Cider Mill (free cider pops for kids in the summer), Alpine sliding at the Stowe Mountain Resort, just over the notch, Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, and of course the lovely Green Mountains of Vermont.
Best Things About the Resort:
The staff is incredibly helpful, and the resort has a very "safe" and "family-friendly" feel to it. Most of the on-site activities are *free* so visitors don't feel like they are being nickel-and-dimed for every little thing.
Resort Experience:
The resort offers many varied activities for families and children. Each day, we selected one or two of the resort's activities to do as a family. Such as: Magic Show, Marionette Puppet Show, Guided Hike, Family Bingo (for $$ or candy), Sock-Puppet Workshop, Family Karoke, campfire sing-a-long, and Movie Night. But by far the kids' favorite was the abundance of water slides at the resort. There are four different water complexes (three with pools, one with a pond/small lake). The pool complexes all have water slides, and one has a lazy river. We spent several days just hanging around by the pools!
If you're planning to cook in the unit, stop by a grocery store on the way. The best store is in Morrisville (about 35-40 minutes from the resort). Although there is a general store on the resort property, the prices are very, very high!
Depending upon where you stay, you can walk to many of the activities. The resort also offers a free shuttle that you can call and they'll pick you up. There's *nothing* nearby in the town, though, so if you leave the resort you'll need a car (with a lot of gas in it!)
The unit itself (we stayed in Villmarksauna) was incredible... three tv's, a master bedroom with its own tv and refrigerator, and the nicest kitchen you could imagine with every conceivable gadget, cooking pan, and utensil. The microwave and oven appeared new, and the oven had a flat-panel cook surface which was lovely.
The only disappointments we experienced were with our unit's bathrooms, which seemed like they were shipped directly in from a 1960's Holiday Inn. And the parking by our unit was not very convenient. We happened to be near one of the on-property water parks and other resort guests from different units drove up to the water area and parked there. So if we came back to our unit mid-day, we couldn't get a spot by our unit. There were no signs indicating that the parking was "reserved" and we felt there should have been.
This was the most family-friendly resort we've ever been to, and we had a fabulous vacation. Smuggler's Notch is completely deserving of its "Gold Crown" status.
- Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
- Activities: Excellent
- Amenities: Excellent
- Unit Satisfaction: Very Good
- Family Friendliness: Excellent
- Service: Excellent
Read Less