Park City

About Park City

Park City is the most accessible major ski destination in America — 35–40 minutes from Salt Lake City's airport, which means you can land in the morning and ski that afternoon. Two resorts define the trip: Park City Mountain, one of the largest ski areas in the country, and Deer Valley, the famously polished, skiers-only resort where the grooming and on-mountain service are the product. Winter rates here are serious, peaking over the holidays, Presidents' Day, and the Sundance Film Festival in late January, when rooms effectively reprice as event inventory. That's exactly when rates not displayed on the open web earn the look — a meaningful difference some nights, more modest others.

The town has a real history under the ski-resort gloss: Old Town's Main Street is a preserved silver-mining streetscape, now lined with galleries, bars, and restaurants, with a chairlift rising straight out of the neighborhood. Canyons Village, on the resort's other side, is a modern purpose-built base area, and Kimball Junction, out by the interstate, is the value play — newer hotels, easy dining, and the free citywide bus system connecting all of it, so a budget base doesn't strand you.

Our Travel Editor's Park City advice: use the free transit and skip the rental car entirely — the bus network covers Old Town, both base areas, and Kimball Junction, and parking in Old Town is a nightly fee you don't need. If you're not attending Sundance, avoid its dates; if you're not picky about peak snow, January's non-holiday weeks pair the best conditions with the calmest rates. And don't sleep on summer — lift-served mountain biking, alpine slides, and 70-degree afternoons at a fraction of February's prices.

— Our Travel Editor