By:
Submission
From jct Hwy 95 & Hwy 62: Go 16 mi E on Hwy 62, then 10 mi N on Parker Dam Rd.
This review is targeted at skiers/snowboarders. While the location of the resort is very picturesque and the main village itself is cozy and nice to relax at, overall Northstar is totally not worth your time. Here’s why. For starters, the runs are not overwhelmingly great. Blacks feel like blues, blues feel like greens, and greens are cakewalks. The runs do not offer much of a challenge for the experienced skier/snowboarder. The only thing the mountain does particularly well is provide good trees to ride through. However, many people don’t stick to doing that the whole time and spend a large portion of their time on main runs—which to say are busy…is an extreme understatement. Every run seems to be filled with everyone from experienced riders to people who take up the entire run performing an s-turn. Secondly, the resort gets more and more crowded each year. Don’t get me wrong, when I first came here I was looking forward to going on many runs and having a great time with the people I was with. Suffice to say, the majority of the memories I have from that trip were sitting in line waiting for lifts. Do NOT expect to come here and not deal with huge lines. It’s simply unavoidable. The resort just doesn’t have the capacity to deal with the crowds it attracts. Third, the customer service of the workers at the resort is awful. I try to have sympathy for them, maybe it’s just the fact that they are being overworked because of the sheer number of people at Northstar each day. But at the end of the day, their service still isn’t good and they consistently seem to have negative attitudes. Finally, and arguably most importantly, everything is so so overpriced. And I mean EVERYTHING. From food to apparel to lift tickets. On top of having to deal with crowds both on lifts and on the runs, poor customer support, and generally underwhelming runs, you’re having to pay up to twice as much for a lift ticket or pass as you would at another resort. Overall, if you can go to another resort, just go. Northstar is overrated and overpriced.
You will have a memorable time at Northstar! I recommend staying the weekend and exploring Tahoe. You ride a gondola up to the peak from the main lodge, which feels immersive and fun. There are plenty of resting lodges with food and drinks on the mountain, and different levels of slope difficulty for athletes of all types.
I really like Northstar! It has got alot busier and I recommend arriving early because you can be turned away because there's no parking 🙄 Epic season pass is the only way to fly...I just kept on going up the mountain to Heavenly 🫡 They have lots of parking but still, arrive early or pay the money and make parking reservations 😜 There's plenty of terrain and the shuttles don't take long. The village draws a crowd, but I can see why 🤩
We really like the room there , enough space for 6 people to sleep in comfortably, nice fire place. Only thing that we don’t like was in pandemic everything was closed even ice skating with fire pit. We definitely will be back now when everything open
Overall, it's a fun resort to ski at. It's large enough to keep stuff fresh for a full day and probably two. The runs themselves aren't super difficult but there is enough variety to keep the whole family entertained.
The views are gorgeous, especially when you can see the lake.
The 23-24 winter isn't the best for snow so I'll have to come back out when it's a better year to see it's full potential.
