Park City vs. Vail: Which Should You Choose?
Looking to get lost within an almost unthinkable footprint on your next ski trip? As the two biggest ski resorts in the United States from boundary to boundary, Vail and Park City are obvious choices. These two consistently get some of the most destination interest of any resorts in North America, and naturally, a wide variety of vacation-planners probably have both on their short lists.
So let’s say you’re looking to narrow it down: which one should you choose? In this piece, we’ll go through the differences between these two mountains, what they both do well, what they both fall short in, and who each is for.
Getting There
Advantage: Park City
The ease-of-access question between Park City and Vail probably depends on how much money you have. The vast majority of guests will probably find it much easier to access Park City, which is less than an hour from the Salt Lake City airport under good conditions and a relatively easy drive. On the other hand, Vail is over 2 hours from Denver International Airport—and that’s assuming no traffic—and the drive along Interstate 70 is a treacherous one, involving steep gradients, twisty turns, and varying weather during the core season. But Vail is also only half an hour away from the Eagle County regional airport, which, if you can afford the tickets, means a considerably shorter travel time from plane to resort.
Vail holds its snow well thanks to its high elevation and high-quality accumulation.
Snow Quality
Advantage: Vail
When it comes to snow quality, both Park City and Vail are strong offerings. Both regularly see high-quality snow with good preservation throughout the season, and both mountains see their fair share of powder days with light, dry accumulation to play around in. But if we had to choose between the two, we’d probably give Vail the edge in overall snow—the resort is at a higher elevation than Park City, and retains its base a bit better as a result. Vail also has some incredibly removed lift-serviced ski areas that can take days to get tracked out if conditions remain consistent; untouched Park City terrain doesn’t tend to last as long, but the resort does have a few hike-to areas that notably stand out in this respect.
Skiable Footprint
Advantage: Park City
When it comes to the size of terrain, Park City wins the battle, with 7,300 skiable acres versus 5,317 for Vail. But Vail actually might feel like the bigger resort—that’s because even though Park City has a bigger skiable footprint, Vail is actually 8,184 acres from boundary-to-boundary, with a big chunk of the front side not actually skiable. Park City does have the massive acreage it advertises, but the boundary-to-boundary footprint is simply comparable to, rather than much greater than, its skiable terrain.
Park City has the largest skiable footprint in the United States, but its wide, long layout makes it difficult to get around.
Getting Around
Advantage: Vail
Vail is not an easy mountain to get around, with lots of lifts needed to get to the furthest removed areas. But Park City is even worse, with its wide, long footprint resulting in an environment where visitors have to take multiple lifts to get between even the main mountain zones. If you start at one Park City base, you have to take at least four lifts to get to the other one. In the wrong mountain zone after 3pm? You’re probably stuck taking a shuttle bus back to where you need to be. At least with Vail, you can get between bases with just one lift ride, making it palatable if you end up in the wrong place near the end of the day.
Part of this discrepancy can be attributed to how Vail and Park City came to fruition in their current forms in the first place. Park City Resort as it exists today used to be two completely separate resorts—Park City and Canyons—whereas Vail was always designed to be one comprehensive resort from the get-go. The Park City and Canyons sides are only connected by a singular gondola—and it’s one that’s quite removed from the bases—meaning that for many guests, it’ll make sense to think of the two zones as wholly separate ski areas.
Overall Terrain Diversity and Aesthetic
Advantage: Vail
Despite having fewer skiable acres, Vail’s terrain feels more varied than Park City’s. The facet that really makes Vail stand out is its bowl terrain—the Back Bowls host miles of wide-open high-alpine slopes, with the areas extending for a seemingly infinite distance. On the other hand, Park City is a chiefly below-treeline resort—none of Park’s City true bowl terrain is even lift-accessed, and all of it must be hiked to. However, Park City has some noteworthy lift-serviced strengths, including surprisingly varied glade terrain and a few open bowl-like areas. Vail’s more unique footprint and surrounding peaks give the mountain a more distinctive vibe than Park City, but Park City’s town feels more down to earth and charming than Vail’s.
Vail’s Back Bowls feel truly unparalleled, hosting a seemingly unending array of wide-open terrain.
Beginner Terrain
Advantage: Park City
Park City is arguably better for beginners than Vail. Both resorts offer a sizable beginner footprint, but Park City’s is congregated in both lower- and mid-mountain areas, while Vail’s is more central to mid- and upper-elevations, with lower-mountain greens mainly being unenjoyable catwalks. This makes it difficult for less experienced guests to get down the mountain without downloading a lift, whereas at Park City, it’s easy to ski to the bottom from beginner-oriented areas.
There is one catch to beginner terrain at Park City though—all the worthwhile green runs are congregated on the Park City side, while the Canyons side has nothing more than a single bunny hill that guests must download a gondola to leave. On top of that, there’s no easy way to get between the Park City and Canyons resort sides. At least with Vail, there’s beginner terrain accessible from every base.
Intermediate Terrain
Advantage: Vail
Both mountains are excellent for intermediates, although Vail might have the slight upper hand. Across both resorts, there are days worth of groomed cruisers available to explore. Both mountains also offer incredible intermediate glade terrain; Vail with thinly-wooded pines in Blue Sky Basin, and Park City with light, widely-spaced aspens in the Dreamscape zone. Both Vail and Park City normally leave some of their blues ungroomed, but Vail typically does so a bit more than Park City. But Vail stands out from Park City with high-alpine intermediate terrain; the resort’s Back Bowls have a handful of wide-open blues with panoramic vistas. Terrain like this is nowhere to be found at Park City.
Park City’s hike-to Jupiter Peak is a serious challenge, even for tenured skiers and riders.
Advanced and Expert Terrain
Slight Advantage: Park City
When it comes to advanced terrain, both Vail and Park don’t disappoint. Both resorts boast copious amounts of steep, ungroomed terrain, while Park City also offers a decent number of advanced-level groomers that allow for serious speed runs.
There are also a handful of demanding expert runs at both resorts. Vail’s Frontside Chutes hide obstacles such as rocks and small cliffs, while its mid-mountain double-blacks seem to go on for what feels like forever. Park City’s Jupiter and 9990 areas exclusively serve double-black runs and also host tricky pitches and obstacles. But neither are top of class when it comes to extreme terrain. Those looking for the toughest terrain between the two resorts will arguably find it at Park City, where its Jupiter Peak Chutes comprise truly dangerous terrain with demandingly tight turns and very little room for error; however, getting to this area requires a 20-30 minute hike that will probably dissuade most guests.
Terrain Parks
Advantage: Park City
The one place Park City really stands out from Vail is in its terrain parks. Park City’s freestyle areas are world-class, with features ranging from small to extra-large and setups so desirable that professional competitors often set up there. Vail’s terrain parks are decidedly ho-hum for a flagship resort; they do exist, but the mountain ops team often takes their sweet time in getting them open, and there isn’t even a large terrain park or halfpipe every season.
Park City’s world-class terrain parks attract even professional athletes throughout the core season.
Lift System
Advantage: Vail
Vail has a more modern and intuitively-designed lift system than Park City. Essentially every area at Vail is served by a high-speed lift, whereas some Park City areas are still served by slow, fixed-grip chairs. And while a lot of Vail’s lifts are long, at least they get you directly to the places you go; on the other hand, Park City’s lift network is surprisingly indirect, with lots of out-of-the-way detours required to get where you want to go. For context—both Vail and Park City have just over a 3,000-foot vertical rise from bottom-to-top frontside areas. In most cases, it takes about 15 minutes to get up this rise at Vail—but at Park City, it’s more like half-an-hour, and that’s assuming the crowds aren’t bad.
Crowd Flow
Advantage: Vail
Speaking of crowds, neither Park City nor Vail are immune from the large traffic that’s seemed to become a hallmark at many resorts in the past few years. But recently, Park City has fared worse, with its poorly designed lift system resulting in some notorious chokepoints. Lines of over 20 minutes at key lifts required to get certain places are now commonplace, with the Quicksilver Gondola—which provides the only access between the Park City and Canyons mountain sides—being one of the worst offenders. On the other hand, Vail’s base lifts can get crowded in the morning—and the back bowl chairs can be major chokepoints on powder days—but sees much more manageable lines than Park City. One advantage Park City does have over Vail is a series of expert-only chairlifts, which never see lines; Vail’s more removed lifts never get seriously crowded, but they’re rarely directly ski-on unless it’s an off-peak weekday.
Unlike Park City, Vail boasts nearly 100% high-speed lift service across its expansive footprint.
Lodging
Advantage: Tie
If you’re looking to visit one of these behemoth resorts, you’ll probably be looking for a place to stay—and in this regard both Park City and Vail offer multiple options of various types. Whether it’s condos, upscale inns, or luxury hotels, they can be found across multiple base areas, with some ski-in/ski-out and others in the village or town. The town of Vail is effectively one base village that stretches along for what seems like forever, whereas Park City offers both a true town in downtown Park City as well as a smaller village at the Canyons base.
That said, lodging at both mountains is very pricey, especially so at Vail. While some options in the town of Park City can be modestly reasonable, Vail’s slopeside accommodations are about as expensive as they get. More reasonable lodging options can be found within driving distance of both resorts.
Parking
Advantage: Park City
While it’s instituting $25/day paid parking on the Park City side next winter, Park City is still the clear winner when it comes to driving access—the resort still offers free, albeit, lift-serviced lots on its Canyons side, whereas all even remotely convenient parking at Vail costs at least $30 per day. Vail does have some free lots, but they’re a shuttle ride away from the resort. Park City’s new paid lots require reservations to park in, but the parking fee is waived for carpools of 4 or more.
Proximity to Other Resorts
Advantage: Park City
Somehow get bored of Park City or Vail during your trip, and want to explore other mountains? Both are a short drive away from other resorts. Park City probably has the slight upper hand in this respect, being just down the street from neighboring Deer Valley and less than an hour from Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and Solitude, as well as just over an hour from Snowbasin and Powder Mountain. But Vail is only 20 minutes from sister mountain Beaver Creek, as well as under an hour from Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Arapahoe Basin when road conditions are good.
Park City directly borders Deer Valley, with two peaks of the neighboring resort visible at the top right of this photo.
Multi-Resort Pass Affiliation
Advantage: Tie
One nice thing about Park City and Vail is that if you really want, you can reasonably hit both in a single season. That’s because both peaks are on the Epic Pass, a multi-resort season pass that offers access to around three-dozen regional and destination ski resorts around North America. The full Epic Pass offers unlimited season-long access to both Vail and Park City, while the base Epic Local Pass comes with holiday blackouts and a cap of 10-days combined at Vail, Beaver Creek, and Whistler Blackcomb, although Park City access is still unrestricted outside holiday periods.
Pricing
Slight Advantage: Park City
Park City’s tickets are slightly cheaper than Vail’s, undercutting prices by about 10% across most age groups and offering even more significant price discounts for seniors.
Adult 13+: $164-$229
Child 5-12: $105-$147
Senior 65+: $113-$158
Child 0-4: Free
Adult 13+: $179-$239
Child 5-12: $124-$165
Senior 65+: $169-$229
Child 0-4: Free
Verdict
So Park City and Vail both have notable pros and cons, and Park City is probably the better bet for those who want a more down-to-earth town, better freestyle terrain, and a larger skiable footprint. But Vail beats Park City where it really counts, with a much better layout, significantly more distinctive terrain, and faster lifts, making it the stronger mountain for a wide variety of destination-goers. Park City’s lift ticket prices do undercut Vail’s, but only by a small fraction, and if you’re already paying $200 a day, you may as well just splurge for the better mountain.
Vail handily beats Park City in our overall rankings, with Park City only besting Vail in the size category, and Vail putting up significantly better scores in lifts, navigation, and mountain aesthetic, as well as slightly better scores in terrain diversity and crowd flow. In our Rockies rankings, Vail puts up a respectable 6th place, while Park City comes in at 23rd, scoring below not only Vail but a wide variety of lower-priced Colorado competitors.
For more information on these resorts, check out our comprehensive Park City and Vail mountain reviews. If you’re interested in seeing how they compare to other similar mountains, check out our Rockies, Colorado, and Utah rankings.
