Brighton Ski Resort, UT

Brighton Ski Utah

Overall: 7

Price: 6

Kid Friendly: 7

Parent Friendly: 7

East Access: 9

Ok, We have been to Brighton a few times as a family and its a good thing, because if my ratings were based on just the last time we went, the score would be lower 👎. We recently went on New Years eve and the lines for the beginner lift were unbearably looonnnggg. What kills is
that they have a "ski school line" and a "rest of you line" which is actually pretty typical for resorts but I swear that every kid in SLC was doing ski school that day and it is so hard to explain to your kids why those kids get the keep "cutting the line". ANYWAYS, normally we like Brighton. The parking lot is not my favorite, because its huge and usually fills up quickly in the morning so there is added pressure to get there very early. 

This was our first time taking the baby and.....he hated it 😞, but I am pretty sure its just because it was new and he is still so little. Brighton is our best "financial" ski hill. Kids 10 and under are free!! Usually its just kids 5 and under so it is our cheapest choice when we are taking the whole family. Plus there are discount tickets for parents who are only going on the 2 beginner lifts, so for my whole family of 6, it was less than $100 for the whole day of skiing.  The lifts and the hill in general is very kid friendly. There is a place where you can bring your own food and eat it. 

One big negative that I saw was with the child care (which affected my parent friendly score). It is located a ways from the hill, like you have to get in your car and go there, you cannot just take off your skis and check on your kid. So since Leno was not loving his first ski experience, we decided to put him in the daycare for the last half of the day. That meant that I had to take my ski boots off (so this might be nit picking but seriously I hate getting those things on so to have to take them on and off...ug!) so I could drive to the daycare. In the meantime I lost my parking spot back at the hill and had to park in the way way back for the rest of the day. (This was only a deal because we had to go get our lunch and then lug it back out there afterwards...because I refuse to pay for a locker when I have a huge locker (my truck) just sitting there). On the flip side, the nice thing about their daycare is that you can come and go when you want, so you don't have to sign up for a block of time like you do at Targhee. The price was of course horrific ($20 an hour) but that is super standard for skiing daycare. If I didn't want to see my cute baby in skis, then it would have been much more cost effective to get a babysitter in SLC. Speaking of SLC, it is super close. This ski hill is very easy to get to and with a 20 min drive of the city.