Alpine Valley Resort

Best ski resort in the area! Perfect distance from Chicago. After skiing, I sat on their outside patio, which was a perfect way to end a great day! I highly recommend checking out Alpine!

For $ 50 to ski from 9AM-5:30PM, this place is great! About a 2 minute wait for lifts, very empty for a Sunday! Maybe the 10 degree weather feeling like –12 can be attributed to the lack of a crowd, but I’ll take it!
No overlapping, lessons were on the easy slopes, and even though there was a ski race occurring, most trails were relatively open!
There are only 2 black diamonds (which are very easy in my book, being from the east coast and accustomed to Stratton) so not much of a challenge.
Overall I was very impressed with the short wait! I wish the runs were longer and more difficult.

I have to give Alpine credit for firing up the snow guns every chance they get, and it’s good snow. Alpine is good if I want to ski/​snowboard for a few hours after work, but on the weekend I don’t bother. If I was closer to Cascade or Devils Head, I would go there after work instead. I often wonder why Alpine doesn’t make more trails, you know, try to expand on the hill?! It’s been the same forever, and I see parts of the hill that are «untapped». Granite Peak is always trying to expand on their hill. I do think that for the size of the hill, Alpine charges a little too much on weekends. But they know they’ve got the Chicago crowd locked in, based on location. So I guess, why wouldn’t they jack prices on the weekends?! But really, for the size of the hill, price shouldnt be $ 5 less than what Cascade charges when Cascade has twice the amount of runs. Overall, 3.5 stars because they really bust their ass trying to be/​stay open despite unfriendly weather at times.

This review is primarily for the hotel /​resort: In summary: its a dump.
Hotel: 1-​star
Bar: 3-​stars
Location (if you are going to see Phish-​band at Alpine Valley): 5-​stars
We stayed here for Phish-​band shows. The only benefit was it was closest to the venue (walking distance).
The rooms are awful and in dire need of updating.
Beds = uncomfort
Nothing works in the room, TV, phone, shower was funky not sure if it was hot or cold or what.
Walking around the hallways in the place had a dark and eerie feel.
It’s real, real bad.
Staff were clueless.

My wife and I recently stayed at the Alpine Valley Lodge and loved it. There are plenty of trails to hike or bike nearby. We will be coming back to ski in the winter. It may not be the best skiing or biking in the country, but honestly staying at The Lodge isa great experience. It has great food, a great bar, indoor outdoor pool and hottub, views of the slopes, easy access to alpine valley music, and above all one of the best staff I’ve ever experienced at a hotel. They are kind, attentive and very welcoming. We really can’t wait to go back. Thanks Alpine Valley Lodge!!!

I started trying for a room just before midnight in April 14^th/​15^th. got to a point where I was able to get my CC info in for a queen room and then the confirmation page only ½ loaded. so the online available rooms sold out and others needed to be reserved in person or on the phone. I have now been trying daily, multiple times daily, to reach a live person to question what happened and what happened to my room, to no avail. I have tried all 7 options on their phone machine hell and cannot get a live person. so now that all the rooms are sold out, I think it’s total bullshit. I should have a room yet I don’t know if I do or not and I can’t find out. no reply to the email for info on the website either. worst customer service ever. it is completely nonexistent. all I want to do is ask a couple of fucking questions, yet I can’t get a person to answer. at all. I want to know what happened to my room reservation since the page wouldn’t load and I want to know what a ski in/​ski out room is. so instead of spending my money staying there, I will spend my money at a place that is actually worth the price. I was willing to spend almost $ 700 to stay there for just 2 nights but since they don’t want to pick up the fucking phone, they can go fuck themselves. if I see a charge show up for a reservation, I will cancel through PayPal since thankfully, that is the card I used. I hope they get rats and termites and bedbugs and whatever other plague that could ruin them.

I came here for my first ever experience snowboarding and I definitely don’t regret choosing to come to Alpine Valley! I’ve never been elsewhere, so obviously take my review with a grain of salt because I have absolutely nothing else to compare it to. We decided to come a Sunday morning, which in hindsight may not have been the best idea because it meant being extremely sore the next day at work. Was it worth it? Absolutely!
We chose Alpine for its proximity to Chicago: about 1.5 hours. That’s nothing. It was crowded when we arrived at around 2 PM, but it didn’t take long to get our lift tickets and equipment rental. I recommend paying the extra $ 10 for a helmet! You will fall a lot if you’re new to the sport. A tip I also have is if you’re snowboarding, you need to figure out which way you lead. You can do this by having someone push you to see which foot you stick out first to brace yourself. Worked for us.
We stuck to the two green «bunny hills» the whole time. It was really fun, even though I did get annoyed at times with too many kids around trying to learn and also overpopulating the lift. A lot of kids fell and got entangled with others on the lift throughout the day, so you really have to be careful. Even though it wasn’t in the cards to get a lesson this time, I would consider it next time. Or maybe we just should have prepared better with watching more YouRube videos. I did think the slopes were very beginner-​friendly, though, if that’s a major consideration for you like it was for us. Sure, maybe the lodge is a little outdated and the food isn’t great, but is that really why you’re here? No! Get out on those slopes and have fun. You won’t regret it.

First off, I want to say that three stars is way too low of a rating for Alpine Valley Ski Resort. Hopefully the average will become higher over time to more accurately reflect this business. I’ve been to Alpine Valley twice: once in March ’14 for skiing and once in March ’15 for snowboarding. I had a great experience both times and I would definitely come back here!
Downhill skiing: I skied for the first time here and by the end of the eight hours (!) we spent skiing, I had progressed all the way to the black diamonds. I ended up skiing down every single «mountain» available here, which was pretty incredible. I’m sure these hills aren’t steep enough to thrill expert skiers, but I was certainly pleased/​impressed. I fell while skiing down a black diamond at night (which wasn’t a new thing considering I was just learning to ski there that day). When I didn’t get up immediately, one of the paramedic guys came over, asked if I was okay, helped me get up, and made sure I made it safely the rest of the way down the mountain. What great, caring service!
Snowboarding: My boyfriend had been talking about wanting to try snowboarding, so I gifted him a day snowboarding at Alpine Valley for Christmas. We are from Chicago and I did a ton of research ahead of time trying to figure out the best place for beginners (without taking pricey lessons). We decided on Alpine Valley because it’s only 1.5 hours from the city, it’s not horribly expensive at $ 80/​pp, and it’s not the steepest (at least compared to Cascade and Devil’s Head), making it better for beginners. We had an excellent time here! We had the bunny hill lift tickets, which $ 5 less than the other. The tickets were good for all the green and blue mountains, but we stuck to the same two bunny hill green areas the entire day/​evening. Snowboarding is hard! The snow was powdery, though, and there wasn’t ice; falling didn’t hurt. We still hadn’t figured out to stop without falling at the bottom, so maybe we’ll splurge on lessons next time!
The only negatives were that the lodge has pretty bad, unhealthy, not tasty food options. We dined in the lodge restaurant upstairs because there was nowhere in sight to sit downstairs and the service was extremely slow and lackadaisical. I recommend packing your own food if you want to eat healthily. My other complaint is that it was REALLY busy when we went for snowboarding. There were long lines for the lifts and the bunny hills were polluted with kids. We wish there were an adult only ski/​snowboard section because I think the adults teaching the kids saw us adults and assumed we would have control over our boards. Wrong! We were beginners, too.
Overall, I’m a fan of Alpine Valley and would certainly return. It’s an excellent option for being so close to Chicago!

This hotel has the thinnest walls on earth. How thin you ask? So thin that you can literally hear people in the next room having a conversation in a normal speaking voice. So imagine how fun it is when a bunch of middle aged dudes decide to throw a techno dance party and hire a hooker at 3 am. According to the negotiations it was $ 50 an hour, «no butt stuff.» I’m not really sure if that’s a good price, but they seemed pleased. The staff didn’t seem too concerned. They did ask them to keep it down once. We left to drive back to Chicago around 3:30 am once the moaning began. The staff was cool enough to refund our room price. This place is a disgusting dump; unless you are looking for a value priced hooker orgy or have always dreamed hearing one unfold six inches from your head.

Just a cool little mountain for a day trip. We went night skiing which was fun. They had over 20 inches of snow earlier in the week and the resort does good grooming. Everyone was nice and friendly. The outdoor patio facing the slopes is a great place to relax with food and a drink watching your friends roll down the slopes. Don’t expect too much because it’s a small mountain, but all the runs are fun. Some people are too picky – this is Wisconsin and even Granite Peaks ski resort has 700 ft elevation above sea level which is the highest in the entire state. It’s not Utah or Colorado peaks. And if you complain about price, then skiing isn’t the sport for you. It’s an expensive sport! Most of us serious skiers drop $ 1500 per trip to ski Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and Canadian resorts like Whistler, Banff and Mont Tremblant. For cheapskates, please go bowling if you don’t wish to spend money. Appreciate the mountain as it is and just focus on having a good time racing down the slopes.

Comparable to Wilmot Mountain — except there are way too many skiers/​snowboarders, which makes for long lines. Also, vertical drop is a bit higher, but skiable terrain is about 50 acres less. One plus — they have four high-​speed quads distributed nicely along their hill. This kind of makes up for: short runs, very few and way too easy trails. I spent a good amount of time at their terrain park — there are three routes one can take and the jumps and bars are nicely spaced out so that you can hit each one.

Sad excuse for ski resort. Lodge is dirty with terrible food. Hills are in poor condition. Lifts are old and break frequently (spend more time waiting in lines or on lift that gets stopped and restarted every 2 mins). Got stuck on chairlift for over an hour– nobody came to check up on people who were stranded or even update us that problem was being worked on– also no apology or refund issued. Unprofessional staff who are either children, high teenagers or low class adults. Never returning to alpine… .I would highly highly recommend the extra hour drive to cascade or devilshead!!!

Second time at Alpine this season was a disaster. The place was such a mess that there’s no way we’re going back. Under staffed, long lines, lifts breaking, terrible food. Nothing positive to say.

Drove here from Illinois just to go skiing. One time, when getting on the chair lift, employees were switching out of shifts, from a young adult looking employee to a middle aged one and the middle aged one did not slow down the chair lift for my sister, dad, and I so the chair lift went too fast for us beginners to make it on in time and it ended up flipping my younger sister and I underneath it before the employee stopped the chair lift. The worst part was, was that the chair lift employee just looked at us and told us that it was our fault and that we should have been faster.
Thankfully, neither of us were hurt, but this really says a lot about the safety of this resort. Lots of children were going up and down all of the hills and I don’t know how many instances like this they have had, but we definitely did not have a good experience with them. We proceeded to talk to the manager about the incident but even he was not sympathetic at all.
Families, be careful to take your children here. Safety is obviously not their top priority.

The mountain is okay compared to other places like Chestnut, Cascade, Devils Head, and Granite Peak. However, the plus side is the location, because it is closer to Chicago than the other places. The food downstairs is awful, but we always go upstairs where you can have a nice meal for around $ 10 a person. One thing that does bother me about Alpine is their overpriced tickets. The hill is small, yet they charge the same or even more than the bigger ones.
My boyfriend broke his hand here on 1÷10÷15. The ski patrol people were absolutely amazing. They were willing to help with anything. They helped me take his jacket, sweaters, and shoes off. They offered us tea, coffee and hot chocolate. We joked around and then they helped him walk to the car so he would not slip. When we got to the hospital, the nurse commented that the ski patrol did a great job on the make-​shift sling for his arm (made from some dressing and a piece of cardboard!).
I would give the ski patrol 5 stars because those people were selfless and amazing! I wish I remembered their names but I was so stressed out that I don’t remember anything. All I remember was one white male with a mustache who was icing his knee, an white older male (Jim? Tim?!), and a white older female with short, light brown hair. The others I don’t remember but there were a lot! Thank you!

It was my first time snowboarding and I have to say, most of the staff was super friendly and very helpful when I had any questions! Had a great time and picked it up right away! Definitely would love to go back soon.

Great place to learn how to ski or snowboard! Staff easily spots the beginners and is quite helpful. They gave me a few nice pointers. The «beginner» runs are short, but it’s the perfect length if you are just beginning. Went on a day where it was barely above 0, so no lines at all. Towards the end of the day it did start to get pretty icy. Would definitely go back again.

I called and reserved a room for my birthday and they reserved the wrong day. Obviously, I know the day that I was born on so it was completely their mistake on mishearing my request. The day I arrived they were able to find a room for me. Luckily the staff was very nice and accommodating for their mistake — HOWEVER CHARGED ME DOUBLE.
Meaghan the manager is the worst hotel management associate I have ever dealt with and should go take a course in customer service if she is going to ever get anywhere in life at a customer service based job.
Will definitely be taking my ski groups to other resorts after this experience.

I am a bit biased as I am a beginner-​intermediate skier and Alpine is where I started, but I have been to other places such as Granite Peak, Wilmot, and Cascade mountain (for snowboarding or snowtubing). Ill start by saying that I am in love with Alpine, the distance is perfect as it is roughly 35 – 45 minutes away from Milwaukee.
I think alot of people will downvote Alpine because they prefer Colorado or Europe, but what can you expect from Wisconsin? Anyway, I love Alpine for its natural feel, trees provide a natural barrier between the slopes and for one I feel at peace with nature when I am cruising down the hill, not a care in the world. There are many runs to go down, from the easy-​going greens, a few manageable blues, and the steep black diamonds. The black diamonds are a pretty nice size, not as steep as Wilmot per se, but are very fun to go down for some killer speed. My favorite is probably Black thunder for the purpose of speed. But if you like to go off a few tricks, try the Mohawk! (I think thats what its called). It has nice big hills with some jumps that’ll launch you in the air, and to the furthest left is a nice small hill type of area kind of isolated from the public. I recently have discovered the trails within the trees, the paths that are underneath the ski lifts which are actually pretty exciting! It for sure kept me on my toes and offered a nice challenge. The snow itself of course depends on the weather, but I never really had an issue with terrain. Overall I enjoy the variety of slopes Alpine has to offer.
The ski lifts range from the slow-​painful ones to the new and comfy fast lifts. In most cases you can get on a lift, go down a slope, and immediately get on the lift provided that it is not crowded (weekends and nights). One issue I have in this aspect is how crowded lines get, sometimes ending up out of control. Some times theyll have an employee help form fair lines, which is something I think they should continue to implement. I do, however, really enjoy how someone is always outside to watch your skis for free if you so choose. Just make sure you dont lose the token they give you!
Inside the lodge/​bulding/​whatever is pretty nice, a bit small for the number of people that come on weekends. Also there arent alot of outlets for plugging in your phone which I found disappointing. They may want to exand to accomodate the massive influx of people on weekends so that everyone has a seat. The food is average, a little over priced. AND WHATS WITH THE NO CHEESE CURDS??? The hot chocolate, however, is a saving grace, always good to have when you’ve been on the slopes too long and have frost nip.
Recently, I have discovered the bar area and had a few beers. I must say the area is perfect for adults to get away from kids and large families, really a nice place to have a seat and still have the slopes within eyesight. The staff is very friendly, as is the general public (probably a ski thing :)). The live music I heard (Sunday Feb 9^th 2014) was amazing! I think from now on I will be going to the bar more often.
Overall I love going to Alpine, whether it be with a friend or more or by myself. I will continue to go back and maybe next time get a Seasons Pass seeing as how I go so much.

I was here for the Jimmy Buffet concert in August, so I can’t speak for how this place is for skiing. As far as a concert venue, holy cow. So many people, so many tents, so few proper places to use the bathroom… (bring your own hand-​sanitizer, and maybe even toilet paper) I was mentally prepared for a large crowd of half-​naked wastrels, so that didn’t bother me. Everyone was beyond friendly, parking was a breeze (though if you plan to leave early, let me just say, no you’re not.), and the show was fantastic.
Bring your own food and drink and pregame, though. Once you get into the venue, prices skyrocket on steroids. You can’t buy a beer for cheaper than $ 12. Food prices are also ridiculous.