This is a great mountain in the Catskills of New York. One of the first places I learned to snowboard, the instructors here are really good. The downfall of this mountain, it gets crowded, especially on weekends. The ups: lots and lots of trails, about 47 to be exact... always fresh snow on the ground, usually natural not man made, has snowboard parks for tricks and such.. not sure about a halfpipe but I'm not experienced enough to know yet from experience, I've heard rumors there is one at the high point of the season. If you're looking for a good mountain to skii or snowboard on, check it out... plus if you're Polish you'll be happy to know there's a ton of Polish people here and you'll hear the language where ever you turn your head. read more

I'm an ok snowboarder-- I've only gone twice before going to Bellayre. First time I was just learning. Second time wasn't so bad, but I spent a good part of my time on the bunny hill or the really easy hill. So, this time, I wanted to see if I could go a little higher. The beginner hills (green trail) at Bellayre might be really easy for some, but for a novice like me, it was like being on a blue (although I have no idea what that's like). The ski lift just went on forever, so I was a little scared that the hills might be a little too challenging. But there were different paths to take, so my uncle (who skied) and I took every possible route we possibly could. And it was great! It also wasn't crowded so I was able to try some stuff on my own and not worry about barreling into other people. The place is much smaller than Hunter and Wyndham, which are kind of in the vicinity. But it's great for anybody who want to enjoy time on the slopes without crashing into lots of people. But because it's small, on major holidays, it can get really crowded and some of the rental equipment may be gone, so you'd have to go down the road to Jimmy's to rent. Makes me want to buy a snowboard now so I wouldn't have to worry about that when I go back to Bellayre. read more

The price is right, it's relatively close, and it has some nice narrow trails. When one lift is down it makes it hard to access the entire mountain because of how flat it is. Good bar and never a crowd on weekdays. read more

Belleayre Mountain - Trees after Stella - Ski Resorts Near Me - Highmount, New York

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A-ok is exactly how I feel about Belleayre Mountain. As other reviewers have mentioned, this is definitely a beginner's mountain. I'm pretty experienced but took my friends here as it was their first time skiing and I didn't want to overwhelm them with tough hills of Hunter Mountain or some of the others. The blues were very mild for me. Had I been able to go off on my own and do some of the black trails, I probably would have felt as though the blacks were blues of Vermont or Colorado. Belleayre was not crowded at all - no lines on the lifts on a Saturday, which was great. The surrounding area was pretty dead. It was cool to ski for the day and I'd definitely go back. I'm in NYC, so it was a 3-hour drive up there and I love to have skiing just 3 hours away. Next time, I'll try Hunter or Wyndham - something a little more I would try something else. The price was great. I believe it's about $45 for a lift ticket on the weekends although our hotel gave us a discount ($35 for lift ticket). Because of this, it's easy to make an inexpensive trip up there. Therefore, the beginner clientele probably keep coming back. The parking is something to worry about, so if you arrive at about 10:30a...expect to park way at the bottom of the mountain, which is inconvenient to walk up. If you get there early, make sure to run over and grab a parking space. We almost didn't get one. I'd give this place a B- (3.5 stars) ......great atmosphere, sort of small, lifts are slow, hills are extremely wide and spacious, food is pricey as expected, but we had a blast. read more

Really nice mountain the trails were all very nice. Since they hadn't had any new snowfall, there were some runs that were still closed. Most of the lifts were operating, and we were able to get to the top of the mountain easily. The trails that were open were really nicely groomed. I'd like to come back when they have more snow so that I can try out more of the other trails. read more

if you're like me and love taking a day trip up from NYC for some skiing, this is the place. The fact that it is owned and operated by the State of New York means that prices are a lot more reasonable then at Hunter or Windham. As other reviewers have noted, they run lots of promotions midweek -- $20 for a lift ticket is really about as good as it gets. Also, this place never gets as crowded as the aforementioned alternatives in the Catskills. If you can only go up on the weekend (like me) then Belleayre is your best bet to beat the crowds. All in all, a great little mountain for day-trippers from the city. read more

Wonderful mountain. I was blessed to come to Belleayre Mountain after a snow storm, making he conditions quite favorable. I wouldn't suggest this mountain for newcomers to the sport though. The only real way down from the top of the mountains are from some black diamonds. I'd give 5 stars but they need to upgrade their lifts. Their only high speed lift was shut down for half the day. This caused some extreme traffic on the right side of the mountain. Also, in some cases requiring the need to cross country ski to trails instead of strictly alpine skiing. Honorable mention -they are dicks if you try and get to the lift at 4pm for a final run. read more

I've been coming here for 15+ years. I learned to ski here. Over the years it's been going down hill. It seems like every winter the high speed lift is constantly broken. Winter of 2018 it broke down cruising everyone to have to walk back up to the lodge. Just today again half the day it was not working, causing huge wait crowds on the lines. They charge you now to park closest to the main lodge. Ticket prices increasing. They keep throwing money into the wrong places. The gondola is cool and all but not necessary. Build more high speed lifts. Build more lodges to accommodate to massive amount of people here on the weekends. read more

I'm giving Belleayre a 5* because I think it is the best family hill within day-trip of NYC. Not comparing anything in the Catskills to Utah or Colorado -- but for a day trip -- this is the PERFECT place for a family outing. My family (kids age 5 and 10) had everything they could ask for. On a saturday, the day after a powder dump (arguably one of the busiest days of the year?), with the exception of the express quad, lift lines were under 1 minute. And the express moved quickly. In comparison to our other day-trips such as Camelback and Mountain Creek, it was a world apart. I knew what a post-powder saturday would look like at CB. I decided to take a chance and drive the extra hour. As others have reported here, "those people" just don't go to Belleayre. Every ski hill wants to call their place family-friendly, but the truth is seeing families skiing together. And that's what you see at Belleayre. The terrain is varied and there was plenty for everyone. Nothing got ski'd out. Granted, my family doesn't ski double-black. PS - if you love Hunter, you will not love Belleayre. Different kind of hill, different kind of people. The extra hour drive is a factor for some. I'm now willing to give in to the extra road time for a superior family experience. read more

It is that time of the year where I head to Belleayre everyother weekend, except not this year and I kind of miss it! I have been there for the past three years, between 2-3 times per season and I like this place. First it is super easy access from NY. You can drive there and come back in a day. Second it is a somewhat spread out resort with some tracks variety. It is not a high mountain but for a day or weekend trip it is nice, third it is like a well kept secret, this place is not very known and does not attract all the crowd from Hunter and Windham Four it is has a family vibe, and five as a state run place it is cheap for skiing around here leaving you an okay after taste even for a day. The only down side of a state run place is the lifts ages, which turns to have you spend quite some time on some of them, before getting to the top. Hopefully this will change, but I figured if it does, this won't be the same anymore. Anyway I put Belleayre in my 1st ski destination of choice when looking for a resort close to NY City. read more

Nice place to ski for the family but for the love of God bring your own food. The cafeteria is nasty. The guy making my burger grabbed a box of frozen hamburgers looked at them and threw half of them out and started to cook the rest. Waiting 15 minutes for a crap/cold burger. He also didn't wear gloves. read more

I skied first time this past weekend at Belleayre Mountain NY. It was really a pleasant surprise to ski a mountain that was so user friendly. The mountain itself presented slopes that were intermediate but intense at times. The instructors were helpful in letting me know which trails were still in groom and great to ski. The food was excellent and helpers from the State of NY service was awesome. And, the trip up on the ski lift allowed me to meet three friendly children who in unison said, "How are you today ma'am". I looked at them and said, "What". They said in unison, "How are you today ma'am". I said, "Just fine. And how are you today?" They said in unison , "Fine". Never in the 20 years in skiing has any child of any age given me, a senior citizen, any recognition of being on the same universe with them. Was a great experience! read more

Belleayre is the worst. I pre- bought a lift ticket and literally a few minutes later I found out I was eligible for a group discount. I called immediately. Belleayre would do nothing. I've skied Belleayre several times and to say it's nothing special is being kind. Just bc NYS spends millions of $ on a gondola does not change the fact that the runs are short and the snow sucks and now we can add crappy customer service to the list. I wish I was going anywhere else.- updated to reflect the fact that after 5 reviews and 4 emails and 2 calls I got refunded. read more

If you'd like to avoid the crush of industrial skiing at Hunter, I highly recommend Belleayre, where the trails are nicely groomed and frequently all yours for a few dozen yards at a time. There's a sufficient number of runs to occupy you for a day and the longer ones girdling the outside of the network of trails permit for some long leisurely trips down while requiring some keen attention and fancy footwork frequently enough to keep you on your toes -- where you ought to be anyway! read more

I had a lot of fun here. Good mountain, renting was easy, awesome day. The bar needs to be bigger though!

This is my favorite ski area of the Catskills thus far- I find that the natural snow here is better and more abundant, the groomed trails are groomed really well, the natural trails (particularly Cathedral Brook and Utsayantha) are glorious, the crowds are fewer, and they generally seem to avoid the more difficult terrain altogether. The mountain is also set up to keep the beginners separated from the rest - which is probably more conducive to learning anyway. The ski and board weirdos here are a bit weirder, and best of all the tickets are a bit cheaper. I never seem to have to wait in a lift line, particularly for Chair 7 and Tomahawk. For that I can absolutely forgive the lack of an outdoor bar and firepit patio and healthier food options like Windham. I'm really pretty psyched that they will be offering the 3 pass season pass deal with Gore and Whiteface next year too. read more

The mountain is comparatively small to nearby Hunter Mountain. There are less lifts and trails, but there are also less people and the tickets are less expensive than Hunter Mountain. read more

I went there to hike on the mountain trail and it was so excruciating. Not for beginners. Don't be fooled when you get to the top. You've reached the summit when you see the ski lifts. There was snow up there in May. Best of luck to the top, it SO MUCH hard work to the top. read more

We love your mountain and think it has great attributes. However, our experience Sunday 1/19 was terrible. I came with my wife and 2 kids and we got there by 10AM and had to park on the road and then walk up to the overlook lodge to buy tickets. Shuttles were supposed to arrive but each one was full. Then we finally made it to the lodge to buy tickets and your WiFi wasn't working so wasn't able to pull my youngest daughters bar code. After waiting to buy tickets for me and my other daughter we also had to go to guest services. We waited over an hour to get tickets for myself and my daughter. You had 2 windows open only on probably your busiest day of the season. After waiting there we then had to wait another 30-45 mins at guest services to get the ticket for my youngest daughter. We didn't end up getting on the mountain for about 2.5-3 hours from time of arrival until we got everything situated. Then to make matters worse we got stranded down at the discovery lodge because lifts were shut down for the end of the day. No notice was given and we basically were told to walk up mountain which me and my 7 year old had to do. It's unfortunate that we spent so much money on tickets and was only able to do 4 runs and then had the pleasure of walking from discovery lodge up the mountain to where our car was parked. Hopefully, your team has learned from this so people don't waste their money and get more and more frustrated ruining what should of been a great day to becoming a miserable one. read more

Don't go mid-week,Great Mountain/Terrain for good intermediate skiers, Unfortunately since ORD took over and the addition of the Gondola there is little easy access to this terrain. To save a few bucks during weekdays, they shut down the Tomahawk & Triple chair lifts w/their mid-station exit points to great terrain. You either have to hike or take narrow trails and even then you miss out on some great skiing. Place is obviously run by accountants, not skiers. Suggest they close the Gondola on weekdays and reopen Tomahawk read more

This place was much better when it was a state facility instead of being privately owned. Came back here for a day of riding and inquiring about ski school for my children and was met by an incredibly unhelpful and rude employee who had no interest in answering any questions - in fact did not answer any of my questions and was more concerned eating his bag of popcorn. This employee made it feel like I was more burdening him than anything. Safe to say I would rather bring my business to other neighboring mountains with much better customer service and care with employees who are more receptive of you. read more

Had a great time. Most the trails were open. The snow was pretty fresh. Not as many skiers as other places. I recommend people to go.

Luv the snow today. Great day on the mountain. Just kill the wasps in the lodge.

Great little place to ski close to NYC. Less crowded than Hunter and generally friendlier people. Blacks leading into blues are great fun and lines are usually pretty short for the lifts. Still a bit of a New York City vibe, but I'll take it. learn to ski better program is excellent and cheap and instructors are top notch. In general a nice place to ski read more

Solid warm up place to do some skiing. Place was well run and for the most part, pretty nice to ski at. The slopes were typical of the area (uninspired, slightly icy, easy) but that's what the terrain affords you. Complaints were the staff pretty much lets everyone spread their stuff all over the place instead of investing in some decent lockers big enough to put ski equip in. What could have been a nice bar looked like the sorting area of a Goodwill store. Most of the people put there stuff down and left. I blame management for that. read more

Nice, easy, family friendly mountain. I stay mostly on tomahawk side to steer clear of the stream of people running the babbling brook trail or whatever it is. On busy weekends they need some more bartenders, waited about 15-20 minutes to even get noticed and even then it was a nasty look like 'can't you see I'm busy here'. Well can't you see I've been waiting forever for a lousy beer?! Paid for one and left, no need for nasty vibes when I'm paying to have fun on the mountain. Watch out for ski patrol they sometimes gather in groups of 30, so be careful going around them. Other than that- can't wait for some expanded territory! Oh wait it's gonna take 10 years :-( doh! read more

Great family mountain , great beginner's terrain which I LOVE! Thre chairs are a bit slower than they could be, but there is never a line to get on it! Never too crowded either! read more

the only time I ever skied was here in the early eighties and it was tremendous and memorable ... great to hear it is still the go to place ... jh o'brien ... read more

THEY STEAL SNOWBOARDS HERE!!! DO NOT GO!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had my snowboard stolen at this lodge last week and when I called to inquire about the status of it I was horrified at how rude the staff was to me on the phone. Not only did she not show sympathy but told me "we dont care about stolen equiptment, its not our problem". I asked politely for a one day pass at the least for myself to break the fear of the place and bring me back there since I have been going for the passed 2 years bringing a party always of 3-7 people along and she laughed at me! I also asked why wasnt I told at the time of filing a missing board report that there are in fact security cameras there (in which she just told me on the phone, same woman) and she said again they dont bother with stolen equipment. You call your lodge a family place? If that is the case people should not bring their kids there! ive since heard several people having their CARS even broken into here! ***********CAUTION************* read more

Good skiing. One of my favorite mountains. Fantastic place if you have young kids that need to learn. Their kids camp is run very well and I highly recommend it. The lodge is a bit small, but you're not there to sit inside. read more

Fun mountain but terrible layout of lodges and lifts. Had to hike across parking lot to get to a lift. All of yh

It took us TWO HOURS to rent skis at the Belleayre rental center last Saturday. Worst experience I've ever had at a ski resort. Let me try to summarize the variety of problems. First, you need to wait on FOUR different lines to rent skis: ticket line, computer line, boot line, and then ski line. Second, there is no one helping anyone navigate these lines. You just have to figure out by asking other customers, "What line is this?" or "What line am I supposed to go to first?" Third, the rental process took 75 minutes, most of it spent on the line (literally out the door) for skis. Fourth and perhaps worst, they have a "system" where you wear the boots while they fit the skis, and they size the binding to the boot by "scanning your boots". This is fine if it works, but it has to work 100% of the time. After our 75-minute ordeal, we got on the gondola to the TOP of the mountain, only to discover that my daughter's bindings were sized to the wrong boot! So after consulting with employees at the top of the mountain, we then needed to get BACK on the gondola, return to the base, carry the equipment back to the rental place, and then have them fix the equipment. And when we did, there were TWO OTHER customers with the same problem! We arrived at the mountain at 9:15AM, but we didn't actually start skiing until 11:15AM, two hours later. Just unbelievable. read more

Stopped by the administration office , asked if a plan was in place to fix Super Chief. Was told they they have no plan and will only fix it when it breaks. This lift has been down 5 of the last 6 weekends I have been here. I like this mountain, but it's not fun when you can't get up the hill. Needless to say, I will not be renewing my season pass for next year. read more

Fun little mountain. Way less crowded than Hunter or Windham. Lodges are homey, mom and pop feel to the place. being a lunch. the bar has great fresh tap beer, mmmmmm. Parks are left a little lacking, but the trails have nice features along the sides. Top o the mountain is flat to get around, but not overly annoying. Weekdays you have the place to yourself and the 47 dollar tickets are worth the riding. Definitely try to time it with some natural snow, snowmaking and grooming is not the best. Overall, great place to take a few cruisers, and nothing too crazy. Learning area seems like it would be good for beginners too! read more

This is a great mountain if you are all about skiing/snowboarding. The facility itself is old but the mountain is well maintained and less crowded. read more

Nice mountain but rudest staff ever. Will not be returning simply for how my group and I were treated. They messed up all of our lunch orders. The bar is understaffed but when the barman channels his anger towards a customer, that's when you need to reevaluate your management. I've never felt so disrespected in my life the way Tom the bartender barked at me after I waited for half an hour for a drink and when I tried to put in my order, he threw his hands in the air yelling at me. Absurdly unprofessional. Very disappointed in my stay. read more

Very family friendly, nice place to ski. Good amount of snowfall. Nice lifts. Nice lodges. Lot's of fun.

I've been coming here since I was a little kid and I keep coming back. However I went there yesterday and I felt compelled to leave a review. We were in a bit of a situation with our car breaking down on the way there and not really having a way to get back home to long island. We tried renting a car with a local hertz but they refused to stay open leaving us stranded. That's when we met Captain Ron. He was very understanding to our situation and went above and beyond to get us some help. The resort was closed and it was getting dark. He was nice enough to bring us to the Pine Hill Arms(great place highly recommended) and to introduce us to the staff. He gave us some information on the local bus routes and nearest trains. Honestly he was a major life saver and we eventually got home that night. Overall all the staff is wonderful and extremely hospitable. I love this place and recommend it to anyone thinking about coming here to ski or snowboard. read more

Beware of the holiday promotion where you supposedly receive a voucher lift ticket. We skiied today and only one very short beginner run was open, but we thought we would go anyway because of the voucher. Afterward we were told that because we got a lift ticket and rental package we do not get the voucher, supposedly because we saved so much on the lift ticket, which turned out to be $36 instead of $40. I just looked at the website and this exception is not apparent. read more

really enjoyed my experience here, lots of trees, trails and powder made my gf and i feel like were "actually skiing" in the catskills as opposed to hunter or windham, trails are cool, theres something for everyone but staff needs an attitude adjustment, eg. the jerk directing traffic in parking lot had an insult for everyone. annoying to get to the tomahawk lift, lockers are JUNK and it would be nice for them to provide a civil service or military discount, i guess my blue "collar" wasnt good enough lol. i would do it again, bar was fun read more