This is a review of the ski school at Keystone. I ended up chatting with one of the instructors there, who informed me that the ski and snowboard teachers are barely assessed before they are hired. They are also low-paid, which leads to high turnover and no real incentive to do their job right. They are lazy and keep students in lower level classes than their skill-set just so they don't have to do the work of actually teaching them. I have some experience skiing and told them I was a Level 5. I ended up on the bunny slopes with this overweight, lazy instructor, running so-called drills that I already knew how to do. It was a major waste of my time, as I was excited to learn as much as possible during my ski vacation. Even when my Epic Mix app clearly stated that I was a Level 5 skier, they put me in a Level 4 class for three more days. It was unbelievably frustrating to spend my days from 10AM-3:30PM in a boring class beneath my true ability--you can't learn if you aren't being challenged, and a Level 5 skier should at least be touching some blue runs. Plus, the classes are too big--I was in a class of eight people, which makes it impossible to progress because you always have to go at the pace of the slowest person. I think smaller class sizes, better assessments of students' skiing ability, and more highly-qualified instructors would have made my ski vacation at Keystone more enjoyable. P.S. Pack a lunch and bring a camel back for water--the food here is exorbitant ($12.50 for one slice of Domino's-caliber pizza and $2 for an empty cup just to get water from the water fountain). read more

First time on the mountain?? Keystone is the place to learn and get more bang for your buck on the West coast! My first time ever in Colorado and let me tell you - taking a lesson was worth every penny the first day on the slopes. I've put together a few tips after my week stay, so hopefully these will prepare you and also add to your awesome experience in Keystone: (1) Altitude sickness is REAL. If you think getting drunk after your first day off the plane is a wise idea, then be prepared to have a less enjoyable ski experience. Drink LOTS OF WATER. I consider myself in decent shape, and experienced the altitude adjustment issue shortly after day 2 of travel. It hits everyone at all levels of fitness, so be nice to your body and hydrate well. (2) Food here is expensive, but good. This should probably be expected at most resorts in Colorado, so if you're shopping around and trying to save for the trip, be prepared to spend at least $30-50 a day per person on food unless you buy groceries. A burger and fries runs about $16 w/o a beverage, so the math adds up fast on the food side. (3) I stayed at the Keystone Lodge & Spa - very excellent combo if you're looking for amenities. I managed to get a special deal at the end of last season and booked very far in advance. This saved a few hundred dollars and I got last season's lift ticket prices. The Lodge was AMAZING. Spa, hot tub, sauna, steam room, showers, outdoor pool....let me tell you....experiencing a hot tub in the snowfall is the most amazing thing you'll ever do after a long day on the slopes. The room was also very neat and clean and the staff incredible. (4) Getting here takes planning. You don't simply hop off the plane and land in Keystone, or any of the resorts out west. You must book a shuttle which takes roughly 2 hours from the airport to your destination (can take longer depending on mountain location). I used Summit Express - $130 roundtrip and the staff was excellent. No frills, and gets you from the airport to your mountain of choice. Check their website for rates and dates. Very simple to book. (5) On the mountain experience - once here, it's like no other place I've seen on the east coast. The staff and all the folks working on the mountain are friendly and very willing to help with questions. I booked a lesson on my first day for $156. The lesson lasts for an entire day, beginning at 10:30, wrapping up by 3:00pm. The Epic Mix experience will allow you to buy 3 lessons for the price of 2 if you'd like more one-to-one attention over a few more days. I stuck with the green runs like SchoolMarm, Silverspoon, and JayBird. The runs are HUGE in comparison to east coast standards! You'll be able to turn more and learn quicker because of this. (6) Packing. I have to say that I'm glad I didn't bring my snowboard on this trip. Lugging that thing around would have been HELL in the airport/shuttle/lodge. If you rent, the rental shops will store everything for you for free. I paid a little extra and rented for the week, plus I got to swap out boards and try different brands and a new pair of boots. That was nice to demo. I highly advise bringing a CamelBak or some sort of backpack/drinking container. You will take breaks between runs, and get thirsty, or feel a headache because of the altitude. Packing powdered PowerAde and Gatorade was the best thing I did last minute before coming on the trip. Oh yeah, Gatorade on the mountain is almost $7 for a 20oz. plastic bottle. Better to bring your own mix if you can! The powder is also approved by TSA, so make sure to check your bag and get it on the plane. It saved me because I also got sick and needed the electrolytes. (7) Free Shuttles! You can get anywhere in Keystone with their free shuttle service. This also takes you to Dillon, Breckenridge, A.Basin, and for a small fee you can get to Vail. I plan on renting a car next time, because the shuttles can take up to 1.5 hours to get to some of the other resorts because of stops along the way. Nonetheless, good to be free if you have time to spare! read more

love Keystone Resort, great mountain.

For the past several years Keystone has been distinguished for it excellent grooming. This is no longer a feature at Keystone. I can not tell yet whether it is a training issue or an equipment issue; it is clearly a management issue; either the current general manager does not know what good grooming looks like or???? read more

Great skiing. Nice long runs . Fast lifts. Even on busy days we can find runs to ourselves. Great restaurants . Waiting for some lifts up into the Bowls. Friendly people and fun summertime events read more

Hey they will book your ski vacay whether there is snow or not and gladly take your money! None of the kids activities or kids ski hill is open when we are booked to visit and they won't refund the package and are calling the ski resort "open." Open as in there is a run or two that our kids aren't comfortable on. To top it off they did refund our friends package during the same stay this weekend but then back-peddled and said oh that was a mistake. Won't refund ours! We'll be spending our money elsewhere in the future. read more

Keystone brings it all together. Ease of access, family centric, variety of runs and activities; it all works. We are regulars at this resort and are never disappointed. read more

This is my 3rd time to Keystone. It's just so easy to drive from Denver so if you can get cheap airfare to Denver airport, this and Winter Park are probably the most convenient ski resorts to visit. Keystone is a nice mountain. It's nice that the slopes are pretty contained, easiest on the left, intermediate in the middle and hard on the right so you can stick to one area depending on your skill level. We went during MLK weekend in Jan so the lines were longer than normal but still not too bad. The lines for the gondolas went very fast. Some of the trails were icy because surprisingly it hadn't snowed much but it can happen. I've been to Whistler and Steamboat at different times in Jan and even those mountains didn't always have fresh snow for some reason so it might be just my bad luck. Admittedly when I've been to those mountains and they did have fresh snow it was amazing but I digress. We didn't get a chance to ski much of the blacks or the bowls because they were closed so we stayed on the blues and greens. The village itself is not as nice as places like Breck, Vail, Whistler but it's nice enough in my opinion. Get the EpicMix app and you can track your activity throughout the mountain...kinda nice at the end of your trip to remember exactly where you went and how much you skied/snowboarded. Also the variety of restaurants leave much to be desired. Plus the food at the mountain restaurants were probably the most expensive I've paid...$18 for a hamburger and fries with no drink. We've stayed at condos in River Run Village before but we had a long walk to the ski lift. This time we stayed at Slopeside Condos and it is MUCH closer walking distance to the slopes about a small 3-4 minute walk and you're at the Peru ski lift. The condo was a great value. It had free indoor heated parking, couple of hot tubs to relax after hitting the slopes, kitchenette with stove, refrigerator, dish washer and microwave and a lot of cable channels in our unit 2774 so we could find a good tv station to watch and relax. Our unit was a little outdated and the carpets needed to be changed but it was clean and there was nothing that would get you grossed out. It was a decent sized studio and close to the ski lockers and door to the car garage. Walls are a little thin so you can hear anyone who was walking by but there wasn't much traffic so we didn't mind. We booked directly from Keystone Resort so we got the kids under 12 ski free, the free ice skating passes, the free night of skiing from 4-8 pm and the free nordic skiing. We used the kids ski free and the free night of skiing so we saved at least $400+ on lift tickets for the 2 adults and 1 kid. Keystone is one of the best values for a family and it has good trails so I would definitely recommend. read more

I grew up snowboarding here, and while the mountain and conditions are great, the lodge and food options here are terrible. The lodge is so outdated and the tables are never clean or well maintained. It is also jam-packed with people during the lunch hours. The lodges have cafeteria-style food like hamburgers and hotdogs. There is really no enjoyable place to sit and hangout if you aren't skiing. The summit lodge at the top does not have wifi, I'm not sure about the mountain west lodge. If you aren't coming here to ski, don't come, there is nothing else to do and you will be incredibly bored. There are a few cafes in the river run area, but those too are crowded without much space. read more

Poor tubing organization. Paid $33 for an hour and barely made it down twice in that time. They kept closing the runs down and making us wait without extending our time. A lot of very expensive waiting. Won't be back for tubing read more

Nice resort, but bring your check book. Up top for hill tubing, 2 slices of pizza and 2 drinks were $43. On top of $45 for an hour of tubing. If you want to ski, go to Ski Cooper. $80 for all day lift ticket and rental...along with great slopes. read more

The Lake is frozen in the winter and I suppose for ski lovers they also appreciate ice skating but I'll pass thank you.

I visited three of Colorado's great resorts and of all of them, Keystone was my favorite. They have a lot of great beginner friendly runs that also give you options to branch off and try new, harder runs. Being so new, I cant speak of the harder runs. But as a beginner, I felt most relaxed skiing keystone. The structure made it really easy for me to learn. Next time I go back, I'd like to stay there and make it the resort I visit most. On the way out, there was a sweet double xylophone to play... which gave my partner and I a super fun reason to take a break from lugging our heavy gear. The whole experience was so delightful. read more

From the perspective of a family that only gets to ski once a year, Keystone is a good place to learn to ski. I found over the years that their kids program is better run than the one at sister Breckenridge. I do like several of the wide open blue runs as well as the Gondolas and the Adventure point at the peak with the fort for the kids and the great tubing place. The night skiing on elect runs is also a bonus and is something everyone should try as the sunset and dusk was just beautiful on the runs. That being said we will not be coming back to Keystone again. The problem for us this latest trip is the kids are beyond beginners now but the blues were a bit too difficult in places. Schoolmarm is a great long run but is not an easy green. In fact its really Blue in places. It was no problem for us but it was crowded because it happens to really be the only green run with exception of a few off shoots from it. We tried Spring Dipper and it was great at the top but midway dow turned into a sheet of ice. That left us only one set of runs on the right side of the mountain to work with. It basically got boring doing the same runs over and over again. The last pitch even getting back to River Run on Ina's Way could be very intimidating for true beginners. I saw many people stop at that point looking over trying to figure out the easiest way down. There should be a gentler slope to the main entrance of River Run. Also one of the days we were there the Gondola was shut down due to high winds. This resulted in an hour long wait for the chair ride or you could wait in line for a bus to take you to Mountain House. Either way it was not a good situation to be in with three kids. The River Run village is really quaint and nice with lots of restaurants and bars and I love the fire pits located throughout the village. The problem like any ski town is they have gotten very expensive. I thought Breckenridge was bad but Keystone was worse. I couldn't even find a decent t-shirt for the kids that wasn't $30. There is a convenience store on site as well but way over priced. We stayed in Silver Mill which I separately reviewed. Its located on the front end of River Run. On the weekend it was crowded with drunk rowdy teenagers and young adults and didn't make the best family friendly location. Never mind trying to actually find a space in the hot tub which was probably unsafely overcrowded. One day we visited the Nordic Center to check out the tubing hill there which was not much of a hill. Rentals were $18 an hour and you have to haul the tube up the hill by yourself. It was not fun. The soup restaurant there was also a huge disappointment. I paid $12 for a bowl of cauliflower soup. I honestly make better soup than that place and I am not a cook. If you are an intermediate skier Keystone would probably be a good fit for you. While its been noted to be family friendly over the years I think its lost some of that now and is being overrun with young partying adults. We have stayed off site at Keystone before and had a much better experience even though we had to get someone to drive us or take the bus. As nice as it was to be close to the village I prefer a little more space and less craziness going on. We do recommend the Tubing at Adventure Point for the kids as that has been really fun in the past. We also tried the Fondue restaurant this time which I'll admit was fun and unique but way overpriced. It cost me over $200 for one adult and three kids. For us we will be off someplace new the next trip. Just nothing left for us to see and do in Keystone. read more

Keystone Resort is awesome!!! Beautiful condos and beautiful scenery. ROB was awesome at helping make my reservations!!! He spent a lot of time making sure that we had what we needed. read more

Love it here! This is our 2nd spring break with my boys. It's a lovely family oriented environment that we will be making a family tradition! read more

This is my favorite place to ski ever - grew up skiing since 8 in Tahoe and this one kinda'feels like home. The night skiing makes all the diff between white knuckling it on 70 at 6am on a Saturday with 400000 of your closest friends and angry family barely able to drive as it gets foggy or starts to slush out (just look for the car graveyard on 70) or...getting up at 11am, having some cafeine/food, chillin, easy drive up to the stone, arrive around 2pm just as the fams are heading back down the hill, ski to 7pm, easy dinner at the chinese place in Dillon and a chill drive home with NO ONE on the road... which picture sounds better to you? :) Ok so the resort is not as big or has as many bowls as Vail, doesn't have the status of Whislter or the deep pow of Wolf Creek but meh... I love jumps and groomers! This place is my all time fav in the Colorado ski areas. Oh.. and before I get pegged as a single running to the mountain ... the Saturday gigs are with my 6 year old - he loves night skiing - and talk about a stress free Saturday. Keep the night skiing going on Saturdays Keystone!!! Love the Stone. Jon read more

This is truly my favorite place in all of Colorado. There is something here for every member of the family. I stayed at the resort for about a month and I never wanted to leave. There is a lake where you can hang out at all day, it is surrounded by a bunch of little shops, followed by a large greenland that reminded me of a private outdoorsy resort. There is a pool tucked behind a few buildings, which it was alone as well. My friends and I biked up a few miles ahead (don't remember where exactly to) and found a giant lake with boats and fisherman. I brought my dog and he was welcomed as well. My dad loves to golf here and says it is the perfect golfing weather constantly. I just adore this place, and it feels so safe and clean! Definitely a must visit. read more

This was my second visit to Keystone Resort and quite possibly my last. Our visit last year was amazing; customer service was phenomenal. This year, not so much. On our second day of our family vacation, my sister was involved in a snowmobile accident. She suffered 3 fractured ribs and a fractured nose. Needless to say, she was unable to ski as she spent most of the vacation in the hospital. She requested, on numerous occasions, for a refund after speaking to customer service and corporate, and was told nothing could be done. She was out $400+. We booked all our activities through Keystone Resort from the dinner sleigh ride, to kids ski school, tubing, etc. The amount of money spent at Keystone far outweighs the requested refund amount. The circumstances surrounding the accident were beyond our control and some consideration would have been greatly appreciated. Next winter we will definitely find a different vacation spot. If Keystone management wishes to reach out to my sister, her phone number is 786-281-7676. Very dissatisfied read more

Keystone has always been acclaimed for its impressive time that has contained some very elaborate features from time to time such as a gigantic rainbow rail, actually featuring flames in fact. Also, some extremely long long rails too. The kids all come out to play in this rail park nightly. Yay, Keystone has night skiing. Stays open till 8. This can be a really good time, even for cruinsin'. Sure it is a little cold. In the daytime, still as fun. Head to the outback for some pow. One thing, Keystone never seems to get the half pipe right. Can't ever seem to put my finger on it, but it is definitely off somehow and always. Keep trying keystone, why not just take a run to Breck and see what they're doin? read more

Had some of the funnest runs! The Village at the bottom is lively with shops, restaurants and bars. Perfect place to kick back after a day of boarding. Trees everywhere making the runs super fun. read more

The summer snow tubing was SO fun!! Adults and teenagers all had a blast. For $10, you can add on lunch at the Summit; for that I got a delicious Salmon sandwich with watermelon. The best activity we've done while in the breckenridge area this week. read more

Great night skiing. The town is cute, but the skiing is great. I like the long runs, but wished the back part was open longer.

Seriously great. Free parking is close enough to gear up and walk, even in ski boots. Lifts are fast and easy, from the gondolas to the open airs. The runs are awesome: everything from the easy wide open and relaxing groomers to the straight drops on the blacks, to exciting powder caches all over the mountain. I honestly would rather come here than anywhere else. Other resorts in the area are fun, but have more of a downside than Keystone. The staff is AWESOME! I had a collision and twisted my back, having to download from the top of Dercum. Every single staff member not only asked if I was okay, but offered help, and truly looked concerned! I was fine, just done for the day, but the warm attitudes of the staff blew me away. A+! read more

This is a beautiful resort with a lot to offer; I was really looking forward to my stay. Unfortunately, my room left much to be desired; I would (not kidding) much rather have stayed at a Motel 6. Let me explain why. When we checked in, we noticed that our room was hot (third floor, warm air rises). So, we dialed the front desk to inquire about the AC; there is no AC (Motel 6 has AC units in all rooms). After that, we followed the instructions from the front desk to open our patio door. Unfortunately, the screen door was off its tracks, and we didn't want to let bugs in, so we closed the door and phoned the front desk again. We were told that someone would come to fix the screen door while we were at dinner. However, the same problem persisted when we returned; the door hadn't been fixed. Further, no one had come to fix the slow-draining sink, which grew to resemble a bird bath after any amount of hand washing (I've never had problems with a sink at a Motel 6). Finally, we rented a studio but weren't told that the bed was a drop-down built into the wall. The bed was small, rather musty, and covered with an itchy wool blanket. Further, the mattress was so soft that my fiancé and I sort of fell/rolled into each other when we tried to share the bed. So, I slept (badly) on the couch (I've always slept well at Motel 6, proper beds there). I could go on, but if you're still interested in staying here, I can't help you. If you're on the fence, I'd recommend considering other options or at least avoiding a studio here. This situation was miserable for us; we were here for a wedding and needed a good night's sleep. Honestly, I can't understand why a place otherwise this nice can't spring for a redesign of its studio rooms. read more

Poor organization and terribly slow. Went for an hour and got in 3 runs. If you want the best tubing in Summit County, go to Copper Mountain. . read more

Only had a single day to ski with our family during a brief christmas vacation and locals suggested keystone for long runs. They were making snow as natural stuff was lacking. Put our two 5 year olds in ski school and went to meet up with our friends for skiing. Before I had a chance to snap into my bindings we got a call from the ski school, our son was up at the top of mountain and pretty sick. We asked that they bring him down and I met them at ski school. I was happy the instructor was observant and immediately contacted us. The management even refunded my sons lesson payment. I did not get to ski that day, but was happy with thier professional and prompt operation. My wife and daughter had a great day on the mountain, while us boys just chilled. BTW the village is cute even if you don't ski, stop by and take a walk. We also stopped by the outdoor ice rink one day to teach our kids ice skating, it is the largest outdoor skating rink in colorado and they run a zamboni on it even though its really a lake. Very fun and very scenic. Had a christmas tree in the middle with benches around it. While I was resting there a couple skated over, sat in the bench next to me and before I could blink the guy had pulled a box out and got down on one knee to propose, she said YES and that would be a testament to a great spot. read more

This is one of my favorite place to snowboard!!. The employees for Keystone are always friendly and always in a great mood. I bought the season pass for this mountain because it's so worth it. The best thing that I love is they have something for everyone. There have runs for very level so when my friends come visit I can always find a run that fits their level. Great activities for kids, every time my niece and nephew visit they have a blast. The only down side is that it gets very crowded. Make sure to be here early to beat the crowd! read more

Great resort for family of skier with young kids. The gondola is more child-friendly than lift. On the green line there are a lot of flat area for young skier to slow down and take a break. But it's the same flat area makes it not so great for newbie snowboarder. They tend to slow down too early and eventually stop. You will see those snowboarders jump forward trying to move on flat ground just like fish out of water literally. read more

Nice small village. They have night skiing. Blues are very hard. Nice greens. The kids loved it!

Great skiing, but one complaint: There used top be small Dixie cups by the water fountains. This year, they are gone. How cheap can you get? Charge $90+ for a lift ticket, then charge 10 cents for a cup? Was that necessary so CEO Rob could afford his recently purchased $3M house?! Very penny-wise, pound-foolish, Vail Resorts. I'll go to Copper next time to save my 10 cents! read more

Hey just a quick one to say if you like ice skating, that's reason enough to stay at Keystone in the winter.

When I left for my Colorado ski trip a couple years back I thought I was going to be wayyyy out of my element. I mean, I ski, but never outside ohio (at that point) and only a couple times a year. To my surprise, I probably had the best ski experience of my life at Keystone. Being used to 15 second runs in Ohio it was awesome to experience a real mountain run and take some serious time getting down it. I felt it was manageable for a intermediate (I guess thats how I'd describe my skills) skier yet still had serious challenges for me. It was really beautiful on top of the mountain and I pretty much compare most ski experiences to my time here now. I have only been to one other "real ski mountain" in my life so i am not the best person to compare. But given the chance I will be back here in a heartbeat. read more

I love this place. Fun! It can get a bit crowded but you just need to know where to go on the mountain.

The resort has been our go to ski vacation for several years. The village is always bustling and it is clean, well lite and full of nice places to eat and cool shops. We have stayed at four of the condo buildings and rah was very nice. This was the second year our daughter (5 years old) has spent multiple days at the Kids Ski & Ride school. She absolutely loves it. This year she had Monica one day and Julia for two more. All of the staff at the ski school are great with kids, experts on the slopes and truly love what they do. The day is from 9a-3p and includes lunch and a photo of the child in their gear. Super cute! read more

I can't believe how gorgeous this resort was, even off-season.. It snowed the morning of our flight out and the drive back to the airport was beautiful with all the snow dusted trees. We will definitely be back to ski and would stay at the Keystone resort again without hesitation. We were in for a wedding and rented a house rather than stay in a room at the lodge area, although we did go to eat and had a family brunch at the lodge which is top notch. We weren't able to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain but will be sure to do it next time we go, the views must be amazing. The house we rented was able to accomodate fifteen of us, it had a game room, theater room, hot tub, giant kitchen, two sets of washer/dryers and the free shuttle to take us around the area. All we had to do was call them and five minutes later they'd pick us all up and take us where we wanted to go. All in all I can't say enough good things about this resort, can you tell?? read more

I I absolutely love Keystone! My first time here was last season 2018/2019 and I had a blast snowboarding here. So much so I got another season pass. Keystone is also less crowded than other resorts. Overall I had a very enjoyable experience,and I will continue to come here. The only negative thing is that they charge you to ride the snowcat to do the bowls a measily $5 but should be free especially for season pass holders. Great resort though. read more

Had the pleasure of skiing here today and being helped by Jeremey. He was helpful, knowledgeable, and took me down the hill when I couldn't make it down! Thank you for everything! Would definitely come back to ski here! read more

Always a great time here. Snow conditions were great for being so early in the year. The ski patrol is really courteous and attentive. There is always a good ratio of boarders to skiers. read more

Keystone is my current #2 in Summit County, here's why: Pros: NIGHT SKI/BOARDING: most of the slopes in the area don't offer that Gondolas: stay warm on the long lift to the Summit Spectacular views at the top of the mountain Free nighttime parking Tubing (didn't try it, but I wish I had!) Cons: Some of their "mellow" areas where many slopes join are poorly lit Signs for trails are awkward to find read more