What You Need to Know About Crystal Mountain Michigan! -

If you are looking for a fun and family-friendly ski resort in the midwest, then Crystal Mountain, Michigan is a great choice!

My youngest son asked to go skiing for his 18th birthday SEVERAL years prior to turning eighteen, so, of course, I agreed! (I figured we need to positively reinforce those long-term planning skills!)

I am not a fan of skiing and had never even looked into a skiing vacation before, so off to work I went. He wanted to take a friend or two, so I knew I wanted to do it within driving distance (we live in Indiana). After some research, I found the Crystal Mountian Resort and it sounded like the perfect spot for us!

Skiing & Snowboading!

My son had only been snowboarding once, but fell in love with it! He’s much more of a winter person than I am (I’m a beach girl for sure), but I figured we could make it work!

He asked to bring his two best friends along, so myself, my husband, my son, and his two friends headed to Michigan! We did not get to go on his actual birthday because his birthday is in October (no snow yet) and he was in marching band (enough said)!

Rental facilities

Don’t have your own equipment? No problem!

My husband had never been skiing before and my son had only been once. So, needless to say, we did not have any ski gear. However, that was not a problem at all!

They have rental facilities for skis, snowboards, boots, and even helmets. You can reserve your items online before you go or see what is available once you arrive. I am not a gambler, so we reserved everything we needed ahead of time.

It’s a decent size rental facility with everything you need all in one location. Snowboards are on one side of the check-in line and ski equipment is on the other side.

There is also the option to rent helmets. I did not reserve those ahead of time. However, since all the guys with us asked for them, we checked into it and were able to rent some for the length of our stay.

BONUS: If you stay on property, you can keep your ski gear for the length of your stay. That is, you don’t have to return it each night and check it out again the next morning. There are small storage areas located and many of the housing options and “valet” parking for your skis if you are in one of their hotel rooms.

The Slopes!

Again, I’m not a skier, but the resort and slopes seemed great to me! There were a wide variety of difficulty levels. There are 58 different slopes available and are marked either green, blue, or black. There were several of each color with varying degrees of difficulty.

The resort is nestled around the slopes, with housing options on several sides of the slopes and all of the main areas and dining areas located at the bottom of the two main ski lifts.

Welcome to the Magic Carpet! This is their beginner area, where lessons are given and where you can practice as much as you want before you hit the regular slopes. You ride the “magic carpet” to the top and then head down to get the feeling of what you are getting yourself into!

Honestly, I was surprised how many tiny kids there were out on skis and snowboards!

Here is one of the 58 slopes at Crystal Mountain! This ski lift takes you to the top of his area and lets you off where there are a couple of different levels of trails available to you.

Here are my son and his two friends that went with us! They tended to spend 2-2.5 hours on the slopes and then come back to our “cottage” to rest, grab a snack, and warm up before going back out again.

My son is the one doing the thumbs up…you know…hurry up mom…take your picture and leave us be! Though he would never actually say that to me!

What’s there to eat?

Crystal Mountian is not really located near any large or even medium-size cities, so dining options are limited. There are a few restaurants on their property and a couple close by (within twenty minutes). You can drive thirty or sixty minutes to larger towns with additional dining and entertainment options. However, we chose to stay close by.

Onsite

The Lodge is where the majority of their food options are located. Inside, they have a bar, quick service restaurant, pizza place, and a sit-down restaurant.

We tried the Clipper Cafe one day for lunch and Bestie River Pizza and Subs one night for supper. However, we were not too impressed. I had packed the crockpot to do one meal our first night and we decided this would be the better option when we go back again. After the first day, we had sandwiches in the room for lunch and headed off the property for supper.

Off-Site

Like I mentioned earlier, there are not a whole lot of options close by to eat. We also learned that the area’s “busy season” is during the summer, so there were not many places open all day and most of what was open were bar-and-grill places.

We tried The 231 Bar & Grill one evening due to it being the closest restaurant to the hotel. We were actually the only people at the restaurant, besides the employees, when we visited.

We just had burgers and fries and the food was really good! My husband even enjoyed it and he tends to be super picky when it comes to food quality!

On a different night, we tried The Roadhouse Mexican Bar and Grill, which was about a fifteen-minute drive from the hotel. The food was decent, though it was Tex-Mex and not actually Mexican. It was definitely a cute little bar setting for our enjoyable dinner.

Where to stay?

There are several room options available at the resort and I would definitely recommend staying at their resort if you are planning to ski/snowboard for a couple of days or more!

Everyone checks in at the Inn. There are rooms in the Inn, as well as several other options for places to stay. There are townhomes, bungalows, cottages, regular hotel rooms, and more. Accommodations are available for couples, all the way up to parties of fourteen!

Our party of five decided to stay in one of the cottages and it was absolutely perfect!

The cottages had plenty of room for us! There was a full kitchen and living room, along with two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

I don’t enjoy skiing, so I spent my week doing CEUs from that window seat you see in the picture below. It snowed our second day there, so I had an absolutely amazing view and a stove to keep me warm! It was great!

When we return in the future, I would definitely choose a cottage again! We had the cottage that was furthest from everything and it took us less than five minutes to walk wherever we needed to go!

What else is there to do?

Not a fan of skiing? Looking for something to do before or after you hit the slopes? There is plenty more to do at Crystal Mountain than just skiing or snowboarding!

The Park at Water’s Edge

In the Winter: If you visit in the winter, The Park at Water’s Edge has outdoor hot tubs, as well as rental facilities. You can rent snowshoes and ice skates for the small ice skating rink near the dining areas and firepit.

In the Summer: If you visit in the summer, The Park at Water’s Edge still has the outdoor hot tub available, as well as an outdoor swimming pool, splash park, rock climbing wall, and high ropes challenge!

Peak Fitness Center

The fitness center houses their indoor swimming pool, indoor hot tub, gym equipment, and spa. They have a fitness class or two, as well as yoga classes, available for free each day, as well as paid options for additional services.

My husband and I enjoyed the pool and hot tub for a couple of hours one afternoon. It was a nice break!

Shopping

As I mentioned before, there is not a whole lot of options outside of the resort area. However, there are a few shops in the resort area to obtain any necessary items and souvenirs.

The Mountain Market is their main shopping area.

The Mountain Markets has food and drinks available for purchase. They offer sandwiches to go, as well as items you can eat in your room such as frozen pizzas, ice cream, soups, and more!

The Mountain Market also has some ski equipment (hats, gloves, face masks, etc…), along with sweatshirts, souvenirs, gifts, and more!

There are a couple of other shops on the property, but the Mountain Market is the main one and it has a little bit of everything.

And Still More Activities!

There is a small firepit located in the middle of the activity areas, where the shopping and dining places are located. It’s a nice place to enjoy a great view and spend time with friends!

There is also a small outdoor ice skating rink located in the same area. You can skate for free, but you have to rent skates for $9/hour if you do not bring your own.

We definitely had a great week at the Crystal Mountain Resort! We enjoyed our time away from our daily activities and being able to relax and enjoy our time. It was nice that everything was so close together and we could easily walk from our cottage to the slopes, shops, and dining areas. The fitness center was even just across the street from where we were staying.

It is definitely a location I would be more than happy to return to in the future and I’m not even going to ski or snowboard!