I am now 16, other members of my family are my 10 year old sister, dad, and mom, and we all like to ski. We were envisioning a place to go for february vacation week during the 2006 season, and decided to go to Bretton Woods. It's a little less than 2.5 hours from Boston. We rented a Forest Cottage, which had 2 bedrooms (1 with queen bed and 1 with 2 twin beds), a full kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, etc. Great place to stay, very convenient as well! The shuttle made getting to the mountain but also to other parts of the resort like the hotel as simple as walking onto the slopes... This definetely won't be an issue so don't worry about it. The mountain is very spread-out. There are massive amounts of terrain for beginners/intermediates, but there are also some surprisingly good glades for beginning advanced and very advanced. If you like glades, and there is good snow (which there was that year!!!) you will love this place. Lots and lots of glades, very varied, fun, and little travelled. Some are pretty steep too. Did I mention there were A LOT!? They are all over the mountain, come in all levels of difficulty, and are really fun! There is so much variety that on the second year I went I was still finding new ones. The rosebrook canyone ones are the main attraction, very little travelled, never saw more than 1 other party there. Beautiful glades, some beginning advanced but mostly advnced. The ones on west mountain are easier for beginners, and are very nice too, but less "backcountry" feeling. Also, there are a few good bump runs too. If you only like really steep clear trails, this is not the place for you. But, you can stay here and go to Attitash for a day, I haven't tried but it looks like a ~30 min drive from Bretton Woods. They have some glades, but their main attraction is steep terrain.

We went back for the 2007 season, same great place, unfortunately it rained, but they did a good job of keeping the glades open. The groomed trails were fine.

If you are a crazy, extreme, backcountry-middle-of-nowhere skiier, go somewhere like mad river glen or stowe. If you are a family, even with moderately advance skiiers, this is an excellent place for a vacation, especially because of the other resorts nearby.

I hadn't skied for 20 years until I decided to teach my 9 and 11 year old kids, and my wife to ski. I decided on Bretton Woods because I remember it as a beginners mountain growing up in NH. For experienced skiers, this is not a challenging mountain. There are a few legitimate Black Diamond runs; most of this terrain is Green Circles and Blue Squares. The area really caters to families, from an excellent ski school, to clowns and magicians at the lift lines to Sugar Snow sold at the top of the mountain. We rented skis and arrived early enough to fly through the line and be on the slopes quickly. I did notice the gold pass crowd skipping in line, but the lines were so short I wasn't really bothered... and we were there during shool vacation week! Remember, a mountain's terrain is relative: a black diamond at Bretton Woods is easier than a similarly rated trail at Vail, but much harder then Yawgoo Valley black diamond in Rhode Island. At then end of our trip, 2007, we all decided we had the time of our lives. Hence, we just returned from our second trip. BW is not cheap, but for a once a year trip, for new skiers, it is perfect. I would also ignore the comments about pretentious skiers. I used to ski in jeans until I was 18, they don't get more unpretentious than me. I saw no more snobbery than you'd see anywhere else. My only complaint is the limited options in the evening. Still we made the best of it. Go to Bretton Woods and have fun.

A family of 5 can ski one day at Bretton Woods vs 4 days at Black MT. Boring/$$$ vs fun,friendly and fairly priced. GO BLACK where the resort is run by a family and not a board of directors.

Bretton Woods' strength is its snow conditions, which are usually pretty good. Beyond that, new ownership seems to care more about catering to wealthy snobs who fancy themselves decent skiers (and are, in fact, pretty laughable) than about being a skier's mountain. The black-diamond trails are downright laughable (they shouldn't have bothered to order any black diamond signs; the blue rectangles would have sufficed), even with the addition of some new terrain. They now allow "Gold members" to cut lift lines. Ah, yes, the power of money.

Our original plan was to spend one day at Cannon, two days at BW, and two at Loon this vacation. We opted against a second day at BW, and did a second day at Cannon instead, and were really glad we did. The atmosphere was better, the people were much nicer and down-to-earth, and the only people cutting the lift line were the ski school.

We won't waste our money at Bretton Woods again. We come to the mountains to ski (not much real skiing to be had at BW) and also to escape that sort of rat race snobbery, not to immerse ourselves in it.

Ski the Sierras instead. MORE Vertical MORE snow MORE sunshine - ok then lets talk about the things that we can control or do things about - atmosphere and getting people through the lines (NO STANDING/WAITING - or at least MINIMAL lift lines)... Oh? stuck in New England? save your money and go next year. If ya can't make it to the Sierras then drop in on the Rockies - oh yeah they do have lift lines waiting and standing... but deal with it. Oh otherwise just ski here and have idiots plow into ya then stand in line and do it again...