Want for Naught at Mont-Tremblant

By:  Jennifer Milano, written December 2015, traveled December 2014

"I thought Mapquest said seven hours when we planned this trip?" my husband asked me, seven hours into our drive to Mt. Tremblant two days after Christmas.  "Looks like it's really eight," I replied.  Or ten, I thought, if you counted the bathroom stops for the kids (well, okay, for me, too), lunch, GPS confusion and the wait in the line of matching ski-rack-topped SUVs at the U.S.-Canada border.  "Still shorter than a trip to Switzerland," I reminded my husband.

I had wanted to take our family skiing in Zermatt.  I had imagined wandering through the Swiss village, drinking hot chocolate in cozy cafés and shopping at outdoor Christmas markets after a day of schussing down the Alps.  But even though I had started planning that trip back in March, the few accommodations that were available at Christmastime were either exorbitantly expensive or downright unappealing.  So we turned to Québec - we could drive, people speak French and Tremblant is modeled after a European village.  Moreover, with my new Fairmont Visa card, we could stay ski-in, ski-out for an average per night cost of under $400.00 - a rate much lower than on-mountain properties in the northeastern U.S. were offering for Christmas week.  Even lift tickets are less expensive in Canada.  Sold.

After passing through Montréal's outskirts (read:  French-Canadian strip mall versions of Home Depot and Target), we began passing ski area after ski area.  It seemed as if every mountainside had been transformed into a winter play land for Montréalers (yes, that's what they are called according to answers.com).  Finally, after one last bathroom break at Tim Horton's (a better-looking Dunkin' Donuts), we pulled off the highway and made our way through the darkness to Tremblant.

Check-in at the Fairmont Tremblant was a breeze.  I had checked us in online after receiving an email invitation, and the valet who met us at the curb had our room key ready, as well as a bucket attached to the valet cart for all of our loose boots wedged into nooks and crannies in the back of the car.  The valet sent our skis directly to the ski valet, and whisked the remainder of our luggage into the hotel.  We entered the lobby, and my children were immediately drawn to the lights on a miniature Christmas mountain village display, complete with moving train and tiny maple sugar shack.  The fireplace was lit, there were decorated Christmas trees everywhere, and I felt as relaxed as the hotel's black Labrador looked on his dog bed by the concierge desk (who, by the way, you can take for a walk by appointment).  No matter how cold it gets out there, I thought, it's cozy in here.

After settling into our spacious room, we left the hotel through the "pedestrian village access" door directly into a postcard - my European village postcard.  The village square is at the base of the ski mountain, with shops and restaurants lining its edges, an outdoor fireplace with seating around it in near the middle, and a huge illuminated Christmas tree in its center.  People bundled up in fuzzy boots, hats and jackets wandered the square and the traffic-free streets, and we joined them to find our way to a restaurant for dinner.  My husband ordered poutine - a Québec specialty dish consisting of french fries, cheese curds and gravy - and a local beer, and the exhaustion from the long drive melted off of him.

The next morning, we dressed for skiing in Canada (read:  many, many layers and an assortment of handwarmers, footwarmers and bodywarmers), and took the elevator down a few floors to level "T" - we never did find out what "T" stood for - was it "Tremblant"?  Anyway, floor T is a skiier's dream.  Ten feet from the elevator is a desk selling lift tickets with no lines (remember, it's now three days after Christmas, when every child in North America is off from school).  Skiiers can also book lessons and find out what runs are open.  Walk a few more feet, and there's the Wigwam Café, where we grabbed a quick breakfast of croissants, freshly-squeezed orange juice and hot coffee.  "I can't believe how easy this is," my husband remarked as we retrieved our skis from the valet and headed toward the gondola at the base, a one-minute ski away.  "What's the catch?"  Well...there were a few.  As one local who rode the gondola up with us noted, this was the worst year she could remember as far as snowfall.  Only half of the mountain was open, and much of it was icy.  The huge thermometer at the summit read -7 degrees Fahrenheit.  And by the time we skied back to the base, the line for the gondola that had been nonexistent at 8:30 am had grown to a twenty-minute wait.

Over the next four days, we figured out how to minimize lift line wait times, such as skiing on the north side for the morning, then back on the south side in the afternoon.  We loved that we could leave our skis on the racks at the base of the south side, and walk in our ski boots to a nearby restaurant for a real, sit-down lunch.  Or, we could ski back to our hotel, take the elevator up to our room and change our boots, head to town or the hotel lounge for lunch, then be back on the slopes within an hour.  We did not miss the typical base lodge, with greasy burgers and fries, bathroom floors covered in melted snow, and crowded tables with no place for your helmets and jackets, let alone you and your lunch.  "Just like Switzerland!" I happily announced.  "Real food for lunch!"

At the end of each ski day, we changed into our bathing suits and braved the 0-degree air temperature to submerge ourselves in the Fairmont outdoor pool's 95-degree water.  We sat in the pool or hot tub while watching last-run skiers on the slopes just next to us.  Our kids braved the cold plunge pool several times, daring each other to go deeper the next time before gleefully jumping back into the warm pool.  It was all fun and games until it was time to get out - but the Fairmont thought of just about everything, salting the deck to prevent ice from forming, and heating the indoor pool area to a toasty temperature to welcome back the outdoor swimmers.

On our last day in Tremblant, we were kind of tired of being so cold on the slopes, and decided to explore beyond the pedestrian village.  There are two other villages in Tremblant where the locals shop and eat, one is referred to as "The Old Village of Mont-Tremblant," and the other is called "Saint-Jovite".  The latter has more shops and restaurants lining a main street, and town facilities like a library and a school.  We wandered into a gift shop in St-Jovite, where the proprietor taught us about the Inuit culture, and also mentioned that she was from Siberia.  "Siberia!" we exclaimed, never having met someone from that faraway land before.  "Everyone thought I'd be relieved by the weather in Québec after living in Siberia, but it is colder here."  Our eyes widened.  "It is the humidity that makes it so cold in Québec.  It took me about a year to get used to it."  A year.  No thanks.  Five days in below zero temps was about all my wimpy self could handle.

We braved the cold for one more afternoon, to ice skate at the base of the pedestrian village.  Another postcard-perfect scene of an outdoor rink with a fire nearby to keep warm.  After we tired of skating, we wandered to the maple sugar shack to have "sugar on ice."  For 2.50 CAD, the proprietor hands you a popsicle stick, which you take outside to a barrel filled with snow.  A man pours a ribbon of pure maple syrup on the snow and you lay your stick on top of the syrup at one end of the ribbon.  When the syrup sticks to the popsicle stick, it's ready, and you wind up the syrup, which is now a taffy-like consistency, around the stick.  We popped the sticks into our mouths and let the delicious, gooey maple taffy dissolve in our mouths, while we walked the streets of Tremblant - my little affordable Zermatt.

Tremblant:

How to Get Here:  A car is not necessary once you reach the village.  If you stay outside of the ski village with a car, you can park in a large lot and take a gondola up to the base of the mountain.  If you fly to Montréal, you can take a shuttle or rent a car to make the one hour and twenty minute drive to Tremblant.

Where to Stay:  There are lots of options in the ski village, but the best and most convenient is the Fairmont.  Click here for details on getting the Fairmont Visa card, which gives you free nights and other benefits.  If you do not want another credit card, at least register for the complimentary Fairmont President's Club, which gives you perks like free wifi and a dedicated desk in the lobby.  We had a standard two-queen bedded room, which was spacious enough for our family of four.  With the exception of the slowness of the staff in the restaurant and bar area, the service at the hotel was excellent.  The food in the lounge was very good.  We had a free breakfast one morning in the restaurant, which we thought was just average.  The kids loved being able to take the hotel's dog for a walk.

Where to Eat:  The village is filled with restaurants that are mostly average-good.  The best meal we had was on New Year's Eve (which by the way, is a ton of fun as the village sponsors a huge outdoor celebration in the square), at Coco Pazzo.  The restaurant also has a little take-away spot on the main drag, where we picked up delicious sandwiches and pastas to bring back to our hotel.  We liked the food in the Lounge at the Fairmont.  For a treat, visit the maple shack near the ice skating pond for "sugar on snow".  In the local village, go to Creperie Catherine for a delicious breakfast.

What to Do:  Ski!  We spent most of our days skiing.  We also had fun ice skating on the little outdoor rink at the base of the parking lot gondola.  My kids thought that walking the Fairmont's dog was a lot of fun.  Strolling around the pedestrian village and the local village is a good way to spend a few hours.  And a day in Tremblant was never complete without an hour in the Fairmont's outdoor heated pools!