Park City, Utah

It’s hard to say no when you’re a flight attendant and your friends ask you to go on a weekend ski trip. It makes it even harder to say no when the trips somewhere you’ve never been and you give in easily to peer pressure.

What I’m saying is my friends had no problem convincing me to meet them in Park City, Utah for a ski weekend. I have two friends travel nursing out in California so we met somewhat in the middle. None of us had been to Park City before so it was an exciting destination for all.

Since there was only three of us and we planned to spend most of our time out and about, we Airbnb’d a little studio apartment about ten minutes from downtown. It was close to a bus route that goes to the base of the mountain, walking distance from some coffee shops, but most importantly had a hot tub.

We went into the weekend with no restaurant reservations which was a rookie move.

After dropping off our junk at the Airbnb, we headed downtown to find a spot to eat. Initially we wanted to eat at High West Saloon, but when we saw the line we decided to take our hungry selves across the street to Butcher’s Chop House & Bar. Butcher’s proved to be the best move for a few reasons. Reason one: right when we walked in, we ran into a celebrity athlete we had just been talking about and we were all starstruck. Reason two: for whatever reason, they had a spot available in one of their cute Igloos for the three of us. This little dining Igloo was not like the ones you’ve seen before.

This bad boy had bluetooth speakers, a sliding door, adjustable heating and fuzzy blankets. The three of us split a few apps and had enough drinks to coerce my friend into messaging the athlete we had just ran into. The Old Fashioned and Blue Cheese Stuffed Dates were my personal favorites.(No, we never saw the celeb again, even with stalking his social media).

Fun fact before you plan your Utah getaway; they are SUPER strict when it comes to alcohol. How do I know? One of my friends ID was expired. She managed to weasel her way through airport security but Park City bars seem to be stricter than TSA. A few places we went to scanned IDs which none of us had seen anywhere besides a grocery store. If you’ve got proper ID or passport you’ll be perfectly fine-just double check. Utah was so strict we entertained ourselves with the unique liquor laws in Utah on our ride back to the airport- honestly more entertaining than you’d think.

Since getting into bars was gonna be a struggle our first night, we did the noble thing and called it a night early.

We woke up fresh the next morning ready to hit the slopes. We couldn’t have asked for a better day to ski. It had snowed the night before, so the snow on the ground was perfect. Our lift tickets and rentals for skiing were all easy to get on the Visit Park City website. Since it was a last minute trip, Saturday was initially sold out for lift tickets but I kept refreshing and eventually snagged one. Sooner rather than later is always a good idea for lift tickets-especially on the weekends.

The bus that stopped right outside of our apartment took us to Legacy Sports & Rentals where we picked up what we needed for the day. Luckily, the shop we rented from and the ticket window we picked up our lift passes up at were right next to each other because let me tell you with all that ski crap we were hauling we would’ve piled on the dramatics for a long walk.

We did Park City Mountain for our one day of skiing. Even with being at the lifts right when they opened, we still had to wait in a bit of a line. Luckily though, that was the only time that day we really had to wait in much of a line. The rest of the day, lines at the lift went pretty quick. Skiing for just one day it was great not to have to spend a ton of time in lift lines. Really got our bang for one-day-of-skiing buck.

After skiing we snagged a table at the Corner Store where there was live music for après-ski. After the obligatory après-ski, we headed back to our place to regroup for the night.

With all our research, we decided the place to be on a Saturday night was The Spur Bar & Grill. There was a bit of a line to get in since they don’t do reservations. We got a table upstairs and spent the rest of the night there. Even with Covid, they still had live music both upstairs and downstairs. The live music was so good, but the highlight of The Spur without a doubt was their Maple Jalapeño wing. I owe that waitress my life for recommending them. Not too saucy, perfectly crispy, tender as can be; so good that the next day we googled how to replicate them. There was no time limit on the table so it made it easy for that to be our only spot of the night. Some annoying guys sitting next to us bought us drinks because according to my friend we’re “approachable hot”, but besides that killer spot to post up for the night.

I don’t know if it was the crisp mountain air that worked this miracle or what, but we woke up feeling 10/10s, hangover free. (I’m not saying we woke up early). Sunday was our funday to grab brunch, do a little shopping and explore the adorable downtown of Park City.

Our brunch spot was picked after all of us hearing nothing but good things about it. Harvest was our first stop when arriving downtown, we put our names in right away and waited for that glorious call saying our table was ready. Where we sat had the perfect view of the mountain which only added to the incredible experience we had at Harvest. Us being that basic gals we are, we all started off with a chai-tea latte that’s served in an adorable mug. I got the Savory Toast after a lot of contemplating over the menu. Everything they have sounded great. Our breakfast the perfect start to the day. It was nice going to a breakfast spot that had food that wasn’t drenched in grease and left you feeling good and full (not too full) for the day. Without a doubt Harvest is a must for your trip to Park City-and if you go try one of the pastries for me, they looked bomb.

Park City has a super walkable downtown with plenty of shops and restaurants to stop in. They’ve got local shops, as well as bigger names like Marmot, North Face, and Free People. There’s also plenty of stores that you can get your souvenirs like t-shirts, mugs, magnets, whatever you can imagine that proves you’ve been to Park City. My personal favorite boutique we stumbled into was the Flight Boutique. I found a pair of cute jeans on sale and my friend found a cute little sundress. Very affordable shop with trendy, cute clothes.

Of course after all that shopping we got a little thirsty. Nothing feels more mountain town than stopping at a local brewery, am I right? By chance, we walked into Wasatch Brewery. Me, myself, not being a huge beer girl was a little lost. Luckily, the bartender knew exactly what to recommend after we described what we usually liked. He did an excellent job and all three of us liked our beers. It was such a fun ski town vibe and would’ve been a fun place for dinner but we had reservations elsewhere.

Our final Park City meal was at, the Italian restaurant, Grappa. The table we were sat at couldn’t have been in a more perfect spot, it was on the second floor next to windows looking out over Main Street. No better way to close out a great trip than with some pasta and tiramisu. The food was amazing, the service was ehhh, but the view was perfect for our last night.

All in all, Park City was an amazing weekend getaway and so easy to get to from the Salt Lake City Airport. I hope we all get back soon. A lot of people were saying how great it is to visit during the summer so there may be another Utah trip on the horizon-hopefully this time everyone brings an up to date ID.

If you want to see a highlight from my Park City adventure click here and click through my pictures below!