Northstar at Tahoe Review

Had to walk a mile in my boots because a trail na mlm ed Honerun took me to a not running g lift. I cant walk much in ski boots . I was in so much pain I had to quit skiing that day. I'm so disappointed.

Great location near the Village. Shuttles available for free.

The skiing and the views are great. What isn't great are the prices. It cost twice as much to ski at Northstar than at Diamond Peak. The half-day ski pass for seniors is ridiculously high! I will never ski at Northstar again!

Good grooming, no crowds, and tree lined trails that remind you of why you come to the mountains.

The village is really nice! Food are expensive but you're paying for the views/ place. Skii trails are nice too, a lot of wide trails. View from the peak is 8/10. And a lot of restaurants/ lodges! Would love to go again if lift tickets are not that expensive.

Huge mountain for awesome skiing during great powder days and not so great snow condition days as they can make their own snow. Many upscale restaurants/bars and shopping, ice skating rink, movie theater, and even a yoga studio in their village area for after ski activities. Very nice indeed.

Sad they are closing early but great resort with lots of trees skiing and LONG runa

A great place for everyone whether you're into snow sports or just need a getaway. There is even a movie theater.

Our fave place to snowboard because it's great for any level rider. We love to stay in the convenience of the village with the heated garage and enjoy making Smores at the fire pit.

I would not recommend their transportation. As an Event Planner I need to relay on dependable companies. Hilda with Northstar emailed me a day before to tell me they could no longer provide the bus I need to transfer my group. Poor communication and never returned phone calls.

Looks empty in summer . Not many stores or things to do

Care to put your feet up and let someone else do the uphill pedaling? Do you want to ride for a half a day and only drink half a bottle of water? Then come on up to Northstar and let someone else do all the hard work while you just roll down one of the many trails they have in store for you.

Our stay at Northstar was very nice. We did visit in the middle of the week so it was pretty much empty. Our only issue during our visit was in our room. There was a smell in our room that we assumed was from it being vacant for a while, which was fine it went away. However it was pretty dusty too. The headboard was dusty and so was our pillows. Everything else seemed okay cleanliness wise. Our room was extremely hot. We did not have the heater on. It got so hot in our room that we had to slightly open the sliding door to the balcony even though it was around 10 degrees outside. Other than those two issues our visit was nice.

nice village. ice rink is fun, even though the ice gets wicked cut up.

Northstar is a short drive from Lake Tahoe and I-80. The resort hosts many summer activities and events in addition to it's competitive winter schedule. The village contains many types of rooms, some with hot tubs and underground parking.

Love this place and I had good experiences here, lost my phone in the Mt, someone found it turns in to the resort, I was keep calling my phone, and when I was about to give up they answered, I got so happy told them that it was mine, but I was already back to the Bay area, they send it to me for free, got it in 3 days

I enjoyed and relaxed on my stay. I went on the off season so all the stores were closed but we still enjoyed it.

I love the Northstar village! I see myself spending a lot of time there this winter. Those firepits tho

30+ inches of powder at this wonderful ski area! The greatest day of skiing I have ever had!

Pushy. The promised 2 hr. Presentation was actually four and a half.

Nice place to visit skiing hike but parking is lousy and traffic is lousy

COVID changes make it not ideal..but hey, its still Skiing and Snowboarding!

It's got to be the best ski resort in the area. They have many runs and you will not be able to explore them all in one day. They also have the capability to make artificial snow, although it can't match the real snow, at least it's an option during the drought years.

Pleasant and helpful staff. Village had a nice ambience and a variety of shops and eateries. Ice skating rink was a nice feature. A very enjoyable place.

Badass!...coming back next midweek deals off the chain!

Great hikes for summertime activities! Beautiful golf course! Employees are very helpful and friendly!

Great mountain to snowboard on but prices are ridiculously high and continue to rise each year.

Lots of slopes and lifts to allow you to get multiple runs in. The waffles are incredible.

This is our first (and very likely last) season at the North Star. This year we purchased season passes to this resort as it seemed like a good option for beginner - intermediate riders / skiers which some of as are. Thus far we've spent 12 days on the mountain and here's what I think about it:

This place is one giant cluster with a poor infrastructure and uncoordinated operations. I'm under impression that this resort is trying to cut their costs of operations by all means (including selling passes to way more people than they can serve).

**PARKING**: that's a disaster to say the least. Village parking is tiny and it gets full really fast. We witnessed village parking getting completely full before 8 am (!) on Sunday and by 9 am on Friday morning. Note that you'd have to take a shuttle from the village parking anyway. IMO one can "comfortably" walk to the resort if you park in the first 10% of the spots (that would be a 15 min walk with your gear).

**OVERFLOW PARKING**: that's an even bigger disaster. Shuttle lines from overflow parking can be EPIC! (lol). We spent waiting about 45 minutes on Friday morning. As for weekends...well you can see people walking a few miles in ski boots to avoid these lines. Yesterday (01/27) our friends gave up after waiting for 1.5 hours in a shuttle line.

**LIFTS**: more lines! In reality all traffic evolves around a few chairs and the gondola. To get to the summit you'd need to take 1 gondola / chair and 2 chairs (Arrow, Comstock / Zephyr, Backside Express). Which at North Start translates to 2-3 ridiculous lines (even on weekdays). So in order to get to the summit of mountain you'd need to wait in 4 lines (shuttle, gondola + 2 more chair lines). Also some lifts seem to be in a pretty questionable conditions. Today I spent about 30 minutes hanging on the rendezvous chair, after I got from it the chair broke again and there were people stuck on it when I was leaving.

**STUFF**: Some parking attendants didn't know where shuttles were supposed to stop. On weekdays lines stay completely uncoordinated as there may no or very few mountain hosts on duty. You'll find some info people at the village but I haven't seen any stuff on the mountain that could inform you on the conditions/run status.

**RUNS**: This Friday (01/26) we were under impression that the runs remained ungroomed since last weekend. The Drifter run was marked as groomed in the run status table but in reality the entire run was covered with large chunks of ice for 3 days in a row. IMO that's not safe to call that a groomed run. On Sunday (01/28) while the entire mountain was overcrowded with thousands of people waiting in lines they closed a Polaris run for a kids race...great job, North Star! As for configuration of runs, I'd say this mountain is very beginner - intermediate friendly. You can get some nice turns here, but lines kill all the fun.

**PLATINUM STATUS**: Lastly one can think, ok, I'd like to pay a bit extra to avoid any issues listed above. Well...you can get a platinum status which is just YOUR SEASON PASS + $2500 / Person / season. With this pass you will be able to park at the resort and skip lines (there seems to be a meme around who other skiers percept platinum pass holders when the latter cut these long lines). I'm not blaming any skier or rider by any means but with the way how North Star management set their ops seems a bit questionable.

Overall pretty dissapointed and looking forward to switching to a different resort next season.

Beautiful in the summer time. Bring ur bug repellent.

Too many people, parking sucks. The skiing is good, but there's definitely better options around Tahoe.

Family friendly resort. Roller skating in the village in summer.

From a beginner snowboarder: The staff is friendly and helpful compared to Squaw Valley. The ski & snowboard school is big and my instructor was pretty good and friendly (her name is Sheila). I'd taken lessons for 2 days. The green runs are good slopes for beginners (its not always the case in other resorts). A fun way to end the day is to speed through the green Village Run and get back to the village instead of taking the gondola.

Easier mountain than Kirkwood, but also more crowded.

The resort is beautiful, well laid out, and a pleasure to stay at

Great place for snowboarding! It has a wide variety of slopes from the bunnies to black diamonds

Loved the cocktails at the bar, specially Bloody Mary. Great place for snowboarding!

They were nice and did great in getting my questions answered. Was looking for a wedding venue.

25% of green (nicely groomed, wide) trails. Love it!!! we are staying at ski view condos: a bit old but the best in terms of ski in ski out i ever experienced!

I just got into riding mountain bikes and wanted to check this place out, I had heard stories about it and always wanted to go. The resort is super pretty and the trails are sick. I rented a downhill bike because I did not own my own at the time and had a ton of fun. I am planning on going back for the winter season for my first time snowboarding and I will probably end up getting a season pass next summer to ride the downhill mountain bike trails. I had a great time and the staff working there was helpful and friendly. The lifts are pretty cool to ride and bombing down the trail is amazing. Gypsy was my favorite trail because of all the cool, technical features. I can t wait until all the resort shops are open to do some shopping too.

A lot of great runs at this resort. Unfortunately not many of them were groomed after a particularly big storm. I would come back again, but not if paying full price.

My family came for a short ski trip. there were plenty of runs and as I was a beginner, the lessons and green runs were ready for getting started.

I was very disappointed with my current trip to the mountain. First, I attempted to teach my young child how to ski on the slopes directly below the Big Easy chairlift, which I was told were the beginner slopes. Since the mountain lacks snow, many advanced skiers and boarders whizzed by us at higher than safe speeds, and on more than one occasion almost knocked over my 4 year old. Even worse, at the bottom there was a giant gaggle of people, oblivious to others. Normally, I am told that there are folks in vests clearing the area. However, the configuration of the outdoor bar and other lift line also poses a serious danger to not only my son but other beginners. This brings up yet another point, with so little snow, and less than ideal area to ski on, there should be more than enough funds to cover adequate patrol, since after all the full mountain day pass price is being charged, when in fact far less than the full mountain is open. In my 30 years of skiing I haven't seen such a blatant lack of care for the skier's experience...

My friends and I attended the beer and bluegrass festival. It was really fun.

Great spring break skiing with lots of steep groomers!

Verry good place to spend with family
Friendly town, cozy place.

love everything about North star except the parking! but it is free but it an added walk and wait for buses.

Absolutely amazing resort! It's deep inside Tahoe, meaning an excellent view. From the top of the mountain you get a gorgeous view of Lake Tahoe!
The Village itself is breathtaking. It's worth visiting just to walk through The Village when it's covered in snow. There are always plenty of visitors from all around the world--a great place to meet new people!
The slopes are always well groomed, with powdery, fresh snow, and the majority of runs are nice and wide. With so many runs, of all difficulty levels, it's impossible to get bored here.
Northstar is a great place to spend a day, weekend, or extended trip! Would recommend to all.

The village is clean and inviting and the friendly staff is hard to beat. Our 4yo is in ski school and loves it. Looking forward to a few more visits this year and in years to come.

Epic pass holder and Park City native here. I was visiting family outside Sacramento and snuck away for one day at Northstar. The views of Lake Tahoe from the top of Comstock were breathtaking. Backside terrain was fun. Lift lines weren't too bad.

Quite a nice place, but most shops either were not open or closed very early(off season).

We love the North Star! Not only is it a super clean place to be oh, there are many different things you can do especially in the village. Ice skating and shopping . We got to stand around the fire pits and drink a hot chocolate while the kids are ice skating it was almost like a scene out of a movie. We will be returning!

It's a very nice place. I just wish there were more snow

When planning a ski trip to Tahoe we always choose Northstar. It is a great place for kids, we have an 8 and 10 year old. We always stay in a condo in the village. The village is super convenient with all it's shops and restaurants. The mountain is big and pretty mellow, they have some steep terrain but nothing compared to Squaw and Alpine. They have tons of lodging options, we always use VRBO.

This place is way better than any Ritz Carlton up the hill. I highly recommend staying here.

Northstar has a nice variety of slopes and terrain. Most of the lifts are high speed which keeps the lines moving. Parking is limited near the village. Often you have to park about a mile from the slopes and take a shuttle in. Not terrible but complicates the process of getting to the slopes.

It's really a great resort! We love coming here every year!

Was so very happy with room. GREAT kitchen, clean, very spacious. Nice balcony area. Lake Tahoe not far away, lots to do in the area. Great place for family, couples or single vacations. Will definitely go back!

Everything was beautiful and all the staff were very friendly and helpful!

Place is really nice and is a great stay. Prices are a bit high at times

The main plaza area is very nice and cozy feeling, but in my opinion I get a very "fake" vibe about the whole area.

Holy Crap. Why didn't anybody tell me about this place. It's huge and fun.

Very nice resort. Spacious rooms. Good everyday activities