“15 years ago I was here.. it was the best”

15 years ago I was here.. it was the best. 15 years later, really bad food, old garage sale style condo’s, really poor snow, yet full price lift tickets $118.00. long walks to the lifts just to wait in longer lines to get on the mountain. it cost me $6,000.00 for 3 people to ski 5 days. I went to Europe and skied for much less. I really think Mammoth sucks, but compared to this place.. At least they had snow.

alan goldberg via Onthesnow

Vail resorts & specifically Northstar are horrible! We came up to ski for the day. We are family of 4 & have a 14 year old disabled son & a 17 year old snowboarder. The plan was that I would ski with the 17 year old & my husband would hang back with our disabled son. When we arrived to the resort my special needs son would not let me out of his site. My husband & I decided to switch places. He was going to ski with our older son & I was going to hang back. So as my husband was getting on the gondola they confiscated the past because his picture did not match. We had no idea that the passes were non-transferable. We figured we had two skiers and two passes. It is written in the smallest possible letters on the back of the card which why would you even think to look there? When we explained our situation to the resort they were not only rude but had zero compassion for our situation. We were treated awfully!!! I will stick with the small non corporate ski resorts where they tend to treat people with respect & don’t belittle them, especially during a difficult situation.

Carmen Petti via Onthesnow

Let me start with the parking lot first. Arrived at the parking lot at 9:39 am. Then, wait for the Shuttle bus for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Finally got to the first lift and waited 25 minutes. The second lift waited for 35 minutes. The third lift (comstock) waited for 1 hour 20 minutes. Finally got to the top of the Mountain at 1:45 pm. Waiting and waiting and waiting..

Ray Fang via Onthesnow

I can not express this enough. Do not go to Northstar. From someone you has lived in the Tahoe Area full time for the last 22 years I can, with absolute confidence, tell you that there are better experiences to have in this wonderful place. Very unhelpful staff. I arrived 08:45 on Jan. 14th 2020 to find that Northstar had decided to start charging to park this year. I drove up to a very empty parking lot and was stopped by a extremely under-prepared Northstar employee. All I had brought with me that morning was a debit card and Northstar could not accommodate me. I was forced to turn around and drive the 2 miles back down the hill to park and wait for a shuttle (Not environmentally friendly). Lazy? Poor organization? or they just don’t care? I’m not sure. I wanted to let Northstar know how they were treating guest of their resort. I called the customer service number and was informed that the process to do just that was to submit a formal complaint online and that a Manager would respond in a few days. I wish I could have had that conversation. I feel that platforms like Yelp are more like just trash talking behind someones back but they ignored me and so here I am. Patronizing Staff. After calling to find out how to express my disappointment with Northstar’s decision to start charging for parking. I mentioned to the woman that I was speaking to that I had to be at work that day at 12:30. by the time I parked, waited for the shuttle, had to walk from the furthest point they could possibly find to drop those who have had to up to this point make the longest trek, waited once again, I was only then finally able to take just one run before having to reverse the process and get to work. Her only response “HA, HA, well have a great day!”

Sam Skrocke via Onthesnow

“Expect to be treated as a wallet and not as a customer”

Overall you won’t get what you paid for and it will often be disappointing. Generally this is my least favorite Tahoe destination. This resort is nice in appearance but is overall poorly run. Expect to be treated as a wallet and not as a customer. New and temporary staff generally are not helpful, veterans are generally ambivalent. Staff can also be hostile and aggressive as well which is generally a sign of problems within management. I understand visitors can also be difficult and the staff will certainly make you’re aware as they voice their complaints.

Blaine Schanfeldt via reviews at Google

“Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing”

Come to this resort if you would prefer to sit in your car rather than skiing. If you come on a Saturday-Sunday at least, that is all you will do. 2+ hour bumper to bumper traffic delay over 8 miles backed up from the resort on 1/21 (all entirely resort traffic) – they sell WAY more lift tickets and passes than people they can fit on the mountain or their infrastructure will allow. This was with an original departure time that should have had us to the parking lot over a half hour before opening. And good luck getting any customer service for all your wasted efforts and money – if they already have your money via Epic Pass or prepaid lift ticket, they couldn’t care less what experience you have from there. Many Tahoe resorts suffer capacity issues, but nowhere to the extremes of Northstar. If you do get in (we gave up today at least after 4 hours of trying) the skiing itself is average at best – better snow and better runs elsewhere.

Tyler Knox via Google reviews

Watch out when you are buying gas in Tahoe/Truckee, CA area

Name of the gas station: Fast Lane.

Address: 2161, 11991 CA-267, Truckee, CA 96161

None of our credits cards worked at the gas station, the line inside was huge, so we left without buying gas.

There was an attempted charge of $200 to our debit card after we left the gas station.

Customer
Attempted charge of $200

Fast Line gas station, Truckee CA. Avoid!

From the editor: FYI Nevada County DA Office.