Visiting Park City, Utah, I felt like I was in a Hallmark Christmas movie! This cute little town is gorgeous, and highly recommended if you’re looking to ski (or do après skiing like I did, but more on that later!) Park City sits east of Salt Lake City in Utah. It borders Deer Valley and  Park City Mountain Resort, both known for their ski slopes. Utah Olympic Park is also located here. This park hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and is now used as a training facility. Whether you are coming here to ski or to find a new city to visit, Park City has it all and is definitely worth visiting!

I flew into Salt Lake City early Friday morning. Thanks to an early flight from Orlando and the time change, I had landed in Salt Lake around 10 AM. This is a great way to give you an extra full day and don’t feel like you have to rush to try and see and do everything in a short amount of time. Since Park City is about 40 minutes from Salt Lake, we decided to rent a car to have for the weekend. This way we could venture around Utah and wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money trying to take Ubers everywhere. This is definitely something I recommend, especially if you are doing more than skiing and will leaving the ski resort you are staying at to get around town.

We visited Park City the weekend of April 16th. The ski mountain had closed the weekend prior. Here is your warning!! A lot of restaurants and bars either close early when it is no longer season or are closed for the next couple of weeks and re-open in June when tourists come back for hiking and other outdoor activities. We knew we were going during the off-season but had a few learning experiences once we found out the mountain had closed and that a lot of other things closed along with it. However, we didn’t visit Park City for skiing, and it was super cheap when we went and was far from crowded, so we were still really happy with our experience because our purpose for visiting was that it was cold (Hello, FL Girls), we wanted to visit somewhere new and fun, and we wanted a place we could all be together just to have fun for the weekend! Some restaurants were either fully closed because the mountain had closed the weekend prior, or had really modified hours (along with bars), so finding places to eat at a later time was actually a bit of a challenge. If that isn’t something that would affect you and you like a quiet place to visit, this would be the perfect time to go! I would definitely still recommend visiting here this time of year if you don’t plan to ski and are still looking for somewhere fun to explore for a good price.

Having the rental car was so nice because we were able to stop and pick up groceries/snacks for our hotel room to have. The drive wasn’t too far from Salt Lake to Park City, but this girl was a little nervous driving through the mountains with it SNOWING! I was so excited to see snow, but it had been years since I had seen it and I definitely had never driven in it since I grew up in South Carolina. We made it to the hotel with no problems (thankfully!). Waldorf Astoria Park City was a gorgeous property and we loved our stay there! Because it was off-season, the hotel rates were low! Waldorf Astoria Park City is located at the Canyons Village base of Park City Resort. This is a quick 5 minutes from Main Street Park City and 35 minutes from SLC International Airport. Canyons Village is the first mountain base that you will see when entering Park City when you come from Salt Lake.

The hotel offers a daily shuttle that will take you to the Park City Base area, Deer Valley Resort, and Historic Main Street. (This is only during the season and was not operating when the mountain was closed, so this was another great reason to have a rental car!) The staff was super friendly and made it easy for the valet to get our bags unpacked and delivered to our room and through check in. Our room was smaller than your normal hotel room, but came with a fireplace, had a window that opened for fresh Utah cold air, and a nice sized bathroom. The room was clean and the hotel was gorgeous. The lobby had a huge fireplace where we were able to enjoy espresso martinis. The outdoor area that overlooked the pool was beautiful. Of course, with the snow, it was even better!

After getting settled and checked in, we headed to the restaurant/bar (Powder) for celebratory drinks. Keep in mind, this place closes at 9 PM, so if you go out to dinner and think you can come back to the hotel to get a drink after dinner, be warned you’ll need to do it early!

Another fun fact about Waldorf Astoria is that they have complimentary s’more kits available for guests that you can get from the front desk! You can take these and roast s’mores at any of the fires that are lit around the hotel. That is so fun!

For dinner our first night, we went to Butcher’s Chop House. We got so lucky because we got to sit in one of their outdoor igloos and it was SO cool!! It was such a fun way to celebrate our friend Rachel’s birthday and having the hostess put us in one of those was so nice of her. The food was amazing and is highly recommended! Usually, there is a minimum spend required for the globes, but they had one available for the night and were so nice to let us have it. The globes have a heater you can control as well as a Bluetooth speaker so that way you can play your own music if you want!

The next day was our “adventure” day. Since we weren’t skiing and the weather was great, we knew we wanted to venture around Utah and visit some other fun places in the area! We started our day at Park City Bread and Bagel for great bagels and coffee. This is a great quick local place and it was awesome. From there, we continued our drive into Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square. Temple Square is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. It is HUGE and their temple is gorgeous. A lot of this area was under construction, but it was so cool to walk around and see the area. (There is actually a parking garage with a large shopping mall across the street, so parking is super easy to find downtown)

After our pitstop at the temple, we were off to the Bonneville Salt Flats! This is about a 2-hour drive from Park City but is super easy along the interstate. Once you are out of the mountains, the drive is super flat. Be sure you have a full tank of gas because your gas station options are limited once you leave the city! The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County. This area is what is leftover from Pleistocene Lake Bonneville and is the largest of many salt flats located west of the Great Salt Lake. It was crazy to see all of this compact salt that was everywhere. Of course, we tasted it and it is VERY salty haha! Read more about the history of the Salt Flats here: https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/parks-outdoors/bonneville-salt-flats#salt

After spending time here, we continued our drive to the Utah/Nevada state line. Along the drive, you’ll actually see Potash Canals that have water so blue you’d think you were in the Caribbean. The ​canals are actually industrial facilities leased to Intrepid Potash for potash mining activities and are not designed or safe for public recreation. Even though you may see people swimming, floating, or kayaking in these, it is actually not allowed and can be dangerous, so pull over for a quick photo and be on your way!

We continued our drive to the Nevada/Utah state line. None of us are gamblers, but we wanted Starbucks and to find the large billboard welcoming visitors to Utah, so the adventure continued! We came across the Wendover Nugget Hotel & Casino. It holds the Starbucks in the area and is near the entrance ramp of the interstate back to Utah which holds the sign I was trying to find! You have to climb a large hill for the photo opp, but I’m glad we did!

After our adventure-filled day, we headed back to Park City to get ready for our dinner at Tekila. This restaurant is located on Main Street in Park City and has great Mexican food! We ended our long day with espresso martinis in our hotel lobby!

The next day was our Park City day! We planned to walk around the shops and try one of the local breweries. Fun fact: One of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (Meredith Marks) has one of her stores on Main Street in Park City!)

We started with coffee at Pink Elephant and then had brunch at The Eating Establishment. This place does not take reservations early, so if you plan to eat here, either get to the restaurant early or come a little later like we did put your name on the list and walk around the shops. We were lucky because our 1-hour wait turned into 15 minutes! Their brunch is so good!

After brunch, we ventured to Wasatch Brew Pub. Here you can try the local beer and snacks. After the brewery, we were off to No Name Saloon! No Name Saloon is located right on Main Street and is a dive bar, but was super cool inside! It’s worth checking out if you want to pop in for a drink. For dinner, we ended at Spur Bar and Grill. They have great appetizers, salads, and flatbreads! (Yes, our day did center around eating and drinking haha!)

Don’t forget to make a stop at the iconic Egyptian Theater! This is one of the oldest and most historic theaters in Park City and is where Sundance Film Festival takes place.

Even though we only had about 2.5 days to spend in Park City, our visit was great! Park City is such a fun place to spend a quick weekend and offers more than just skiing to those who want the ski town experience without having to actually ski. ;)

Great Restaurant Recommendations:

Butler’s Chop House

Riverhorse on Main

Tekila Mexican Restaurant

Pink Elephant Coffee

The Eating Establishment

Wasatch Brew Pub

No Name Saloon

Spur Bar & Grill

High West Saloon

Grappa

Five5eeds

Handle

The Brass Tag

Other Fun Things To Do Around Park City:

Visit Olympic Park and try “The Comet” bobsled

Visit Egyptian Theater: Historic home for live stage performance

Shop on Historic Main Street

Wasatch Mountain State Park

Rockport State Park

Day trip to Homestead Crater

Daytrip to Drive through the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway

If you’re looking to plan a trip to Utah or any other domestic destination, reach out to me! My services are always free!

Love and Pixie Dust,

Molly