Kicking Horse Mountain Resort — Attraction in Area A (Kicking Horse/Kinbasket Lake)

This is a review of the gondola and hiking at Kicking Horse in the summer; I'm not sure what it is like during the winter.

We planned to go up the gondola at Kicking Horse and hike around a bit with our infant. There was a long line to purchase day passes so I waited for about 15 minutes, then one of the ticket agents suggested that those who didn't need to buy a mountain bike day ticket could purchase a gondola day pass in the building with the gift shop. I headed over there and there was no line. The ticket agent there sold me a gondola day pass and grizzly bear pass. We weren't super interested in the grizzly bear enclosure because tours can be difficult to time with an infant, but it was only $3 more.

After we bought the gondola pass we headed out to board the gondola. That's when we found out that the gondola wasn't actually working. The liftie told us it was undergoing maintenance, and when I asked him if it would be operating again in half an hour or if it would be out of order for the whole day he said he didn't know. I was pretty annoyed that we had just spent over $100 on tickets a minute ago for a gondola that wasn't working. We waited around for about 20 minutes, trying to decide what to do and trying to keep our infant from melting down before naptime. After 20 minutes, the gondola was back up and running, and we headed up the mountain. The gondola ride was nice but I wish there were not huge advertisements on the outside of the gondola that distracted from the view.

When we got to the top, we realized that the hike that the gift shop ticket agent had suggested we go on was not actually open due to snow, and the hike that they had told us was closed due to snow was actually open. There were no signs about where to hike so we figured it out from watching where other people were hiking. The hike itself was very nice. The views were fantastic and we saw several pikas. There was some snow when we visited last week so I'd recommend sturdy footwear. Our infant did get a bit overtired at the end but overall it was a good experience. We didn't make it to the grizzly bear refuge. 1/5 for communication among the resort employees and 5/5 for the...

Horrible experience:(

The place is awesome but my experience with the staff including manager at front desk wasn’t great.

I went to the visit the KHMR on July 7 at 1:00 pm and bought a family pass for $126 for both Gondola ride and Bear Refuge. I have a young family with three kids and one of my child is a special needs kid. I informed the person at the reception before buying the ticket and never told that the Gondola may close due to bad weather. As soon as I got off the Gondola it got closed due to the weather and we were transported down via trucks- The truck driver told us that this is pretty normal and happens twice/thrice a week. We were never told about this and our experience and ride down was bumpy and wasn’t great. We just got off the Gondola (one side) and that’s it. On top of it, when I asked for refund, I was given option of $7 cash or a rain cheque for bear refuge- They were totally non-accommodating and didn’t understand that we have a kid with special needs and we can’t come back unless we stay at Golden for a night. I was told by the manager that Gondola is the main ride and the bulk of the ticket cost was Gondola- I tried explaining that even if that’s the case we only did one side of the Gondola and came via trucks. The kids were super unhappy because they didn’t like the truck ride and didn’t see the bears- The staff was rude, unfriendly, and non-cooperative and all we got was a rain cheque for bear refuge (we are not never visiting KHMR again and will definitely inform families/friends to be mindful when visiting KHMR). Those reading the review please be mindful when buying the ticket-

KHMR Management- please be considerate, be empathetic and flex your rules when it comes to families like us- Yes, make money but be considerate and have your staff take courses on how to deal with clients nicely and in a courteous...

Disappointing experience. Hosted an event 3 days before the end of off-season. There was no staff on site, no one to receive my guests. Reception was empty and check-in procedures pointing to another building were not communicated ahead of time. The amenities were closed due to maintenance, although I am not sure what an open gym area with almost no machines needs for maintenance. The mountain itself was closed and the staff simply continuously blamed the fact that all restaurants and stores are privately owned on the mountain. It boggles my mind that no one thought to reach out to these store owners to let them know that a large group was arriving and it would be worth their while to open up shop for some or all of the days we were staying. Instead, we had to coordinate going up and down the mountain for transportation just to ensure everyone had access to food since there was no found available anywhere on the resort. There was no room service cleaning during the stay meaning that we didn't get new towels or any of the common hotel services. Yet with all these personnel cuts, rooms were still full priced. Not to mention that they were not properly clean ahead of our arrive. Although the rooms state non-smoker, multiple cigarette butts were found in more than 20% of the rooms booked. Some rooms weren't cleaned at all. Overall this was a super disappointing experience, I only wish I could obtain a refund or compensation for my guests for the fact that they had no access to food or amenities during their stay. I definitely would not recommend staying here anywhere near the off-season. I can't speak for the rest...