Panorama Mountain Resort — Hotel in Area F (Columbia Lake/Windermere Lake)

We attended the resort on July 28, with the intention of spending the day at the bike park, riding the green and blue trails. My kids are 7 and 9, both avid cyclists and triathletes, both riding high end kids hardtail bikes. My wife was riding a full suspension, while I was on a high end aluminum hardtail.

We had reviewed the website and online reviews of the park prior to attending, and had watched what videos we could locate online - I was quite comfortable with the potential terrain, with the exception of some "northshore-type" drops and ramps, My son, who has a lower leg prosthetic, was especially enthused, as his ability to power uphill is not great, but he excels at bike handling, and was super excited about riding downhill.

So, arrive at the resort (about a 45 minute drive from our hotel), unload the bikes, get dressed and ride to the lift. No clear signage anywhere on where to purchase tickets, but I located what looked like a hotel concierge desk where they were being sold. After another 30 minutes waiting for the lady ahead of me to decide which of her offspring, relations and associates would like to participate in a variety of activities, it was my turn. I forked over $147 to ride the lifts while my son buzzed around, hyped that we were going to ride the bike park.

We then exited the lodge, where I found my wife talking to a resort employee (rental shop?). When we grabbed our bikes we were summarily informed by that employee that we could not ride the lift with our bikes, as apparently we need to have full suspension bikes to ride. I noted that there was no signage declaring that restriction anywhere at the resort, nor on the website, nor at the counter where I purchased the tickets. Still, she insisted that this was the case, and advised that we could rent full suspension bikes from the resort at a cost of $90 per bike, per day. Plus a damage deposit of $25 per bike, per day, for a total cost of $345 in addition to the lift tickets.

Now, I have been riding mtbs since I was 16, with more than 25 years of riding. I paid for university wrenching at a shop, and worked part time at a local shop for three years recently. I am unaware of anything about dual suspension bikes which magically makes it safer to ride a trail you lack the skills to safely negotiate. In short, regardless of whether your bike is full suspension or rigid, if the trail is above your skill level, you are at risk of crashing. I pointed out to the employee that there are several hard tail trail bikes on the market, and that there are several fully rigid "dirt jump" bikes, which are equally as capable of handling the trails at the resort as any full suspension. She shrugged and tried to show me the rental bikes. I then pointed out that I could attend any large retailer in canada, including Walmart, and obtain a "full suspension" mountain bike that would NOT be suitable for riding at the park, and was again met with a shrug and a recommendation to return the lift tickets.

Despite my son's clear anger and disappointment I returned the tickets, although I once again waited 30 minutes in line to do so. No one was able to answer my question as to why the full suspension policy was not on the website or posted at the hill. An email to the resort has resulted in phone tag" with the "manager of mountain sports", and we have since returned to Alberta.

I am left with two potential conclusions from this experience:

1. That the restriction to full suspension bikes is not shared or posted so that those of us who drive out there feel obligated to pay for rental bikes - a questionable business practice at best.
2. That there is no such policy in place, and that an employee lied to us, resulting in lost income for the resort.

Given my experience I would give this resort a pass. If you are tempted to go,stop well in advance at Lillian lake and ride the trails there -...

Overall, this was an awful experience however that is not entirely the fault of the resort. The bad definitely outweighed the good and I would not recommend this resort for anyone looking for some peace and quiet as the families seem to let their kids run wild with no regard whatsoever to any other guests. Great for families if you have loud, excitable children who constantly need to be screaming, banging and jumping around as no one there will tell you to keep it down and actually do something about it if you dont listen. (I understand this is a resort meant for families, people are on vacation and kids are excited to be there but this was 100% out of hand.)

The good: The food at Alto, Tbar, Fireside and the Summit Hut did not disappoint however there were some issues which will be explained later. There is a decent variety of runs so theres something for every skill level. Most of the employees we met were friendly and helpful.

The bad: We booked through air bnb. This was our first mistake. From the second we walked into our room, the room above us was loudly and constantly pounding and banging on the floor. 6 calls to guest services, 3 calls to air bnb and multiple messages to our host did not make a single difference and the stomping almost became worse after they were asked to keep it down. Our air bnb host Ryland and RockiesDirect refuse to provide even a partial refund despite us having videos as proof of the noise as that alone pretty much ruined this experience for us. I was told by guest services at the resort that the unit above us was a private unit so therefore there was nothing guest services could do to resolve this issue which was extremely frustrating. Book through the resort if you decide to go and make sure there wont be any private units around because maybe then you can actually get some help if other guests are ruining your stay. Air bnb was absolutely useless in helping even though they have a form to fill out for noise related complaints. We arrived late on a Monday. We checked the hours for Alto and the Tbar, saw that alto was open until 10pm and Tbar was open until 2am so we assumed we could get a bite to eat there. Tbar had a sign that said pizza only which wasnt ideal but better than nothing and yet once we walked in they said the kitchen was closed which was not posted anywhere online. Since we had just gotten there, we had to go to the general store to buy a frozen meal for supper since there was nowhere else to eat. We also found out the next day that on Mondays and Tuesdays they serve pizza only, not their regular menu. Despite the resort advertising all of the "fun" things there is to do there, they failed to say online that most things are closed, most likely cause its close to the end of the season. Tbar also allows minors until 9pm which is great for families but not so great if your only place to go to relax away from the constant pounding on the floor from the family upstairs and kids screaming actually allows kids until 9. When checking out, I briefly mentioned to the employee how terrible our stay was due to the family upstairs and being woken up early by their pounding and constantly having to hear it throughout the day and the complete lack of action on the part of our host, air bnb and the resort and she just shrugged and said "Sorry about that." I also called again on the way home to reiterate my concerns and was told "they did everything they could" meaning they contacted the owner to inform him of the noise and to ask to keep it down which was absolutely useless and did nothing. It was even louder by the day we left so i am sure the people upstairs were doing it purposefully as they knew there would be no repercussions for them. This trip was overshadowed by our awful room experience and because of that, and the indifference of the guest services, it made it feel like a complete...

We booked a two bed room condo 10 months in advance of our trip requesting to stay at Taynton Lodge, as it was Ski in ski out and had private hot tubs for Guests only. We were told at the time we could be moved to any of the upper village condos but as we’d booked so early and had no notification of change we would get our chosen accommodation. When we arrived we were put in 1000Peaks. No explanation or apology. Despite me saying three times that we had booked Taynton we receptionist ignored what I was saying and gave us our room keys and other information. |1000peaks was not ski in ski out had no private hot tubs and had nothing to make else to make up for the lack of those things. This in itself is a rip off but things just continued.|There was wardrobes to hang clothes and one small drawer in a bedside table other than that there was nowhere to put belongings and other clothing. So we ended up living out of a suitcase for a week of skiing. The kitchen equipment was poor and a health hazard. I tried ringing reception on numerous occasions for different things and got no answer. Ski lockers provided were not big enough for 4 stairs of skis ( I had to sign a sheet to say we would not take skis and boots into the rooms!|The sound insulation was appalling when someone ran a bath upstairs every night at 10pm it was like being under a waterfall. And as for vacuuming upstairs at 06.30!!|We book a transfer bus to get us from from Calgary Airport and then to Banff. The one that collected us was old uncomfortable and cold. Not good for a 4 hour transfer after a 9 hr flight. For our transfer to Banff we were told we had to make our way with all our luggage(skis, boots, suitcases etc) up to Taynton Lodge quite a walk on icy paths and roads uphill. We were told they could not pick us up at our accomodation as the bus could not stop outside, which we found very strange as it had done so when it dropped us off. So on our morning of check out we had to empty the room go down to central check in which involved a 5 minute walk to the gondola, go down on that and from the bottom a five minute walk to check in then the return of that to collect our luggage then a walk with that up to Taynton Lodge. Where the only place to wait for the bus was in a cold draughty porch no access into the warm building or a toilet. |We were the only people on the bus and despite this they would not drop us at our hotel in Banff but at a place 10 minutes walk from the hotel. |I have skied for the last 12 years and different resorts in Canada. One of the reasons we return is excellent customer service. Panorama Mountain resort accomodation customer service really is awful and lets Canada down.|I would say though that the only reason for a 2 not a 0 score is that the lift and lopsided...