Whitefish Mountain Resort — Hotel in Whitefish

Incoming wedding review! A bit different than the ski lodge reviews :)

Whitefish Mountain Resort was an incredible venue. As a Montana-born-but-east-coast-based bride who wanted to have some rustic, mountain charm, this place fit the bill so well! We booked the venue ~1.5 years in advance, which did come with some quirks. Most notably, we saw a few coordinators come through, but the one who has stuck, Ann Marie, is next level. Ann Marie's attention to detail made our entire wedding go off without a hitch. It was so clear that she was committed to making everything run smoothly from the first time we talked to her, and it clearly showed on the day of!

WMR is an incredible venue in itself, with the ceremony taking place at the Summit, and the reception at the Base Lodge. Our guests were thrilled to have an excuse to come to Whitefish and Glacier. Some of the guests were a bit worried/confused about the fact they needed to ride a chair lift or gondola to the summit, but WMR provided very clear instructions for us to provide to our guests so that everyone could be well prepared and on time the day of. The huge benefit of using WMR is that due to the uniqueness of the venue, there is a wedding coordinator included in the cost. This alone made the cost well worth it. Ann Marie knew every small detail, provided suggestions for vendors early on, and was more than happy to make whatever ideas we had a reality. Additionally, she checked in with our vendors to ensure they would be familiar with the resort and the timeline prior to the actual day, which I feel made everything run so seamlessly. The team as a whole were nothing short of incredible the day of! The food being in-house is also a huge benefit. Guests loved the food (as did we!!), and we found that the resort served high end meals for a great price. We were so impressed at the quality!! The bar was able to bring in a few specialties for us at a very reasonable charge, which just made everything even more special.

I will say that if you in doubts about the ceremony and reception being in two different parts of the resort, have no fear! The team will guide your guests with ease to where they need to be. The lodge also is interesting - the dinner area is separated from the dance floor- but we found this worked amazing for our crowd. It gave everyone a chance to be on the dance floor having fun, and a quiet space for when you needed a small break! Finally, as guests were ready to leave from our truly magical wedding, they were able to take a shuttle to accommodations within the Resort Village. This was provided within the cost of the venue, and really helped ensure that everyone was able to have a good time.

While some of the decor can seem a bit older or dated, it worked amazingly well for my vision. The resort turned into everything I dreamed of with some fairly basic florals and decor for tables. I think if you keep that in mind, you will find the decor of the Base Lodge perfect.

I cannot recommend this venue enough. The whole team is there to help you have an amazing night! I had the wedding of my absolute dreams for a very reasonable price. I will truly cherish EVERYTHING about my wedding for the...

The slopes and resort are wonderful but the low rating is due to the experience interacting with the staff and lack of transparency on pricing information.

Before choosing Montana as our destination for a large group of active duty service members, their spouses and additional family members for a ski trip we called ahead to inquire with Whitefish Mountain Resort about their day pass rates. I spoke to one of their customer service representatives who assured us that the military pricing was available for the group and would include family members. This was a primary factor in our decision making for an entire trip and using military leave for a rare opportunity to take time off with friends and family.

When we arrived at the resort to purchase our day passes, I was the last in line and was told that only I was eligible for the military rate and that my spouse and cousin were not. We had a group of 15 people, and 12 of our members were military members or direct family members. I was asked to provide dependent ID's for each of them which were not available.

9/12 individuals all were able to receive a military discount even though only the person paying for their immediate family had their military ID on them.

I was the last to check out and pay at the counter, and was surprised to be told that only I was eligible for the military rate for myself, but I could follow up later with customer service for the other 2 members of my family (spouse and cousin).

We purchased three 3-day passes, but after the 1st day, the remaining 2 days had slope closures due to extreme weather and we were unable to get back up the mountain from Columbia Falls where we were staying.

Thankfully, they were willing to process a refund for those 2 days and I was directed to reach out via email for that as well. To coordinate this I spoke with Megan and Jasmine from guest information services and Emily, the guest information and services assistant manager.

After quite a bit of back and forth with Megan and Jasmine, I was told the military rate and pricing that 9 other people had been given with no issue was not going to be honored for me.

At this point Emily stepped in and assured me she was confident there was no way the pricing was unclear or that their policy was miscommunicated. I had to reach back to some friends from the trip and verified that one of them was in the Dutch Air Force and did not even have a U.S. military ID, and that his girlfriend with a different last name were even given the military pricing.

This was a frustrating and confusing experience to have been treated differently for no reason other than who I happened to have check me out at the counter. Regardless of that, there are plenty of ski resorts that are clear on their policies and clearly value not only service members but their immediate family for military pricing.

For any veterans or military members, I would recommend picking a location that values your business and...

TLDR (reviewing zip line package): Great view, great people, zip impact can be painful/dangerous for your back, harness will eat your shorts, you have to carry ten pounds of gear+harness for a couple short but somewhat fast uphill hikes, everyone will know your weight range (which they may have misestimated, the scale is bad). Zip line was very fun -view was great - but by line 5 the impacts had gone from terrifying to somewhat painful, worse than any of the ( 5 other) zip tours I've been on. Their 'mat stop' method puts all of the impact straight into your spine. I walked away with a backache. My traveling companion, who ruptured disks a few decades back and hadn't had a problem in years, was almost throwing up from the pain. Definitely not the fault of the very nice employees, but the system needs to be upgraded. Also note that not only does the scale exaggerate your weight (no, I don't know by how much but several people were talking about it and I certainly don't think I gained ten pounds in a week) but that you will be assigned a color of harness according to the very visible chart, so everyone will know exactly how much you weigh - extra humiliating for my fellow 'blue's at 200+lbs. Finally, wear long pants that split and extend far enough past your crotch or you will quickly find the harness has consumed them and most of your inner thigh is exposed to chafing. I thought I was safe because my shorts go to my knees, but because the two legs don't split for the majority of that distance, I was hiking (with a ten pound trolley no less) with my shorts turned into very skimpy underwear...