Park City, UT

Park City is most commonly known as a winter ski destination due to its two major ski resorts: Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort. Both were venues for major events at the 2002 Winter Olympics. However, we travelled there in the month of July and found that even without the snow, there was plenty to keep us occupied, in spectacular natural surroundings. We flew to Salt Lake City and hired a car for the 45-minute drive to the St. Regis Deer Valley.

Dream

There are quite a number of luxury accommodations in the Park City area. We set our sights on a hotel with a rustic feel and scenic views, with easy access to Main Street.

St. Regis Deer Valley: Our visit to Park City was spurred by a St. Regis Deer Valley resort ad. And following extensive research, we were confident that this was the perfect hotel for a weekend in the mountains. After valeting the car, guests scale the steep hillside up to the hotel’s main building in the Swiss-built funicular railway, with glorious views of the valley floor below. The hotel’s decor is rustic luxury. We were lucky to stay in one of the resort's beautiful suites with separate sleeping and living quarters. And even though we visited in July, we took advantage of the suite’s multiple fireplaces. The hotel has a lively pool, s’mores pit and fine dining options.

Montage Deer Valley: Continue your way up the mountain, and you’ll reach the luxurious Montage. This is another highly rated option, but a little further from Main Street Park City.

Dine

There are numerous high-quality dining options in Downtown Park City and the surrounding area. Here are our recommendations:

• Harvest: Hands down our favorite eatery in Park City, so good we had lunch there on multiple occasions. Located at one end of town, a short walk from Main Street, Harvest’s menu has an abundance of choice for the health conscious foodie. They also serve exceptional paleo banana bread and great coffee.

• Firewood: this restaurant on Main Street has a wood fired stove and modern industrial-chic décor, serving a concise yet varied menu of meat, fish and salads in a warm atmosphere with great service.

• Grappa: Located at the top of Main Street, in a historic Italian country farmhouse that is more than 100 years old. The restaurant serves traditional, old style Italian classics in a rustic setting.

• The Farm: Located in the Canyons Village ski area, four miles from Main Street, this restaurant can be somewhat hard to find on first visit. The quirky fit-out belies the solid farm to table menu and friendly service within.

Do

Park City Main Street: Classic old west style, yet up-scale main street, with an array of restaurants and boutiques. It’s a great place to while away an hour or two window shopping, even if never stopping to buy.

Hiking up the ski slopes: Visiting in summer, we found it a great opportunity to go for long hikes in the mountains, traversing the vertiginous ski slopes on route to Silver Lake Village for lunch! After refueling at Royal Street Café or the Stein Eriksen Lodge, we caught the exhilarating free gondola ride back down to save on the knees.

Biking: Park City is set up for the cyclist, both casual and more serious. The city is connected to a system of paved cycle trails starting in Deer Valley, through Park City and extending North for many miles. We borrowed the free bikes available to St. Regis guests and cycled the Poison Creek Trail to the Rail Trail and onto the Silver Quinn Trail. These easy trails provide a great way of getting out into the beautiful outdoors. For the more serious cyclist, Park City has some of the best mountain bike trails in the world and is well known for the quantity and quality of its single track.