Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa, Thompsonville

For Michigan it is a great place to ski! It is priced like every other place in Michigan! The Condos are great! You can always find a great deal that includes sking! Packages are the best! Yes, Colorado, and other place are reasonable for daily sking, but, if you live in Michigan you do not have to deal with the airlines or prices with the luggage! Love Crystal!

The place is way overpriced, with the low cost of plane tickets one might just as well fly to Vale, Aspen or BreckenRidge and ski some REAL slopes. There are a very limited number of slopes here and the hotels are all high priced for an area whos general population is as poor as it can get. I would not recomment this place to anybody at any price.

I live 2 1/2 hours from Crystal and can barely muster up enough energy to drive it. It's always over crowded, the lifts are slower than my grandmother using her walker, the terrain is very limited (5 minute lift ride for 30 seconds of skiing), over priced, NOTHING to do once you're out of the 'resort'...Thompsonville has a Mobil station with a few toothless yocals hangin' out. Take the extra drive and go to Nubs Nob or one of the Boynes (Highlands or Mountain).

and the food was phenomenal...I have been to Vail and the Poconos and this was topnotch. We did have a couple expert skiers who thought it was too easy...but for me and the kids...perfect.

This was my third visit to Crystal and I can't say enough good things about it. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Accomodations very clean, comfortable and attractive. The grounds are gorgeous! We were there for a conference, but there were many family activities going on for their "Halloween Weekend." The food in the "Thistle Pub" was very good and the bar service was great during the World Series game on Saturday night. Met alot of fun, friendly people. Especially notable - the big in-room jacuzzi and on-site shuttle service. Always look forward to going back!

Not much to do in the summer, not alot is open at the resort during the week in the summer.The location is so far away from everything else, about 30 minutes to most towns that have downtown, so you are stuck with the few things there or you have to drive (not good with gas being $3.09 per gallon everywhere around there). There is only ONE place for breakfast, it has a buffet which is great for a toddler, but they charge $16.00 for adults and $4.95 for children under 6 for the hot buffet and $2.95 for the continental buffet, that's alot for a kid who barely eats anything!! The first day we were there I made the mistake of putting a tiny piece of my egg on her plate and a tiny piece of my pancake and was charged $4.95 for the full buffet for her. After that we just gave her a muffin which she ate half and 2 tiny pieces of cut up cantalope and it was $2.95 for her to eat that little bit of food, so it was very pricey for breakfast and we had no other choices unless we wanted to get in the car and drive a half hour anywhere else. The only places open for lunch are the Beach House which is hot dogs, burgers and chips, and the other place is The Betsie Bistro which is a tiny place with like 2 or 3 tables, they have sandwiches and pizza so again, not a big variety if you are there several days. They advertise that the Wildflower(buffet)is open for dinner, however, they are only open on fri, sat and sun. nights, the rest of week, you are stuck taking a toddler to the Thistle which is a nice restaurant. It's not quick for an antsy toddler like a family restaurant would be and not only is it bad for the family with the toddler but not fair to the other diner's who are there to have a nice relaxing dinner. The only other choices are again, getting in the car and driving a half hour to Frankfurt, 45 minutes to Traverse City or getting pizza from the EZ mart 10 minutes away. The pool is great, but not much else to do with a toddler, they are too antsy to sit in the trailer while you bike, they are too young to climb the wall and too young to ride the ski lift. All in all, I would not recommend it for more than a day or two in the summer and really would not reccomend it at all with a toddler in tow.

THis is by far one of the BEST places to visit in upper Michigan. A beautiful, family friendly, 4 season resort. Great Skiing, swimming, golfing and awesome fall colors. Close to everything worth seeing too: Lake Michigan, Traverse City, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes are all less than an hour away.