Winter Fun at Boyne Mountain

Last year I had a great trip up to Boyne Highlands with my brother, youngest niece and nephew. 

While we were there, we heard a lot of great things about its sister resort, Boyne Mountain.

It didn’t take much convincing when I was offered a trip to go check it out for myself.

I brought along friends Brittany, Angela, and Kylie for a girls/family getaway at this Michigan resort.

The adventure began on Thursday morning as we headed up for the eight-hour drive to Boyne Falls.

Boyne Mountain Resort has many different accommodations.

We would be staying in the three bedroom, two bath Salzburg Suite, a duplex with a full living room and kitchen.

We arrived early evening and checked in quickly. After we unpacked our groceries and got changed, we headed straight to the Avalanche Bay Indoor Waterpark.

It is located in the Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa building we were staying in.

The waterpark was a lot of fun and we enjoyed a few hours of sliding and relaxing in the tubes of the lazy river, as well as the hot tubs.  

There is a restaurant, Apris Ski Pub, upstairs from the waterpark, but we were all pretty tired and decided to head back to the room, put on our PJs, and enjoy some of the mac n cheese I had made for the trip.

In the morning, we headed downstairs to Everett’s for breakfast. I had remembered the great breakfasts at Boyne Highlands and I wasn’t disappointed in the selection here either.

We decided to walk off some of the meal by exploring the grounds and buildings before our lunch with Erin Ernst, the Director of Communications for the Boyne properties.

We met Erin at the Forty Acres Tavern, the newest food options in the resort village at Boyne Mountain.

It’s a nice casual eatery at the foot of the slopes. They also have a full bar and big beer selection, with live music at night.

The menu had something for everyone. We started by sharing some of the delicious Grilled Artichoke Dip and Calamari with Mango relish, which my tablemates raved about.

I chose the Loaded Grilled Cheese sandwich, with aged cheddar, provolone, feta, Cherrywood smoked bacon, caramelized onion, avocado, and a sun-dried tomato aioli on Texas toast.

Even though I decided to go vegetarian and take the bacon off, it was sinfully delicious.

Shortly after lunch we went snowshoeing. I had only been once before, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and really enjoyed it.

The trails at Boyne Mountain Resort are much longer and I confess that I barely made it through! Brittany, Angela, and Kylie have more stamina than me, though, and even headed tubing when they were done with the snowshoe.

In the evening, Brittany’s Aunt Teresa came to join us. We picked up some hot chocolate (with RumChata and vanilla vodka for the adults) and took a horse drawn carriage ride through the property. It’s one of the complimentary activities at this resort and it was a lot of fun.

They even provided heavy blankets to keep us warm during the ride.

After the ride, we went into the indoor/outdoor pool for a bit and relaxed in the whirlpool.

It was a great way to end a day filled with fun at Boyne Mountain, but we needed to get some sleep to keep up with the schedule the following day.

A special thanks to GetOutfitted, who provided us with ski clothes for the trip. It's a great service that delivers -- and picks up -- right from your hotel so you don't have to lug everything around.