So we finally made it to Boyne Highlands!  Here is my assessment, no doubt the runs are by far longer than anywhere else in MI and the views are spectacular (here’s where it gets to be like on the bachelor when they’re about to send someone home) BUT….it’s definitely not easy to navigate for a first timer. 

The place is HUGE, which is awesome because there’s tons of runs to explore and we never had to wait for a chairlift. However, we found ourselves skating on our skis A LOT because we wanted to take a break but we didn’t end up at quite the right area or we took our skis off in front of one lodge but needed to be at a different lodge for the cafeteria. Even where you drive up to drop skis off is quite a hike from any of the lifts. You get the idea… this is not ideal with kids. That being said now that we’ve done it wrong, I think we could change some things up and find it to be a much better experience the next time around. 

So here would be my advice, if you’re heading to Boyne Highlands for the day park at the day lodge & drop your skis off at the very beginning as far left as possible. Then you walk through a little tunnel that takes you to stairs which leads you right to the bunny hill/ the Camelot lift. Connor took this run by himself and said it was pretty fun. There is one magic carpet there as well. You can take the Camelot lift up and then either head left to some fun greens and blues or head right and cross all the way over to get to the main high speed lift. Reid chose rattlesnake run first which was really fun and a great green for beginners or little ones. So here’s the thing… you can explore your heart out. The older boys loved Amy’s terrain park and Little John was another fun green. My husband took the older boys back later at night and found the half pipe which was a huge hit! 

Just make sure that if you’re going to take a break that you are coming off the heather express or Mac gully lift. Because if you get tired and you’re at a different lift than those you’re hiking it back a long ways to get to the lodge. (We know from experience) The main lodge connected to the hotel had a really cute restaurant “slope side lounge” that we were hoping to eat at but there was a 45 minute wait so we hiked it over to the day lodge where the food court is located. I’m sure the food court is much easier to navigate non-covid style but overall the food was good (the chicken salad wrap was awesome) and thankfully they have a large conference room area that they have set up for indoor eating. The zoo bar is also located at the day lodge which I’m sure would be amazing sans kids. Next time maybe LOL. 

Again, I loved the skiing and the views of Nubs Nob and the Bay are absolutely beautiful. I also really enjoyed the fact that it was so quiet, it kind of felt like we had the place to ourselves. I think that’s definitely a bonus on busy days. I imagine it would be different  if you were staying on property and had a ski in/ski out.  Overall I think it’s a great property, I just think it takes some time to get acclimated so if you can tag a long with someone who’s already been to highlands before that would make it a lot easier. 

Overall, I think I’m still a big fan of Boyne mountain… there’s just something about the little village there that really does it for me. We will definitely go back BUT unfortunately Boyne highlands will not be receiving my final rose. 

Other winter Activities at Boyne Highlands include Snow tubing, zip lining, Horse back riding, fat tire biking, snow shoeing, XCountry skiing, Sno-go bikes & more. If you would like to go visit Boyne Highlands Resort click here https://www.boynehighlands.com

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