Is there really family friendly skiing right here in the Chicago suburbs?

One seemingly uneventful Sunday morning turned into a surprisingly wonderful outing when we discovered Villa Olivia in the western suburb of Bartlett, Illinois.  For those of you unfamiliar with Villa Olivia (as we were), it is a banquet hall and country club in the summer that doubles as a downhill ski area in the winter.  Villa Olivia’s ski area is complete with several 1/4 mile runs, a chair lift, several bunny hills and a few tow ropes. While this is no Vail or Killington, Villa Olivia offers a pretty decent midwestern ski experience for families or skiers of all ages who are either learning to ski or who just want a taste of the slopes close to home.  In addition to downhill skiing, Villa Olivia also offers snowboarding as well as a section of the mountain dedicated to snowtubing.

Whether you plan to ski, snowboard, or snowtube, equipment is available for rent, and is offered in adult and child sizes. As far a skiing goes, adult lift tickets on weekends are about $37 ($27 for juniors and $12 for kids under 7) with ski rentals running about $26 for skis, boots and poles ($22 for juniors and $19 for children under 7). Snowboards with boots can be rented for $25 for an hour or $39 for up to 8 hours.  Snowtubing runs about $20 for 2 hours, but participants must be age 6 or 42″ tall to ride alone.  Helmets can be rented for the day for $5, but availability is limited.

In addition to open skiiing, boarding and tubing, Villa Olivia also offers lessons, privately or in groups.  An hour of private ski or snowboarding lessons runs about $40, plus lift ticket and rental fees.  They also offer many group lesson options for kids ages 4-9.  Generally, these sessions runs for three days and cost about $125 (including lift tickets and rentals).  The times of the lessons and exact costs can be obtained on the villa Olivia website at www.villaolivia.com.

On the weekend, the hills open at 9:30am and close at 11:00pm on Saturday and 10:00pm on Sunday.  During the week, hours of operation begin at 4:30pm and end at 10:00pm (11:00pm on Friday night).

Overall, Villa Olivia is not enough of a mountain (or hill) to appease intermediate or advanced skiers, but it is a great place to bring the kids or to learn for yourself.  If your kids are watching the Olympics and getting the itch for some winter sports, this is a great place to take them.  It offers all the necessary ski experiences and is a great way to get yourself or your little ones comfortable on the slopes.  Villa Olivia does have snow-making, so it is a reliable outing if you are looking to hit the slopes close to home.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Venues. If you use RSS, you can subscribe to the RSS feed. , or if you would rather receive an e-mail, please subscribe to the e-mail in the lower right hand corner of this page. Both comments and pings are currently closed.