Finishing off the weekend with a new favorite: Fairmont Tremblant
PHOTO: View of the Village from Bar Nansen inside Fairmont Tremblant (c) Sery Kim
Sunday Funday will never be quite the same after a wonderful day at Fairmont Tremblant in Mont-Tremblant, a municipality in the Canadian province Québec, set within the Laurentian Mountains northwest of Montréal. We drove here from Fairmont Montebello in a very quick hour. Before we knew it, we were greeted with the most picturesque setting of old French architecture, snow capped mountains -- that would be the expansive terrain of Mont-Tremblant National Park -- and an adorable old town which some, affectionally, referred to as "Disney come to life."
PHOTO: Rolling maple pops outside in the snow (c) Sery Kim
PHOTO: My rolled maple pop (c) Sery Kim
The year-round Mont-Tremblant Ski Resort, on the shores of Lake Tremblant, is the home of Fairmont Tremblant which is truly a ski-in and ski-out resort to Mont Tremblant, one of the hidden gems of skiing for true afficiandos. Skiing in the elevation is not so high as to cause squeamishness; however, the terrain of the 90 trails is challenging enough to keep minds (and bodies) engaged.
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The hotel provided us plenty of goodies to welcome us, including the adorable self-rolled maple pops pictured above, as well as plenty of hot chocolate, coffee as well as apple cider dashed with real alcoholic cider. Additionally, after we got our ski equipment, we had a delicious and healthy lunch of salads and sandwiches, plus dessert. I'm not much of a vegetable eater -- sorry Mom! -- but after two straight days of overly hearty food, it was such a welcomed relief to be able to eat a salad. Even upon the first bite, I could tell my palate had already changed because the salad tasted "different," probably just the result of the ingredients being so healthy and natural!
PHOTO: A still from the ride up Mont Tremblant (c) Sery Kim
Afterwards, we hit the slopes with our wonderful guide for an afternoon of skiing. The mountain closes to skiing at 3:30 pm, rather early, but it's simply because it does get quite chilly and quite dark so note that for when planning. You can find all the information about skiing Mont Tremblant here: https://www.tremblant.ca/
You should also note how FUN it is to ski Mont Tremblanc. The 180 degree views of Lake Tremblanc are absolutely breath-taking and extraordinary. If my phone didn't keep shutting off from the cold breeze, i would have taken a quality shot, but there is something about seeing trees broken apart by a large body of water as far as your eye can take you, which really jumpstarts the imagination. Same for the trees fully dusted in a foot of snow. In their perfection, they looked fake!
PHOTO: The ski group on top of Mont Tremblanc (c) Sery Kim
PHOTO: The last pitch before reaching the end of the ski day (c) Sery Kim
You can really see in the above photo what I am talking about. The large swaths of white, beyond the village and in front of the mountains, is the Lake which is frozen in winter. So beautfiul!
After skiing, we had a bit of break before another fun evening of beverage and food. Veuve Clicquot sponsored an outdoor champagne cocktail hour before we went inside for a buffet dinner. My favorite part of dinner was the buffet dessert table. I had the dumb luck of taking a really great photo of everyone taking a photo -- sometimes these "action" shots are more accurate than the other ones which are more staged.
PHOTO: My photo of everyone taking a photo of the dessert table (c) Sery Kim
Overall, I really can't wait to return to Mont Tremblanc and do some skiing. I will, for sure, stay at Fairmont Tremblanc when I return as the bed and hot water pressure was fabulous. Plus, though I am usually perfect when it comes to making spa appointments, yesterday I thought my spa appointment was at 5:00 pm but when I showed up at 4:55 I was so disappointed to learn that my appointment was, in fact, for 4:00, thus I will have to return and try again then.
Thank you Fairmont and Air Canada for putting together one of the best ever FAMs I have ever been on. It wasn't just the locations and food but it was the high quality of people on the trip. Usually on press trips there is a lot of drama (mostly from very dramatic people). On this trip, everyone was fun and engaging and oh-so-nice! What a wonderful way to kick of a year of travel!
Cheers to Canada! Happy 150th!!
