I hadn’t been to Loon in a long time. We spent a lot of time at Loon as kids. Our close family friends had a condo there, and we spent almost every New Years there with them. We also rented it as a family often, at least once a winter.
I forgot how incredible the drive to Loon is. It is surrounded by White Mountain National Forest, and the road follows a river that takes you directly to the ski area. It is not a huge mountain, but has good terrain, and most importantly a gondola that takes you to the top. The issue with Loon, and this has been an issue since I was little, is the crowds. I don’t know if it is over-developed or too close to Boston or what, but I remember it being crowded. 40 minute lift lines. I can’t even imagine paying for a ticket and having to wait in those lines. That’s basically 6 runs per day. Maybe 8 if you are not freezing from standing around.
Thankfully I was there on a weekday, and the conditions were good. It was a clear day and Mount Washington was clearly visible to the northeast. I didn’t fully experience the place since it was a day stop on the way to Tremblant, but I did have lunch in the mid-mountain lodge and had a nice chicken finger basket with fries. Nothing to write home about, or even blog about, but it was good enough, and I didn’t balk at the prices. I don’t normally eat at lodges, but I had such distinct memories of being in that lodge as a freezing kid taking breaks that I had to.
Loon is nothing to write home about. It’s a good mountain, with some good terrain, but definitely best visited on a weekday. Too close to the cities. Too far south. I might be more negative than I should be about it because my sunglasses were stolen from the base lodge. I’d had them for several years, and they didn’t owe me anything, and I did leave on a hook for a few hours when I went out skiing and forgot them, but what happens to sunglasses tells me something about a place, about the people in that place.
Overview:
Loon sucks. Not much mountain. Huge crowds that can’t have improved much since I was little. But if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. In a nutshell, when I went in for lunch, I got some food because I didn’t have a choice. The food was fine, and not overly priced. But when I asked for some water, they pointed me to a cooler on the counter with dentist-sized dixie cups. They were literally one sip. I understand the logic behind providing tiny cups, but it says so much about a place. You spend close to $100 for a ticket to ski (or in Loon’s case, wait in line) and they can’t give you a regular size cup for tapwater.
Take all of this with a grain of salt. The real reason I can’t stand the place is I left my sunglasses on a hook when getting dressed in the lodge in the AM and totally forgot about them. They didn’t owe me anything. I’d had this particular set of my preferred Maui Jims for 3-4 years, and was about on schedule to lose a pair. But I went back soon after leaving them, and they were gone. And not only were they gone, but the guy at Customer Service could not have been less helpful. I mean, I get that I am unlikely to get them back, but at least have some empathy and PRETEND that you care. At all. It was a tough way to start the trip, and certainly left a bad taste in my mouth for the day. Thankfully I was only there one. And because I adhere to the ‘don’t say anything at all adage’ I will not write more on this review.
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