Staying at the Village Lodge Hotel at Sugar Bowl ski resort, Lake Tahoe

We spent a Sunday night at the Village Lodge at the Sugar Bowl ski resort in the Lake Tahoe area in California. What a great atmosphere it has. The Village Lodge has only 27 rooms, housed in the original ski lodge that was built in 1939. It's had plenty of renovations since then, transforming from the main base area, into the now upscale but yet old timey hotel that it now is. I went to Sugar Bowl back when the original gondola was usable by the general public, before they build the Judah lodge. Back then, the lodge building had rentals, a shop and the usual ski lodge cafeteria. Now, it houses the hotel, an upscale bar lounge, a formal dining room, and a more casual eatery. The outside tables remain from the original ski lodge days. The hotel has a formal dining room and a more casual bar area that also serves food. There is another bar/lounge area in between the two. We decided to get a meal at the dining room. The chef has a background working at some upscale restaurants in the SF Bay Area, and the food has the trappings of fine dining, with an amuse course given at the beginning. The portions are big, enough for a hearty appetite after a day of skiing. Service was less polished that you might expect in a big-city fine dining place, but was fine. We were plenty full by the end of the meal. After that, it was bed time. The next morning, since we were only staying one night, meant that we had to eat breakfast, pack, get on our ski gear, and checkout, before getting onto the slopes. We were told that we were to leave our luggage in our room to be picked up and put into storage for when we left later in the day, which was very convenient. They really make it easy with luggage handling. Finally, we were on the slope. Being a Monday, there was no much of a crowd. Not empty by any means, but certainly not crowded. The longest lift line consisted of perhaps 4 parties ahead of us; most of the time, it was at most 1-2 parties ahead, and often, ski right onto the lift. Being on the village side of Sugar Bowl, as opposed to the Judah side, which has all the main parking plus a big lodge of its own, may have contributed to fewer people on the village side. It certainly did later in the day when, if you had parked at Judah, you'd be making your way back to that side. We skied until closing, had a short snowball fight, and then got ourselves, skis and luggage onto the gondola for the trip back to the car. Light traffic down the mountain, with sporadic bunches of cars, and dinner in Auburn. Then more light traffic and smooth sailing back to the Bay Area. The only thing that would have made this trip better would have been two nights at the hotel. That way, we'd have got a whole day of skiing without worrying about the morning checkout, and having a place to relax if we chose to, during the day, or modify clothing depending on the temperature. The price for a hotel room is quite reasonable for the Tahoe area, especially considering that you're slopeside and with the level of service the hotel provides. Comperably, the only other Tahoe resorts with on-premise hotels are Palisades and Northstar. The Red Wolf Lodge at Palisades is somewhat comparable, being at the base of the Red Dog runs. Their rooms run somewhat more expensive. Then there is the Ritz Carlton at Northstar, for perhaps 3x the cost. The main draw for Sugar Bowl's hotel though, is that it's small, with only 27 rooms, so it feels more exclusive, probably especially on a non-weekend night.