Westin Blue Mountain Review: Ontario, Canada Ski Resort

The Westin Trillium House, Blue Mountain
220 Gord Canning Drive,
Blue Mountains, Ontario, Canada, L9Y 0V9
Tel: (705) 443-8080

Book Direct: Marriott
Check Other Rates: Booking.com, Orbitz, Priceline
Read More Reviews: TripAdvisor
Award Category for Using Points: Marriott Category 6

Westin Blue Mountain Review

Overview:

The Westin Trillium House, located at the base of Ontario's largest ski resort, Blue Mountain, is the perfect winter destination for people who love to ski and live in either Toronto, Detroit or Upstate New York. It offers all the charm and feel of the ski villages in Colorado and Utah without the need to get on a plane to get there.

Westin Blue Mountain Location:

Located on Canada's Georgian Bay, within a two hour drive of Toronto (4 hours from Buffalo and 5 hours from Detroit) is Ontario Canada's top ski destination, Blue Mountain. The closest airport is Toronto, but most of the people that ski here are in driving distance. If you are going to need to get on a plane to ski, don't come here, fly to Colorado or Utah, but if you are within a 4-5 hour drive this is as good as it gets.

The Rooms:

The Westin Blue Mountain is one of those “Condo-Hotels” where people actually own a lot of the rooms and rent them out through the hotel. What is nice about this arrangement is the high percent of “suites” in the hotel.

I like it because you can get the best of both worlds – the multi-room features of a condo with all the benefits of a hotel (most importantly daily maid service and fresh linens!).

The Westin Trillium has typical Studio hotel rooms as well as 1,2 and 3 bedroom suites. We stayed in 2 bedroom suite which had two bedrooms, two full baths, a full kitchen, sitting room and dining table. It was perfect for a family of four.

Amenities:

There were a ton of amenities and activities for everyone. Naturally, the ski slopes are right out your door and that is really the number one attraction. Ski Lockers are provided so you don't have to worry about “lugging” your ski equipment through the lobby and elevator, just lock them up in the locker and walk right to the ski lift.

The group we were with had a mix of skier's, snowboarder's and non-skiers. We had a baby and five kids ranging from 4-11 years old. There was plenty to do for everyone…. skiing, skating, swimming, shopping etc…

During our 3 day trip in February we got about 18 inches of fresh snow on the first day, which made for great skiing the rest of the weekend. The mountain provides a nice mix of green, blue and black diamond runs along with a great terrain park for the snow boarders. High Speed chairs get you to the top of the mountain quickly and the lines move very fast, so you are not wasting a ton of time at the base of the lift.

There are a couple options for swimming including the year-round outdoor heated pool and hot tubs or a place connected to the hotel called Plunge! Aquatic Centre, which is an all-seasons aquatic center with indoor and outdoor pools. There is a kiddie pool with little slide and waterfalls for the little kids, and indoor/outdoor pool with outdoor water slide, a hot tub and a 12 foot diving pool with rope swing.

If you are a skater, they have a great set up for that too. There is a pond called “Mill Pond” in between the Westin and the Ski Village that is set up for ice skating. It provides a huge skating area (probably the size of 4 traditional ice rinks) and is resurfaced everyday with the makeshift Zamboni that they have. It is a beautiful setting to do some skating, providing all the tradition of old time pond skating, with the smooth surface of an indoor ice rink. In the summer you can rent a paddle boat or fish for trout in the pond.

Other activities available include snowmobiling tours, Toboggan tours, Sleigh Rides and an Alpine Coaster called the Ridge Runner Mountain Coaster. We didn't go on it, but the Coaster looked like a lot of fun. You are in a “driver controlled” sled where you control your own speed traveling down the mountain on a winding roller coaster track (with access to a manual brake), at speeds of up to 42 km/h.

There are plenty of things to do in the summer as well like rock climbing, golf, gondola rides, and the beach of the Georgian Bay. We have only been here in the winter, so that is the focus of this review.

Random Thoughts and Recommendations:

The Blue Mountain Village has over 20 restaurants and cafes. Here are some recommendations for dining and drinking:

• Royal Majesty Espresso Bar and Bakery – Every trip I go on I like to find the place that has the best espresso in town, (Starbucks will never be on that list). I knew I found a good one when I saw that this place serves intelligentsia Coffee. I believe intelligentsia has some sort of training program where any coffee shop has to be certified to provide their coffee, so you always know you are going to get a great espresso or cappuccino. I wouldn't say they make them as good as intelligentsia does, but I was very happy to see this place and would recommend anyone come here for their morning fix.
• Rusty's at Blue – This is the place to go for Apres Ski and into the night. It is located at the base of the mountain, just a few steps away from the SilverBullet chair. The food was great and the atmosphere was lively.
• Firehall Pizza Co. – Great Fire Roasted Gourmet Pizza, Salad and Pasta. This is a great place to take a break for lunch.
• Oliver & Bonacini – I normally don't eat dinner in the restaurant of the hotel I am staying at (this is the restaurant in the Westin). However, we did eat here and it was probably the best restaurant of all in the Blue Mountain Village. The atmosphere is sleek, stylish and sophisticated and the food was outstanding.
• MJ Brynes Irish Pub – My recommendation here is to avoid this place. After a 5 hour drive we did not feel like a long wait and noticed that this place was wide open (obvious mistake #1) so we went in. It might be ok for late night drinking, but as far as dinner goes it was the worst – smelled like a college frat house (i.e. beer soaked floors), the lighting was very dark and the food was horrible. This was really the only negative experience we had on the trip.

Points and Elite Status:

The Westin Trillium, Blue Mountain is a SPG category 6 hotel, which requires 50,000 Marriott points per night for a standard room (depending on season – in this case 60,000 for a stay in the winter ski season and 40,000 for off peak months). If you are going to be staying for a little while, there is a fifth night free option, which will get you a fifth night free when you use points for four nights.

Since it was in the busy season, there is a 2 night minimum on weekends, which was not an issue for us, since we planned on staying 3 nights. We were given a two bedroom Suite, which typically cost between $500 and $700 per night, a good value for the points. I would consider this hotel very “Points Friendly”.

As far as being “Elite Status Friendly”, not so much. I used points for my upgrade, so my elite status didn’t help with that and there was no concierge floor or free breakfast so I really don’t think my  Elite status provided any benefit whatsoever with this stay. I had Gold status and had to paid for internet, breakfast and couldn't get a late check out, so I really don't think I got anything for my status.

How to Stay Here with Points:

At a range of 40,000 – 60,000 points per night, there are a couple of ways you can stay at this hotel for free. The first is via staying at Starwood properties and earning points through stays. If you are going to try to earn free nights this way, make sure to check out the Marriott Promotion Page – here you will find a variety of ways to earn Marriott points and any promotions that are currently being offered to accelerate your earning power. This method will take some time, but if you are a frequent business traveler, it absolutely can be done.

The fastest way to earn free nights at this hotel is to apply for a credit card with a solid bonus offer such as the Starwood American Express Card, Read a review of the Starwood American Express Card here…

The Westin Trillium House, Blue Mountain
220 Gord Canning Drive,
Blue Mountains, Ontario, Canada, L9Y 0V9
Tel: (705) 443-8080

Book Direct: Marriott
Check Other Rates: Booking.com, Orbitz, Priceline
Read More Reviews: TripAdvisor
Award Category for Using Points: Marriott Category 6