Northstar California Resort

Long lines at the lift, little organization. Base village is fancy, but laid out in a way that makes you walk long distances with your skis no matter where you enter. Shuttle and lifts are so slow it took me 1.5 hours to get from the parking lot to the top of the mountain. And all that for very few lake views. Hard to believe this is "premium" Tahoe! It almost singlehandedly ruins the Epic season pass. Gets two stars just because the snow is good (but that's also true for Olympic Valley, Heavenly, and Alpine Meadows, which are all better).

Cons:
- The lift / Grandola status in Epic Mix app or on the website is very inaccurate, and makes planning a hassle. You can find the status open in the app and website but only come to see it's closed. Vice versa - the app showing 0 min for promised land express but there's actually a long line.
- The Highlands granola is very hard to access to any ski trail w/o long uphill walk.
- Waiting for shuttle could be long. Sometimes they even missed dispatching bus and we waited for 1h standing there for the golf course bus, I missed a flight because of this. I wish they provided real time info for the shuttle, so it's easier to plan things ahead.
- Ticket machine not implemented or used at Lift/Grandola, relies on staff manual scanning which slows down the line unnecessarily.
- Parking is horrible, you could spend 30m finding a spot in several parking lots in vain. But a hard to solve problem so putting this as a last Cons.

Pros
- The terrain is well suited for beginners, if you are, you'll enjoy it a lot, if you can avoid the Cons above.
- Friendly staff to help you with changes to reservations.

This resort does not have the most technical terrain in Tahoe, but it has the absolute best staff. They have bent over backwards time and time again to get my kids into lessons, even on sold out holiday weekends, instructors have followed up with me after hours to make sure my kids and I have everything we need, the ski team office has been really diligent with communication even though they sell out within 15 minutes of posting ski team availability, and thus our chances of getting in are super low. They groom as many runs as they can every night, and they dig out the halfpipe within days after a storm. If I could give Northstar 10 stars, I would.

Northstar is a beautiful ski resort to visit as long as you're staying there overnight. Of the all the ski resorts I've been to, this is my least favorite, only because of the logistics of getting in here. If you're driving in and staying at the resort, it's great - you'll be able to take full advantage of the village and enjoy the restaurants there, as well as get to ski before the lines get too long. If you drive in and park there, be prepared to do a lot of waiting and walking with your skis. The shuttles are slow, often overpacked, and getting from the shuttle drop off to the actual lifts was absolutely painful because of the long walk while carrying skis, helmets, and kids complaining about the tight boots. Leaving was even worse. All of the shuttles stop running at 6, so EVERYONE will be lined up to go between 4-6. Don't even get me started on the mad rush out of the resort on the one lane road.

Logistics aside, the skiing at Northstar was very enjoyable and there are a good number of long runs to traverse, particularly if you're intermediate and up. If you're into terrain parks, the park here is one of the best to visit - there's a lot of exciting jumps and things to do. Overall, it's a nice resort that just really needs to get the driving, parking, and shuttle system updated.

Parking is a bit difficult as it gets full fast but shuttle is available. Shopping area and some pretty descent place to eat at. Be aware to spend money. Phone signal is impossible.

It's a nice and family oriented Epic ski resort with good intermediate runs though they're mostly classified as black. I've had decent ski days there in past years on and off. But they are oversold this season, and still advertising! The parking situation is a nightmare in qeekends. It took us 1 hour 15 mins to drive 3.5 miles to get to the parking, only to get sent to the next door golf course as the parking had filled up! By the time we parked and got a shuttle to the base to ski, it took close to 2 hours and it was 11am. The $235 I paid for a supposedly discounted lift ticket was a waste.

Didn't stay here; though, apartments look really amazing from outside with giant window views. Great resort for skiing.

Horrible experience. We had a day of plans. One person wasn't able to ski because his pass was confiscated at no fault of his own. Our other plans were to go tubing and ice skating. Both tubing and ice skating were closed without any notice. Website said everything was open but to our dismay, it was not. I was sent to three different locations to purchase tubing tickets before being made aware that it was closed. Never going to Northstar again, EVER. The pizza was the best part.

Northstar is a fun place. It is more suited for the beginner to intermediate riders and has a pretty cool vibe unlike Palisades and Heavenly. Long blue diamond runs and some reasonable single black diamond are usually groomed unless fresh powder came down over night. Fun tree riding in the powder too. You won't find any cornices and chutes here as you would at Kirkwood, Palisades or Heavenly. The crow factor is BIG on weekends but very reasonable during the week.
The village area is modern and very quaint. Good shopping for all things skiing & riding.
Last but not least, the view of Lake Tahoe is always spectacular!

This place is alright, the resort seems like it has oversold Epic passes and has outgrown their size and the roads and infrastructure around haven’t kept up

Northstar has a SERIOUS problem with out of control snowboarders. I was struck from behind there last month and am still having neck issues, next day my friend was hit from behind, my other friend just posted she was hit yesterday and has a concussion, my boss was hit last year and still has a shoulder issue. I'm literally scared to take my family there. All were cases of a boarder going too fast, beyond their skill level and not watching for the downhill skier/boarder. Northstar needs to take this more seriously.

North Star always gets a 5 Star from me, because it is the best and most reliable in the area. Seldom is closed due to Wind unlike the others. However we were disappointed in some of the changes that have been made since we were there last. The Bus Service does not run up into the lots as they did before, and there are no equipment carts anymore. The lift lines were Chaos, probably due to short staff, but it does need attention.

Recently bought 5 all day lift passes and hit the road early to get a full day in. Once we got there at 8 am there was a 3 hour wait to rent skis and an hour wait to get on the gondola. The resort should fix these issues to make it possible to actually ski a full day, or they shouldn’t sell full day passes without a disclaimer about rental and gondola wait times.

I requested a refund for the difference in price between a full day and half day and they declined.

Otherwise the slopes are nicely groomed with a diverse selection of terrain parks.