Bittersweet Ski Resort

I can’t say enough good about Bittersweet Ski Resort. My wife and I decided to introduce our 5 year old to skiing in mid-​January at Bittersweet. Choosing Bittersweet was the perfect decision. The instructor provided to us was great. He kept our son’s interest peaked to the point that he didn’t want to leave the bunny hill. I believe that the instructor’s name was Tyler. Both Tyler and the ski school desk also recommended a 30 minute lessons versus the 1 hour lesson in an attempt to keep the attention of a 5 year old and save mom and dad a bit of money. I appreciated that point. :)
Fast forward a few more visits to this past weekend for more great service and experiences from Bittersweet and its staff.
While skiing, our son had an accident that left him soaked from the waist down. That’s the time that my wife and I realized that we forgot the extra bag of clothes at home, 2 ½ hours away. The manager at the desk went out of her way to help us find clothing and snow gear so that we could continue our day on the hill. Her kindness help to calm an embarrassed boy and parents. She helped a lot to make the situation better and get us back on the slopes.
Bittersweet is great place for families to spend the day skiing and enjoying the day.

I just took my 4 & 8 yr old girls here for a day. I got them both a 2 hr private lesson and both the instructors were great. it finally clicked with my 8 yr old and I think it had everything to do with her instructor.
Overall, its a good place to ski/​board in the Midwest. The jumps in the park were awesome and very unexpected to have such a solid terrain park.

Kids and I had a great time. We loved the magic carpet and the tow rope area. A few of us hit the larger hills and had a blast. We will be going here again, even though it is a 2 ½ hour or more drive for us.
Wife said the teachers were great, she took a snowboard refresher lesson and our littlest one took a lesson too.

As far as southwest Michigan goes this is the place to ski! The runs are well maintained, usually one of the first to open, and last places to close.

Had a great first time experience. Everything was pretty much self explanatory. They offer training and help. It definitely gets busy after 1PM.

Let’s be real: we don’t expect Big Sky, Montana experiences in Michigan. Considering that, this is about as good as you can get in the area. It has relatively quick lines. (Try that at Tahoe or Vail) Sure, the runs are short. But time on the snow % /​time waiting % is probably very close to western resorts. The runs are well maintained, the ski patrol people are wonderful, and the lifts are very adequate. OK, the Black Diamond run is not a Black Diamond anywhere out west. That’s a lot of overstatement. But right now I am dressing to go there. Looking forward to a great day as usual!
Now back from 4.5 hours on the hill. There is enough snow west of Hawthorne now to use that new run, it is quite steep if you get to it from the top of Sweet Express. Spent all day (Monday January 12) skiing right to nothing worse than next in line, most often to right into the next lift chair. $ 32 all day lift ticket. $ 4.50 beef stew, full bowl. Great day!

First time snowboarding (ever) was at bittersweet on a Sunday over the holidays. Had no idea what to expect so I booked a group lesson and ended up having a one on one with Jordan. Because we got there after the morning hours, slightly less kids to contend with. Overall super pleased with my lesson and contrary to what others said about service, I felt like staff – bar, rentals, instructors – across the board were attentive and friendly. Another pro: Magic carpets. Only downside was that with no real snow on the ground, it was pretty icy in some spots.

Went on a Sunday morning and the runs were wide open. Compared to runs out west they are shorter and there’s just a few hills, but for central Michigan it was great. The hills were in great shape and the staff was wonderful. We arranged for private lessons for both boys. It was their first time out and they had a great time with the instructors — we eventually had to drag them away after six hours on the runs! Big thanks to Reece and David — they were wonderful for the first ski instruction for a 5 yo and 7 yo.

My expectations were low, and Bittersweet more than exceeded my them. The runs are not long and most of the ski lifts (except the Sweet Express) are old and slow, but for the location and price it was much better than I was anticipating! It isn’t Colorado but the runs are well-​maintained and the lift lines were never too long (we went the day before NYE). Overall Bittersweet is a solid ski hill.

Expect a small resort with low hills. This is a great family place or for a beginner. If your expectations are aligned it’s worth a visit. Note that the bar gets VERY crowded, the servers are overworked, and don’t really seem to care about the customers.