Great ski in/ski out location, excellent rooms , fantastic food (included), awesome pool and hot tub with a great bar and friendly and accommodating staff. There is no reason to leave the hotel for anything other than skiing and no one does. It is the perfect ski hotel whether you ski or not, but it is a mecca for serious skiers. Nearly everyone there is a returning guest and one trip there will illustrate why.

Everything is great at the Rustler. The food, the pool, the rooms, the staff and ease of use to skiing are all outstanding. If you want the best skiing and accomodations in UT stay at the Rustler. I plan on making this an annual trip.

Alta has limited hotel choices but you can confidently choose this one! Yes it is Four Seasons' price with lesser facilities, but the rooms were sizable and comfortable, the public facilities were welcoming and the staff was unerringly friendly.

On the rooms, our room (501) was quite large, though perhaps misdesigned as some of the empty floor space in the room would have been better allocated to the small bathroom. The decor is brown and more brown, so it does feel a bit dated; however, the furnishings were in good condition and the beds were quite comfortable. Note that this room has a restricted view, so be sure to pay up for a full mountain view if that is important to you.

The public facilities felt like an oversized family room. Again, brown rules the day, with dark paneling, furniture and carpet, so it has a very traditional feel to it. The dining room was attractive with great views of the mountains, as was the bar. The most appealing element was the heated outdoor pool, where one found groups relaxing (often with pitchers of beer) after the day's ski. The two hot tubs (one indoor-ish and one fully outdoor) were also very nice. The sauna, on the other hand, is miniscule and seating was limited to two people.

The staff was interesting, with an average age that could not have been above 25 perhaps? These were clearly not "professionals", with our guess being that they were mostly either hotel management students on an internship or ski aficionados who used this as their vehicle to spend a winter skiing. A common interaction: "Hello, what may I serve you?", "Scrambled eggs and hash browns", "Cool". Can't recall that at any other $1,000/night hotel! That said, they were WITHOUT EXCEPTION friendly and helpful. If you don't need polished professionalism in your hotel staff, then you will enjoy the informality of the team here.

The food is an important element of the stay since breakfast and dinner are included. Breakfast is really quite good, with an extensive selection (both on the buffet as well as various items that can be ordered from the kitchen). An excellent oatmeal/parfait bar, an omelet station and a table of somewhat rotating hot items (egg dishes, hash browns, pancakes, etc.) provides good options, with further items (e.g., waffles, french toast, eggs) being available upon request. Dinner was also full of options, with a four course meal of soup (four options), salad/appetizer (one or two appetizer choices and two or three salad options), entree (six rotating options each night plus a further four "every night" choices - always fish, beef, chicken and pasta among the options) and dessert (five choices). The soups were fine (cup sized), the salads were basic but good (small plate) and the desserts were tasty (housemade ice cream and sorbet each night plus creme brulee, carrot cake, etc. choices). The entrees were the most noteworthy, with some that were quite good and others that were more like "home-cooking" quality. Do note that, while no portion is particularly large, this is a large meal and so (since it is included in the room price) you might want to go easy on the lunch! There is also a appetizer bar every day from 4-5:30 with a very nice daily option (we had pork pot stickers, clams and buffalo chicken wings on our three nights) - it is quite nice but just adds to the food overload!

The hotel is well-located in the middle of the two lift areas, with a convenient short lift that takes you to a tow rope that can be taken to whichever lift area you wish to start with. The location is thus away from the more crowded lift areas, though thus also away from whatever little "action" there is in Alta. This is NOT a place with shopping, numerous restaurants or a strong apres-ski scene - just good, stiff skiing!