Thirty miles from Salt Lake City in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, the former silver-mining hub turned sporty mecca of Park City is already well known to the skiers who tackle the slopes at sprawling Park City Mountain Resort, the country’s biggest ski area, and Deer Valley, known for its luxurious amenities. The big news: Deer Valley has more than doubled its terrain, adding more than 2,000 acres of skiing and a new base village in the first phase of the resort’s largest-ever expansion. Plus, a new 10-passenger gondola now whisks skiers up from the Canyons Village base area at Park City Mountain. But there’s more than outdoor enjoyment: Although this January will be the last year that Park City will host the Sundance Film Festival, a thriving cultural scene offers year-round performances, exhibitions and films.

Itinerary

Friday

3 p.m. | Feel Olympic thrills

For a heart-in-your-throat moment, stand atop the 394-meter ski jump at Utah Olympic Park and envision hurtling down the precipitous ramp to launch airborne on skis. It’s just one of the competition and training facilities built for the 2002 Winter Olympics you’ll visit on the park’s hourlong guided tour ($20). What could just be pleasant nostalgia is newly relevant with the recent announcement that the site (and more venues near Salt Lake City) will host the 2034 Winter Games. Stop at the free, adjacent Alf Engen Ski Museum (named after a renowned ski jumper of the 1930s) for more Olympic history, plus other snow-centric and interactive exhibits. Amp up the adventure — and the G-force — with the rare chance to take an exhilarating ride in a four-person bobsled piloted by a pro ($225 per person).

5:30 p.m. | Enjoy early-bird eats

Parkites (as Park City residents are known) congregate at the family-owned restaurant Hearth and Hill in the Kimball Junction neighborhood (across the road from Utah Olympic Park) for its casual atmosphere and consistent quality. Crowd-pleasing dishes are prepped in the glass-fronted open kitchen, including pasta and burgers, bison short ribs with a mole sauce and red-pepper polenta ($44) and a half-dozen hearty salads. If the craft cocktails don’t tempt, try a chai blossom mocktail ($7) made with chai-coconut syrup, lemon juice, orange-blossom water and soda.

7 p.m. | Celebrate indie film

As much as skiing, Park City has become synonymous with the Sundance Film Festival, which has been held annually in January since 1985 and has given the community a special tie to independent movies. (After 2026, however, the festival will relocate to Boulder, Colorado.) More accessible than scoring a Sundance pass for the event’s final run in Park City, the community-favorite Park City Film Series screens a different indie or foreign film every weekend (September to mid-June; tickets $9.43) in an auditorium at the town’s library, housed in an almost-century-old former school building. Locals bring their own bowls for popcorn that can be topped with melted butter from a slow cooker; guest containers are available, too.

Saturday

9 a.m. | Hit the (many) slopes

Ikon Pass holders will want to schuss ski-only Deer Valley, which has added 10 lifts and more than 100 trails in the past year (single-day ticket from $219 in advance online). The resort’s impeccably groomed cruisers are tempered by legit expert terrain like the Daly Chutes and Centennial’s steep glades. Epic Pass holders and snowboarders should head to Park City Mountain, which at 7,300 acres offers the most lift-served terrain in the United States (single-day ticket from $259 in advance online). The free, two-hour Silver to Slopes guided ski tour (10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.) visits on-mountain mining relics like closed-up shaft entrances (more than 1,000 miles of decommissioned mining tunnels lie under the ski area). Or book the Ski Utah Interconnect Tour, an all-day adventure for advanced skiers ($575 per person) that starts at Deer Valley and visits five other resorts via chairlifts and backcountry terrain.

Noon | Ski to town for lunch

Downtown’s High West Saloon (21 and up), owned by a local distillery, is immensely popular for après-ski — and nabbing a seat in this Western-themed restored livery stable can be a double-black-diamond challenge. Instead, ski there for lunch via Park City Mountain’s Quittin’ Time run (post-meal, ride the Town Lift, a block away, back up). Your consumption of High West’s bourbon may be more limited midday, but whiskey caramelized onion soup ($13) or a pretzel-crusted schnitzel ($35) will still warm your innards. At Deer Valley, click out of your skis at the mid-mountain, full-service Royal Street Cafe and refuel with the popular turkey chili, served in multiple restaurants across the resort ($18), or a buttermilk-battered fried chicken sandwich ($28).

3 p.m. | Go high end or low end

Deer Valley is known for catering to champagne and caviar tastes, and you can certainly find those slopeside at the hotel Montage Deer Valley’s Veuve Clicquot-focused Après Lounge in a luxe-level yurt. But then there’s the retro-vibed Sticky Wicket at the Silver Lake Lodge, where the knotty-pine walls are bedecked with ’80s-era ski memorabilia and revelers order a 64-ounce tabletop keg of one of eight Utah beers on draft ($48). When not advocating better wages and benefits, Park City Mountain ski patrollers frequent the Corner Store Pub and Grill, which has been pouring pitchers (from $30) of beer for thirsty skiers since 1974. At the Canyon Villages base, head to the chic fireside lounge Après Pendry for cocktails.

4 p.m. | See an unusual ski lift

The Park City Museum in the heart of town (open until 5 p.m.) has both permanent and changing exhibitions ($15 admission). Learn about the Great Fire of 1898, which destroyed the town’s commercial district, and the intricacies of mining, among other historical exhibits. Be sure to sit in the “skier subway” car; this unusual conveyance opened in December 1964 at Park City Mountain (then called Treasure Mountain) and shuttled skiers for 3 miles through a dank mining tunnel to an elevator, which guests then rode 1,800 vertical feet to a chairlift above ground. The novelty quickly wore off, and the subway lasted only four years.

6:30 p.m. | Dine in an old depot

The menu at Le Depot Brasserie, opened last March by the James Beard-award-winning chef Galen Zamarra, offers well-crafted classic French dishes (including steak frites, $40) and a three-course cheese fondue dinner ($55 per person, reserve ahead). But the setting is uniquely Park City, in a former wood-shingled Union Pacific train depot from 1886 that has been beautifully restored, melding vintage stained-glass windows and artwork with traditional bistro elements like brass light fixtures and marble-topped tables. (Longtime Park City visitors will remember the building as the site of the late Robert Redford’s beloved Zoom restaurant for more than 20 years.) Le Depot also shares a pastry chef with the adjacent Union Patisserie, so leave space for decadent desserts like profiteroles with bourbon-caramel chocolate sauce ($18).

8 p.m. | Bar-hop downtown

Within a few blocks along Main Street, a nationally registered historic district, you’ll find live music, boisterous bars and quieter spots for sipping cocktails. Check the schedule at the nearly 100-year-old Egyptian Theater, a beloved community landmark that hosts concerts, theater and comedy. A visit to the long-running No Name Saloon can be entertainment in itself: The first floor is adorned with a scrappy collection of vintage objects, like a snowmobile, a motorcycle and a chairlift; locals come for the burgers and Utah beers, heated rooftop patio and unpretentious character. A block north, Palomino, run by the acclaimed Riverhorse on Main restaurant next door, serves trendy cocktails as beautiful to look at as the bar’s chic interior; the tequila-based FIU, for example, comes topped with a large snowball-like bubble ($24).

Sunday

8 a.m. | Wake up with flavors

At the bright and bustling Australian-inspired cafe Five5eeds, breakfast goes beyond the ordinary with options like banana bread decadently topped with espresso-infused mascarpone ($12) and shakshuka ($18), the North African dish of baked eggs in a spicy tomato sauce (and, yes, there’s avocado toast). Some dishes are accompanied by rolls from Red Bicycle Breadworks in the adjacent Market at Park City, including the incredibly popular stick loaf with olive oil and sea salt. Get your caffeine fix via coffee beans imported from Down Under.

9 a.m. | Go for a scenic ski

Work off breakfast in the fresh mountain air by cross-country skiing on gently rolling terrain at the White Pine Nordic Center in town (day pass $26). The center meticulously grooms about 12 miles of track for classic and skate skiing on what’s a golf course in summer, and the open expanse affords wide-angle views of the surrounding peaks. Pick up rentals on site (from $38), then choose among several meandering routes; the nearly-2-mile Community Loop Trail is flat and beginner friendly, while the 6-mile, more advanced Farm Trail passes by a landmark century-old white barn. Or take a one-hour private lesson ($115, including rental and trail pass).

11:30 a.m. | Float in a crater

Entering the Homestead Crater feels like stepping into something out of a fantasy novel. But instead of mythical creatures rising out of the steam, it’s just fellow swimmers you’ll encounter in this subterranean geothermal spring encased in a limestone dome and reached by tunnel ($25 per person for a 40-minute session; reservations and life jackets, provided, required). Eighteen miles south of Park City at the Homestead Resort in the town of Midway, the 65-foot-deep pool was carved out of the surrounding rock over 10,000 years. You can swim or snorkel (or at other times practice paddleboard yoga with Park City Yoga Adventures, or even scuba dive), but it’s also highly relaxing to just bob in the 95-degree, mineral-rich water and view the sunbeams filtering through the crater’s opening.

Key stops

Utah Olympic Park offers tours of the ski-jumping, bobsledding and other competition and training facilities built for the 2002 Winter Olympics and still in use today. It is one of a handful of places worldwide to ride in a bobsled with a professional driver.

Deer Valley ski area has more than 200 runs on 4,300 acres, including 100-plus new runs and 10 new lifts, as well as a new base village on the resort’s east side.

Park City Mountain Resort offers the most lift-served skiing in the United States with 7,300 acres and two large, separate base areas.

Homestead Crater is a geothermal spring within a limestone dome where visitors can swim, snorkel and scuba dive year-round.

Where to eat

Hearth and Hill is a spacious, family-run restaurant in Kimball Junction that locals love for its consistent quality and its menu of global cuisine.

High West Saloon is a downtown Western-themed restaurant in a historic livery stable and garage that serves whiskey from its own distillery.

Royal Street Cafe is a casual mid-mountain lunch restaurant at Deer Valley that offers sit-down service.

Le Depot Brasserie offers classic French fare in a newly renovated historic building that was constructed in 1886 as Park City’s main train station.

Five5eeds is an Australian-inspired cafe serving breakfast and lunch in a shopping plaza near downtown.

Where to stay

The Auberge Collection’s Goldener Hirsch, an elegant slopeside lodge at Deer Valley with top-notch service, offers both traditional Bavarian-style rooms and rooms with modern décor, as well as luxurious residences with kitchens. The property includes a rooftop pool and spa services, and this winter the Hirsch restaurant debuts with modern Alpine fare. Rooms start at $1,200.

The first hotel in the new East Village base area, the mountain-modern-style Grand Hyatt Deer Valley offers easy access to the slopes from rooms and apartment-like residences. There’s also a restaurant, speakeasy-style bar and spa. Rooms start at $599.

Small groups and families will find convenience at Canyon Haus, in Canyons Village at Park City Mountain Resort, where each studio and two-bedroom condo has a Murphy bed and twin bunks, plus a small kitchen. Rooms from $150.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.