Want to take advantage of Virtuoso benefits at no extra cost, including a room upgrade, free breakfast, a hotel credit, and more? Contact Ford ([email protected]) for more details. He doesn’t charge booking fees, and may even be able to help if you already have a stay booked.
While you won’t be able to redeem points for stays here, there’s a pretty cool new luxury hotel opening in the United States at the end of the year, which I think is worth highlighting.
Montage Big Sky Montana basics
Montage is a luxury hotel brand that sometimes flies under the radar — the company only has half a dozen hotels open, but they’re all highly regarded. The Montage Big Sky is scheduled to open on December 15, 2021, and it’s probably the most highly anticipated new ski resort in the United States (and it better be, given the $400 million price tag).
While Big Sky is known for its beautiful nature and top notch skiing, it’s a destination that doesn’t currently have any luxury hotels. That will be changing with the new Montage, which will feature 150 rooms and suites, as well as 39 residences.
This really will be a year-round destination, given the ski-in/ski-out access to Big Sky Resort in the winter, and the easy access to Yellowstone National Park in the summer, as it’s just a 45 minute drive away.
But the resort will be a destination in and of itself. Some of the amenities of the hotel will include:
- Spa Montage, a 10,000 square foot alpine-inspired spa featuring an indoor pool with a 3,000 square foot pool deck, 12 treatment rooms, styling stations, and manicure and pedicure stations
- A fitness center with cardio and strength training center, plus free weights
- An outdoor family pool
- Beartooth Bar & Rec, a bar and recreational area, featuring a bowling alley, darts, and more
- Several dining outlets, including Cortina (a signature restaurant serving Northern Italian cuisine), Backcast Bar & Grill (a barbecue and smokehouse), and Alpenglow (a lobby bar)
- A complimentary Cadillac Escalade transfer service within Big Sky
Big Sky is located about 50 miles from Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN), which features nonstop flights from many major US cities.
Montage Big Sky pricing & how to book
At the moment pricing at the Montage Big Sky is really steep, generally $1,500+ per night in winter and $800+ per night in summer (and on many dates it’s way more than that). I think we’ll eventually see some lower prices, though I’d note that:
- Often hotels are optimistic with pricing pre-opening
- At the moment there’s massive demand for domestic travel, with many people not wanting to deal with international testing requirements and constantly changing requirements; pricing in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other hot vacation destinations, has increased significantly
- This will be the only luxury hotel in Big Sky, so the hotel will have quite a bit of pricing power, especially with the fanfare around the hotel’s opening
If you are going to book the Montage Big Sky, I’d highly recommend booking through a Virtuoso travel advisor (you can even do so online, or Ford is happy to help, and can be reached at [email protected]). You’ll generally pay the same rate you’d pay when booking directly with the hotel, and will receive the following additional amenities:
- Upgrade on arrival, subject to availability
- Daily breakfast for up to two guests per bedroom
- $100 resort credit to be used during the stay
- Early check-in & late check-out, subject to availability
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
Bottom line
The Montage Big Sky will open in late 2021, and should quickly become one of the most luxurious ski resorts in the United States. While most luxury United States ski resorts are in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, we’ll now see a great new option in Montana. The hotel looks gorgeous, from the location, to the incredible spa, to an indoor bowling alley.
Unfortunately Montage doesn’t have a loyalty program, so your best bet for booking the hotel is to go through a Virtuoso travel advisor, who can add perks like breakfast and a hotel credit. At the moment luxury hotels in the United States are priced as high as ever given the amount of demand and peoples’ preference to travel domestically, so hopefully we see rates drop a bit over time.
What do you make of the Montage Big Sky?
| Want to receive extra benefits for your stay at Montage Big Sky through Virtuoso, including complimentary breakfast, a hotel credit, a room upgrade, and more? Contact [email protected] for more details. He may be able to help if you already have a stay booked. |
With only a half-dozen properties, Hyatt should buy them. These would fit with Park Hyatt Beaver Creek and allow us more premium venues to use our Hyatt points at.
While this might be the only “luxury” hotel, there are several very very nice condo-hotels, the Shoshone, Snowcrest Lodge,etc. that are probably a fraction of the price but great places to stay that are also better located.
Amex FHR should be able to get the same benefits as Virtuoso.
Yeah i think ill stick to the Ritz and Park Hyatt in Beaver over this one.
That's more expensive than Amangani/Jackson Hole in December. Let's allow that to sink in.
I don't think that's a good comparison because Amangani is not a ski resort. I definitely would not want to stay there in the winter; would much rather be at the FS or Caldera House right near the mountain. I'd compare those rates to this. As Ben mentioned, these could be inflated as well due to initial demand. The hotel appears to be completely sold out the first few months.
A very fair critique. Amangani is not on a mountain, though it offers on-demand transportation to the mountain. But you're right. The others are moreso apples to apples.
I stayed at the Laguna Beach location for a conference. Honestly I wasn't impressed. Felt a bit "mcluxury" to me. Hopefully this one is better.
Shoud Citi fourth night free be available?
Definitely NOT a ski in - ski out. I wonder why the Montage is using that description? Unless they expect people to ski the golf coarse. It's almost 1/2 a mile to the nearest lift.
That applies to some of the residences, not the resort itself. I agree, it is a bit unclear in the description.
Montage properties are fantastic and I feel like they fly a bit under the radar compared to the other big names out there. They have the ski background with Deer Valley. For those commenting on the ski-in/ski-out access, I believe it's only in reference to some of their residences and not the resort itself.
This is a great addition for an incredible mountain that hasn't really had "luxury" before.
It looks to be near (maybe a replacement for?) the Spanish Peaks resort. That did have a private lift available on the back side of Andesite Mountain so maybe this place can take advantage of that. I have skied by the base of that lift but never went up to see what was around there.
I just hope it doesn't bring too many more people. One of my favorite parts of Big Sky is that...
It looks to be near (maybe a replacement for?) the Spanish Peaks resort. That did have a private lift available on the back side of Andesite Mountain so maybe this place can take advantage of that. I have skied by the base of that lift but never went up to see what was around there.
I just hope it doesn't bring too many more people. One of my favorite parts of Big Sky is that if there are 2 chairs' worth of people ahead of you in the lift line, that's an actual "line".
I ski at Big Sky regularly. The Montage is being built at the Spanish Peaks club, which is a private mountain living community. The lift and runs that end at Spanish Peaks are operated by Big Sky and allow access to the larger resort. To get to the main Big Sky base area from Montage/Spanish Peaks base, you would take the Lewis and Clark lift up, then ski down to the base of Sacajawea lift,...
I ski at Big Sky regularly. The Montage is being built at the Spanish Peaks club, which is a private mountain living community. The lift and runs that end at Spanish Peaks are operated by Big Sky and allow access to the larger resort. To get to the main Big Sky base area from Montage/Spanish Peaks base, you would take the Lewis and Clark lift up, then ski down to the base of Sacajawea lift, which takes you to the top of Andesite mountain, then ski down to the main resort base village. It’s ski in and ski out but takes some work to get to the main resort base.
I thought that might be it. Thanks for the clarification!
You must not have been to Big Sky for a while, the days of no lift lines are already long gone
Yeah it's been about 4 years. Our club would normally have been back for 2022 but we failed to anticipate the pent up demand and by the time we started booking trips there was no space available in our group's price range. But I think we'll be back in 2023.
Loved staying at The Summit but they've now raised their prices too much so we just stayed at the Huntley last time. At least it's still ski-in/ski-out.
First thought it was a typo and should read "Montagne"...
Montage? Go figure...
Big Sky is one of my very favorite resorts. It's worth noting that this property does not appear to be ski-in/ski-out. I'm sure there's a complimentary shuttle to the resort base but if the location on Google Maps is correct, you won't be able to be able to hit the slopes from your back porch.