Eagle Wing Suites at Angel Fire Resort

Resort makes its own snow if needed so ski or snowboard guaranteed. Great 1/2 pipe for snowboarding, fast lifts and short lines as compared to CO and CA.

While another reviewer faulted the resort for lack of evening activity, I found it to be a great place for families who aren't looking for nighclubs. Besides downhill skiing, you can rent snowmobiles in the area and cross country. There are also family restaurants.

The ski lifts truly are just out the back door of the resort. This makes it incredibly easy to go to your room in the middle of the day for lunch or to rest, and then to go out again. You can also keep your skis by the lift if you don't want to carry them back and forth.

The entire valley is gorgeous. You can drive to Taos in only 30 minutes, which is a premier downhill ski destination. You will also love exploring the town of Taos. Since staying in Taos is very expensive (unless you're Julia Roberts and the other stars who have homes there), you're best off staying in Angel Fire.

Regarding the resort's service, I think the other review experienced a bad week.

Angel Fire is truly a great place for ski enthusiasts!

The town of Angel Fire is small, as is the resort itself, but if visitors want a quiet place to enjoy the views and cool temps. in the summer, the area is a joy! We were well treated by everyone at the resort. The unit was roomy, nicely decorated, and comfortable. The gift shop was well stocked with many upscale items.

The drives to Taos, Red River, Eagle's Nest, and Cimmaron are lovely, and there are probably more we didn't yet take. There is an available club house with a restraunt and golf nearby. For those who enjoy being in the country and away from noise and traffic, this is an excellent place to relax.

These are different from the hotel rooms at the same resort. Timeshare owners/trades get the king-bed suites. Unit was nice with a rustic, cozy, upscale cabin feeling, recently redecorated, very romantic with the king-size bed, gas fire place, jacuzzi tub/spa in the room that was separate from the bathroom tub/shower. Room was a bit small with a one- sink vanity adjacent to the tub/shower/toilet room, and had one chair to sit in other than sitting on the bed or the bench at the foot of the bed. Big negative: we NEVER saw a maid or housekeeping the entire 5-days we were there. And the "mini-kitchen" that was advertised was basically a 4'x2' area behind the entry door that had a 2'x2' cube-type-mini- fridge, a small 12" bar sink, a small microwave, 4cup coffee maker, 2 drinking glasses, 2 styro cups, 1-fork, 1-plate, 1-dish towel, 1-cork-screw.

For the most part, the service at the resort was terrible. I got the feeling that most of the employees were the social misfits and dredges from the local area (i.e. semi-rude, unkept looking, lack of professionalism dealing with the public, and no class or social graces...like manners or proper speaking abilities). After all, this is suppose to be an upscale vacation "ski resort" town, not a monster-truck rally or a woodstock convention. On several occassions when we asked questions about the resort and its amenities (both before we went and while we were there) we usually got an answer like "I'm not sure" or "I don't think so" or "I don't understand your question". I called the reservations desk for a description of the timeshare suites and how they were different from the studio and 1-bed/2-bedroom units and was told "I don't know, I don't deal with those, you need to talk to the timeshare reps" so I was transferred, no answer, left a message, no response, called back several times and each time the reservations person could not answer my question, transferred to the timeshare people, no answer, no response, over a 4-day period.

They said the resort was "steps away" from the ski-lift but didn't warn you to be prepared for the "hike" from your room up the 6 flights of stairs up and around past the pool, thru the lobby, down the hall, past the restaurant, the Lazy Lizard Lounge, the sales and group meeting office, past the ski rental and locker rentals to the ski-lift area, all while you are carrying and/or wearing all your ski gear and equipment....not fun or convenient as they made it sound.

The hotel/resort and even the town of Angel Fire in general, seem to shut down Monday- Thursday because they can't pack-em in then, so they just simply don't open for business, opting instead to rake in the cash during the busy days of Friday-Sunday. This all means lack of services...like apres-skiing, entertainment, and FOOD. The Angel Fire Resort restaurant "The Branding Iron" is open for breakfast and lunch but closed for dinner (we opted not to eat there because it smelled like a musty dive-bar) and even the "Sunset Grill" closed early at 5pm because it was snowing! Isn't that what you want it to do at a ski resort?!? We tried a local restaurant called 'Zebadiah'. The atmosphere was dank and depressing, food was so-so, service was okay, bar was a smokey dive (even the bartender was smoking while serving drinks). We tried the local pizza joint called 'Pizza Stop' and had the same problem, they stopped seating and closed early almost every night due to snow or slow business ($16 for a 2-topping, medium pizza). If the local restaurants keep up that attitude, then business will get even worse. They need the local chamber of commerce to develop some guidelines for basic services in the town of Angel Fire. The mountain was awesome with excellent runs and reasonable lift prices at $52/full day and $42/halfday.

Last thing, if you stay for less than a week at the resort, upon checkout you MUST pay an "undisclosed housekeeping fee" of $42, on top of the $49 exchange fee you already paid to RCI. We complained to the front desk staff that we were never informed of this fee, and got a blank stare and claims that "they don't know about that stuff because its related to the timeshare people", so they called the timeshare rep office and got no answer (big surprise). We drove down to the resort sales and real estate office and confronted the person that was so telephonically-elusive, asked about the $42 housekeeping fee and were told rather rudely that it was an RCI fee and that it has always been that way. However, we have stayed at many resorts for less than a full week that were booked thru RCI and have never paid an additional fee at time of check-in/out for housekeeping, unless we specifically requested maid services. The timeshare rep insisted that this was an additional fee from RCI but could not explain why the resort was collecting it for housekeeping services we did not receive.

Bottomline: how bad do you want to ski at Angel Fire?...because the resort and the services available are lacking in quality or are non-existant.

Recomendation: Ski the mountain....avoid the resort for accomodations, and don't expect much from the town for amenities (like good food and drink). There is always skiing at Taos, Red River or even Apache at Ruidoso, all in New Mexico.