Falls Creek Victoria

Falls Creek in Victoria Australia is a very well developed ski resort with great amenities and services. The Falls Creek Ski Resort village is one of its highlights. In usual snow conditions, the village is ski-in ski-out and combined with lots of bars and restaurants, it’s a beautiful spot to wander around and undertake a bar hop. As the hilly streets are usually snow (or slush) covered, girls (and boys) you’ll need to don Sorel boots instead of your stiletto heels!

The alpine resort is also very well known for its family friendliness, in part due to the convenience of the ski in ski out Falls Creek accommodation. The abundance of gentle slopes, ski school programs, and kids events and activities, also add to the attraction of Falls Creek Victoria as a family ski holiday destination.

Pros and Cons of the Falls Creek Ski Resort

Pros

• Most of the Falls Creek accommodation is conveniently ski-in ski-out.
• The village is very enjoyable to wander around (although it might test your fitness!) and there are lots of great bars and restaurants.
• The terrain is excellent for intermediates.
• The resort is very family friendly due to the ski-in ski-out accommodation, family activities, and dedicated beginners terrain.
• Falls Creek Victoria has good cross country skiing for those who like to chook foot.
• The Sun Valley area offers delightful views across the Rocky Valley Lake.
• The ski area is not crowded compared to Mt Buller.
• Falls typically has more reliable snow cover than other Victorian ski resorts and can get a higher proportion of trails open in the early season.

Cons

• For multi-day stays, it’s a pain to park the car and then catch a slow and expensive snowcat to get you and your luggage up to your accommodation (unless you’re staying at the base e.g. QT Falls Creek, Falls Creek Country Club, Alpine Woodsmoke).
• The village roads are north facing so they can easily lose their snow cover. Suddenly your fabulous ski-in ski-out accommodation is no longer, and you might be trudging up and down the bare streets with your kids and all their ski gear.
• Falls Creek has minimal advanced terrain (especially during low snow periods and compared to Mt Hotham) and negligible expert terrain.
• Other cons such as the high cost and the highly variable snow quality and quantity are common across all Australian ski resorts.
• Falls has a couple too many surface lifts.

Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective

• Falls is on the Epic Pass and Epic Australia Pass.

Falls Creek Ski and Snowboard Terrain

Falls Creek Ski Resort has 92 marked trails, and 450 hectares of skiable terrain, making it the largest ski area in Victoria, although this stat becomes rather laughable when you compare the size of the resort to many in North America and Europe! The vertical is 380 metres (1,400-1,780m) which is pretty typical for a Victorian ski resort, which is also tiny compared to most European and North American ski resorts.

Falls Creek Resort has 14 lifts, of which 2 are detachable express quad chair lifts, whilst the rest are a mish mash of fixed grip chairs and surface lifts.

Trail statistics are 17% beginner, 60% intermediate and 23% advanced. The dedicated beginner terrain makes it relatively safe. Falls Creek Ski Resort is absolute heaven for intermediates, and quite a few of the black runs are rather mellow and groomed so they’re ideal for intermediates. Falls Creek has minimal challenging advanced terrain (especially during low snow periods and compared to Mt Hotham) and negligible expert terrain.

Where is Falls Creek Australia?

Falls Creek Victoria is located in the Alpine National Park of the Victorian Alps, 387km northeast of Melbourne by road (4.5-5 hour drive) and 672km southwest of Sydney. The closest town is Mt Beauty, which is 30 km to the northwest of Falls.

Falls Creek Accommodation

The lovely Falls Creek village offers more than 4,000 beds, catering to a wide range of budgets from economical up to luxurious. Accommodation types include lots of apartments, hotels, ski clubs, and commercial lodges. See the Falls Creek Accommodation page for more information.

Falls Creek Lodging Listings

Facilities

Falls Creek ski resort facilities and services include ski school, crèche (for ages 12 weeks to 5 years), ski and snowboard hire, and ski and snowboard retail shops. The amenities are mostly spread across three main hubs of the resort (mid-mountain Village Bowl, Gully at one base, and Slalom Plaza at another base at the bottom of the Falls Express lift). Kids’ ski school drop off is at the top of the Falls Express lift at Cloud 9, whilst child care is at the bottom of the same lift.

There are a handful of on-mountain eateries including the crappy food at the Cloud 9 cafeteria, or it’s easy enough to ski into the village to get lunch at a nice restaurant (or return to your lodge for last night’s leftovers). Falls Creek has a decent number of restaurants and bars for evening fare.

Activities

Cross country skiing at Falls Creek is pretty good, with a network of more than 65km of groomed trails that start right from the village. Falls is well known for the international cross country skiing event with the very strange name of the Kangaroo Hoppet!

There are various child-centric winter activities on offer including snow tubing, tobogganing, Pete the Snow Dragon appearances, fireworks displays, and night skiing.