Salt Lake CityUtah's capital between the Wasatch peaks and the Great Salt Lake — Temple Square, the Delta Center, City Creek Center, and a 35-minute drive to Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and Solitude in the Cottonwood Canyons

Salt Lake City is Utah's capital and the gateway to the Greatest Snow on Earth — a 4,300-foot valley city pinned between the Wasatch Range to the east and the Great Salt Lake to the west. The downtown grid radiates from Temple Square, where the Salt Lake Temple, the Tabernacle, and the Family History Library cluster two blocks from the Delta Center (Utah Jazz and the NHL's Utah Hockey Club) and the retractable-roof City Creek Center. Liberty Park, the Tracy Aviary, and the walkable Sugar House and 9th & 9th districts hold the city's tree-lined residential neighborhoods, and SLC International sits ten minutes from downtown — the shortest big-city airport-to-skiing run in the country.

Our Salt Lake City rentals split between two kinds of trip. Downtown and Sugar House condos and homes put you walking distance to Temple Square, Pioneer Park's Saturday farmers market, Red Rock Brewery, and the Delta Center — a car-light city base for business, the airport, and Jazz games. The larger Millcreek and east-bench villas — many sleeping 10 to 16 with hot tubs and game rooms — are built for ski groups and reunions: 25 to 45 minutes from Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and Solitude up the Cottonwood Canyons, with Park City and Deer Valley a half-hour east over the pass. Most guests skip the rental car downtown and pick one up only for the canyon drives.