Surprising Salt Lake City weekend

In April 2016, Delta Airlines launched a new nonstop service between London Heathrow and Salt Lake City. This was great news for my skiers as Utah offers four world class ski resorts within a 45-minute transfer from Salt Lake City airport or just 20 minutes from downtown. With access to a total of 14 ski resorts across seven different mountains there’s something to offer every level of skier. I had the opportunity to try out the new route last summer and was pleasantly surprised. At an altitude of 4,300ft and a quick transfer from the airport, Salt Lake City sits at the bottom of the Wasatch Mountains offering clean air and beautiful views. If you hire a car it’s the gateway to five stunning National Parks - Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion.

The city offers everything from their National History Museum to the Capitol Theatre and Macy’s at City Creek Shopping Centre. Temple Square is a 10-acre complex, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The impressive Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to build, between 1853 and 1893 and looks almost like a mini Disney castle. With walls nine feet thick at the base and six feet thick at the top, this impressive six-spire structure serves as the universal icon of the Mormon Church.

An estimated 3 to 5 million people visit Temple Square each year, more visitors than at all five of the state's national parks combined. The whole site is immaculate with sculptures, gardens and fountains. Their Tabernacle Choir with 360 members is world famous and often sings accompanied by the Tabernacle Organ. This pipe organ is the 11th largest in the world with 11,623 pipes. The acoustics in the Tabernacle building are so good that they demonstrated hearing a pin drop 170ft away from the stage with no microphones and they offer a free organ recital daily. The 35-acre area contains more than 15 attractions related to Mormon heritage and beliefs and many of them offer free tours in multiple languages.

There’s a light rail system that runs through the city called TRAX and the central area including Temple Square is in the ‘Free Fare Zone’ making it easy to get around. What we didn’t get the chance to visit was the city’s namesake The Great Salt Lake, which at 1,700 square miles is the largest salt water lake in the Western Hemisphere – maybe next time!