All true but most 6 year olds are not skiing the basins or covering the terrain. They are on the lower Hill.I live on the east coast as well. I've skied both East and West Coast resorts. My view is that most costs are comparable between the major resorts in the two areas, especially during holiday weeks if you stay ski in/out. The primary cost benefit to go to Vermont and Maine is that you do not have to pay airfare if you live within driving distance. This is not an insignificant savings.
That said, a 8 hour drive to northern Vermont with the entire family, oftentimes in inclement weather, is not my idea of fun and I'd much rather be at Alta or Breckenridge or Beaver Creek and pay extra for the airfare so that I can have an enjoyable and memorable holiday. You get a more pleasant travel experience, three times the annual snowfall, twice the vertical elevation, and five times the acreage to ski. Plus some type of terrain such as bowls do not exist in the east.
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Also most parents of 6 year olds on lessons are not skiing the whole terrain as they need to be closer to the lesson base.
To take an even bigger terrain look at the 3 ( really 5) valley's in France.
You can easily ski a two hour return trip home in a day. Eg stay on Val Thorens and ski over to Courchevel for lunch. Return would be up hill. Up the side of the Courchevel Valley down one side of Merited and up the other, down Val Valley and the up to val from St Martin or Les Menuires.
A day like that IMHO would need a parent closer to the home base, though this is an extreme example.
Also with young kids that are old enough to ski together without parents having a more simple to navigate resort is also better. Whiteface or Pico on the east coast for example all slopes lead to the bottom base Lodge. Its hard to get lost compared to say Killington with 6 bases.