Big Bear Lake

WorldMark Big Bear

Moonridge Zoo

WildWings

Discovery Center

Sierra Belle

Time Bandit

Alpine Slide

St. Joseph Catholic Church

Snow Summit

Off-Road Adventures

Complete Off-Road Adventure Pictures

Big Bear is probably a ball in the summer and winter months, but try off-season and it can be a real bust. The major problem is that most of the businesses of Big Bear advertise improperly. They elude to and down right lie about their operating time periods and offerings. To what end? The only thing we could fathom is to lure tourists up there to go shopping.

When we planned this trip, we knew we were going just before the “summer season” – Memorial through Labor Days. However, we very carefully looked for attractions that were to be open for business during our vacation. We thought we found plenty. We were very disappointed to find, not only were these businesses not open, they actually lied on all of their brochures, websites, and even signs about their hours or days of operation.

First, 2004-2005 Big Bear’s Visitor’s Guide was really no help, disseminating the same disinformation their businesses do. In addition, they have a whole section called “Save the Date”, which is noted as an ‘Event Calendar” for each month of the year. Yet, there are no dates anywhere on these pages listed. When checking their website, as per the guide’s suggestion for a complete listing, one finds there aren’t any dates there either. How is one supposed to save a date if one no dates are given?

Attraction after attraction – the same deal. States they’re open for business but not really. Not until Memorial Day. If their advertisement says May, it does not mean May, it means Memorial Day weekend which is almost June. I’m sure now that September means Labor Day too. Even some attractions advertise that they’re open daily year round. Don’t believe it. For instance, the ski lift chairs are only open on weekends even though their sign and their brochures state daily hours. The Alpine Slide states in all of their literature that they are open year round – yeh, you guessed it – only weekends. Most of the boat rental places are supposed to be open all of May but most of them are not. Oh, for a little reverse psychology, the Solar Observatory states in all of their literature including their website that they are only open to the public one day a year. They are actually open during the summer months on Saturdays, that is, July 4^th to Labor Day.