Free, donation-supported rope-tow tubing in Saint Albans, with Friday night sessions under lights and daytime weekends.
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Free admission; donations welcomed
Free to walk in. That makes it a low-risk stop if you are not sure how long the kids will last on the snow.
Hard’Ack Recreation Area is a volunteer-run nonprofit in Saint Albans, and it is a tubing hill with free admission. A rope tow serves the hill for both tubing and sledding, and the operation runs on donations.
The schedule is short but includes a night option. The record lists Friday evening tubing under lights, and daytime operation on Saturday and Sunday. No reservations are needed. Snowmaking is recorded as false, so the hill depends on natural snow and cold weather; check the St. Albans recreation page before you go. No minimum age or height is listed, and there is no lane count in the record.
Because it is free, it makes a good low-stakes first tubing outing for young children, especially if you want to see whether they like it before paying resort prices. Bring your own layers, since the record does not list a warming lodge.
For a more polished experience, Smugglers’ Notch Resort - Sir Henry’s Hill is about 21 miles straight-line away with glow tubing on a magic carpet. Smugglers’ Notch Resort - North Hill is a similar distance and runs daytime sessions for kids 36 inches and up.
Friday evening for the lit session, or Saturday and Sunday daytime; the hill has no snowmaking, so check conditions.
Open-ended drop-in: no session length or reservation is listed.
You want a guaranteed opening or heavy infrastructure: it is volunteer-run, has no snowmaking, and the record lists no lane count.
Smugglers' Notch Resort's two hills are about 21 miles straight-line away, with paid, lift-served tubing and posted height rules.
Admission is free; donations are welcomed.
Friday evening under lights, plus Saturday and Sunday daytime, per the record.
No. The record says reservations are not required.
Current-season dates had not been published when we last checked. It has run: Friday (evening), Saturday, Sunday. Check with the park before driving out — tubing seasons shift with the weather.
Admission is free. Free admission; donations welcomed
We track 8 tubing hills in Vermont, 1 of which are free to walk into. Entry here costs nothing, which puts it in the minority even among the free options we track.
One caveat worth repeating: this park had not published its current-season dates when we last checked, while 0 of the 8 parks we track in Vermont had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as a prior season's until the park confirms it.
stalbansvt.myrec.com
Checked September 2026.