Colorado Skiing Reccommendations
 

I am looking for recommendations for a ski vacation location in Colorado. My criteria are:
(1) January
(2) Short trip---5 days, 4 nights or less, so
(3) Flying from Atlanta and would like to maximize time on the slopes and least travel time
(4) Not into the night life/see-and-be seen apres ski, but would like some restaurants and a few things to do
(5) Would like to avoid cosmic high ski lifts (relative fear of heights, sorry)
(6) Both of us are intermediate at best skiers...ski blues or less mostly
(7) Money is not the primary motive, but trying to minimize costs

Snowmass is the only place I've skied in CO, (and it was great...ski lifts were fine). Re the places closer to Denver (Breckenridge, et al), does it take long to travel there from Denver airport?

Any suggestions/help greatly appreciated!

Oops. My fingers spasm after the two i's in skiing slipped over to the c's in recommendation.

It takes us between and hour and a half and two hours to get from DIA to Summit County.

Living in Atlanta, you might consider flying to Salt Lake City, another Delta hub; Park City is no more than a 45 minute drive.

Thanks. I hadn't considered Utah. Have you skied there before? How does it compare to Colorado?

Before you get to Utah, you can fly direct from Atlanta to Eagle Airport which is only 30-40 minutes from Vail/Beaver Creek. Both of these would meet all your criteria. (Both can be places to "be seen," but you don't have to do that "scene" if you don;t want to.) Both resorts can be done on the cheap (relatively speaking as ski trips go) or on the expensive. It's your choice.

If there are direct flights to Hayden Airport, Steamboat would also meet your criteria and would be a great mountian for intermediates (in fact, probably better than Vail and BC for pure blue skiing). Less "snobby" too.

As for Utah and Park City, watch out for the Sundance Film Festival in late January. The Utah resorts are also about 35-45 minutes from the slopes. The difference is that your flight choices into Salt Lake City will likely be alot greater than your choices into Eagle in COlorado.

Park City's a decent resort, but I think the intermediate level skiing is better at Steamboat.

If you go to Utah, I would suggest looking at Solitude. It would also match your criteria and is a little less crowded.

My recs would be to fly into Eagle (EGE) and try Beaver Creek or into Hayden and try Steamboat. Great blue skiing at either.

I had always heard of Steamboat as being more of a family resort, but I can get reasonable airfare to both Hayden and Vail (EGE). Any specific recommendations on places to stay in either the Vail/Beaver Creek area or Steamboat? Any thoughts on Keystone or Copper Mountain?

I like Keystone and Copper better than Vail but I can't really even tell you why. Maybe because they are smaller, easier to get to know than Vail. I felt like I was on catwalks getting from run to run in Vail. But I'm sure that was my fault. I also like the Dillon, Frisco area better than Vail. I know this ranks at about 20% in helpfulness.

In Vail, I like the Christiania. Decent price, great location, cute lodge-like atmosphere. In BC, The Hyatt is amazing but also expensive. Other good choices are Borders Lodge, The Inn at Beaver Creek, and Beaver Creek Lodge. None of these places are cheap.

In steamboat, and while I've never stayed there, The Hotel Bristol looks kind of cool.

As Rosanna Danna used to say "If it isn't one thing, it's another". Checking out suggestions, though air travel to Vail/Beaver Creek is easy & fairly reasonable, housing is much higher, offsetting its advantages. Looks like Summit County (Keystone, etc.), Steamboat Springs, even a return to Snowmass, would be less expensive. Has anyone dealt with an online (or even offline) travel service particularly good for scheduling ski trips, or perhaps chamber of commerce, or resort sites that help in making arrangements?

For tour arrangements to any ski area - www.skitops.com lists the major tour operators in the U.S. For what it's worth, I used www.ski.com for a trip to Keystone once & was happy.

Also, you can go directly to the web site of the ski resort you are interested in; they will almost all have an 800 number to call to arrange complete packages. I did this with Aspen once & was happy, and have gotten quotes from others when I was just 'shopping'.

Any of these options can get you the whole works - airfare, car rental or shuttle, lodging, and lift tickets - or just a portion of the package...for example, if you want to do your own airfare, they will still be happy to put together lodging and lift tickets.

Depending on the person you end up talking to, some can be very knowledgeable and helpful with respect to the various lodging properties they represent. I have also found them able to sometimes get me good prices and seats on flights that did not appear to be available (at a decent price) on the airline's own website.

Good luck!

For what it's worth, I would vote for Steamboat or Park City - but, I think any of the options that have been thrown out would be great choices. Colorado & Utah are blessed with lots of great ski mountains!

Just as a side note. If you had not stated that you had already been to Snowmass, that would have been my first suggestion using your criteria.

We've skiied everywhere in Summit County, Vail and Steamboat. We love Steamboat; it's one of our favorites (along with Vail). There's a lot of variety on the mountain, and they really do have fabulous champagne powder. The town is nice, and more authetic than some of the others (including Vail).

As we live in Denver, and use my company's condo in Steamboat, I can't help you much with names of places to stay in Steamboat. Any internet search that includes "Steamboat" will get you a bunch of sites, though. I know there are some ski-in, ski-out places, but most of the other condo buildings, it seems, have free shuttle service to the slopes (which are pretty close anyway), so you'll be ok with any location at the resort that has a shuttle.

In Summit County, you could stay anywhere (Breck, Keystone or even Frisco) and pretty easily get to all the resorts in Summit County, and to Vail as well. Our condo is in Breck, so I'm partial to the resort and the town. Keystone has no real town, though the resort has done a lot of building up of the lodging and restaurants there in the past several years. If you stay in Breck, any lodging booking service will work. Do either ski-in/ski-out or make sure your place is on one of the shuttle routes, and if you care, within walking distance of town.

As a person who, each year, has a worsening fear of heights (i.e. gondolas and chairlifts) I can tell you all the highest lifts and gondolas at each ski resort once you make your final decision on where you're going! Each of the resorts has some high lifts and some low ones. To reassure you, the statistics for injuries/death involving falls from chair lifts are very low, and my mind knows they're safe, but my emotions don't.

I just got back yesterday from the Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch (which is Beaver Creek) and it might be just what you’re looking for. I believe you can fly directly into Eagle airport from Atlanta, but we flew into Denver and drove the two hours from airport to hotel, which was fine (assuming the weather is clear). We went for 4 nights (3 days of skiing) but felt like we were gone for a week – it’s that relaxing! I have stayed at a good number of high end hotels, Ritz’s & Four Seasons included – and this was the nicest place I have ever stayed. Service was impeccable, even on Ritz standards, views glorious, rooms excellent (even standard rooms have a fireplace and jet tub, Italian marble etc.) Heated outdoor pool, several outdoor hot-tubs, great gym/spa. The lift beckons from the cozy great hall, and don’t worry about lugging your skis around – they’ll deliver them to you (and heated boots) at the base of the lift. Plenty of blue skiing, less lift lines than other places (because the Bachelor Gulch lift at the hotel is primarily used by people either staying in the hotel or homeowners). And the best news? There’s a deal in January that would probably suit your needs for $375/night including two lift tickets. Unbeatable!! Hope this helps.

Wow...so nice to hear that someone else pays attention to the height of the lifts. I know it's a "mind" thing, but what can you do. I'm getting better, and tolerated the lifts at Snowmass OK, but would hate to book a vacation somewhere where the lifts were towering and I'd be stuck on the bunny slopes using a rope pull.

You make Steamboat sound very appealing. I'm going to do a search on lodging there and see what I can come up with. Flights go into Hayden? and then shuttle from there?

Well, you won't be stuck using a rope tow, because there are no Summit County or Steamboat resorts that have them! But you'll understand why I'm most comfortable with going to the highest peak at Breckenridge - it's a T-bar. I could take a T-bar all day.

Yes, I know you can fly into Hayden and I'm sure there are several shuttle services from there. You might want to check on the size of the airplanes that fly into Hayden, and make sure they fly direct from Atlanta. If you have to change planes in Denver, you might want to just rent a car and drive the 4 hours from Denver.

To go on about Steamboat (not that Summit County's not great too; I do most of my skiing there and Vail), if you want a break from skiing one afternoon or evening, take a shuttle to Strawberry Hot Springs. It's a natural hot springs, very pretty, and warm and fun (adults-only at night). Our favorite place to eat is La Montana, very good Southwestern cuisine; it's right in the resort area. There are a couple of place we like in town; I'll try to remember their names. Last year, we took a nighttime sleigh ride through at Saddleback Ranch, which included a dinner. The sleigh ride was scenic (but very cold), the dinner pretty good, and the family that runs it is very nice.

Bday...that Ritz Carlton deal sounded excellent, but when I check the web site for just about every combination of 4 nights I could think of in January, it said "not available for those dates". Could I ask if you made the arrangements online or by phone?

Hi philsbert1 - I made the reservation over the phone... I had no trouble with availability. Hope it works out for you. I should have mentioned that the ski pass they give you works for all Vail resorts - so we skied Vail one day and Beaver Creek two days. Good luck!

I'm not a fan of Summit County ski areas or Vail, and I think Steamboat and Aspen would entail too much travel time from Denver for your schedule.
We love the Winter Park/Mary Jane areas. You can take the Amtrak train from Denver to Winter Park, then take the free shuttle once you're there in town to the ski area. So you could avoid getting a car and paying parking at the area.
You would need a shuttle from the Denver airport into downtown Denver, to catch the train, though. So price it out and see if it actually saves you money over a car rental, with shuttle plus trainfare. Good thing about the train is you can nap and not worry if the weather turns.
The town of Winter Park is very low-key, not the apres ski life you don't want anyway, but there are good restaurants and shopping there, and a free shuttle to take you through the town. (If you go, best pizza in the world is at Hernando's, at the far end of town. Try Deno's for a local hang-out bar/restaurant. See if there's transportation to Devil's Thumb cross-country area, for a great dinner at their little ranch house restaurant-- very atmospheric.)

It's all such a matter of personal taste. Personally, Winter Park is my least favorite ski area in Colorado. I'd go to Steamboat and wouldn't think twice. Its a bit more unique than many of the others suggested. Beaver Creek is really nice - but it is so over the top bling bling it is a bit hard to tolerate.

We love Vail. They have great skiing and the lifts are easy and the slopes well kept. Plenty of great places to stay and eat. Vail is a quaint village, very cozy and it's 1 1/2 - 2 hours West from the Denver airport. You can also fly into Eagle which would then be a 30 minute drive east to VAil. You can get a shuttle for $100 from the Denver airport to take you directly to your accomodations.

Has anyone used an online or "in-person" travel site/agency that does a particularly good job with Colorado ski vacations? I have tried several of the resort websites, and they seemed to be pricier than Travelocity/Expedia, with no significant discounts on lift tickets in particular. I am looking at Crested Butte, Steamboat, and Snowmass in late January. Thanks! The people on this website are the best resource I have found for travel...

philsbert1 - looks like you have eliminated the "I-70 Corridor" from your selections. You might try the Delta or American Airlines websites vacation offerings too. Since we live in Okla we usually drive to Colo to ski. We have taken sleeper bus trips in the past, primarily to Crested Butte. You can call Ski Haus Travel in OKC 405-755-7400 and ask for Corinne. They do bus trips but can also book lodging and lift ticket packages. Crested Butte is one of my favorite places - I really like the town and they have some good restaurants. I've booked lodging for Crested Butte thru VRBO.com. I have also stopped in Salida or Gunnison and purchased discount lift tickets at the grocery store. I've only skied at Steamboat once and only to Aspen in the summer so can't help much with those.

paige...thanks for the suggestions! How easy/reliable is it to buy lift tickets once I get there? I have read, also, that there are discount tickets at local groceries. From the pictures I have seen, Crested Butte looks pretty awesome. Are there plenty of blues? My only experience in CO has been Snowmass, and I liked it for the views and availability of plenty of runs, but I was looking to try a different spot. I have eliminated the 70 corridor mainly due to others traveling with me, who want to avoid a long shuttle.

We kind of dealt with the same thing...we chose Park City/Deer Valley. We are going next week and are very excited. We fly into Salt Lake from Nashville and have a Suburban from our hotel picking us up at the airport for the 30 minute ride in...I wanted to avoid transportation hassels and max time on the slopes.The whole thing has been fairly simple..which is part of the beauty of choosing this area.Our flight departs at like 7 am and we are there before noon...cant beat that...

Park City sounds great! Sounds like a good way to get on the slopes early. My problem is I am traveling at the end of January, and the Sundance Film Festival at Park City et al. (thanks skipop!) runs 1/21-1/30. I thought Crested Butte, Snowmass, Steamboat would be less crowded, relatively speaking.

philsbert1 - Last time we went (and this was the only time I bought the grocery store tickets) I called the grocery in Salida and they held them for me. We were going at Spring Break which is the busiest time for CB and I got the last lift tickets when I picked them up. You can always get tickets at the mountain, just not discount tickets.

There are plenty of blues, that is what we ski mainly too. East River is great first thing in the a.m. Get over there early before anyone else and ski the newly groomed blues! For three - four ski days you should be fine. Any longer and you might get bored. We would often pack a lunch of sandwiches in a backpack and ski it over to Paradise Warming House and leave it in a locker. That way you don't have to ski down at lunch.

I love Crested Butte. Its an awesome and down to earth town. My only concern would be the terrain. It certainly has blues - but I think of it as a harder (and smaller) mountain. Perhaps more like Aspen - Ajax.

We really only ski blues and have always found Crested Butte has plenty to offer for 4 days of skiing. The blues may be a little steeper than some other mountains but our four kids had no problems with Crested Butte when they were learning.

Yes....the town/ski resort of Mt. Crested Butte sounds/looks so homey and much more laid back than some of the other larger resorts. And the photos look beautiful. I am not much for steep blues, but am more concerned about the ski lifts and their height, as I had mentioned before. It has come down to Steamboat or Crested Butte, as Aspen-Snowmass will be the site for the X Games (well, actually Buttermilk) during the week I am traveling, and I don't want to hassle with increased crowds. My impression from reading is that Steamboat is (a) larger (b) on the average gets more snow (c) has more blues/easy terrain, but is more crowded, commercialized and business-like. Crested Butte is (a) smaller (well, it's all relative...looks pretty big to me, but smaller than what I skied at Snowmass) (b) more rugged terrain---tougher blues (c) more a place to get-away-from-it-all and less apres ski activities. Airfare is cheaper (for me from Atlanta)to Steamboat, housing is cheaper at Crested Butte. Does this sound pretty accurate?

Question re specific lodging: Has anyone stayed at The Grand Lodge, Three Seasons at Mt. Crested Butte, or Elk Lodge in Crested Butte the town? How about Thunderhead Lodge, or Timberline Condos through ResortQuest at Steamboat Springs?

I have stayed at the Grand Lodge in Crested Butte twice when it was a Sheraton property. I believe the new owners have put some money into renovations and turned some of the rooms into a "timeshare" type operation where they are individually owned. We always stayed in a regular King Suite which had a king bed in the bedroom and a pull-out in the living room which would have been very uncomfortable for me to sleep on but my children did just fine. The location of this property is great. You are a five minute walk to the slopes. The town shuttle bus stop is a just outside the front door. The pool and hot tub area is nice but can be crowded after skiing, especially if there is a group monopolizing it but it wasn't an issue.
We love the town and restaurants in Crested Butte. Don't miss the fried chicken at Slogars. Pizza at the Secret Stash was great and the place really fun. The Wooden Nickel has good steaks and atmosphere.
We skied Jan 1st and then again two years later in late January and never found crowds. You don't need a car and you'll love the town.

I think your comparison is pretty accurate. We have spent several Thanksgiving dinners in Slogars - and it is fun. Steamboat reminds me of a more wild west type town. Crested Butte is a bit more Victorian - a lot like Aspen but without the glitz. They are both fairly remote. I'd say the lift height at either is about the same... I don't love heights and I don't remember being bothered in either place. I learned to ski at Crested Butte - and the only thing that bothered me was it gets a bit steep and narrow right at the end of the runs - but not too bad - and not for two long. Ski Colorado used to put out a magazine that listed every resort - number of acres and number of blues, greens, blacks. I don't know if their web site has this information. Crested Butte typically isn't too crowded since it is not an easy ride from Denver so you get virtually no weekend skiers and no day trippers out of the front range. If I were coming from the east coast and wanted a really fun and less typical ski experience - I'd probably go to Crested Butte.

Thanks...thanks to all who have posted! This is one of the top website forums on the net. Colorado here I come....looks like Crested Butte.

I've also stayed at the Grand Lodge when it was a Sheraton and it is a great property. My TA also told me the new owners did some renovations, but it was pretty new and nice to begin with. I'd pass on the Three Seasons, never stayed at the Elk Lodge.

You absolutely have to go to Slogars! It is wonderful, homestyle, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, yum! (They have steak too) For a nice dinner go to Timberline in town, wonderful food the last few times we were there. On the mountain the Avalanche is great for a big breakfast and the apres ski drinks and munchies.

I'm jealous. Last night I dreamed we'd driven to Crested Butte on the spur of the moment and didn't have a place to stay - ran into some friends but they didn't invite us to stay with them. What's that trying to tell me???

We just got home from Crested Butte and I loved it. Plenty of blues that aren't too hard and they are wide enough for when you are worn out. I don't like heights and didn't feel the lifts were too high.

Camp 4 Coffee (at the top of Painterboy I think) has great coffee and cocoa and there are 2 or 3 blues off the back side. There aren't any lines at those lifts. Our son was taking lessons on Painterboy and we would ski the other side and then meet up with him for a run or two. Worked out great.

We cooked in the condo a couple of nights and went out a couple. Enjoyed both. Several choices for meals on the mountain.

Have fun! It snowed appx 12" while we were there and the skiing was great.

Sundowner (or anyone else)...where did you stay in Crested Butte, and did you notice the Elk Mountain Lodge in town, or the Buttes condos at the mountain? Any recommendations on where to stay?

As they say, "the best laid plans..."
The consensus of my fellow travelers picked Steamboat Springs---mainly price (got a great direct airfare deal). Now we are looking at trying to find discount on lift tickets and accomodations. 3 places at Trappeurs Crossing...Champagne, Timberline, and original Trappeurs condos available. Has anyone had any experience with those facilities, and any suggestions re lift tickets. I noted some reference to grocery store purchase. Where can I investigate that?

I can say with quite a bit of certainty that Steamboat is one place to which you will NOT find significantly discounted lift tickets. This is re-hashed on epicski.com every so often, and I've never heard of anyone finding good discounts for lift tickets at Steamboat. The grocery store discounts you are hearing about are primarily for the Summit County resorts.

You'll likely get a slight multi-day discount if you book lodging and lifts through steamboat.com, or perhaps one of the other general ski tour operators.

That said, I do think Steamboat is a great choice and you'll have a wonderful time!!!!!

Not sure about Steamboat tickets, but City Market/King Soopers grocery stores in Denver sell some ski areas' tickets until about 9:00 each night. You save about $10 per day per person. Here's one Denver King Soopers store near I-70 and Quebec, not far from DIA, you could call: 303 861 1122.

In ski towns, the grocery stores don't offer the discount, so stop in Denver on your way up. Also, ask your central reservationist in Steamboat about ticket discounts they might offer.

We discovered at Winter Park that their multi-day pass doesn't save money, just the hassle of standing in line each day. Downside, too, is that the pass must be used within the allotted time, or it expires. Many times people find out they want a day off from skiing, but they've already paid for a ticket they don't really want. Grocery store passes are good all season.