philsbert1

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!

philsbert1

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

abram

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.

philsbert1

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

skipop

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.

BLYVAIL

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

philsbert1

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?

amwosu

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.

skipop

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.

philsbert1

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?

KMK

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!

skipop

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.

Lexma90

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.

bday30

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.

philsbert1

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?

Lexma90

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.

philsbert1

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?

bday30

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!

MaureenB

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.)

julie_Colorado

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.