Vail or Aspen? Which would you choose?
 

Time: Last week in September
Interests: Hiking, fall foliage, good food, casual atmosphere
Will have car.
Which would you choose?

Both would be fine for what you want, but I'd prefer Aspen. More of a town with more to do IMO.

I think it is a toss up. Both will be pretty dead at that time. I don't agree that there would be more to do in Aspen because it is town. In many ways Aspen is more homogeneous than Vail. With a car you might opt for Vail because there would be more activities and areas that you could drive to within a couple of hours.

It would be a toss up between Aspen and Telluride.

We were in Vail around Sept. 13 last year. I had wanted to stay in Aspen but many of the more reasonably priced hotels were already booked by this time last year in August. If you can find some place to stay within your budget, I would stay in Aspen.

Thanks so much for the responses. There are two hotels with pretty good rates and ratings, Limelight in Aspen and Tivoli in Vail. Any opinions?

aspen: mining town from the 1800's. lots of victorian architecture. mtns are steep. is located at the back of a large canyon, which means you travel quite a distance down canyon to get to any other towns - you will pass a couple small towns then come to glenwood springs.
vail: in the 60's was still a cattle ranch. town was designed to look like a tyrollian village & does. mtns a bit less steep & dramatic. you can get a lot of places easily from vail like- leadville, copper mtn, frisco/dillon, edwards and glenwood springs.
i don't think either town is particularly formal. dining options are outstanding in both. aspen (the leaves) viewing is excellent from either town.
both hotels are in walking distance to most everything in either town.

both towns are just under 8000' elevation and offer great hiking opportunities. i will give the nod to vail for your trip even though i prefer aspen because (i assume) you are coming from sea level and you'll find lower elevation hikes near vail.
if you stay in vail a great drive is to copper mtn then south to leadville (hwy 91) then back to vail over battle mtn pass (hwy 24). stop in leadville at The Grill for the best mexican food in state.

Aspen

I agree with okoshi2002 who wrote: "It would be a toss up between Aspen and Telluride." I love both of these towns and even more if they are, as somebody said "dead" while OP will be there.

HTTY

It does seem like I would have a good time in either town. Thank you so much for the details, Virginia, I think that gives us a nice basis for choosing. We are coming from sea level and I learned the hard way that it does take a few days to really adapt.
HTTY, Telluride has always appealed to me, but I hadn't considered it for this trip because we have such a limited time. One of the considerations is I don't want a lot of travel time on the days we are flying.
Thanks for the helpful advice.

Since travel time on your day of arrival is important, consider that it takes much longer to get to Aspen than to Vail, if you are driving from Denver. Vail is located right on I-70, a straight shot from Denver on a fast road. To get to Aspen, you have to keep going west a long way past Vail, and then turn onto a small road that leads through the very suburbanized valley to the town. It will add significant travel time to your trip.

Have been to both but I prefer Aspen, however, would enjoy my time at either location. If you don't want to make the drive from Denver, Aspen has a charming airport about 20 minutes from downtown. Flying in / out of there is a trip all its own. :-)

If you decide on Vail one place I did not see mentioned is Piney River--we rented canoes there one afternoon. Very scenic and peaceful.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/mbpmkn

Thanks for the suggestion, AnnMarie. I am going out for a convention in Denver so it was the best airport choice for us this trip. Love the canoe idea!
Nancy, your information was most helpful. Thank you.
Virginia, thanks for the mention of Leadville, DH is quite interested in it.

If you are think about Leadville, need to give a little clarity on Virginia's direction. There is no Battle Pass on Hwy 24. It is Tennessee Pass. Hwy 24 from Leadville will take you pass Camp Hale which was the training site for the 10th Mt Division in WWII. Hwy 24 will take you to Miniturn and I-70. Vail is about 7,8 miles east of that intersection on I-70. Check a map. Leadville has a great 12 mile, nearly flat, hiking/biking paved trail that loops into the old mining district. It is the Mineral Belt trail. Like an outdoor museum. It is a real hidden gem that few people know about. You cannot miss it. The trail cuts through the heart of Leadville on both the north and south end with good signage with several parking areas.

Is there a recommended bike rental shop near the paved trail? We won't have a rack but we would certainly enjoy the biking. It sounds like a lot of fun. Thank you!

That I couldn't tell you since we always have our bikes with us. I am sure there would be a shop in town. It is a big mountain biking area and someone is in the business. The trail is paved and with the exception of one side (south of town) is pretty flat so a standard three speed would be adequate. Goggle Leadville and see what you can find.

Thanks so much.

Other items of interest. In the Camp Hale area, there is an outfitter that rents ATVs. They let us take them up to the top of the mountains behind Camp Hale, where we had a picnic and enjoyed the gorgeous view. You can also drive up there if you have an appropriate vehicle (high clearance, 4 wheel or all wheel drive). The Colorado trail also runs through the Camp Hale area. Its an easy place to say you "walked on the CT." The National Mining Museum is in Leadville. It is in a big old brick building that once, long ago, was the highschool. Great fun and appeals to the men. Good Colorado history books in the little museum store. Another little museum is in an old Victorian house. I can't remember the name, but it is furnished with items from the Leadville glory days, and worth a quick visit. We frequently take visitors who have never been to Colorado before to these museums. Finally, there are two roads up and over the mountains to Aspen from the Leadville area. One starts south of Leadville and goes over Independence Pass. It is paved all the way, but not for the faint of heart - and is closed in the winter. A spectacular drive - you will see snow at the top and approach Aspen from the pretty side. The other road isn't paved, and requires a high clearance, rugged vehicle. It leaves from the west side of Leadville, goes over the mountain and drops into a gorgeous valley that ends at Basalt - a town down-valley from Aspen. Either of these allow you to do a loop, taking the freeway to complete the trip. Wish I were there right now!

Aspen

If you can afford it, do Aspen. There is a lot to see there..Maroon Bells, Snowmass and shopping around town. Drive toward Glenwood Springs and take trip from Carbondale back into Redstone. Redstone is very historic and will be beautiful that time of year. You can have a terrific outdoor breakfast at the Village Smithy in Carbondale. Glenwood is about 45 minutes away and has a huge hotsprings pool too.

Well I ended up booking a few nights in both towns. I got some very good rates from the Tivoli and the Limelight and I think we will have a wonderful opportunity to really enjoy that part of Colorado. Thank you for the information and help!

We've stayed at the Tivoli during the ski season. It's a beautiful property with lovely views of the mountain. Have dinner at Sweet Basil (splurge), Blu's (moderate) and Bart & Yeti's (bargain, in Lionshead).

I second the recommended drive to Leadville. We enjoyed the Mining Museum. Take the Leadville train up into the mountains. (Last ride of the season is on either Oct. 3rd or 4th.) We bought a picnic lunch in town and ate it on the train. Between Minturn and Leadville, stop at the site of Camp Hale where the 10th Mountain Division trained during WWII. You can drive on the camp's roads and read informational signs at many points. Very interesting. There's a memorial to the 10th Mtn. Div. at the turnoff to Ski Cooper.

If the weather's holding up, rent bikes in Lionshead, take them up on the gondola and ride/coast (no pedaling) down. Or just take the gondola up and have lunch at Eagle's Nest. You can buy a gondola ticket with $$ credit toward lunch. We thought it was a good deal.

Stroll through the Betty Ford Alpine Garden just east of the Vail Village core.

Sounds like a great trip. Can't wait to see the pictures :-)
Have you been to Rocky Mountain National Park. Not to confuse the issue, but I'd go there first.

May you have beautiful blue skies, golden aspen, and great hiking on you trip!

Thank you for the good wishes and the advice about Leadville. DH is most intrigued by it so I am quite sure we will visit there.
Starrs, we did RMNP a couple of years ago and wanted to see more. We still have Telluride and the SE corner on our target list. So many places...........

You may be interested in hiking the Shrine Mountain Trail on the way to Vail.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/nm7l9t

I'll keep my fingers crossed for good weather.

Thanks, wtm003. The hike looks great. And keep those fingers crossed!!!

We returned Monday from a few days in the area. The Aspens are glorious. We drove the Shrine Pass Road to get from Leadville to I-70, and that is worth doing even if you don't have time for the hike. Enjoy.

As to my original question, I am glad I saw both. It snowed one of the days we were in Vail and we weren't properly equipped for hiking in the snow. So we made a trip to Breckenridge. Of the three Breckenridge was our hands down favorite. It had some of the Western character and didn't seem quite so over the top as the other two.

A happy accident is how I refer to a situation like that! Breckenridge is where we prefer to ski--we love it there, too. Hope you enjoyed a great trip.

Right you are, AnnMarie. We had a marvelous visit to Breckinridge and a very nice lunch at Amazing Grace cafe. I also bought a gorgeous Peruvian made sweater (looked all over Peru for them and never found them). A good day, all in all! I'll get my trip report done soon, but it was the perfect place to be at the perfect time to be there.

Oh, I'm so glad. Will look forward to reading your report! BTW, too funny on the sweater--go figure!