What to do on the ski-free days in Summit County, CO?
 

Hey guys -

As mentioned in my other posts, I'll be staying in the Summit county region (Breckenridge and Frisco) with my girlfriend for 10 days in this coming December and January. Although we'll be skiing for the most part of our stay - I was wondering what else is there to do around the county that we can look into? We'll have a car on the last 3 days so we can make a couple day trips to some further out places. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Summit County is one of my favorite places in any season. Keystone has an outdoor pond for ice skating and skates can be rented on site. The pond is located right in front of a string of shops and restaurants. Copper Mountain has something similar, though I've never skated there.

Keystone also has a really nice fondue place located at the top of one of their peaks that you have to ride the cable car to get to. It's a bitter cold ride up, which makes the food at the top in front of a raging fire all the better. It is rather pricey, however. The name is Der Fondue Chessel.

There are tons of great places to snowshoe and cross country ski in the area. Breckenridge and Frisco both have nordic centers (Breck has two). They rent equipment on site. We like snowshoeing around Frisco because you get some wonderful views of the lake, which should be iced over and covered with snow by December. We also love The Boatyard Grill restaurant in Frisco. It has an extensive and creative menu including pizza and seafood.

Breckenridge has an awesome recreation center just north of town that includes an indoor pool, hot tubs, and even a climbing wall.

Breckenridge is an actual town, as opposed to Keystone and Copper Mountain which are basically just condos at the base of the mountain with a few shops and restaurants sprinkled in. Breck's main street offers lots of shopping and dining choices. They also have a nice little museum located in the same building as their tourist information center that tells of the history of the town, which dates back to the mining boom of the 1800s.

The websites for Breckenridge and the various other resorts have event calendars, but I checked Breck's and it doesn't seem to have anything entered yet for December.

Silverthorne has outlet stores. As mentioned the Frisco Nordic Center is great. Snowmobiling, skating...

Wow wow wow! I'm overwhelmed with all these suggestions! At first I was unsure how I would be filling up those non-skiing days, but now I see that definitely won't be a problem!

Do I need to call ahead and reserve the equipment at the nordic centers that you guys mentioned? Especially if it's around the holiday season and all?

The restaurants you all suggested has been added to my list of places to eat. Thanks!

It probably wouldn't hurt to touch base with them. Contact info is on their website at frisconordic.com. The nordic centers in Frisco and Breckenridge honor each other's tickets, so you can go from one to the other the same day without paying twice. Since the towns are only about 15 minutes apart, you could certainly do that.