Colorado Review

The Arrabelle at Vail Square is the ski resort’s latest luxury property–it’s first new ultra-upscale hotel in 25 years, according to the general manager in an interview with the Vail Daily. Set to open January 5, 2008, it’s already receiving a bit of a media buzz, with its upscale appointments and amenities, including “highly anticipative” concierges who can arrange everything from dinner reservations to in-room massages to ski tuning.

Here are the facts, from the Arrabelle’s public-relations folks:

LOCATION: Steps away from the Eagle Bahn Gondola at Vail Mountain.

THE RESORT: A luxury resort with 36 hotel rooms and up to 50 additional condominium lock-off rooms, The Arrabelle at Vail Square will offer Old World charm and the timeless elegance of Europe’s grand resorts with the romance and world-class style of Vail’s alpine heritage. It will be a true ski-in resort as it is centrally located in Vail Square, just steps away from the mountain. The Arrabelle will also feature a Great Room, offering guests an exclusive outdoor veranda with sweeping views of Vail Mountain. For the summer months, the resort offers a rooftop pool.

VAIL SQUARE: Vail Square will feature an ice rink and fire pit in winter, a terraced area with fountains in summer and a summer
plaza for concerts and activities, over 33,000 square feet of retail space, including upscale boutiques (i.e.: Patagonia, Quicksilver) and restaurants, and seasonal movie nights on an outdoor movie screen.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Richly inspired Lodge Rooms based on the Biedermeier design style will vary from 510 to 710 square feet and feature flat-panel TVs, DVD players, BoseTM MP3/CD alarm-clock radios, complimentary high-speed wireless Internet access, canopy beds, work desk, fireplace, minibar, in-room safe and humidifier. The marble bathrooms will include a shower and separate tub, double sinks, a TV, plush bathrobes and luxury amenities. Junior suites and deluxe king suites are also available.

RESTAURANTS: Centre V will be a brasserie-influenced restaurant specializing in the satisfying cuisines of Paris and Lyon. Chef Thomas Salamunovich, owner of Vail’s acclaimed Larkspur Restaurant on Vail Mountain, will use his culinary imagination and expertise to create the menu and ambiance. Salamunovich studied under various well-known chefs including Wolfgang Puck and Jeremiah Towers. The restaurant will fuse an overall warmth and heartiness along with upscale style and elegance. The menu will include fruits de mer platters, steak frites, and French desserts such as Crêpes Suzette and chocolate pots de crème. Centre V will accommodate up to 200 guests.

SPA: The RockResorts Spa at The Arrabelle will exude fresh, contemporary elegance with a distinct European touch. The 9,000 square foot spa facility will feature six massage rooms, two facial rooms, a Vichy Shower/Swiss Shower room and a couple’s therapy room. Other offerings include an expansive spa boutique and area, an elegant nail salon, locker rooms with water falls, plunge pools, steam rooms and sauna, as well as a couple’s suite with private circle tub. Its 2,000 square foot fitness facility will include TechnoGym equipment.

HOTEL SERVICES: The hotel will offer guests ski and boot valet and storage, personalized butler service, a highly anticipative concierge service, a business library, children’s activities, babysitting services, a gift shop, valet parking in an underground parking area, 24-hour room service and 24-hour front desk service.

ACCESS: The Arrabelle at Vail Square is approximately 30 miles east of Vail/ Eagle County Airport, and 120 miles west of Denver International Airport.

And the rates for all this luxury? In the winter peak season, rooms will cost about $1,300 to $1,400 per night; in summer, about $450 to $500, according to the Vail Daily. Too pricey for you? Check out this Vail condo deal.

Vail, Arrabelle

I’ve made no secret of my fondness for vacation condominium rentals. Why stay in a standard hotel room, when you can spread out in a multi-bedroom unit? Especially for ski vacations, when you’re packing lots of equipment, gear and warm clothes, you want spacious accommodations. Plus, a living and/or dining room gives you room to lounge around apres ski.

The amenities in many vacation homes–whether they are condominiums or freestanding houses–help take the hassle out of a cold-weather, equipment-heavy sport, and the camaraderie can’t be beat. Vacation home rental can even save skiers money, especially when you’re traveling as a family, or with a large group of friends.

ResortQuest, the nation’s largest ski vacation home rental company, has properties in Aspen, Breckenrige, Keystone, Steamboat Springs and Telluride. The company offers the following tips for those looking to rent a ski vacation home this ski season:

Look Before You Book
When shopping for ski vacation rentals, look for companies that offer a simple way to determine a home’s suitability for you and your winter sport companions. Go to the web site: it should provide photos as well as detailed descriptions of accommodations. It should also tell you the home or condo’s proximity to the slopes and available services.

Plenty of Perks
Many vacation rental companies offer renters special perks, from discounted lift tickets to free ski lessons and even entertainment or attraction tickets for time off the slopes.

Check Out The Amenities
Make sure the home has all of the amenities your group needs. Is there space for skis, poles. parkas, snowboards and other equipment to be stored safely? Is the washer/dryer large enough to accommodate all your gear? Will there be enough towels for everyone every day? Call in advance to make sure.

Word Of Mouth
What better way to gauge the quality of a ski rental property than to find out if other people liked it? Ask the rental company if a property has a high percentage of return guests. Or check online forums to see what people have to say.

Sleep Tight/Ski Right
Decide in advance who bunks with whom and where (especially, who gets the master bedroom). Take into account when travelers plan to hit the slopes and match roommates accordingly. Look for vacation accommodations where each bedroom has its own bathroom, or set up bathroom usage schedules in advance.

Feeding the Hungry
Everyone will be famished after a long day careening through the white stuff. Can arrangements be made in advance to have the pantry stocked? Are there places nearby from which food can be delivered? Decide in advance on how to share costs of food and beverage, who cooks and who cleans up. Could anyone arrive early to get the grocery shopping done and unpacked before everyone else arrives? Another option is to decide who will be bringing what from home.

Just in Case
Ensure that the property has the ability to help take care of urgent needs–from getting an extra toothbrush to assisting with accidents and other medical emergencies. This is best accomplished when there is a local management office or representative from the rental management company available to assist around the clock. Let’s face it–heaters and refrigerators can break down, so you’ll want someone on-site to quickly make it right for your ski group.

skiing, Colorado, condominiums

While the Colorado Rockies play their hearts out at Denver’s Coors Field this weekend, downtown Elitch Gardens theme park celebrates Halloween with some fun–and frightening–attractions.

First, children can safely trick or treat from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the inaugural ARC Thrift Stores’ BOO Gardens, sponsored in part by the radio station MIX 100. Pick up a ticket voucher for just $8 at various retail locations in Denver, ARC Thrift Stores, Chrysler Dealers, After Hours Urgent Care Centers and Renewal by Anderson Replacement Windows. Or check out this page on the MIX 100 website to find out how to get vouchers online or via text message.

Also this weekend at Elitch Gardens, some areas of the park have been transformed into haunted houses. They really break out the horror in the evening. An area called “Brutal Realm” has been overrun by zombies and creatures “from your worst nightmares,” according to the Elitch’s website. Since this scary spot features lots of blood and gore, it’s not recommended for children under eight years old.

“Screams” is a haunted house filled with mummies, ghosts, spiders and other favorite Halloween creatures. With minimal blood and gore, this attraction is for all ages. During the daylight hours, it won’t have any monsters inside, so even young children can get in on the fun.

In a “Fear Factor” type of activity, guests will test their mettle against snakes and bugs, and take on other physical and mental challenges, to win season passes to the park. Be sure to drop by “Test Your Fear, Live” to check out all the action. The “Test Your Fear” for kids is “Hip Hop-sicles,” where they’ll learn to play harmless Halloween pranks.

At dusk on Saturday and Sunday, a procession of zombies, mummies, ghosts, ghouls and more will make their way through the park.

Boo!

Colorado, Elitch Gardens, Halloween

Planning to be in Denver this weekend when the Colorado Rockies face the Boston Red Sox in Games 3 & 4 of the World Series? Chances are, even if you wanted to go to this exciting match-up, you won’t be able to get tickets. That is, unless you pay the big bucks from ticket brokers like TicketsNow.com. On this site, they range from about $750 to $1500!

Yesterday, Rockies management began selling tickets online for a much more reasonable $65 to $250. However, a whopping 8.5 million users jammed the server within 90 minutes of tickets going on sale. The server crashed and the site closed soon after.

Needless to say, Rockies baseball fans were a bit disappointed. Colorado newspapers today published many stories of folks who took off from work, or went to public libraries to use Internet-connected computers and came up empty.

Originally, the Rockies were going to sell tickets in person at Coors Field on Monday. But then came up with the online-only plan to make ticket buying more fair.

Ha!

Seems like ticket brokers with several servers and/or speedy Internet connections may have bought many tickets (or at least they were among the throngs of people logging on to buy them). Only a few hundred tickets were sold before the ticket-selling website had to be shut down.

Now, the Rockies will re-launch the ticket-selling website today, Tuesday, at noon. The company that runs the computers for the Rockies’ ticket sales promises that is has a back-up system in place, according to the Associated Press. The company also claims that the servers went down yesterday because of a “malicious attack” (but no further details are available).

Only about 19,000 tickets of more than 50,000 seats are for sale. The rest of the seats/tickets go to season ticket holders and members of the team and Major League Baseball.

Colorado Rockies, Major League Baseball

You’ve gotta love Travelzoo. I certainly click on its Top 20 email as soon as it lands in my in box. Even if I’m not planning on traveling anywhere anytime soon, I do like browsing the specials the staff has turned up — which could be anything from great cruise deals to cheap flights to incredible all-inclusive vacations at rock-bottom prices.

Again this week, there’s a deal at a Colorado hotel. This time it’s the Holiday Inn Summit County Frisco. Through December 24 you can stay at this three-diamond, centrally located hotel for just $59/night.

Don’t expect fancy accommodations. But if you’re in Summit County for skiing the fresh champagne powder, you won’t have the energy to do much at night anyway before pass out in a comfortable bed!

The Holiday Inn Summit County-Frisco is in downtown Frisco, 80 miles west of Denver and just off I-70. It’s close to Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain ski areas. It’s got a nifty indoor “holidome” with an indoor pool, two hot tubs (nice for soaking weary muscles after a day on the slopes), sauna and arcade room. The hotel is pet friendly.

To book the $59/night special, which also includes a $10 food and beverage credit at the hotel’s restaurant and lounge, call 970-668-5000 and use the code TRL. The only blackout dates are November 22-24.

Here’s another deal I first heard about on Travelzoo’s Top 20 list. It’s for a Crested Butte lodge.

There’s already glorious snow in the high country. So don’t delay and get up here to the mountains!

Travelzoo, Colorado, Frisco, Breckenridge

The second-annual Denver Marathon was held in the Mile-High City Sunday in the pouring rain. But that didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of participants and supporters who lined downtown Denver streets. More than 7,500 runners battled freezing temperatures (it barely reached 40 degrees) and constant drizzle and downpour over the course of the race.

While you’d think mid-October would mark the end of road-race season here in the Rockies, there are actually dozens more community running events happening in the coming few weeks. If you’re interested in participating in a local race, many of which often benefit charities, here’s a list to help you with your travel plans:

October 20
Golden
Compass Montessori Harvest Festival 10k run or 1k walk

Grand Junction
Holy Family Hallelujah 5k

October 21
Arvada
5k/1k Run with Rocky

October 26
Denver
Scream Scram
5k plus 100-meter Spooky Sneak (with treats at the finish line) for kids. Washington Park, 6 p.m.
Wear your costume! Benefits the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

October 27
Alamosa
Monster Mash Dash 5k, inaugural event
Wear your costume!

Denver
Gorilla Run, 5.6k
Everyone who participates wears a head-to-toe gorilla costume! Benefits the Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund.

Erie
Eerie Erie 5k

Manitou Springs
Mayor’s Cup 5k

October 31
Denver
Halloween Hustle 5k

November 3
Loveland
Heart Center of the Rockies Half Marathon, 10k, 5k

Grand Junction
Harbert Lumber Fall Festival 5k

November 4
Littleton
Littleton Stride 10k or 5k

November 10
Longmont
Turkey Trot
33rd annual 10k or 2 mile race

November 11
Boulder
Panicking Poultry 5k

November 17
Brighton
23rd Annual Turkey Trot
5k

Colorado, road races

Here’s a great package I read about on Travelzoo’s weekly list of Top 20 deals: you can stay at the Grand Lodge Hotel in Crested Butte for just $49 per person per night AND ski for free at Crested Butte Mountain Resort from November 25 to December 15.

This three-diamond hotel with 226 guest rooms and suites is within walking distance of the ski slopes. It’s a newly renovated hotel with a fitness center, year-round indoor/outdoor pool, and ski and snowboard rentals. The on-site Wildflower Spa offers massages, herbal wraps, body polishes, facials and more. (Nice way to treat yourself after a day on the slopes!) Three different dining options include the Woodstone Grill, Deli and Lounge.

The town of Crested Butte is one of the state’s largest National Historic Districts. It was originally settled in the 1880s as a mining camp. The Grand Lodge Hotel is about three miles away at the base of the ski hill in Mt. Crested Butte. Free shuttle service whisks guests to and from downtown.

Crested Butte is in the southwest corner of the state, in the Gunnison National Forest and the Elk Range of the Rockies. The nearest airport is the Gunnison/Crested Butte Airport, about 30 miles away. Or you can fly into Montrose, which is nearly 100 miles away. Kids can fly for free on United and American to Crested Butte. Read about the details here.

Too book the $49/night rate (per person), you’ll have to move quickly. The deal ends October 19. Book online here.
Or call 877-326-1468 and say you want to book the SKIFREE package.

Crested Butte

Arapahoe Basin ski area opened to the public at 9 a.m. this morning, marking the mountain’s earliest opening in its 61 years of operation. Last year the ski area was the first to open in the nation and this year A-Basin continues that trend. Opening day here always has a festive feel. Local radio station KSMT is at the base with a live remote, playing music and handing out giveaways.

As I type, skiers and riders are enjoying an 18-inch snow base on the intermediate High Noon run and some features in the High Divide terrain park. Beginners are out of luck, though. None of the novice runs will be open.

New this season, A-Basin will introduce Montezuma Bowl, 400 acres of lift served groomed runs, glades, chutes and wide-open bowl skiing. The new expansion is expected to open sometime in late December, snow conditions permitting.

Opening day adult lift tickets are $45, youth tickets age 15-19 are $39 and child tickets age 6-14 will be $22. Ski and snowboard rentals, food and beverage service in the A-Frame, the 6th Alley bar and retail shop are open to the public. Ski school lessons will begin when the Molly Hogan Learning Center opens later in November.

A-Basin’s Bonus Passes are available while supplies last for $309. The Bonus pass holder receives unlimited skiing or riding at A-Basin for the 2007-2008 ski season and five non-transferable ski days at Keystone or Breckenridge. One of those days can be used at Vail or Beaver Creek (some restrictions apply). A-Basin only passes are also available at great prices. Purchase your pass on site at A-Basin, call 1-888-Arapahoe or order on-line.

Arapahoe Basin is 68 miles west of Denver, in Summit County. This high-alpine ski area’s base elevation is at 10,870 feet, and its summit elevation is 13,050 feet. It’s the highest skiable terrain in North America, with half the mountain above treeline.

Colorado skiing, Arapahoe Basin

Speaking of Colorado hot springs, I know where I’d like to escape with my husband for a romantic weekend getaway: Dunton Hot Springs, a restored ghost town in the southwest part of the state.

Huh? A ghost town? Sounds rustic. But it’s not—totally anyway. From what I’ve read of the resort, log cabins and outbuildings appear rustic on the exterior, but contain all the luxurious appointments you’d expect from a four- or five-star property.

And it really is an old mining camp, about thirty miles southeast of Telluride. While gold-seeking pioneers once made their home here, now discerning guests come to the remote location in the San Juan Mountains to recharge, relax and renew in the pristine surroundings.

Eleven cabins (and one teepee) are all honest-to-goodness, authentic log buildings from the nineteenth century. All cabins have private bathrooms; some have TVs, wood-burning fireplaces and spacious living areas.

Visitors spend their day fly-fishing, kayaking, hiking, whitewater rafting, horseback riding in the nearby mountains and rivers. Winter brings snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and even heli-skiing packages at Telluride. After a day of activity, they relax in the three natural mineral pools on-site. Luxurious spa treatments include hot stone massage, cranial sacral therapy, facials and reflexology.

Meals are taken family-style in a former saloon and dance hall. The menu is based on seasonal ingredients, featuring fresh seafood, produce from the on-site garden and meats raised by the resort’s neighbors. Appetizers might be crab cakes and griddled rabbit brochettes; entrees include bourbon-maple glazed pork tenderloin and citrus-encrusted Alaskan salmon.

Of course the fine dining and extravagant extras come at a price. In the summer and fall, prices range from $300 to $475 per person per night depending on the size of the cabin booked (winter and spring prices are about $25 per person cheaper). The fee includes accommodations, three meals daily, use of hot springs and gathering rooms like the library.

Personally, I’m eyeing the romantic “Hide Out in Wild West Luxury” package, which is three nights’ accommodations, a bottle of wine from a nearby vineyard, in-cabin dinner one night, a sixty-minute massage for each person, and a cozy robe to take home. That package starts at $1309 per person in the fall.

Perhaps I need to start saving my pennies.

Dunton Hot Springs, romantic Colorado getaway

It’s not often you’ll find recipes here at Colorado Review (I leave that to my friends at the Food, Cooking & Wine Channel, like Earthly Eating.) But this one sounded too good to refrain from sharing–a hearty Chicken Gumbo for cool fall evenings. It’s from the sous chef at the Garden Terrace at The Inverness, a recently renovated hotel with brand-new spa in suburban Denver.

New Orleans favorites are served at the Cajun Creole buffet Friday nights through November 30. Buffet pricing is $26.95 for adults and $13.95 for kids. The menu includes everything from poached catfish, peel & eat shrimp and blackened pork and cabbage salad to po’ boy sandwiches, red beans and rife and shrimp etoufee.

Cajun Creole Chicken Gumbo
Executive Sous Chef Anthony Sinese

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
2 tbsp flour, all-purpose
2 onions, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
5 cups warm chicken broth
8 tomatoes, peeled/chopped
1/2 lb okra, cut into 1/4″ pieces
1 1/2 tbsp filé gumbo (powdered sassafras leaves used as seasoning and thickener)
1/2 cup uncooked rice
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1 bay leaf
1 broiler-fryer chicken, cooked

PREPARATION:
In large Dutch oven, melt shortening over low heat; add flour and cook, stirring, until brown, about 10 minutes (do not hurry; if flour burns, roux is ruined).

Add onions and bell pepper; cook until onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.

Slowly add warm broth; stir until broth reaches a boil.

Add tomatoes, okra, rice, celery, salt, filé gumbo, pepper, thyme and bay leaf; bring to a boil.

Add chicken; when mixture boils again, reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 20 minutes.

Stir and cook, covered, 20 minutes longer. Serves 6.

Denver, The Inverness