Colorado Review

As much fun as it is to spend hours schussing down ski slopes, an important part of any ski vacation is also what you do after a day on the mountain. That is, hanging out with your ski buddies around cozy fire with a hot drink in hand.

The Mountain Vacation Specialists at Ski.com have visited each of the 80+ ski resorts whose vacation packages they book in Western U.S. and Canada. They’ve got the inside scoop on what makes each resort–including many in Colorado–extra special.

These ski-vacation experts recently named the top fireplaces and fire pits at the resorts they sell. Two Colorado resorts came in the top five: Park Hyatt Beaver Creek and the Sky Hotel in Aspen.

1. Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, Beaver Creek, Colorado
This fire pit is situated on a huge patio overlooking the slopes. Enjoy bar service, live music and complimentary s’mores made with homemade, gourmet marshmallows. (See picture at left for the decadent display of goodies!)

5. 39 Degrees in the Sky Hotel, Aspen, Colorado
In the late afternoon, once the skiers have taken their last runs, this fireplace is the place to see and be seen. Only the hippest hipsters gather here to sip on fun drinks like the “Ski Bunny Martini.”

Ski.com is headquartered in Aspen, and I know some of the “vacation specialists” there. The company has actually been around for 35 years (formerly Aspen Ski Tours) and is known for giving personalized service. It really does give travelers “one-stop shopping” for everything you could need at more than 80 of the most popular resorts and 1,400 properties in the United States, Canada, Europe and South America.

If you’re planning a ski trip in the coming months, log onto Ski.com to check out its offerings!

A writing assignment took me to Beaver Creek yesterday. I make no secret that I love visiting this upscale, exclusive, gated resort in the mountains. Frankly, it’s fun to see how the other half lives, even just for a few hours or overnight.

Construction continues on the area’s newest luxury property, the Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa. And although it purports to be located at the “base of Beaver Creek Mountain.” It’s actually across the Eagle River in the town of Avon. But, and this is a big but, the new Riverfront Express gondola will bring Westin guests and owners as well as the skiing public directly to the ski mountain, where they can board another lift to bring them up the slopes. Rumor has it the gondola will open this ski season, but the resort hotel won’t open until summer 2008.

The condominium hotel includes more than 200 finely appointed studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom suites that will be wholly owned. So far more than 120 of the units have been purchased, and construction is very much still underway. Amenities abound: a 25-meter lap pool, fitness center, oversized hot tubs and full-service Spa Anjali. Like all of the Westin properties, rooms here will feature the trademarked “Heavenly Bed.” The onsite Watermark restaurant promises “New American” cuisine from the owner of Vail’s popular Larkspur restaurant.

The resort is just one component of the Riverfront Village. Avon’s transportation hub is also located here, allowing Westin guests and owners to hop on a shuttle bus to Beaver Creek and nearby Vail and Edwards, as well as throughout Avon.

Westin, Beaver Creek

I’m all about weekends spent camping somewhere in Colorado with the family. And my husband and I try to regularly book escapes to Denver for a splash of romance in our busy, kid-centric lives.

But if I really want to “recharge and refresh,” I plan a girls’ getaway with my female friends.

My women-only weekends take different forms–sometimes it’s a scrapbooking retreat in Marble or Breckenridge; sometimes it’s just dinner out and an overnight at a hotel in Aspen. But my favorite girls’ getaways involve some sort of pampering spa treatments and outdoor exercise with the glorious mountains as our backdrop. And for that, Beaver Creek in the autumn fits the bill.

Beaver Creek is an Alpine-style village just a few miles from Avon in the Vail Valley. Fall colors are stunning here, and you can’t beat the ease with which you can hike straight up the ski mountain to get the blood pumping. Yes, it can be expensive to stay in Beaver Creek (the drive-through-security-gates resort is exclusive), but I think it’s fun to splurge every once in a while and live the like the rich for a couple of days.

Two upscale Beaver Creek resorts offer fall packages ideal for gal pals. (more…)