Our club stayed here as we enjoyed a week of skiing the Champagne PowderⓇ at Steamboat resort in north central Colorado. If you choose to fly to Denver it’s a 3+ hour drive so the preference is to fly into nearby Hayden (HDN) which is about a 35-minute drive from the resort. We’ve stayed at this property a number of times and one of the main things we love about it is that each morning you take the elevator down to the ground floor, walk across the plaza and you’re on the snow and can ski down to the lifts from there. In the afternoon, as long as you be sure to stay on the skier’s right at the end of the day you can ski right up to the plaza too. It’s a location that’s hard to beat! The property is comprised of two towers: the Plaza Tower and the Creekside Tower. The Creekside tower, which is slightly uphill from the Plaza Tower is approximately 10 years newer than the Plaza Tower. The Plaza Tower has the parking garage beneath it. The garage is accessible to both towers, it’s just a slightly longer underground walk to the Creekside Tower.
Aerial view of the Torian Plum and the plaza between it and the snow
Each unit is individually owned and decorated. Through the 2019-20 ski season there were actually two management groups responsible for the units (each company managed different units) but as of this summer they were due to merge so all requests could be handled by one office. That will be handy because the groups man their desks at different hours so it will be good to have one place to go when the inevitable issues arise during a stay. The desk is NOT staffed 24 hours a day so if you’ll be arriving after 8 PM you’ll want to make arrangements with them to retrieve your key from one of the lock boxes.
The lobby is fairly large and with a few comfy places to sit it made a great place for us to congregate before going out in the evenings for our group dinners.
Torian Plum Lobby Seating
Torian Plum Front Desk
Two Bedroom Unit
Most of our condos were 2 BR/2 BA units. We did have one 3 BR/2 BA unit and 3 BR/3 BA units are available as are 1 BR units. Ours was a 2 BR unit in the Plaza Tower. While the lobby and elevators are indoors, once you arrive at your floor you exit the elevator lobby to the outside to reach your condo. The condos in the Plaza Tower each have a locker for your skis located just outside your unit’s front door. The locker key should be hanging just inside your unit. The Creekside Tower has a ski locker room located on the ground floor on the way to the slopes. This is nice since it means you don’t have to haul your skis all the way up to your condo each day.
Our unit’s front door opened into a small entry hall with a bench and hooks that were handy for hanging our ski jackets as well as a closet.
Condo Entry
Foyer Closet
To the left was an open kitchen and beyond that was the dining area. Facing the slopes was the living room with a balcony that faced the slopes. One nice thing about the units here is that they all have a slope view. To the right were the two bedrooms and the laundry closet. The master bedroom had an en suite bathroom while the other bath opened to the hallway.
I liked that the kitchen was open on each end, had a bar area with stools and had a pass-through area over the sink. It kept both the kitchen and the hall area from feeling too tight. Full appliances were included along with dishes and cutlery. While the exact dishes, pots and pans may vary among condos, they all have a stove, dishwasher, fridge and microwave.
Kitchen from the foyer
Hall and Kitchen from the Fireplace
The dining table could seat six though you’d generally only have six if two were utilizing the pull-out sofa. Our unit had a gas fireplace though we had to hunt a bit to find its switch which was on the wall inside the bookcase! A little card on the mantle reminded us of the wi-fi password, which changes each month. We found that if your device was continuously connected to the wi-fi, like your phone, you didn’t have to change it when the month rolled over. But since I only used my laptop a couple of times and turned it off in between, I did have to reconnect with the new password.
Dining Table, Fireplace and TV
The leather sofa was an L-shaped sectional. It was comfortable enough though starting to sag in places. Fortunately there were lots of throw pillows to help you keep your back supported.
Sleeper Sofa
There was a small balcony opening on to the ski hill that gave us a nice view.
View of the Resort from the balcony
The master bedroom was nice and large with a king bed and lots of closet space. The downside was the window opened to the walkway and I’m told the blinds didn’t completely black out the light from that walkway. Two bathrobes were provided for the trip to the hot tub. I’m told the property typically only provides two per unit but really one should be provided for each adult in the unit. We did ask for a couple more and they were brought up though some other folks got a bit of push back from management before they relented.
Master Bed with supplied bathrobes
Mirrored Master Closet
The master bath surprisingly had only one sink but a fair amount of counter space on each side.
Master Bathroom
It had a walk-in shower that included a bench. There was nowhere inside the shower to hang wet wash cloths. This is a recurring issues with almost everywhere I’ve ever stayed. The towel racks are completely full of towels, which is great, but that leaves nowhere to hang wet wash cloths after showering.
The second bedroom in these units truly seems to be built for children. There were two twin beds, which we certainly prefer over having to share a bed, but there’s very little closet space. Our unit had only one chest of drawers which looked fine on the outside but almost none of the drawers gripped the center slide anymore, causing them to tilt down when pulling them out. The metal on one of the drawer pulls sliced open my knuckle one morning, which was frustrating when you’re trying to get ready to ski.
The second bath was next door off the main hall area. There wasn’t a lot of counter space, especially for two women, and it was just a tight squeeze all the way around. No way two people could be getting ready in there at the same time. This bathroom has a tub shower which took hours to drain when we first arrived until we could get maintenance to come fix it. We had a lesser but similar problem with the sink drain. As long as you didn’t use too much water it drained fine but if you let water build up it took its time draining.
Toiletries were Paya brand. I wasn’t a huge fan but they worked OK.
Paya branded toiletries
At the end of the hall was a closet with a stacked washer and dryer. One packet of detergent was also provided and I’m told the front desk could provide more though I ended up buying some at the grocery as I knew I wanted to do several loads and go home with clean clothes.
Stackable Washer and Dryer
Other Amenities
The Plaza building where I stayed has an indoor hot tub on the ground floor though I did not use it. There are showers there as well for pre- and post-hot tub time. There’s no privacy so you wouldn’t want to use these in place of the one in your room.
Outside between the two buildings is a heated pool and three hot tubs (visible on the aerial shot at the beginning of the post). Towels are available in the bathrooms nearby or in the locker room near the gym, which is in the Creekside Tower. These hot tubs are easily reachable from the Creekside Tower. To access them from the Plaza Tower you can either walk underground through the garage into the Creekside Tower or walk across the public plaza in your bathrobe to the hot tub entrance (which requires a room key).
The Creekside Tower has a small gym with attached locker room and shower that overlooks the hot tub area.
Location
As mentioned at the beginning, the complex is rated ski-in/ski-out as it’s a very short walk across a plaza to reach the snow. From there you can ski down to the main base and at the end of the day you can ski right up to the edge of the plaza next to the Slopeside Grill, which is a Steamboat institution. The complex is located in Ski Times Square and from the front door you can walk just a short way to the free bus stop or the Plum’s shuttle will take you anywhere on the hill or down in town for free. It’s also an easy walk to the resort base and the shopping located there.
In the End
Location, location, location. This complex has it in spades. Your enjoyment of the property may be colored by the condition and location of your room. Bedding configurations can make a difference as well as not all units are the same. If our club chooses to stay here again, that’s fine with me. We also noted some other nearby properties that we may check out again on our next visit, which should be another 2-3 years.
2B Traveling 
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