A prairie dog at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver, Colorado, which is now a wildlife preserve.
Colorado
Travel Tuesday photo: The New Sheridan Hotel in Telluride, Colorado, USA
The New Sheridan Hotel in Telluride, Colorado, USA. The original Sheridan hotel burned in 1893 so the New Sheridan was built beside it in 1895.
Categories: Colorado, North America, Picture of the Week, United States
Tags: Colorado, New Sheridan, Picture of the Week, Telluride, USA
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Travel Tuesday photo: Town of Aspen from Ajax Mountain
Looking down at the town of Aspen, Colorado from the Aspen ski area, also known as Ajax Mountain
Town of Aspen as viewed from Ajax
Categories: Colorado, North America, Picture of the Week, United States
Tags: Aspen, Colorado, Picture of the Week, Ski
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Lodging Review: Passage Point Condo #427, Copper Mountain, Colorado
My final ski trip of the season was to Copper Mountain, Colorado. It was my first visit back to the resort since 2020, just before the pandemic. As was the case five years ago, when my ski club booked group lodging we were only allowed to book gold-, silver- or bronze-level lodging. Gold units are those closest to the slope. Our club chooses to book silver-level lodging. The last time we were at this resort all our units were in the Village Square condos or in Mountain Plaza. This time around most of our units were again in these two condo complexes, but we also had one unit in Silver Lake and our unit in Passage Point.
Passage Point Condos street view
Shortly before the trip we were told which buildings our condos would be in, but not which units. When I checked the Center Village map I was at first a little disappointed we were “so far” away from everyone else. (Note that nothing is really that far away from anything in Center Village. It only feels like a long way if you’re walking in ski boots!) But it wasn’t too long before I decided we had the better end of the deal. Continue reading
Categories: Colorado, Condos, Copper Mountain, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: Colorado, Copper Mountain, Lodging Review, Ski Condo, Ski Lodging
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Lodging Review: Atwell Suites, Denver Airport
I once again had the opportunity to stay at a Denver airport-area hotel as I arrived a day before my ski club. This time I selected the Atwell Suites Denver Airport, as it was an IHG property and I could use the free night certificate I have with my IHG Select credit card.
I have to admit I’d never heard of the Atwell brand but, in general, I quite liked the hotel. It’s located just off Tower Road, a main thoroughfare that has many similar hotels lining each side. It has its own private shuttle. I had a friend pick me up at the airport but it was very nice not to have any other stops on the way back to the airport the next day.
The hotel has a very modern feel. As I understand it, this building is only a couple of years old so it’s still in quite good shape. The front desk was straight ahead upon entering. I arrived quite early, before noon, and asked if I could get a ground-floor room since I was wrangling both my skis bag and a larger wheeled duffel. None of those rooms were ready yet, but that was fine as my friend and I went off for lunch and a free tour through the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which is now a wildlife preserve. While we were in the Arsenal I received a call that my room was ready. Continue reading
Categories: Atwell Suites, Award Travel, Chase, Colorado, Hotel, IHG, IHG Rewards Card, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: Atwell Suites, Colorado, Denver, Hotel, Hotel Review, Lodging Review
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Travel Tuesday photo: The Rocky Mountains
A small part of the Rocky Mountains as seen from Vail Ski Resort.
The Rocky Mountains as seen from Vail Resort
Categories: Colorado, Picture of the Week
Tags: Colorado, Picture of the Week, Rocky Mountains, Vail
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Travel Tuesday Photo: Thunderhead Lodge, Steamboat Ski Resort, Colorado, USA
The mid-mountain lodge, Thunderhead, at Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado, USA. Steamboat is known as Ski Town USA as it has sent more athletes to the Olympic Winter Games (100 and counting!) than any other town in the country.
Categories: Colorado, North America, Picture of the Week, United States
Tags: Colorado, Steamboat, Travel Tuesday Photo
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Lodging Review: Beaver Run Resort, Breckenridge, Colorado
For my final ski trip of the ski season my club chose to stay at the enormous Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge, Colorado. The resort has a great location, right beside the Beaver Run chair and is marketed as ski-in/ski-out though that’s technically only true if you’re staying in one of the four buildings.
Beaver Run Resort (photo credit: Breckenridge Real Estate)
Location
The resort is located on Village Road which is a fairly active side road in the town. The free public buses do travel this road and there’s a major bus stop right across the road from the resort’s residence buildings, next to the Beaver Run lift. While you can walk into town (it’s about a half-mile) if the weather’s not great you can easily catch a bus at this spot or schedule the resort’s own bus and have them take you wherever you like in town for free.
Layout
The resort is comprised of four buildings with residences that are all connected via covered walkways and/or tunnels and what is called simply the Main Building that has the resort’s front desk, the conference rooms and the bars, shops and restaurants.
As you can see in the photo below, Building 4 is on the far left. It has its own heated pool and large hot tub. The red dotted line just below it represents the Beaver Run lift. This is the only building that is truly ski-in/ski-out as you can ski down to the left of the lift and take a side entrance into Building 4. While that’s certainly convenient, if you’re in Building 4 it’s quite a walk to be able to get to any of the other buildings and to the conference building without going outside. You can see the covered, elevated walkway that goes from Building 4 to Building 3 in the photo (it goes right through the word “Village”).
Layout of Beaver Run Resort (Google Maps)
Building 3 has residences and on the very bottom floor has the entrance to the indoor/outdoor pool as well as the small gym and The Spa at Beaver Run. The floors above all contain residences. This is also where you can access the many smaller hot tubs out on the deck. There is a common lobby, called The North Lobby, that connects Buildings 3 & 2 and from there you take a covered walkway over to the conference building. In this covered walkway you’ll find The Hub, the Deli/Market, a small bar and the steps down the ski lockers for Buildings 1-3. From there it’s a short walk across a plaza to the slopes.
Building 1 is located on the right of Building 2. As I did not go over there I’m not sure what kind of lobby or connector there is.
The resort provided this video which can help groups orient themselves to the layout. I found it extremely helpful. Continue reading
Categories: Breckenridge, Colorado, Condos, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: Breckenridge, Colorado, Lodging Review, Ski, Ski Condo, Ski Lodging, Skiing, Snowboarding
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Lodging Review: avid Hotel – Denver Airport Area
As I was shopping for airfare for my final ski trip of the season I found a really good fare arriving in Denver the Friday night before the trip was due to begin on Saturday. Since I had several free night certificates from my credit cards, I shopped around for a hotel with a free airport shuttle and free breakfast. I ended up selecting the avid Hotel Denver Airport, which is part of the Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG). I have an IHG credit card that is no longer available so essentially I paid the $49 annual fee for this room, which is a bargain.
avid Hotel – Denver Airport Area
Airport Shuttle
Once I got my bags I called the hotel for the shuttle before I even left the building. I was told it would arrive “shortly”. I dragged my two giant bags out to the proper island and waited. And waited. When the shuttle finally arrived the gentleman driving did a good job of getting my two bags loaded. It had taken so long for the shuttle to arrive that I thought he must have been picking up other folks but the shuttle was empty. Let’s just say he was a very cautious driver. We then had to go to the other side of the airport and pick up several other parties. This shuttle services several hotels that are adjacent to one another and, naturally, the other parties got dropped off first. This was probably easier since my bags would have been at the back/bottom of the pile of luggage. The hotel is 5.6 miles from the airport, per Google Maps, and the drive should take about 10 minutes. Continue reading
Categories: avid, Colorado, Hotel, IHG, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: avid Hotel, Colorado, Denver, Hotel, IHG Hotels, Lodging Review
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Lodging Review: EconoLodge, Gunnison, Colorado
If I want to get from Crested Butte to Memphis in one day I must leave on the morning United Airlines flight or the midday United or American Airlines flights out of Gunnison. That means if I want to ski on the morning on the final day of our long weekend that I must overnight in Gunnison and fly out the next day.
The past two years I’ve stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Gunnison. Last year I checked their website to ensure they had an airport shuttle before I booked and as soon as I made my reservation I emailed to let them know I’d be needing the shuttle. This year they didn’t list airport shuttle as an option on their site and I confirmed with them that it is no longer offered as they just don’t have anyone to drive it.
(As a side note, it seems odd to me that in a college town – home of Western Colorado University- that they don’t have anyone to do things like drive hotel shuttles and run Uber/Lyft services. But I digress.)
So this year I tried one of the other two hotels available on points, the EconoLodge in Gunnison. EconoLodge is part of the Choice Hotels system. All of the Choice points I have were brought into the system when Choice acquired Radisson Rewards and this is my first opportunity to use them. No, it’s not an aspirational use but I thought I’d give it a try.
Update July 2024: this property is now a Quality Inn which is still part of the Choice Hotels family.
EconoLodge Gunnison
photo credit: TripAdvisor
Location
The EconoLodge is located on East Tomichi Avenue, one of the two major roads in Gunnison. The hotel is located next to the park with the covered outdoor skating rink and across from the visitor information center. It’s actually just down the street from the Holiday Inn Express but is closer to Main Street, the other major road, which leads to the ski resort that’s about 30 miles away.
As my family wanted to get back to Denver in time for the Super Bowl, our Sunday ski day was much shorter than normal and they’d deposited me at the EconoLodge around noon, well before the posted check-in time. In fact, when I handed the desk clerk my ID and credit card she seemed to think I was checking out, not in! Even though I was early they managed to find a room for me. I’d requested a king room on the ground floor and one was available, although it was an accessible room and so had features I didn’t need. But that was fine with me.
As I made my way down the hall to my room, I was especially glad I’d asked for a ground floor room as I did not see any elevators, only stairs, leading the second floor. I’d packed all my stuff into my skis bag and a large backpack for this weekend trip. Since we’d come practically straight from the slopes and had to cram our gear in the mini-van pretty much any way it would fit, my skis, poles and boots were not in the bag and I needed a luggage cart just to get everything in one trip. It would not have been fun to have to go up and down the stairs multiple times! Though Gunnison has a lower elevation than the resort, for a flat-lander like me the air is still thin! Continue reading
Categories: Choice Hotels, Colorado, EconoLodge, Hotel, Lodging Review, North America, United States
Tags: Choice Hotels, Colorado, EconoLodge, Gunnison, Hotel Review, Lodging Review
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