Steamboat Springs / Vail

Hi there… Do you want to go skiing in a real authentic place???? You MUST go to Steamboat springs…  I had read about it but could not envisage how nice the place was until I actually got there… It is the real Colorado… The cowboy land, the Indians land…. You have the cowboy shops, the cowboys around…. Girls… What a cowboys!!!    If i was not married and my husband was not gorgeous… I would make a party back home and invite all of them….

Joking aside, the place is super cool… It is a much bigger resort than I had envisaged and pists are everywhere… To get there you must drive from Denver, and it is about 200 km or 130 miles… The scenery is stunning, full of ranches and passing through the Rockies into no man’s land…

Once you get there you do not regret… The mountains are high and the pists are full of snow… The main street is full of shops and restaurants, where you can grab a bite in a cowboy style…

I had the chance to explore the shops and went crazy with the ponchos, boots and belts… I could not resist and bought a couple of “souvenirs” to take home…. The cowboy style will be around this spring!!!!

When you go there you must visit a couple of shops:

Cowboys and Indians… I bought a beautiful belt there… you would go crazy… check them out. http://www.cowboysandindiansonline.com/

And also go to F.M. Light &sons… I went crazy with the boots and hat but my husband did not allow me to buy an extra pair of boots…. I am crying out loud in regret until now…

http://fmlight.com/

To eat, we went to the Carls Tavern which I had my dreamed spare ribs!!! I could not eat for the rest of the day!!!

Do not forget to take time and visit one of the various water springs of the city… snow and a warm bath… perfect combination…

Now in respect of Vail I was a bit disappointed. It is a nice resort… actually the biggest ski resort in the United States, but after having gone to Steamboat Springs, it was just another resort… full of shops and cafes but not much more than that.

We stayed at the Vail Cascade resort and spa… one of these huge complexes, which promise to be good but are not good at all. I must say the hotel is beautiful but needs renovation and the service was not up to what I was expecting. It took them 3 hours to bring a crib to the room for my baby to sleep. This after several calls we made in request.

The restaurant in the hotel was good but the service was not good at all, so if you are in Vail do not go to the Atwater on Gore Creek… go somewhere else…

When we were there there was this massive snow storm… the mountains were white and the wind was horrendous… it turned to be headlines in the next day…. maybe this is also one of the reasons we did not appreciate much and we did not ski….

I post some pictures of our adventure… you must rent a 4×4 car when going to the mountains as you never know how much snow can come down…

Hope you enjoyed the post and my next one will be about Golden and Denver…

xx Valentina