Hotel at a Glance: The Vintage Hotel

Tucked into Colorado’s sprawling Winter Park Resort, The Vintage Hotel is surrounded by towering Rocky Mountains. You can enjoy a sweeping view of the peaks from your spacious guest room or while taking a dip in the heated outdoor pool. Though it’ll be too warm to ski, you can hike, bike, and mountain climb along the Rockies’ rugged slopes.

• Take the cabriolet to Winter Park Village, which offers plenty of shopping and dining venues.
• Fuel up with tacos at nearby Lime, or head to The Cheeky Monk for burgers, mussels, and cold belgian beer.
• Shop on the resort grounds at The Columbia Store and Trail’s End Mercantile, which sells groceries, gifts, resort wear, and toys.
• Outdoor adventures: Take a scenic chairlift ride, find your way out of a giant maze, or zip through all 3,000 feet of Colorado’s longest alpine slide. All of these activities and more are available at Winter Park Resort.

Winter Park, Colorado: Year-Round Outdoor Adventures in Picturesque Ski Village

True to its name, Winter Park made its mark in the late 1930s as one of Colorado’s first ski towns. Today, the alpine berg draws sizable crowds during ski season, but still retains its small-town vibe with less than 1,000 year-round residents. Ski season typically runs from mid-November to late April, when an average of 327 inches of annual snowfall blankets the slopes of Winter Park Resort. Skiers and snowboarders have access to more than 3,000 acres of terrain, 25 chairlifts, and five terrain parks. Mary Jane Mountain proffers legendary mogul runs, leading Skiing Magazine to name it the No. 1 place for mogul skiing in North America.

Winter also brings ice-skating and horse-drawn carriage rides to downtown Winter Park’s quaint Cooper Creek Square. At the pedestrian mall, you can browse wares such as hand-painted Russian nesting dolls, jewelry, clothes, and ceramic pottery.

The park’s surrounding mountains and forests offer plenty to do off-season, too. Come summertime, Winter Park Resort is a popular mountain-biking destination, with 40 miles of downhill trails that feature tabletop jumps and banked cruisers. About 35 miles north of Winter Park, there’s fantastic hiking along a trail that skirts the Continental Divide, wending past waterfalls and through open meadows en route to Columbine Lake. Autumn is particularly scenic, as the leaves of native aspens turn red, gold, and orange.

Love to travel? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for travel tips, inspiration, and photos from around the world.