VAIL, Colorado

I have been lucky enough to visit Vail, Colorado twice now with my boyfriend and his family several times, and I'd love to share the things we did and my recommendations.

Lodging

I stayed in a company condo during my time in vail so I'm not much help with lodging. I feel like Vail's peak time is usually December-February maybe March too? Lodging fills up fast during those times, and prices also increase during those peak times too - so something to keep in mind. Vail had two main ski bases; Vail Village and Lionshead. We stayed closer to Vail Village, and I would recommend Vail Village as it seems to be the more lively base.

Ski Rentals

Ski rentals are all over the base of the mountain. We've rented from Vail Ski-Base each time and had very good encounters and service. Ski-Base is located in Lionshead, and we had a rental car to drive to and from destinations. Ski-Base recommends picking up rentals after 5pm, and offers free overnight storage for your convenience. Renting skis, poles, and boots on average costs $45.99/day for an intermediate skier for 4-5 days. If you aren't staying close to Ski-Base or don't want to have to drag skis back and forth, there are lockers you can rent close to the base.

Food & Drinks

Vail has some amazing restaurants and although we didn't eat out a whole lot, we did find some yummy places.

• The George Vail is a fun underground pub in Vail Village. The restaurant has numerous pictures and artifacts of famous George's in history which is pretty cool. Great food, drinks, and a great dark, intimate après atmosphere.

• Los Amigos has some of the best street tacos I have ever had. It's located right at the bottom of Vail Village ski base and overlooks the base of the mountain. The pork carnitas street tacos and a Moscow mule are all you will need in life.

• The Red Lion is the best après food. Also located in the middle of Vail Village. It's packed after the mountain closes and always has games on the TV's to watch and occasionally live music to sit and listen to. The Vail burger and bleu sky burgers are top notch and if you're still hungry, I'd recommend their chili.

• Two Arrows Coffee is where my boyfriend and I always get coffee and sometimes a midday snack. I love their vanilla lattes and if you're feeling adventurous, I would highly highly recommend the Bagel + Lox on their menu. Lox is a smoked/brined salmon that they place on top of an everything bagel with dill and caper cream cheese.

• Pepi's Restaurant & Bar - is actually where we rented a ski equipment locker in the basement. Again, this is just another really fun pub located in Vail Village with a fun atmosphere after the slopes are closed. It's not a huge place so it fills up fairly quickly.

• The Little Diner is where the best breakfast is at. As the name implies, it's a very small diner. We always went to The Little Diner on our last day as a farewell to the mountain. I recommend the Ranch Hand Breakfast which comes with eggs, toast, meat, hash browns, and a pancake. This diner is located in Lionshead.

Skiing

Vail has some of the best skiing in Colorado, with its expansive 5,300 acres and seven different bowls to ski from. The more I ski, the pickier I get with groomed runs, and snow conditions. I know it sucks waking up super early to ski in the morning, especially on vacations, but it truly is the best skiing in the morning. Groomers spend all night prepping runs, and those are the runs you want to hit first thing in the morning before they're ruined. I consider myself to be an intermediate skier for most of my time skiing and am often times open to the occasional challenging black diamond not. Here is a list of some of my favorite areas of Vail to ski:

Front Side

• Mid-Vail - This is where I ski the first runs of my trip to acquaint myself with the mountain and Colorado skiing as I come from Minnesota - Minnesota's black diamonds are Colorado's easiest green runs. Cappuccino and Christmas are my personal favorite here & even more fun after a big snowfall with lots of powder. It's sometimes a little busy in this area as it's right atop of Gondola One.

• Game Creek Bowl - Awesome mix of blues with several blacks that are mostly moguls. I could spend a lot of time in this bowl just because it's so fun. Baccarat and Dealer's Choice are my favorites in the bowl - they're long runs and are lined with beautiful trees, and have some nice elevation to the runs as well. Game Creek Bowl is fairly simple to get to by taking Gondola One up Mid-Vail and then taking Avanti Express up to Wildwood.

• Avanti Park - These runs are a bit on the harder side. I'm only familiar with the Avanti run which is a blue that turns into the black diamond halfway through. The only reason it's black is because it gets extremely steep - you're going to want to know how to make quick turns. It's scary looking but good for an adrenaline rush!

• Other fun runs - Take Mountaintop Express up, then take Timberland Catwalk to Northwoods then Flap Jack to the bottom of Northwoods Express lift. When I've really pushed myself for the day and need an easy way down the mountain there are two green runs that are fun to take. Both start in Mid-Vail; Gitalong Road is a fun and twisty one or there's Lower Lion's Way that turns into the Vail Village Catwalk. These runs take about a good 15 to 20 minutes to get down to Vail Village.

• Getting to Lionshead - Born Free and the Lionshead Catwalk are the easiest ways to get to Lionshead. Simba (blue) and Cheetah (blue) are two other great runs to take if you're atop of Pride Express Lift.

The Back Bowls

• Sun Up Bowl - There are a lot of black diamonds in the black bowls so for one - watch where you're headed. There are multiple ways to reach the back bowls - being at the tops of Wildwood Express and Game Creek Express being the easiest ways. Again - as I'm mostly an intermediate skier, I took The Slot (blue) down to the Sun Up Express lift. I pushed my skiing abilities a little bit and took Over Yonder (black) back down to Sun Up Express. Over Yonder is probably one of the most difficult runs I have been on being that it's a black diamond and also has tree coverage everywhere. It's fun being in the trees, but you really have to know what you're doing so you don't end up running into anything (You're also going to need a sufficient amount of stamina). You can get to Two Elk Lodge from the top of the Sun Up Express but be awhile of the lengthy flatter than flat catwalk you have to take to get there - know how to skate or it'll take you 30 minutes.

• China Bowl - From Two Elk Lodge you can hit the China Bowl easily. Poppyfields if the main blue down the bowl & in my experience is on the harder side of blues. There is some sketchy terrain going down, but I also may have wandered off somewhere in a black diamond. The Orient Express Lift brings you back to the top of the east side of the China Bowl.

• Getting back to the front of the mountain from the China Bowl takes some time. At the bottom of the bowl, you can keep skiing past the Orient Express lift and there's a catwalk that leads to the Tea Cup Express lift.

Blue Ski Basin - I haven't made it here yet, but someday...

For Fun!

• Meet the snow patrol dogs at Henry's Hut at the top of Chair 4! Sunday December 17 - March 31 you can meet/dine with the snow patrol and meet your furry avalanche dogs

• Ice skating - Lionshead has the Alderhof ice rink in the middle of Vail Square, Vail Village's Solaris ice rink and the in-door skating at the Dobson ice arena

• Casinos - they're a bit of a drive from Vail, but certainly are something fun to do if you need to a break from skiing. I actually highly recommend the drive to Central City to take in the historic western/mine-looking city that has lots of different casinos located throughout. If you're going around the holidays, the lights are amazing. Ameristar Black Hawk and the Monarch Casino are two casinos I've visited, and would suggest Ameristar over Monarch as it's much larger.

• Shopping of course in Vail Village and Lionshead

• Fuzziwig's Candy Factory is located in Vail Village and has every kind of candy you could want - even the candy Lucky Strike cigarettes (My personal fav)