It seems bizarre writing about our family’s snow-filled trip to wintry wonderful Vail, Colorado earlier this year when I am currently sweating and in flip flops. But this popular destination books quick, so if you are thinking of going, then let’s get on it! Before you hit “reserve” on that sweet condo with the hot tub, though, let me share with you an inside look at our family trip to Vail, Colorado… It may help you decide where to stay and for how long.
Vail is absolutely gorgeous. Hailed as one of the best winter ski parks in the U.S. and as the largest ski mountain in Colorado, visitors flock there. Vail Mountain, located in the Gore Range of the Rocky Mountains, itself rises 8,120 feet with 5,289 skiable acres (for reference: that’s A LOT).
While it is, indeed, absolutely stunning; and it is, indeed, the best skiing I have ever experienced, that means it comes out in the bill. Vail is expensive. No way to get around that. At the time of our trip, adult lift tickets for one day (bought in advance) were close to $200 each. That doesn’t include ski gear, of course, or ski lessons, or the kids’ lift tickets, so it adds up quick.
While I don’t mind spending some hard-earned cash on adventures that we will remember forever, we just aren’t the people who can afford a family of four hitting the slopes at that price-tag everyday.
Lucky for you, I am incredibly resourceful, love to plan, can Google like a champ, and found some really amazing and fun activities for our family to do in Vail. Here are our tips and our trip in one easy-to-reference post.
In this post you will find what to do on and OFF the ski slopes in Vail with your kids.
Tips for a Family Trip to Vail, Colorado:
1- Ski Vail one day.
Of course. You just have to. Plan your budget, save, and get the kids in one day of ski school while you head out to explore the mountain on your own set of sticks.
Some things to consider about this adventure:
–> While it adds a cost, we highly recommend ski school. We live on the east coast of the U.S. And while our kids have been on skis before, we don’t live near ski slopes so it is maybe a once-a-year situation that they find themselves on waxed up skis pointed down a big hill. Being with instructors in a safe environment, with other kids, makes skiing fun for them. It also makes it more fun for us as we get to ski by and wave, express joy at their accomplishment, yet not have to argue with them about whether or not we know how to ski and are right when we tell them what to do.
–> Skiing at Vail is advanced. While the hardest place I have skied is Snowbird, Vail is a ski lover’s dream if you are comfortable on skis. Coming off the lift and seeing the most expansive, beautiful, powdery bowls to carve my way through was a breathtaking experience. There were tears in my eyes as I saw a piece of earth that was astounding in its beauty and ruggedness. And given the vast expanse of space, even though there were hundreds of other people out with me, I had the overwhelming sensation that I had the place, the mountain, the bowl, all to myself. I was carving a path no other human had ever done. Moments like that are why I get out in nature and really engage with it.
But that feeling of pure joy and bliss at being perched atop the bowl is also twinged with some serious nerves, and even though I am confident in my ski abilities.
To ski Vail, make sure you are physically fit before you go (I am not talking Olympic athlete strong, but do some weighted squats to get those quad muscles revved up). Do the hardest skiing first thing in the morning, before fatigue sets in. Don’t be hesitant to push yourself a little, but always have an exit plan and don’t do anything you really don’t feel you can handle (no one is handing out awards). Take time to stop, and enjoy the view. There are some of the best you will ever get.
2- Enjoy Betty Ford’s Alpine Garden.
Our kids really wanted to try snowshoeing (more on that in a moment). But before we committed to tramping out into the wilderness in rented gear, we wanted to see if they could really do it. At the Alpine Garden, you can try out snowshoes for free! While there wasn’t a lot of space to bravely explore, it was a great opportunity and option for us. The park was beautiful (even with a blanket of white). The Visitors Center at the garden had wonderful learning exhibits for kids, as well as hot chocolate! This was a half day affair, but very fun and affordable (we did leave a donation).
3- Go snowshoeing and try out White River National Forest.
This was by far my favorite activity we did while in Vail. It took a lot of research and calling around, but we found the snowshoe experience we were looking for. We found a retailer and rental place in Avon, just down the road from Vail and close to Beaver Creek called Sun & Ski, that had a slew of snowshoes (including kids’ sizes) to rent for just $20/day. They were the cheapest, most flexible, and friendliest out of all dozens of places we talked to. (And pst, take poles and eye protection! Every being snowshoeing will need and want poles, and the sun gets bright out there.)
As for the place we snowshoed, we stumbled on this idea by happenstance. Driving around before we enjoyed the Betty Ford Alpine Garden and after our disappointing trip to the Walking Mountains Center (read below), we saw a LOT of people doing winter sports recreation off of a parking lot right near Highway 24, where we also spotted those small, brown, national parks signs that get our hearts racing.
After getting our rentals, we parked in the National Forest lot off of Holy Cross Ranger Station and headed into the ranger station to get maps and really useful information. The ranger didn’t lead us astray and we had the most beautiful hike through the snow ever. There were snowmobiles sipping by, cross-country skiers breathlessly passing us, and views to enjoy. It was just a phenomenal experience.
(Tip: when snowshoeing with kids, don’t plan to go too far, dress warm, and take snacks and water, but do plan to have fun with it.)
4- Spend some time at Imagination Station.
Admittedly, Mr. Family Trip and I were out and about while the grandparents took our children on this adventure, but they all loved it. Affordable, accessible, and with something to entertain kids of all ages, they brought home lovely artwork. The report was that while Imagination Station wasn’t too big, it was still really fun and entertaining.
5- Go snow tubing!
Vail has an entire Epic Discovery area on top of a mountain ridge. It looks like a lot of fun and they advertise tours, family group outings, etc. We looked hard at doing this but ultimately decided not to. The catch for us is that it is really expensive. To get there, you have to pay for a gondola pass, and it costs. Then, entry and activities cost additional. All we really wanted to do was Tube, so we headed to neighboring Copper Mountain and had a (more affordable) blast! Sessions were one hour and started on the hour. It was base-mountain accessible, and with them screaming folks down the three active runs, we got in a lot of runs! Of course, with tubing, it always seems to go by too fast – but it is also hysterically fun. (If you want to see this in action, go check out the videos in our Instagram Story on Vail, CO.)
6- Walk the villages, especially at night.
Vail Village and Lionshead Village are all the things you expect a ski village to be: quaint, interesting architecture with a nod to the alps, and fun shops to stumble in and explore. Like any ski area, shopping was mostly high-quality and high-end, but we had fun getting candy at Fuzziwigg’s, sitting on ice thrones, and generally just enjoying the twinkling lights and magical winter fairyland.
7- Take the gondola up to the top to watch the sunset.
We decided to spring for dinner our last night in town during sunset at Bistro Fourteen. It was gorgeous. The gondola ride from Lionshead on the Eagle Bahn Gondola was free (we can’t recall now if it was about the time of day or whether we had reservations that made it free but, either way, we did not have to purchase lift tickets to ride the gondola, which in and of itself was a fun experience). Photos from my old iPhone can’t even do the sunset from the top justice. You have to see it yourself.
Other helpful tips for a family vacation to Vail:
1- At the risk of getting this writer in trouble, I would think twice about the Walking Mountains Science Center if you think you want to do that. The museum itself was small, and the paths available to hike (no snowshoeing available) really short. If you find a planned program you want to do, register in advance and go do that. That seems to be where they focus their efforts and resources. But, based on our expectations, we were disappointed when we drove there with the intent to explore and spend some time.
2- Be on the bus line. We were able to get a VRBO with a lot of space that was still convenient for coming and go.
3- Try to get a date night in. There are lots of great spots in the village to enjoy, and we had a fun time for a few hours away from the kids walking in the snow hand-in-hand after trying out the Vail distillery, 10th Mountain Whiskey. (The kids played board games back at the rental with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles (thank you so much for being awesome, family!).)
4- This area is wintry, obviously, so get a car that can handle the roads. Then watch weather and traffic reports. We got out of town and headed back to the Denver airport just before the interstate was under piles of snow.
5- If we had had more time, money, and endurance, I would have loved to fat bike at the Nordic Center. If you’ve done this before, let me know!
6- Rocky Mountain National Park wasn’t as close as we thought. As you know, we LOVE national parks and I was really excited about potentially getting to this famous one. Unfortunately, due to distance, the side of the park we’d be on once we arrived, and the condition of the roads, it just didn’t seem realistic for a short, one-week trip…especially given all the other activities we had going on! Rocky Mountain National Park will have to be its own adventure.
I am not going to pretend that this trip was perfect. The rental house we had was a LOUD house (my infant niece rolling over upstairs could wake the whole house); our oldest’s ears popped badly on the drive down from Vail to Denver and we wished we had had Earplanes, which made for an incredibly stressful trip home and a bad end to a fun time; the expense of the trip was really the catalyst that started a journey that ended with us moving from our dream home back to Virginia (more on explaining how that happened some other time).
But that’s how family vacations are – there will always be challenges and trials. Hell, that’s how LIFE is. The opportunity to look past the moments of tribulation, though, out to the splendor of mountain ranges and snowy caps that extended for miles was precious. In reality, nothing else exists like this particular mountain range and this particular area of Colorado. It calls. It asks us to rise up and get out. It applauds us when we succeed and punishes us when we fall. But it is a place to see what we are made of as people and as families. It is a wide open range to walk the paths less traveled to become the people and families we want to be. There is space for us to exist, to be only with ourselves and only with each other. It’s a beautiful conflict and conundrum wrapped up by God, just for us, in doughy white powdery wrapping paper. So go enjoy it.