My Canada - US Travels
BC - Winnipeg
Winnipeg - Quebec
Quebec - Winnipeg
Winnipeg - BC
Epilogue
North West Drive
Washington
Oregon
California
Nevada
Utah
Colorado
Utah again
Idaho & Montana
Alberta
BC
Epilogue
BC Interior
Langley Detour
Okanagan
Cariboo
Prince George to Prince Rupert
Return to Vancouver
Epilogue
Colorado
Sunday 29thAvon is a relaxed quiet town situated about 10 miles from Vail, with Denver about another 2 hours on. We're here for a week to do nothing. It's the main access point to ski at Beaver Creek or Bachelor's Gulch, we'll go up to them on one day as well as Vail.
We spend the day just unwinding after our drive and go out for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, Fiesta Falisco, the food's great. M has fallen in love with the mexican grocery store next door that she checks out while I find a table for dinner. After dinner she drags me in to the store, it’s like stepping into Mexico, no English spoken and no other non-Mexicans in sight. M orders in Spanish, everyone responds in Spanish, it’s great!
Monday 30th
Today we decide to go exploring - Beaver Creek and Bachelor's Gulch.
As we drive up to Bachelor's Gulch, we encounter a security gate in
the middle of the road. Once past the checkpoint, we see all the
multi million dollar mega properties, and then the only reason we
were allowed past the checkpoint, The Ritz Carlton.
It's a stunning hotel, right at the bottom of the ski slopes, a
dramatic log building, with an amazing 21,000 square feet spa. We
book a treatment, so we will return.Then we go to Beaver Creek. We are here after the Summer season and a few weeks before ski season starts. It is incredibly quiet, half the places are closed. We walk around and go into the Hyatt, it was rated top 50 in Conde Nast North America. We can't understand why at least from the public space, the product is nothing exceptional and the service is positively ignorant.
Back at the hotel, we go for a swim outside, sit on the deck in T shirt, and get sunburnt, all with only 8 weeks to christmas.
Before we left on 'The Drive', we checked Tripadvisor for the Avon Sheraton. Comments all said the rooms were too hot and when they went to the front desk the guests were just told to open the windows. Sure enough, we are no exception. So with this being the beginning of winter at a ski resort, our windows are wide open 24/7 and it's still too hot. Meanwhile it's a time share hotel, so the staff is trying to get you to buy into the units. Neglecting the poor maintenance of our suite and the apartment style service at Front of House, you know where your maintenance bills as a prospective owner would be going.
Tuesday 31st
Today we visit Vail. The disadvantage and advantage of traveling off season are the same - everything is so quiet, meaning places closed, but also no tourists. We are a little disappointed we can't find a really good restaurant that is open.
Vail is in the midst of a $1 billion development project, which is
slated to be finished 2008. To my surprise, Vail doesn't seem to
have any major hotel chains present. Vail/Beaver Creek is the
busiest ski resort in the US (Breckenridge is No. 2), so
where does everyone stay, I think it's apartment rentals . . . Part
of Vail's development plan includes two 5 star hotels. The neatest,
or some might say, silliest part, of the project is the under road
heating. This will keep all the roads (pedestrian and vehicular)
clear of snow in winter. It will look great when it's finished, but
until then I'm sure it will resemble the minor chaos we see, so come
back Winter '08!I'm surprised by how all these towns, Edwards, Avon and Vail are all just off the highway (we can easily hear it from our room), the main road west from Denver. I think I was expecting it to be a little more remote, but that was just my image.
As the snow hasn't really arrived in the valley yet, we want to go for a hike one of these days. The tourist info centres say summer is very busy with people doing lots of outdoor activities, but unfortunately they are unable to give us any information on hikes or walks, other than around the town of Vail, we'll have to find another source.
Wednesday November 1st
Nothing but read, watch TV, sit in the hot tub and drink coffee :) Bliss! We go to a movie in Vail, and to our surprise the theatre has 6 other people, wow, a crowd.
Thursday 2nd
We find a route for a short hike above Minturn, about 15
minutes past Vail. We soon get in more snow than our sneakers can
take. Yea, yea, should have known better. We then go back to the
Ritz at Bachelor's Gulch where we have booked to use the spa. 4
hours later, after exploring the 21,000 ftsq Spa we go up for a
drink. Even at The Ritz Carlton, the suites are for sale - 1/12th
ownership of a standard ground floor room will cost you
US$230,000!!!Friday 3rd
Nothing but read, watch TV and drink coffee :)
There are I think 6 news channels here, of which 4 seem to be televised 24/7, we've found them surprisingly disappointing. The only news we seem to have seen since starting our trip has been either about the mid term election later this week, Iraq, or the occasional piece on some very minor local news. No real national news and virtually nothing about world news (Iraq is only covered in a domestic light).