I’ve got an Epic ski pass for skiing in Lake Tahoe at Heavenly and it also works at four resorts in CO. I’m looking to take a quick vacation for 3-4 days to CO and check out a resort and was wondering where I should go… my options are Vail, Keystone, Breckenridge and Beaver Creek.
Anyone with experience at these resorts? Which one(s) are the most enjoyable?
Vail is hands down my favorite. Beautiful place and the village is a lot of fun.
Breckenridge is probably the biggest but the layout makes it hard to traverse completely in a day and it’s the most crowded typically. The village is the biggest and most active and it’s close to Keystone, Copper and A-Basin so you can bang out all three in a weekend if you want variety.
I haven’t been to Beaver Creek yet.
I have skiied all of those except for Breck, and my favorite is Beaver Creek. Its tucked away in the hills above Avon, and with the Bachelor’s Gulch connection to Arrowhead, allows for some great skiing. I haven’t skiied Vail since they opened Blue Sky Basin, but many of my co-workers say that Vail is great as well.
One of the things about Keystone is that you don’t have to get up early to get in a full day of skiing. You can go at noon and ski until eight pm because they have night skiing.
You really can’t go wrong with any of them, so enjoy yourself.
Mines Mystique
I’ve never skiied Breckenridge but the other three run pretty close in my opinion. I think I like Vail the best- consistently great skiing, and the Village is killer. Beaver Creek (their motto is “Not exactly roughing it”) tries successfully to position itself as a little more classy than the other places. For instance, at a couple of the lifts, there are guys standing there with fresh, hot homemade chocolate chip cookies to munch on while you wait all of 2 minutes for the lift. It’s a nice touch.
I don’t care for Vail. Yeah, it’s big, but getting off of it at the end of the day is a bitch - you have to ski across this narrow bridge that gets all corduroy and ick. It’s no fun. (Take this with a grain of salt, though - it’s been probably 10, 15 years since I skiied there last.) And they groom Rolex. Seriously. And the route down off the mountain is south-facing, so it’s all melty by the end of the day, then all icy the next morning. I don’t like it, but my brother loves it there.
Of the others, I’ve skiied Breckenridge most recently (it’s great), and also Keystone (though further in the past). I like either of these two much better. (I’ve also skiied Beaver Creek, but it was ages ago, so I can’t comment.)
Breckenridge is a great mountain - there’s still lots of space, but I thought it was fairly easy to get around. For 3-4 days, you’d have room to explore without doing too many repeats, without getting bored, and you’ll always have the chance to find something new. If it were my pass, I’d probably go there.
Regardless, any one of these will be a winner. Lucky dog - have fun!
Never skied, but I love the town of Breckenridge – lots to do and great restaurants. The only problem for me was adjusting from Illinois altitude to the 11,000 foot altitude of our condo. Whoa…:eek:
Heh, shows what I know. I opened this thread thinking it was a parody of all the locations from the various slasher/horror movies (Friday the 13th, etc.) and asking which one you would “prefer” to stay at. :o
I probably like the slopes at Vail best, especially the back bowls which are world class. They do have one run (I forget the name) that I think is the longest ski run in N.A. That’s pretty nice, skiing forever w/o messing with a lift. Problem is if you’re there at the wrong time it can be very crowded and I agree that the town can be difficult to get around in.
Beaver Creek is much less crowded and you’ve got the Birds of Prey. For some reason though while I liked it okay I wasn’t just blown away by it. Maybe it’s too exclusive.
Keystone’s alright. Families seem to like it a lot. Plus, A Basin’s just a few miles up the road and they’ve usually got good snow.
We go to Breckenridge more than any other place and were just there last month. The town has everything you need, good restaurants and shopping and plenty of entertainment and the slopes are pretty diverse. There’s some good extreme skiing, lots of cruiser runs and greens for the kidders. The 4 peaks each provide their own style, the bowls are good and there’s a big board park if you’re into that.
Vail and Beaver are real close to each other and you can see Keystone and Breckenridge from each other if you want to try and split your time at two resorts. Have fun.
I went to Breckenridge last year, and in two weeks I’m going to Keystone.
Breck was great. Like it was said above, you could ski their 9 peaks for years, and never go the same route down twice.
It’s Kestone this year because it’s a bit cheaper, although it, Breck and Arapahoe basin are all the same resort and they have free shuttles all over the place.
Keystone is the only resort in the complex with night skiing.
Not even remotely - Vail is effing huge, certainly the largest in Colorado if not in the entire USA. Vail has 5289 skiable acres compared to Breck’s 2358. Vail has 193 runs, Breck has 155.
My opinion, you’re not going to go wrong with any of the four. Beaver Creek is probably going to be the least crowded, though “solitude” isn’t exactly a quality any of 'em offer. Keystone’s a lot of fun and is always pretty popular with the locals - in part because (of these four, anyway) it’s closest to Denver and the I-25 corridor, and it’s pretty good for kids. Vail and Breck tend to be a little tourist-ier.
If I were to make a recommendation for someone visiting from out-of-state, I’d say go with Vail. It’s the biggest and has the most diversity of terrain, and will probably offer the best classic Colorado skiing experience.
Whichever way you go, I’m pretty certain you’ll have a good time. If you’re used to the California Concrete, Rocky Mountain skiing is going to be a whole new world for you. Enjoy!
I have done all of them except Breckenridge, and I have to say Vail, though I haven’t been in years. Do they still have the high speed covered quad lift? Also, make sure you stay at the hotel that has a run to it and a lift from it. It’s awesome.