Skiing Keystone in 2003
With the cooling temperatures, thoughts in this household turn to the coming winter. Thoughts of snow, skiing, snowboarding, and our annual road trip to Colorado's Summit County. Based on our past experiences, here are a few simple tricks to making these vacations more affordable.
1. When to go- The best prices for lift tickets and lodging will be during the early and late seasons (before Thanksgiving and the month of April). Good deals can also be found between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Possible downsides are a limited number of open runs, and the amount of snow on those runs.
Avoid the holidays (Christmas to New Years Eve, Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, President's Day weekend, Spring Break). Not only are prices higher, but it is also a lot more crowded. More people equals longer lines and wait times at the chair lift or gondola.
My favorite time to go is in January, before the holiday weekends and spring break. All the runs are open, and the snow is usually good for skiing.
2. Lodging- We like to rent a condo instead of staying in a hotel. With 3 boys, having the extra room is nice and having a kitchen saves us money on meals. We have found great deals just by searching for Summit County lodging on Google. Condos in the Keystone area seem to have the best prices, and Summit Cove has a nice site for vacation rental lodging in Keystone.
3. Lift Tickets- Discount lift tickets are available at Front Range King Soopers and Safeway grocery stores. You can also purchase them at sporting goods stores like Sports Authority. Something we haven't tried yet is buying lift tickets on eBay, but I've heard good things about the discounts you can find there.
4. Renting Equipment- If you need to rent equipment, don't wait until you get to the resort. You can save a lot of money if you rent from other places like Sports Authority in Dillon. Look online and compare prices before you leave your house. Websites like skicoupons.com offer discounts at various ski and snowboard shops.
5. Meals- If you have a condo, eat breakfast and dinner there. You can even pack a lunch and store it in a locker at the ski resort. Buying groceries is a lot less expensive than eating at the ski resorts, especially for a family. When you are on the slopes, carry trail mix or granola bars so you aren't tempted to stop at a chalet for an expensive snack between meals.
BONUS TIP: This year, we ordered a Denver/Boulder Gold C book over the internet. The $10 price of the book was well worth it. We saved over $125 on weekend lift tickets at Copper Mountain compared to the discounted price available at King Soopers. The savings are even more if you buy weekday lift tickets.
Related articles:
Keystone and Copper Mountain Ski Resorts
Friday Photo Post: Colorado Skiing
14 comments:
Thanks for the helpful information Stacy, excellent post.
I'm glad you liked it, Pijush!
Stacy, thank you for stopping by.
Hi Grigo, You are very welcome!
Thanks for the great post. Another option (and apologies for somewhat spammy, but I thought it might be helpful for your readers) for lift ticket discounts is Liftopia.com. They have only a handful of options in CO at this point, but should be adding more before the season starts. Thanks for the other info though!
Cool. I've been to almost all the famous European resorts. But never have been to N. America. I would love to try American powder once. But the thing is that I'm used to use my own equipments and to be honest, I've got a lot of 'em! Campera pack/avalanche kit, skies, boots, helmet, etc. Flying with all that stuff would be to much of a hassle. On top of all that, my ski partners are lazier than myself and backcountry skiing is just plain boring!
On a positive note, most of your tips work in the Alps as well! :) If you're a fanatic skier, some of these tips should be in your blood and you should know them by heart (e.g. avoiding xmas).
Wooah, two paragraphs! Am I talking too much? Blame the RedBull, not me!
Meh! What I meant was backcountry skiing "on your own" is boring. With ski partners, it's the third best known pleasure to mankind (after sex and Italian ice cream)!
LOL, Jimbo... Thank you for visiting Rambling Traveler, your comments are great! You are right about about these tips being in your blog if you are a fanatic skier, but there are so many people out there who don't know about the discounts you can find. I cringe when I see people buying lift tickets and renting equipment at the ski resort.
I would love to go skiing in Europe. What are your favorite places?
Excellent advice. I'd love to check out the slopes in Colorado. I will definitely use your tips when I do.
Hi Sheila,
The tips are ones we've given family and friends when they've gone out to Colorado. I'm glad you found them helpful!
Sorry about the delay. It's been a crazy Weekend...
My top three are Val Thorens, Val d'Isère and Méribel. All in the French alps. Italian snow isn't as crispy as the French snow. Austrian snow is rubbish. Swiss snow is over priced!!!
I may be wrong, but I think Val Thorens is the highest resort in Europe. It's also the largest of the three valees (Les Trois Vallées). It's a good non-stop 4 hours ski trip from Val T to Courchevel. Return trip took me a whole day of skiing. That's about 8 hours including photo opp stops and lunch.
Les Arcs 1800 is also pretty good for snowboarders (deep powder snow). But there are no fancy snow parks or half pipes and advanced slopes are full of ice and rock!
Feel free to drop me note if you need more info.
Thank you for the tips, Jimbo! I'm filing them under future ski trips.
Take care,
Stacy
There are excellent B&B (Bed and Breakfasts) cum hostels in Fraser, Colorado. I cooked my own food and had all the niceties of an inn and yes, the prices were reasonable too.
Mala Mukunda
http://www.traveling-stories-magazine.com/
That sounds interesting, Mala. How did you find the B&B? Is there a website?
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