I awoke to a beautiful, sunny 80 degree day in Denver, picked up our Nissan X-terra which will be our traveling vehicle for the next two months and headed into LoDo – for those of you not familiar with Denver, that’s lower downtown. We stopped at a Denver staple – the Rock Bottom Brewery. Now I’m not sure they’d exactly qualify for “farm-to-table”, but my other mission on this quest is to find cool, local places that are producing local products such as craft beer, cocktails, etc. Rock Bottom has some clean, classic recipes, brewed in-house. However, I tried the Mad Cow Milk Stout on nitro which is a smooth, charcoal black stout made with lactose for a lingering sweetness and was silky smooth. I know – technically I cheated because that’s not one of their brews – but I couldn’t resist!
After exploring LoDo for a few hours, we had to begin our way out to Vail. The drive was breathtaking through the Colorado rockies. I’m concerned that I might not want to come back to Connecticut after experiencing some of the amazing landscape in the western US! In just under two hours, we arrived in Vail. Have I just stepped into a beautiful Switzerland village? That’s the first thought I had driving into the center of town and arriving at Antlers at Vail hotel and condominiums set on beautiful Gore Creek, in the Lionshead area facing Vail Mountain.
Winter…summer…or really any time of year; this is the resort to be at for the ultimate in convenience. Ranging from studio suites to four bedroom lodging options, all condo rentals include a full kitchen, private balcony, free high-speed internet access and plenty of room to spread out. Warm up with a crackling fire in your living room fireplace and take in the stunning vistas from your private balcony. After a long day of skiing, instead of worrying about where to go for dinner, enjoy the convenience of a fully furnished kitchen. If you happen to come in the summer, you’ll love the picturesque pool area carefully placed to maximize exposure to Colorado’s famous sunshine.
What’s really amazing is that their ecofriendly initiatives are virtually endless. I was happy to see custom, refillable, shower and soap containers in the bathroom! As a result, the Antlers has eliminated the 20,000 or so two-ounce containers that were either thrown away or recycled every year. Half used bar soaps is also a thing of the past.
They also recently bought fourteen solar panels which are installed in a two acre array down by the Rifle airport. The ozone generator allows the hotel laundry to use cooler water temperatures saving considerable energy. Phosphate-free detergent and other biodegradable products are used in that laundry, thus generating far less pollution than other similar operations.
Situated in an envious position on the banks of Gore Creek, Antlers is just steps from restaurants, galleries, shops, a free Vail town shuttle and the Lionshead Gondola. In the summer, when we visited, you can take the Eagle Bahn gondola up to the top of the mountain and participate in all of the Adventure Ridge activities ranging from zip-lining to hiking to ropes courses – or just enjoy the view! For more information, call 1-800-843-8245 or visit www.antlersvail.com.