Christmas in Colorado for my family (Estes Park, Vail: ski resorts, prices, shop)

[TrinaJ]

Hi, we are looking at coming to the USA for Christmas in 2012 and were thinking about coming to Colorado, specifically somewhere near the Rocky Mountains.

What I am looking for is something fun for a young family, we have an 8 year old boy and a 3 year old girl. we would like to experience a white christmas, horse drawn sleigh rides, lots of christmas lights, traditions, story telling etc.

As we will be coming from Australia we need to watch our budget as the flights are not cheap and we will be going to other parts of the US.

Can someone please offer some suggestions for family friendly places to stay. I did read about a place called Este Park which sounded good. Has anyone got any information on this place please?

We do not ski, but it may be fun to have a lesson or two.

Thanks in advance

Trina

[Mike from back east]

Here's a place we used a few years ago, very nice, has sleigh rides.

Christmas can be a very expensive time up in the High Country at the big ski resorts like Vail, and there may not be a lot of snow at the time, with FEB-APR being the usually big snow months up there.

Very wise of you to start looking way in advance.

s/Mike

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by TrinaJ

Hi, we are looking at coming to the USA for Christmas in 2012 and were thinking about coming to Colorado, specifically somewhere near the Rocky Mountains.

What I am looking for is something fun for a young family, we have an 8 year old boy and a 3 year old girl. we would like to experience a white christmas, horse drawn sleigh rides, lots of christmas lights, traditions, story telling etc.

As we will be coming from Australia we need to watch our budget as the flights are not cheap and we will be going to other parts of the US.

Can someone please offer some suggestions for family friendly places to stay. I did read about a place called Este Park which sounded good. Has anyone got any information on this place please?

We do not ski, but it may be fun to have a lesson or two.

Thanks in advance

Trina

We've had a number of Christmas related threads over the years posted specifically in the Colorado forum, I would do a search as many of those threads have useful information.

Your best shot at a white Christmas is in a ski town or a few other mountain towns. Mountain towns that don't cater to skiing tend to be quieter in winter time with not as much going on.

For the ski towns, the week before and after Christmas is just about the busiest time of ski season, except for a week or 2 in February. So prices for lodging are high. But those towns are probably the ones that will have more of an active atmosphere with plenty of people about and plenty going on, as well as an abundance of places to shop and eat at.

From my experience Estes Park is quiet in wintertime, but there are some people from that town that may chime in on this thread.

Since I am from Vail, I am partial to it and it's a great place for Christmas with tons of lights and activities.