Vail is nice, too bad nothing around it is...
Written: Nov 22 '03 (Updated Jul 07 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Vail itself, Pazzo's Pizza
Cons: The surrounding towns
The Bottom Line: Vail itself is a 5/5, everything around it deserves a 3/5 at the most.
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| tch7's Full Review: Vail, CO |
Back in June/July 2002 we drove to the Vail area for my brothers Lacrosse tournament, although my motive for going had nothing to do with watching and supporting him. Although I live in a city very similar to Denver, and I spend much of my time in the Canadian Rockies, I still wanted to go and see the Colorado Rockies and expected much from them. I must say, I was disappointed with most of Colorado except for Vail; even the nearby towns of Avon and Frisco weren't very appealing. Since I don't have lots to say specifically about the town of Vail, this is about Vail and it's surrounding towns.
I approached Vail from Denver, after heading south from Casper, Wyoming. We stopped with hoards of other tourists in the historic Georgetown for lunch, and then proceeded on to Frisco where we stayed in the pink Holiday Inn. The interior of the hotel wasn't much better looking, but they were very kind and they gave us a discount since we were staying with the lacrosse team. Those are some awfully brutal hills for driving up and down; I can't imagine them in winter with ice. Anyways, Frisco was pretty much a hole, and the only benefit of staying there was that it was like a hub to all the surrounding resorts. An Italian restaurant and a brewery/pizza restaurant were the two nice-looking places we went to eat, and the Italian restaurant seemed to be using Chef Boyardee, while the pizza place was unable to bring the pizzas into the brewery/restaurant where they served things like steak even though it was the same restaurant. We also tried a “Country Kitchen” I believe it was, which wasn’t enjoyable – I especially liked the bearded woman occupying an entire side of a booth. The day we departed after the tournament, we tried to get breakfast at the A&W that was sporting messages of God, but breakfast isn’t served until 10AM. All in all, Frisco sucked.
Dillon and Silverthorne are two other towns not far away, which are slightly larger and more interesting. Other than doing some cheap shopping in Silverthorne and eating at the Dillon Dam Brewery (a good restaurant), I didn’t really explore those two towns, but they had Frisco beat. Breckenridge is another nearby area, which was out of the way, but the second nicest town in the area. It had some good restaurants, good shopping, and a good atmosphere – it seemed like it had a cheaper/younger crowd than Vail. Copper Mountain, between Vail and Frisco, looked like an amazing ski hill, but it was really just a winter resort and didn’t offer anything for my visit.
Vail, was a classy (not stuffy) mountain town that is basically wedged in a valley. Most of the central area of the town is not open to vehicle traffic (there are shuttle buses), and it works quite well. It has a good variety of stores, and prices are not all that bad. I only tried one restaurant, Pazzo’s Pizza, which was fabulous! It stands as being my favourite pizza (the service was only so-so though), but sadly it only has restaurants in Vail, Avon, and Cabos Sans Lucas – but that didn’t stop me from going there four times in less than two weeks. Vail is a very picturesque town, and the large gardens, which were located right by the sports area were great for walking around and clearly had taken a lot of time and money. There is also an outdoor amphitheatre where there was music one night that could be heard as you walked around the gardens during the sunset.
One day, we went for a 17 mile (around there) hike up the Gore Range to Booth Falls and Booth Lake. Most people only went to Booth Falls, which you couldn’t even see very well. Only myself and another group of people went the full distance to Booth Lake (to do it in a day is strenuous and not something most people could do) which was the nicest part of the Vail area. However, my father was having difficulty breathing at the high altitude (near 12 000ft), so we didn’t get to spend lots of time enjoying it. Vail was a wonderful place, it’s just everywhere around it that made the area seem horribly ugly in comparison to what I had been expecting. In the winter, much of what I disliked would be masked by snow, so it wouldn’t seem as bad.
There were a number of hotels and condos in Vail, and they all appeared nice on the exterior. Prices typically weren't great, nor were they bad; the cheapest were about $100 and went up to $400 for the very nice hotels. For a comfortable room in summer you're looking at about $150 a night, and you can add at least $25 in the winter. There was a Holiday Inn a few years back, but it has since changed into some private hotel that was dark and rustic feeling, and I don't think there were any other cheaper chain hotels. Most people just stayed in Avon or Frisco and did the 20-minute commute to save some money. The lodgings are scattered all around the town, but most seemed to encompass the central area with shopping and restaurants - and in the winter the majority of hotels offer some form of shuttle service to take you to the ski hill.
Avon was further along the highway towards Grand Junction, and other than having Pazzo’s Pizza, it was pretty unappealing. The surrounding hillsides are bare, the town has a lot of slum-like areas, and it has odd traffic circles. Amazingly enough, I found a place I liked even less than Frisco (and later I found an even worse place). Beaver Creek, known for its exclusivity, was rather pathetic and too stuffy to be enjoyable. You also typically need to take a shuttle up to get into the gated community, something that I hate to do. It had a good restaurant called Renegades that was right on the edge of the ski hill, but everything else was like living in a concrete jungle. There was nothing about nature, it was just an area filled with stuffy rich grandparents in million-dollar condominiums. I’m glad I saw it, but I’d never go back.
Following Avon, we drove to Moab, Utah (Arches National Park), stopping in Glenwood Canyon to hike up to Hanging Lake (very nice, but very busy). If you are interested in finding the ugliest place on earth, pay a visit Grand Junction. We later drove back through Vail, and then headed north to Rocky Mountain National Park. More details on the rest of Colorado will be in another review.
So, to sum it up in one sentence; Vail was nice, everywhere else was disappointing and easy to leave behind. I would likely only go back if it were winter and I could go skiing, or if somebody else were paying for everything. Rocky Mountain National Park was nicer, but I feel that there are much nicer places close to my home in the Canadian Rockies. Anyways, prices were decent; the variety of people was more than interesting; the contrast between Vail and the surrounding area is amazing.
For information on the rest of the road trip:
Montana
Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park
Grand Teton National Park
Colorado
The Vail Area
Rocky Mountain National Park
Arches National Park
Jewel Cave National Monument (South Dakota)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tch7
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