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Cheap Colorado Ski Vacay!

 This week, I thought I'd offer tips on sneaking in one last cheap ski trip before winter ends. Over President’s Day weekend, we took a very affordable, fun, and refreshing trip to Colorado. This trip had a few goals:

￮ Teach me how to ski (I’d never been before)
￮ Spend time with our good friends that we hadn’t seen in months
￮ Celebrate my hubby’s 30th birthday 👨
￮ Don’t break a bone or die while skiing

We had started planning this trip last summer with one of our best “couple” friends – you know, that couple you double date with, go to concerts with, and drink good (and bad) wine with. We had recently moved to NYC and needed time with our people.Both starting new jobs, we had to book flights last minute (after clearing it with our new bosses). Needless to say, the tickets had skyrocketed to over $600 each. So what does one do? We used points, obviously (see my last post about how to get started saving points! Link here). With this cost covered, our trip was off to a great start. ✈

We weren’t exactly keen on going to one of the bigger, luxury ski lodges (like Aspen or Breckenridge), so we chose to stay in Silverthorne and ski at the Loveland Ski Area. This was a great a choice. The town was less touristy but still had everything you would ever need (Target, grocery store, and breweries, duh). It was about a beautiful 2 hour drive West of Denver!

Picture source: link here

Accommodation: Instead of paying ski resort prices, we rented a vrbo (vrbo.com) that came with a hot tub, beautiful views, and was pet friendly, so our friends got to bring their pups! The location was great, about a mile up the mountain where we were far enough to feel secluded but still close enough to get to town if we needed anything. Shout out to our awesome friend, Mandy, who found this place!

Front yard view
Activities:
Skiing – We went skiing at  Loveland Ski Area, about a 10 minute drive from our vrbo. It was decently priced (so I hear); we paid about $400 for lift tickets + rentals all 4 of us. It was a blast, and was more fun than I thought it would be! I did better than I thought I would at skiing, so I think we found a new hobby together! 👫 And we didn't break a bone or die... so YAY!!

Lifts/bunny slopes at Loveland Ski Area

Sledding- As a southern girl, I have actually never been sledding before. We went to a hill near our condo and raced for hours. What a cheap, fun, innocent activity! I truly had a blast!

Hot-tubbing- This was free at our condo, and much needed after long skiing and sledding sessions!

Brewery- We had heard about the good breweries in Colorado and had to try one out for ourselves. We went to Dillon Dam brewery (link here), and it met all expectations! We made it at the tail end of happy hour, had good cheap beer, snacked on appetizers and burgers, and left as happy campers in the middle of a snow storm! Check my timelapse video of our crazy drive home on my instagram →  @fancybutfrugaltravel

Budget tips: 
￮ Since we had our own kitchen, we decide to cook most of our meals. We spent $100 at the grocery store and $100 on booze for the whole trip (Friday-Monday). This was enough for breakfast + coffee every morning, and dinner + snacks + drinks every day. It was also fun to take turns cooking for each other, and I can't believe how many meals we got out of it! We did go out for lunches, but it was still pretty cheap!

￮ As a ski newbie, I obviously had no ski gear. Renting everything I needed would’ve cost atleast $30 a day. I did not feel like paying this, so I borrowed gloves and goggles from a friend back home and bought a $30 pair of ski pants on Amazon. They were just the waterproof outer shell material, and I knew I could wear them more since we live in the Northeast now (where it is snowing as we speak!)!

￮ Our friends drove to Colorado, which saved us the costs of renting a car. They also took us to/from the airport, cutting costs even further (thanks guys!!!).

#couplebesties

What I wish we could’ve done in CO: I wish we could've explored Denver more (we basically only drove past it), and that we could have skied one more time.  We only skied one day because it rained the next day, and we were really sore (skiing is more of a workout than I imagined!).

We will definitely take more trips like this. It was so affordable and budget friendly, not to mention how truly beautiful and scenic Colorado is! I’m told skiing can be an expensive hobby, but I’m sure that we can figure out a way to do it fancy but frugal! Where is the best place you have been skiing? Give me your thoughts and tips in the comments below! 

XOXO 
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Location: Silverthorne, CO, USA

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