As you would expect of a wintertime resort, there are cold-weather outdoor activities aplenty.  Indoors, you can relax at one of the area’s spas or attend a performance at the Vilar Performing Arts Center, where offerings range from classical music to comedy to family shows.

Mountain Village occupies an interesting place in Colorado’s geography - it‘s right by the fabled Telluride.  By car, that’s an 8-mile, 20-minute trip, depending on the weather.  Without a car, you can get there in 13 minutes, rain, snow or shine.  And, no, it doesn’t require some weird suspension of the laws of physics.

Pagosa Springs is in Colorado’s Southwest region - emphasis on the south.  In various ways, the theme of San Juan is ever-present:  the San Juan Mountains form a stunning background for idyllic scenery, the San Juan Forest is nearby, and the San Juan River runs through downtown Pagosa Springs.

There’s all kinds of ways to save money on a vacation.  For example, some people - especially those traveling in groups, where separate hotel rooms would really add up - choose to rent a vacation home.  These rental properties are great for families too - anyone who needs a bit of extra space - and a week’s stay often costs no more than a week of a standard hotel room’s rack rates.  You can find a house in the city of Denver itself, as well as outlying areas, such as Aurora and Littleton.  Getting to Denver is relatively easy; you can drive to the city via Interstate 70 or Interstate 25 (US 87), or fly into Denver International Airport.  Carriers include major airlines like Delta, Continental, and American, as well as smaller companies like JetBlue, AirTran, and Frontier.

When you are presented with a destination like Winter Park, Colorado, you don’t have to search long and hard to come up with a topic.  If a town calls itself Winter Park, there should be plenty of cold-weather recreation options available.

For years people have gone to Vail, Colorado.  Why spend a vacation in Vail?  The skiing.  The glitz.  The glamour.  They have a film festival, for goodness sake.  Why not spend a vacation here?

After awhile, though, all that activity gets a little bit tiresome.  One of the great things about vacation is doing stuff you don’t ordinarily get a chance to do at home; for most people, that might include first-class shopping or world-famous skiing.  But no matter who stays here, whether style maven or adrenaline junkie, there comes a time to just relax.  In other words, do that other thing you don’t get to do at home very much:  stop, take a breath, and enjoy life.

Getting to Aspen, Colorado, isn’t difficult; Frontier and United regularly fly over to Aspen/Pitkin County Airport.  Denver International Airport - located 182 miles to the east - gets flights from most major carriers, and you can arrange for a seat on a shuttle to skip the drive.  Once you arrive, you can check into your accommodation of choice; many people enjoy opting out of the hotel scene for the privacy and freedom of a vacation rental home.  These range from simple two-bed, two-bath homes for a few guests to full-blown luxury in seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom lodgings for fifteen of your closest friends and family.  There are other areas to look for vacation rentals; Snowmass is a mere twelve miles down the road, and Leadville is sixty miles to the south.

Breckenridge is appealing to many Colorado-bound vacationers, from sun-seekers wanting to get their share of this area’s 300 days of sunshine to sports enthusiasts jonesing for their next ski-fueled adrenaline rush.  Booking a place to stay in Breckenridge isn’t hard; there are many ski resorts, lodges, and hotels waiting for your business.  For an even more personalized and spacious touch, many people choose to stay in one of Breckenridge’s vacation rental homes.  These range from ski in - ski out houses on the slopes to studio apartments nestled in the heart of the town.

It’s so tempting so sum up the entire mountainous region of Colorado in four short words:  summer hiking, then skiing.  And yes, you certainly can ski, snowboard, and snowmobile well into early spring.  But even areas like Copper Mountain, whose very identity is linked to being a ski resort town, have much more to offer.

As you would expect of a wintertime resort, there are cold-weather outdoor activities aplenty.  Indoors, you can relax at one of the area’s spas or attend a performance at the Vilar Performing Arts Center, where offerings range from classical music to comedy to family shows.

Personally, I would think being called by the moniker of “Icebox of the Nation” a dubious distinction at best.  However, Fraser, Colorado and International Falls, Minnesota - while they probably don’t resemble each other in too much else - have both laid claim to the title.  Fraser’s official town website is even decorated with cute little penguins to prove its frigid status.  This just goes to highlight the range of contrasts in Colorado, from the semi-arid semi-desert lands in the south to the windswept mountain peaks in the central and western areas of the state.  Where else can you become famous for both sunshine (300 days) and snowfall?

Colorado is the state of the Continental Divide, the Rocky Mountains, and - in the south - jagged summits giving way to mesas and near-deserts.  The Front Range area encompasses the northern section of this meeting of plain and peak - where the eastern side of the state meets the western, and where the Rocky Mountains really begin to make their presence felt.

Mountain Village occupies an interesting place in Colorado’s geography - it‘s right by the fabled Telluride.  By car, that’s an 8-mile, 20-minute trip, depending on the weather.  Without a car, you can get there in 13 minutes, rain, snow or shine.  And, no, it doesn’t require some weird suspension of the laws of physics.

The first thing to learn about Snowmass Village is that Snowmass is an entirely different place.  If this has you scratching your head, don’t feel bad:  Snowmass Village’s website contains detailed driving directions that caution visitors not to mistakenly turn off towards Snowmass  - also known as Old Snowmass - when en route to Snowmass Village, some thirteen miles farther down the road.

Grand Lake is the name of both a lake and the Colorado town that hugs its shoreline.  This is the largest and deepest lake in the state, and it is separated by a fairly narrow strip of land from another sizeable body of water, Shadow Mountain Lake, which then flows into Granby Lake.  While Colorado, as a whole, is known as the land of the Rockies, in this area, the lakes make a strong second.

Pagosa Springs is in Colorado’s Southwest region - emphasis on the south.  In various ways, the theme of San Juan is ever-present:  the San Juan Mountains form a stunning background for idyllic scenery, the San Juan Forest is nearby, and the San Juan River runs through downtown Pagosa Springs.