Walking in a winter wonderland! (Aspen)

Happy New Year everyone!!!  As many of you know, Nina and I do a winter vacation every year in January. This year we went to our all time favorite place, Aspen! This was our second time, we went 2 years ago and fell madly in love with the magical Colorado town. Aspen is unlike any other town. It is like you’ve been dropped inside of a snow-globe full of shops, restaurants, and beautiful scenery everywhere you look.

Aspen is definitely a bucket list destination and is certainly very high on the price scale. Someone asked me what’s expensive and I answered: EVERYTHING! Just to give you an idea, our hot chocolates spiked with Baileys were $48 before tax and tip! (they were  soooo good though)

Activities like skiing and tubing are 2-3 times as much as other places as well as hotels and air bnb. Once you get over the sticker shock, you will want to experience Aspen for yourself. You will fall in love just like we did. When we went 2 years ago, I certainly thought that would be our first and last time, but it was just too magical not to return- so here we are- back home after our second trip.

Would I recommend Aspen? YES yes yes!! I highly recommend it. Whether it’s a drop in the bucket or you need to save up, I highly recommend it for your next winter vacation. Aspen is so full of bucket list moments from Sitting in a hot tub while it’s snowing or the breathtaking views from the top of Buttermilk mountain.  Treat yourself to a little piece of winter heaven. You won’t regret it.

Travel tips: Nina and I prefer renting a car when we are on vacation, but a car isn’t necessry in Aspen if you’re trying to save money. There is a FREE bus that takes you all around town and the hotels have complimentary shuttles to and from the airport. The buses will drop you off at any of the four mountains to ski or take you downtown to the shops and restaurants.  Another cool thing about Aspen is if you don’t have a car, they will transfer your skis from mountain to mountain. For example, if you want to ski one mountain on friday and another on Saturday, your skis will be waiting for you in the morning at the mountain of your choice.

Below are some of my favorite restaurants and activities.

ACTIVITIES

Snow Mobile at Maroon Bells  

Outdoor Ice skating

Skiing (with lift tickets you can ski all 4 mountains)

Tubing/ Alpine slide roller coaster (tickets include both) 

DINING

Cache cache (favorite restaurant)

The Little Nell (best hot chocolate and yummy food too)

Ajax tavern (best kale and quinoa caesar salad)

Meat and Cheese (yummy soups and salads and a cute little shop too)

Tags: alpine slide, Aspen, beautiful, bucket list, coaster, colorado, eating, expensive, food, hot chocolate, ice skating, magical, mountains, ski, skiing, snow, snowmass, the little nell, tubing, village, what to do, worth it