Warm chocolate chip cookies is what comes to mind when I think of Beaver Creek Mountain in Colorado. If you have not experienced the amazing warm, soft centered cookies at Beaver Creek, that may be worth the trip alone (well, not really). But at 3pm after a long day on the mountain, there is almost nothing better than a few of those fresh out of the oven.
We recently came back from a nice long weekend escape to the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek. This was a trip that was entirely booked on points, but still had some decent costs associated with it. Lets just say that Vail Resorts is not kind on the wallet when it comes to lift tickets. More on that in a later post.
The Park Hyatt is situated right in Beaver Creek Village, slope-side, making it one of the most accessible on mountain hotel properties at Beaver Creek. There is also the Ritz, Westin, Sheraton, and a number of timeshares/condos that are right on the mountain (or close by) that are alternatives although they do not all have the same accessibility to Beaver Creek Village that the Hyatt has. The Village is a nice collection of shops and restaurants with an ice skating rink right in the center. Most of the shuttles from the parking areas drop skiers/riders off here in the morning as its pretty much the main base of the mountain.
The actual hotel has that mountain lodge feeling when you walk in the lobby. A lot of big dark wood beams and comfy looking couches/chairs give you that mountain feel. There’s a fireplace centered in the lobby that is a gathering spot for folks “apres” as the hotel opens up a bar in the late afternoons in the lobby. Through the lobby you can get to a ticket desk, business center and even walk down a few steps right into to Beaver Creek Village.
An offshoot of the lobby has what I was told was a “history room” where you’ve got a collection of old mountain photos along with a pool table and fireplace. It seemed like a good place to unwind, enjoy a warm cup of coffee or catch up on work as some folks were doing in the mornings.
Given that this hotel is on the mountain, you’ve got a ski and boot valet right off the lobby. The valets tag your boots and skis so you can just leave all your gear with them and not have to worry about lugging it up to the room. When you are done with your boots they will actually put them on shelves with a warming system built in, so you’ve got nice dry boots every morning.
The room we stayed in was nothing out of the ordinary. If anything it was a bit on the smaller side as far as hotel rooms go, but really after a day on the hill, all that was necessary was a nice big king bed (oh and a hot tub – I’ll get to that). The resort fee includes a couple bottles of water refreshed daily and probably the almond toffee chocolate bars they refreshed daily (which were damn good). If you are a coffee drinker you’ve got K-Cups at your disposal. There’s also an empty mini fridge which is good if you are bringing snacks.
Most importantly, any good mountain hotel should have a proper heated pool and hot tub to relax after beating up your body on the moguls. The Park Hyatt had a solid setup with a nice heated lap pool. They also had 5 hot tubs, 1 being adults only and 1 being about 3 times the size of the others with a heated waterfall. The 3 nights we spent in the hot tubs we had one all to ourselves. They didn’t seem to be too popular (granted I think because a lot of people were out in the village at night).
As an aside, something to call out about the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek is that it is incredibly family friendly. There were kids everywhere during our stay, likely because it was right around spring break. That said, the hotel has a full game room for kids and if your kids didn’t get enough sugar from the 3pm chocolate chip cookies, at 4pm just outside the lobby sits a fire pit where they setup a full spread of s’mores stuff, roasting sticks and all. I don’t know what I enjoyed more, that cookies or the s’mores!
Would we stay here again? To be honest, I am not quite sure. While I loved the hotel and the amenities, it is not an inexpensive price to pay. The rooms were over $600/night, although we used points. However, still with using points you are paying 30,000 points a night which is quite expensive. On top of the high nightly price, there is a $50 resort fee (waived if you are using points though, phew!) and parking is an additional $50 if you need a car (which we did not have). Since this was an adults only trip, we could have been just as happy at Westin or Sheraton. However, when we go again and bring our daughter we will absolutely consider staying here as it was extremely suitable for kids and literally next door to ski school which is huge! In my opinion, it is probably the best location in Beaver Creek. Everything is at your fingertips, from the village right out the back with bars, restaurants, shops, ice skating rink, etc. And then s’mores and activities for kids was really nice as well.
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Absolutely agree that what makes this hotel is its proximity for ski school and the convenience of skiing with little ones. Without little ones, it is obviously still in a great location, but that just isn’t as needed or appreciated with able bodied adults.