Hey there! While I’m loving my {slightly sporadic} newsletter adventure, I thought B2B would be a better place to share our Telluride recap. If you remember, last year we went to Jackson Hole and were blessed with pretty much non-stop snow the entire time we were there. It made every run feel like a powder/first track run, which was awesome! While we were not lucky enough to have any snow during our time in Telluride {read: lightest snow fall in YEARS – bare ground everywhere!}, we still had a wonderful trip. The little town, the hotel, the views and the mountains were everything I’d seen in pictures that initially made me want to visit.

Here are details on our stay – I would fully recommend ALL of these to anyone planning to visit Telluride. There wasn’t one thing that we would’ve changed during our time there. Well, except to have the snow Gods on our side to bless us with more snow 🙂  That said, since our initial flight out was cancelled and our flight home was cancelled, I’m also going to share some details about our unplanned 2 night stay in Dallas. We were both more than ready to be home, but made the best of our stay in Dallas and had some great meals and drinks worthwhile of sharing.

Flights

When flying to Telluride, you either fly to Montrose or Telluride. I couldn’t find any flights into Telluride, so I am guessing it must be for private plans/very wealthy people or locals. We flew into Montrose (with a layover in Dallas) and then used a shuttle service to get from Montrose to downtown Telluride, which was a 90 minute ride. We used Telluride Express which ended up being a little over $100/pp round trip.

Where to Stay

I did a lot of research before we went in terms of where to stay. There are two areas that people generally stay: downtown Telluride or Mountain Village. Downtown Telluride is just a short (15 minute gondola ride) to Mountain Village, but has a better restaurant/bar scene. Mountain Village is at the base of the mountain and has a good array of hotels and restaurants, but they tend to be a bit busier since they’re at the base of the mountain. We opted to stay in downtown Telluride because we wanted more of a restaurant/nightlife scene (even though we went to bed so early every night!) and were very happy with this decision.

Originally we planned on doing an Airbnb, but they ended up being the same price as hotels so we booked at Hotel Columbia, which I couldn’t recommend more! The location was perfect – it was within close (5 minutes) walking distance to all the good restaurants, shops, Main street and literally across the street from the gondola and 1 chair lift that took you up to the mountain if you didn’t want to go to Mountain Village. Our room (room 42)  was on the 4th floor, had a balcony overlooking the mountain, a gas fireplace, small kitchenette with a 2 burner stove, refrigerator and microwave, a large bathroom with heated floors and towel rack, the most comfortable bed and little sitting area. Included in our stay was access to their ski/board storage room downstairs and a delicious (and plentiful) breakfast which included lots of coffee, fresh juice, eggs, bacon, yogurt, homemade granola, homemade pastries and more. It was the best way to start the day! They also have a super popular happy hour at their restaurant, Cosmopolitan, with $5 Cosmo’s and snacks. We wanted to have dinner there, but they were booked the night we wanted to go 😦

Overall, we would HIGHLY recommend staying here – the staff was so knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. I had called ahead to see if they would stock our fridge with some local beers for RM and they were so sweet in this accommodation!

Mountain Details

Telluride is really big, with incredible altitude levels. It was crazy how high it was! We didn’t get to all of the trails since neither of us have fun on blacks or double blacks, but the blues and double blues that we went on were awesome! We loved the Polar Express lift, Prospect Express and Plunge. Getting to the top of Plunge was SO scary because it was so high, but Woozley’s Way and/or See Forever were great trails with beautiful views!

They have a few restaurants at various peaks and we opted to get drinks at Bon Vivant mid-day one day. I’m not big on mid-day drinking, though, as it decreases my motivation to continue skiing 😉

We Apres’d at Tomboy Tavern at the base of Mountain Village a few times and really enjoyed both their outdoor bar and indoor fireplace area.

Eats

Ah! We ate SO well during our time in Telluride. On our first day, we went to the grocery store (just like Whole Foods) and stocked up on stuff for lunches since we prefer to not eat out 3x a day.

With the location of our hotel, we were able to pop “home” to eat lunch and then go back out, which was great. For our non-room meals, here are some places we enjoyed

• Smuggler’s – This was our first stop after arriving into Telluride as we were looking for a drink and food STAT, and this was down the street from Hotel Columbia. We shared wings, a salad and fried calamari and enjoyed it! It’s a brewery, so they have a large beer selection.
• New Sheridan Chop House – After all of my Telluride research, I felt like this was a must. Luckily, we were able to find seats right at the bar and enjoyed some cocktails and a delicious steak dinner, paired with a lovely glass of Barolo 😉

• There… – This was a recommendation that came from someone at Hotel Columbia, and we were so thankful for it! They are a small place off the beaten path, but somehow when we walked in they had 2 seats at the bar that we were able to snag. The drinks were funky and interesting, the service was great and the food was incredible. We shared a few small plates and both couldn’t get over how flavorful everything was. It was honestly one of the best meals we’ve had in a while!
• Tomboy Tavern – We had some “nachos” after skiing one day and they were made with homemade potato chips rather than tortilla chips… a combination we both really enjoyed!

• Brown Dog Pizza – While perusing through some of the shops along Main Street, we asked someone where we could find good pizza and this was her suggestion. A short couple of blocks later and we, again, stumbled into a busy restaurant that luckily had 2 bar spots open up just as we walked in. The bar staff were SO friendly and we took their suggestion to try their Detroit style pizza which was a combination of deep dish and Sicilian. In short, it was amazing. We were very happy with this recommendation!

• Cosmopolitan – Again, we didn’t end up getting a chance to eat here (we fell asleep at 8pm our first night and opted for pizza on our last night), but everywhere I read recommended it. Plus, by the looks of the crowds we saw in there every night it must be good!

Overall, even without snow, we loved our time in Telluride! It was the cutest little town that felt like it was right out of a movie!

And now onto Dallas. I’ve been to Dallas probably 10 times, so I wasn’t super excited about being stuck there for 2 days, but we did a great job making the best of it. We stayed at the Sheraton in downtown Dallas, which I realized I had stayed at before. They had a HUGE gym and nice pool, although jeans and a longsleeve were the best I could do for sun bathing clothing 😉

We walked to Deep Ellum and had incredible beers at Braindead Brewing. Nothing like sitting outside in 65* weather in March! We had tacos and margarita’s at Maraca’s and hit the hay early.

On our final day there, we walked to The Woolworth for lunch, another place I had been to, but didn’t realize it until we got there. We sat outside and soaked up the sun – it was lovely. For dinner, we wanted another steak dinner (when in Dallas) and after some research we decided on Nick & Sam’s, which was great! The bar was a little dark/loud, but the drinks and food were awesome!

 

All and all, although we had an unexpected 6 night vacation (as opposed to 4), it was awesome. RM is my favorite person to travel with – it’s great how well we travel together! We are always on the same page about where to go, what to do, what to eat, etc. so it makes it so fun! We are already planning our next adventure – thinking of Europe in the fall!

If you have any questions or want more info on any of our travel details, let me know! And don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter – I share all sorts of things!