Aspen in Summer: Festivals, Hiking and Outdoor Concerts
A practical guide to Aspen in summer: the festivals worth planning around, hikes from an hour to a full...
Aspen is shorthand for one town, but the place you actually sleep could be a Victorian house two minutes from the gondola, a ski-in condominium in Snowmass, or a room above a café in Glenwood Springs, forty-odd miles down the valley. All of them put you on the same lift ticket. What changes is price, atmosphere, how long you spend on a bus or in a car, and whether you can step out of the door and clip in. Worth thinking about before you fall for a photograph.
The centre is compact — roughly a mile of shops, restaurants and hotels between the Wheeler Opera House and the gondola plaza. Stay here and you can walk to dinner, walk to the lift, and leave the car where it is. It is the most expensive option in the valley and the one that buys you the least space for your money, but for a short trip, a couple's break, or anyone who wants a proper town as well as a mountain, nothing else quite matches it.
Hotels and small inns cluster around Durant Avenue and Main Street. You are paying for position, and the properties know it. Book well ahead for the Christmas and New Year period, and expect minimum-night stays over the biggest weeks.
Ten or fifteen minutes' walk west of the centre, this is Aspen's residential side: Victorian houses, quiet streets, a few guest houses. It suits groups renting a house together, and it is still close enough to stroll in for dinner. Cheaper than the core, though by no means cheap.
Aspen Highlands has its own small base village of condominiums — ski-in, ski-out, and very quiet after dark. Buttermilk is the beginners' hill and has limited lodging at its base, so most people who say they are staying "at Buttermilk" are really in the West End or along the highway. Red Mountain, above town, is almost entirely private houses: beautiful, and no use at all if you want to walk to breakfast.
Snowmass is fifteen minutes from Aspen by car and a free bus ride away, and it behaves like a resort in its own right. The mountain is the largest of the four and the friendliest for beginners and intermediates, with long, forgiving runs back to the village. Lodging is overwhelmingly ski-in, ski-out condominium, which means more space, a kitchen, and usually better value than the Aspen core for the same money.
The trade-off is atmosphere. Snowmass's village is purpose-built and quiet in the evening, with a cluster of bars and restaurants at the base rather than a town. Families tend to love it. Groups who want nightlife often end up on the bus into Aspen.
The Roaring Fork Valley runs northwest from Aspen along Highway 82. Accommodation gets cheaper the further you go, and the road and bus links are good — but you are trading convenience for cost, and in a snowstorm that trade looks considerably worse.
Twenty to twenty-five minutes from Aspen. A working town rather than a resort, with a proper high street, decent coffee and a newer centre at Willits. Sensible for a week if you have a car and don't mind driving to the lifts; buses run regularly.
Around forty minutes out, at the foot of Mount Sopris. Cheaper again, with an arts scene, good restaurants and a genuinely local feel. Popular with people who want a Colorado town rather than a ski resort, and with anyone working remotely for part of the trip.
Forty-five to fifty minutes from Aspen, at the junction with I-70. The hot springs pool, the Amtrak station and the widest choice of ordinary, affordable beds make it a sensible base for the first or last night of a trip, particularly if you are arriving late from Denver. Commuting to the slopes from here every day is a long haul in bad weather.
Rates follow demand more than anything else. The weeks around Christmas and New Year, the Presidents' Day holiday and event weekends are the most expensive; early December, mid-January and April are noticeably softer. A few things worth checking before you commit:
If you stay in Aspen or Snowmass, you can manage fine without one. Buses run frequently between the two and around town; the Aspen to Snowmass service is generally free, while routes further down the valley charge a fare. Aspen/Pitkin County Airport is a short drive from both.
Down valley, a car makes life much easier. In winter, fit proper tyres or take a four-wheel drive, and check road conditions before setting out. Independence Pass, the eastern route into Aspen, closes for the winter, so arrivals from Denver come round via Glenwood Springs — a drive of several hours in good conditions.
Aspen sits at around 2,400 metres, and the altitude catches people out. Plan an easy first day, drink more water than you think you need, and speak to a doctor if you have any health concerns about altitude or skiing.
Check cancellation terms carefully — winter plans change, and insurance covering winter sports and disruption is worth the premium. Confirm whether your rental includes parking, and whether the bus stop is genuinely close rather than close on a map. Then leave the rest to the snow.
Photo: markus53 / Pixabay
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