---

This post is one chapter on our trip to Colorado, United States on Alaska Airlines. This trip was booked and credited to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan using a two for one Companion Fare courtesy of the Alaska Airlines credit card. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

---

City Visit: Vail, Colorado, United States

Shortly after we checked in, we ended up taking a walk around the neighborhood to self-situate around Lionshead Village. Lionshead has grown up quite a bit since the last time I was here in 2002; the first trip I took after the New York City 9/11 attacks. We wandered the 5 minutes up the pathway to the base of the Eagle Bahn Gondola and the heart of Lionshead, Vail.

Wandering through Lionshead, it’s certainly grown up since my last visit. Many of the tired buildings had been refurbished and renovated. What used to be a family area had now moved a bit upscale. There is now a fireplace next to the skating rink in the heart of town next to the Arrabelle Hotel.

We ended up having dinner at a Vail tradition: Garfinkel’s on St Patrick’s Day. Garfinkel’s is a ski town tradition; they’ve run bars in Whistler and Vail since the early 1990’s. I’ve been visiting them for almost twenty eight years!!

After supper, it was a quiet walk back to the hotel amid the Christmas lights of Vail. We settled in for the evening in anticipation for a great week ahead.

Vail, Colorado – Day 2:

After the travel day and the full dinner, we slept in. I didn’t set the alarm and we ended up sleeping until 12 PM! Oh my; I guess we needed it. We were still all feeling a bit sick and all on antibiotics.

So much for skiing today. . . Looks like it is sightseeing for the afternoon. We ended up taking the free in down bus to Vail Village and taking a walk around as we healed our cold. There were lots of interesting stores to take in.

We made it up Ski Lift Road to the ski hill to the base of the “Gondola One” ski lift. I managed to get in a photo of the $199 Vail Lift Ticket Prices. Ouch. I’m glad we can gotten passes through Whistler Blackcomb Epic Pass before we came down from Canada!

We took the bus back to Lionshead and wandered back to the hotel. The snow started at about 4 PM and started dumping all the way into the Village!! I couldn’t be happier considering it was nearing the end of March.

---