City Information

The former railroad center of WINTER PARK , 67 miles northwest of Denver, may not be Colorado's trendiest resort, but its wide, ever-expanding variety of ski and bike terrain, friendly atmosphere and good-value lodgings draw over one million visitors a year. As the only publicly owned resort in the state, it has great facilities for kids and disabled skiers and the 200-acre Discovery Park , an excellent, economical area for beginners. Experienced skiers, in turn, relish the mogul runs on the awesome Mary Jane Mountain , the fluffy snows of the Parsenn Bowl, and the backcountry idyll of Vasquez Cirque.

In addition to skiing, you can snowmobile the Continental Divide on a one-hour tour with Trailblazers in Fraser ($35; tel 970/726-8452), or around a 25-mile course at Mountain Madness ($35 per hour; tel 970/726-4529), just north of town. Summer visitors can enjoy six hundred miles of mountain bike trails, some of the best of which are accessible from the chair-lift ($21 for an adult day bike pass), in addition to the super-fun mile-and-a-half-long Alpine Slide ($6) and several contemporary music festivals.

Year-round service to Winter Park is provided by Greyhound, stopping downtown outside the visitor center at the junction of Hwy-40 and Vasquez Road (daily 8am-5pm; tel 970/726-4118 or 1-800/903-7275, ), by Amtrak, five miles north in Fraser, and on Home James shuttles from Denver International Airport ($34; tel 303/726-5060 or 1-800/451-4844). The Winter Park Ski Train does round-trips from Denver every Saturday and Sunday during ski season, leaving at 7.15am and starting back at 4.15pm ($35; 2hr; reservations required; tel 303/296-4754, ). An excellent network of free shuttle buses means that a car is not essential in town. Trail maps and general outdoor information are available at the visitor center.

Nightlife starts at the base of the ski lifts at The Slope (tel 970/726-5727), before progressing downtown to the likes of Carlos and Maria's in Cooper Creek Square (tel 970/726-9674), good for low-cost margaritas and Mexican food, and Deno's (tel 970/726-5332), with its hundred-plus beers and tasty pasta.