20 Years; 20 Places: No.12 Beaver Creek, Colorado

The next Place of 20 to extol my 20 Years of writing this Blog.

In no particular order, or ranking but each one as memorable as the other. No. 12 is Beaver Creek in Colorado.

I first experienced Beaver Creek with my snow-bunny-other-half in 2007, and although my skiing days are long over due to ACL reconstruction and general apprehension (I was never very good), it is one of my happy places.

‘Not exactly roughing it.’ That is Beaver Creek’s proud tagline and roughing it, it is not. Man-made by people who have too much money but know a good thing when they see it, the Beaver Creek ski resort was opened in 1980 as an extension of Vail and the idea was to blend Swiss charm with American hospitality and forty-plus years on both of those ideals very much exist.

The resort consists of three villages – Beaver Creek, Arrowhead and where we usually stay, Bachelor Gulch. Here the Ritz Carlton hotel crowns the top of a mountain like a Bavarian castle. Inside log fires flicker and the resident Bernese Mountain dog ambles around licking everyone in sight.  

It is a stunning property and beautiful part of the country, and I’ve been lucky to have visited more than ten times.

Beaver Creek. Family holidays and ‘work vacations’ 2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023.