Telluride

From Chicago, I flew to Lubbock, TX (big upgrade, ha) where I spent the night before heading to Telluride, CO with my boyfriend and his friends. Growing up I went to Deer Valley, UT each spring break to ski, but I hadn't been in a few years and had never been to Telluride so had no idea what to expect. Although, like most college ski trips, our accommodations were sub-par, the town of Telluride and its over-the-mountain sister-city of Mountain Village really blew me away.

Telluride itself is a quaint, historical little town with a population of 2,500. The main street is lined with restaurants, ski stores, small hotels and lots of small bars. While the town has remained rather small through the years, there have been many restaurant additions over the years and most of the food we ate while there was incredible. The first night we went to Rustico Ristorante where we had some delicious bruschetta, pizza and some great Italian wine. After a long day of traveling and skiing, we were exhausted and went back to the condo afterwards.

The next day, we woke up bright and early and skied all day with a short break for lunch on the mountain at Gorrono Ranch which had a live band and outside fire pit daily. The runs that we did were limited to mostly blues and double blues and at around 3 we were exhausted.

On the gondola ride back to the other side, we stopped at the peak of the mountain at Allred's for aprés ski consisting of a gourmet grilled cheese (brie, pesto, marinated tomatoes) and some truffle fries and a couple of white russians. Oh, and, the highlight of my trip, two Bernese Mountain Dogs...a mom and an 8-week-old puppy. I almost started crying they were so cute.

After a 20 minute bonding session with the pups, we headed back down the mountain to shower and get ready for what was our favorite dinner at Cosmopolitan. While it was a little expensive, it was definitely worth it. The duck confit was amazing.

Our last night was definitely our biggest let down. We tried out the Chop House at the New Sheridan Hotel; it was over-priced, under-cooked and generally just bad.

While Telluride was extremely charming, if I ever go back I think I would definitely stay in Mountain Village. Mountain Village is much more convenient for skiing and has many more hotel options and activities - there was an ice sculpture contest in the middle of the village when we were there!

Thankfully, unlike the rest of the group, we flew home. If we had been on the bus with all of the others, I wouldn't have been a very happy camper....