Colorado Vacations
Vacation Planning Guide for Visiting Colorado with the Kids
Vacation Planning Guide for Visiting Colorado with the Kids
Colorado's Historic Luxury Hotels
Article: Rocky Mountain National Park
ANTIQUE CHARM:
Old Fashioned Elegance in Modern Colorado
The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park
Like a white frosted wedding cake with red accents, the Stanley Hotel rests gracefully against its mountain backdrop in fine Victorian style. Ornate furnishings and a huge curving staircase greet guests as they walk inside from the front veranda.
Most guestrooms often have a striking mountain view, and some have tall four-poster beds. The elegant Cascades Dining Room has an outside patio with a waterfall landscape. The property sports a small playground for young guests, and an outdoor heated pool offers a place to splash around in the summer. The nearby Sombrero Stables rents horses for trail rides, and the hotel plans to provide mountain bike rentals and adventure tours by the summer of 2006. The area’s abundant wildlife, which frequently wanders onto the sweeping grounds of the Stanley Hotel, is great entertainment for kids.
For information, visit the Stanley Hotel online or call (800) 976-1377 or e-mail the Stanley Hotel at info@stanleyhotel.com.
Hotel Colorado, Glenwood Springs
Near the edge of the Colorado River, just below the scenic ramparts of Glenwood Canyon, a hot springs gushes from the earth. No ordinary hot spring, this one’s flow approaches nearly 2500 gallons per minute. It fills a giant swimming pool and evaporates into the mountain air with billowing clouds of steam. Sometimes the hot moisture rises so quickly in the frosty night that ghostly whirlwinds form, skimming across the surface of the water, only to dissipate into thin air.
If you let your gaze follow the steam upwards, you’ll catch sight of the stately old Hotel Colorado, settled as if on a thrown, on the mountainside above the river. Built in 1893 in the style of an Italian Medici Palace, the wings of the building enclose a courtyard overlooking the springs.
The elegant Grand Lobby Café treats guests to a relatively formal dinner, although booster chairs are available for little diners. In the summertime, the outdoor Courtyard Café lets families eat in a less formal, but lovely garden setting.
Canyon Bikes, located on the lower level of the hotel, rents bicycles and provides advice and suggestions for great family bike rides. The Glenwood Canyon Recreational Trail lies a little over a block from the hotel, and the bike shop provides trailside assistance and shuttles for cycling families. Also in the lower level of the Hotel Colorado, Blue Sky Adventures outfits whitewater rafting day-trips through spectacular Glenwood Canyon.
One of the nicest features of the Hotel Colorado, however, is that children can stay free in their parent’s room. Visit the Hotel Colorado's website or call them at (800) 544-3998.
Related Links:
Colorado Lodging
Rocky Mountain National Park