Breckenridge 2020
Eric and I met in college and from the very beginning we took a lot of road trips. His truck also broke down all the time – more on that another time! So throughout the last 20 years we’ve been to so many places, taking several trips a year. Some small and local, some big and grand. I plan to document our current travel as I go, but until then we can catch up on places I’ve been. Hopefully it will help someone out who’s looking for ideas or inspiration.
For New Year’s 2020 we took to the mountains of Colorado. Our family of four, along with two other families, rented a house in Breckenridge, Colorado for a week right after Christmas and over the New Year’s holiday. We stayed 5 nights and had amazing snow, beautiful views, and lots of fun!
We planned this a bit last minute, but were able to find an awesome house to rent that would sleep 6 adults and 7 kids…that’s a lot of people under one roof! This was my second time to use Evolve Vacation Rental for a vacation rental. They are nice to work with, but honestly it’s almost completely done online and for this trip I never spoke to anyone over the phone or in person. I booked it online, received email confirmations, payment reminders, and check in instructions. At the end of the trip we followed the check out instructions and locked up behind ourselves. Here’s the house we rented if you want to check it out.
We flew into Denver and were met with a snowstorm. The wait for our rental car was over an hour and miraculously we got one of the last 4wd vehicles they had. I have to give a shout out to Avis on this one. Yes, it was a realllly long wait and for most of that time we were standing outside in the blowing snow, but we ended up with an upgraded rental – a Tahoe with only 72 miles on it. And their agents were dealing with some customers who were…ahem…not very nice that day. Somehow I didn’t know that every.single.person goes to Breckenridge for this particular week. Crowded was an understatement. And, just so you know, Colorado has something called the Passenger Vehicle Traction Law. I wasn’t aware of this prior to getting on the highway, but the CDOT signs quickly let us know that without a 4 wheel drive vehicle, we were not welcome on the mountain roads. Apparently as the conditions change they may enforce the Passenger Vehicle Traction Law which means unless you are 4WD or have chains, you could get a ticket. If the weather gets bad enough, they enact the Passenger Vehicle Chain Law – which you guessed it, means you need chains too. It then made sense to me why all the rental car customers were demanding 4WD cars.
Once we made it to the house the first evening we were happy that it matched all the pictures and descriptions. Everyone picked bedrooms. The kids had a super cute bunk room. Each adult couple had their own room with en-suite. There was a living room and a separate den on the main level as well as a den downstairs for the kids. Aaah…spread out togetherness!
The next morning we got acquainted with town and signed the kids up for ski school for the following day. We discovered that parking and restaurants were going to be an issue for our large group and meanwhile the kids had a blast running around in the snow around the house.
Day 3 we dropped the kids off at ski school, the other four adults went skiing, and the two of us checked out town and had lunch near the slopes. We ate a little place called TBar, right at the base of Peak 8. Definitely try the Fireside Coffee! It will warm you right up!
Half of the kids loved skiing and went back for a second day. The others had enough of the cold and preferred to hang at the house and go sledding. Oh…and we got to make a trip to the next town over for some dr visits. Apparently altitude sickness is a real thing. One of the sweet girls with us had to be on oxygen the rest of the trip 🙁
We picked up some sleds at the grocery store and found out that we could walk from our house to the local sledding hill. A little park called Carter Park had the best hill! And it was free!! We had so much fun there and the kids even got to build a snowman.
After a day filled with skiing, doctor’s visits, and sledding we were all beat! We tried hard for a raucous NYE party…but I have to admit that we called it in on east coast time. How cute are these party people though?!?
All in all, it was a fun time with lots of snow! If we were to go back I would definitely pick a different week (not around a holiday) and maybe a bit warmer. -8 on the mountain was a bit cold for me. I love that we have great friends that we get to do fun trips with and that our kids are getting to do these adventures together, too.
If you have any questions about Breck, I’ll do my best to answer. I have been there a couple of times in addition to this trip. Thanks for reading and let me know your favorites in this cute town!
Fair winds and safe travels ~ Rachel