Day 1: Denver – Steamboat
We picked up our Rover Sprinter Van in Denver around 11am. When we arrived at VanCraft, we were greeted by Aydin, who was incredibly helpful! We filled out some quick paperwork and watched a video in the lounge area to get more familiar with the van. After the video, Aydin answered questions we had and provided us with some recommendations on what to do and where to park in Steamboat. He then walked us through the van and showed us how everything worked. We were very thankful for that, since this was our first time renting a van. After picking up the van, we packed it up with food, clothes and our ski gear and we hit the road.
We were so impressed with how smooth the van rides and how good the gas mileage was! It took us about 3 hours to get to Steamboat from Denver, and we still had well over a half tank of gas. Once we arrived at Steamboat, we checked in at our KOA. We would highly recommend staying at a KOA if you are planning on taking a van up to Steamboat. We paid around $70 a night for a spot. The KOA is right outside of town and is only about 10 minutes from the ski resort.
After checking in, we drove to town to get some dinner. We went to Mountain Tap Brewery and tried one of their wood-fired pizzas, the Woodsman, which had elk sausage, braised mushrooms, garlic, fresh mozzarella, garlic thyme oil and fresh herbs. We also enjoyed some beer and house made root beer. We loved the atmosphere of this brewery and would definitely go back again.
After dinner, we met up with some friends at Backdoor Grill. We sat upstairs, which had an amazing vibe. We had some jerk chicken skewers and some sweet potato fries. After this, we headed back to our KOA camp spot and called it a night.
Day 2
We woke up around 6:00 AM and headed over to the T Bar lot at Steamboat Ski Resort. It is $30 a day to park here, but it is worth it. Make sure you have cash too, because they don’t take credit or debit cards for payment. We parked right next to the gondola and had our own ‘ski in, ski out’ experience. We walked towards the gondola, had some breakfast burritos and coffee, and then started our day. We got really lucky – it snowed the entire day we were there, so we had so much fresh powder! We took a break mid-day and were able to ski right to the van. We just took the Right-o-Way run and it took us right home. We had some lunch there and then hit the slopes again. We probably skied from around 9am to 4pm! After our long day of skiing, we got back to the heated van and got changed for dinner. We loved being able to ski right to the van and have it already heated before we even went inside of it. The convenience of having this van for a ski trip is like no other!
We went to Mahogany Ridge Brewery and Grill for some food and drinks. They probably have the best happy hour in Steamboat, which is every day from 4pm-5:30pm. They have half off drinks and a $1.00 tapas menu with over 10 tapas to choose from. We tried everything on the tapas menu and loved it all.
We wanted to go to Strawberry Hot Springs after this, but we weren’t able to get a reservation. If you are ever planning on going to Steamboat, make sure you make a reservation online a few weeks in advance if you want to go to the hot springs. We decided to head back to our camp spot after dinner and rest up for another day of skiing. We watched some movies on our laptop and played a few games and then went to sleep. We were so impressed with how comfortably we slept in the van with the bed extension that pulled out. We both had so much more room than we thought we would!
Day 3
We started our day off the same way we started it on day two. We woke up early and headed to the T Bar lot and parked in the same exact spot because we loved it so much. Unfortunately, our ski day wasn’t that long because the winds were very high that day; only the bottom of the mountain was open. We only did a few runs and then decided to go to town to do some shopping. Steamboat has so many great shops to choose from! We went to quite a few shops, but our favorite was a skate shop called Urbane. They have a great variety of clothes and shoes there. After shopping, we went to West End Sports Grill and had some dinner. We had the Chicken Club and the Black and Blue burger. They were both delicious! Typically, you can night ski in Steamboat on Thursday through Sunday from 5:30pm to 8:00pm, but we weren’t able to go because of the high winds. This is definitely something we want to try out next time we are in Steamboat. After dinner, we headed back to our KOA for the last night and relaxed in the van.
Day 4
We slept in a little bit since we weren’t planning on waking up early to ski. We decided to do a little bit of exploring in Steamboat. We started off by getting some breakfast at Lil House Country Biscuits and Coffee. We had the Bird is the Word which is a biscuit with fried chicken, hash browns, eggs, bacon and chipotle mayo. We also had the Hombre breakfast burrito, which had scrambled eggs, chorizo, hash browns, black beans and pepper jack cheese.
After breakfast, we did some exploring around Steamboat. We drove on Burgeus Creek Road which has some of the best views in Steamboat. We weren’t planning on skiing, but if you drive all the way to the end of Burgess Creek Road, you will end up right next to Thunderhead Express. We were so close to the lift, so we ended up parking and doing a quick run!
We also drove to Fish Creek Falls, which has some incredible views. If you are looking to go snowshoeing in Steamboat, this would be the spot for you! We left Steamboat around 3:00pm to head back to Denver. However, we did end up making some stops on Rabbit Ears pass on the way home. The views on this pass are just too beautiful not to stop! We got back to Denver around 7:00pm. It took a little bit longer than normal because of all of the stops we made. We had such a smooth drive. We were seriously so impressed with how good the van drives and how well it handles the snow. We didn’t get back to VanCraft until after hours, so we just dropped the keys off in the key slot in the door. We were so impressed with how smooth this entire process was of renting the van. We already can’t wait until our next VanCraft adventure!
