Fat Tire Bikes, Cross-Country Skiing and Luxe Touches at Hotel Telluride

Just because you like a little luxury doesn’t mean it can’t also include a dose of outdoor adventure. The Hotel Telluride, a 59-room luxury, chalet-style boutique hotel in Colorado’s Telluride ski area, created a new Skinny Skis & Fat Tires’ backcountry adventure package with your family in mind.

The backcountry adventure experience, designed in partnership with San Juan Outdoor Adventures — a Telluride-based company permitted by the USDA Forest Service — takes advantage of the area’s terrain, known as a mecca for winter sports enthusiasts.

The Skinny Skis & Fat Tires package offers full-day excursions combining both sports — no experience required. Gear is provided and the experience is designed to help you enjoy the untouched, natural surroundings.

For those who don’t know, fat bikes are ride-anywhere bicycles with oversized tires (nearly five inches wide) and thick tire traction that can ride just about anywhere, including snowy trails.

Of course, Telluride also offers plenty of downhill skiing or snowboarding, but this adventure is designed to lure beginners and experts to explore the region beyond the slopes.

Colorado in winter. Photo: Anton Petrus | Dreamstime.com

As skiers already know, half the fun of outdoor snow sports is warming up at day’s end. The package includes spiked hot chocolate, made with Telluride Distilling Company’s Chairlift Warmer Peppermint Schnapps, or a Telluride Brewing Company beer, served with a snack by a roaring fire in The Hotel Telluride’s lobby. The package also includes a four-night stay in a signature room, complete with a private balcony, many overlooking the San Juan Mountains; daily breakfast; two guided full-day backcountry experiences with packed lunch provided by The Hotel Telluride’s West End Bistro; and après ski.

On the days of the excursions, guests meet in the lobby for complimentary coffee and tea, and receive two The Hotel Telluride water bottles, sunscreen and hand and toe warmers before being picked up by a San Juan Outdoor Adventures guide and driven to the trailheads.

In addition to fat bikes and cross-country skis, the equipment includes helmets and personalized instruction. Available Dec. 20, 2019–April 30, 2020, the deal is priced from $1,698, double occupancy.

First timers to Telluride will find not only a famous concentration of nose-bleed-high ski mountains — we’re talking 13,000–14,000-foot peaks —but also a quaint Victorian-era mining town turned posh retreat, full of gourmet restaurants and one-of-a-kind boutiques. The Hotel Telluride, off of Telluride’s main street, offers easy access to the town and the slopes.

Best of all, this year would-be visitors will find getting to Telluride is easier than ever with new flight service between Denver (DEN) and Telluride Regional Airport, a once-daily round-trip flight by Denver Air Connection, partnered with United Airlines. Nonstop winter service is also available from American Airlines and United into Montrose Regional Airport, located 65 miles from Telluride and accessible via private ground transportation on a 75-minute scenic route over the Dallas Divide mountain pass, with views of the 14,158-foot Mount Sneffels and Sneffels Range. Charter and private aircrafts can also fly directly into Telluride Regional Airport. The flight time is approximately 45 minutes from Denver.