Colorado Dreaming

For family ski fun, Snowmass and Beaver Creek steal the show.

- By Terry Ward

Particularly when kids are still in their earliest years on skis, goes one argument, there’s no need to teach them to schuss at the grandest resorts. Ostensibly any resort with a chair liftand a ski school (or someone to teach them the basic positions of pizza and French fries) will do. Or will it?

As a mother of two young children, ages 4 and 5 years and just learning to ski, I advise throwing that advice out the window in favor of an utterly stress-free ski holiday at two of the most luxurious and accommodating Colorado resorts. For an epic family ski trip from Denver, embark on a road trip to Snowmass and Beaver Creek, as we did.

Ski vacations with kids require a lot of work, but these two spots excel at making the many moving parts as effortless as possible with top-notch programs, world-class instructors and full-service facilities that do pretty much everything but plant your poles in your turns for you.

After picking up our SUV at Denver Airport, my husband and I set off for Snowmass with our young kids, Nico and Gabi. It would be the first time on skis for the three of them, and I needed to make the introduction to my favorite winter sport as appealing as possible to guarantee a repeat family attempt.