YOUR AD HERE »

Aspen Times Weekly: Cool hotels for every traveler

by Aimee White Beazley
� Kevin Syms
Kevin Syms |

Sometimes the best part of a traveling is the hotel experience, enhancing a stay with adventure, experiences, perfect views or rare art.

For art lovers there are hotels around the world with incredible collections, including:

• Windsor Court Hotel (New Orleans) houses an $8 million art collection with original works by 18th-century British artists Reynolds, Gainsborough and Huysman.



• Rome Cavalieri’s (Rome) Beauvais tapestries (the only other examples on public display are at the Met in New York and Getty Museum in Los Angeles), Tiepolo cycle, and other works ranging from the 16th-century to modern-day and Old Masters, to French antiques to rare tapestries, sculpture and ceramics.

• The Strand Hotel (NYC) has a vast collection of Condé Nast photography from the VOGUE archives.




• The Park South (NYC) boasts a contemporary photo series titled “City Respite: Exploring 7 of Manhattan’s Greatest Parks” by photographer Nicole Capobianco, who was commissioned to shoot the NYC parks. Depicted in the series is NYC’s seven parks including the High Line, Central Park, Bryant Park, Madison Square Park, Union Square, Washington Square Park and Battery Park.

• Waldorf Astoria’s (NYC) Basildon Room is spectacularly paneled and features a frescoed ceiling that was painstakingly disassembled from the British estate, Basildon Hall.

• Kitano Hotel (NYC) features a massive, Botero dog sculpture for guests to marvel at in the lobby. Some say that rubbing its nose brings good luck.

• The Aloft South Beach (Miami) offers a backdrop of art walls throughout the property that display colorful rotating murals by rising street artists from Miami’s edgy Wynwood neighborhood. The program extends to other areas in the hotel featuring a variety of fashion-forward photographic prints along the corridors and in every room.

In Colorado there are equally cool places to call home for a few nights. A few favorites:

• The Colorado Chautauqua (Boulder) opened in 1898 and is a historic 26-acre compound made up of 100 cottages, a restaurant, an auditorium and a large park at the foot of Boulder’s mountains, the Flatirons. Originally opened with rustic tents, it now has restored cottages with historic charm. The cottages have no phones, televisions or computers, but cell phone coverage and Wi-Fi service are excellent. Chautauqua also gives immediate access to Boulder’s famed open space and jaw-dropping vistas.

• The Broadmoor’s luxurious new Cloud Camp (Colorado Springs) is located 3,000 feet above the storied hotel on Cheyenne Mountain. Guests check-in at the Broadmoor and are then transferred to Cloud Camp by a four-wheel drive vehicle, on the back of a mule or by a guided three-hour hike. Cloud Camp sits at 9,200 feet and sleeps 56 guests. For a truly unique experience, stay in the Fire Tower Suite, a suite located at the top of the historic Colorado fire tower with 360 degree views of the Rockies and Pikes Peak.

• Far View Lodge (Mesa Verde) is located in Mesa Verde National Park, which is a one-of-a-kind destination in itself, but staying at the lodge will enhance that experience even more. Located 15 miles inside the park, the Far View Lodge has 150 rooms, each without the distractions of an in-room television or cellphone service. Instead, guests spend the day viewing wildlife, exploring the Park’s extraordinary cliff dwellings and looking at the scenery of four different states.

• Tennessee Pass Cookhouse (Leadville) can be accessed by cross-country skiing, snowshoeing or hiking. While there, guests can enjoy a delicious four-course meal while viewing the sunset over the mountains. Tennessee Pass Cookhouse also offers sleep yurts, each with its own kitchenette, hand-crafted log beds, cozy linens and more for those looking for a cool mountain adventure.

• The Bivvi (Breckenridge) is a mountain lodge with six classic hotel rooms and four rooms designed to serve as a contemporary hostel complete with cozy bunk beds that are custom-made from Norwegian pine, as well as personal reading lanterns and privacy curtains. Guests enjoy relaxing back at the Bivvi — hanging out at the community fire pit or in the hot tub while sharing tales of the day with other travelers.

• The Curtis (Denver) is the capitol city’s only “pop culture hotel.” The Curtis recently underwent a $7 million renovation last summer and upgraded all 336 guest rooms and the lobby. On the 13 themed guest floors, the hotel created “hyper-themed” suites that include a “Star Trek Enterprise” suite on the “Sci-Fi” floor, a “Ghostbusters” suite on the “Dun Dun Dunnnnn” floor and a “Talladega Nights: suite on the “Pedal to the Medal” floor.

• The Outlook Lodge (Green Mountain Falls) is situated northwest of Colorado Springs. The six-room Outlook Lodge is a Victorian style, private, hidden escape, with a view of Pikes Peak in the distance. A sister property, The Little Beaver Inn, originally a motor lodge built in the 1950s, opened earlier this year as a five-room property in Green Mountain Falls in Pikes Peak National Forest.

• Two Rivers Winery & Chateau (Grand Junction) brings a bit of France to the Western Slope. Surrounded by vineyards, this 10-room chateau offers upscale lodging with great views of Colorado National Monument, the Bookcliff Mountain Range and Grand Mesa.

Amiee White Beazley writes about travel for the Aspen Times Weekly. Reach her at awb@awbeazley.com

Aspen Times Weekly

Bar Talk: sway Thai

sway opened its Aspen doors at the beginning of February with nine cocktails on the menu including some options not offered in Austin, such as a Thai coffee martini, fitting in with this mountain town’s espresso martini infatuation.



See more