We’re taking you skiing in Breckenridge on a quick weekend trip to enjoy the snow and crisp mountain air. We took this trip in March which is one of the snowiest seasons making it the perfect time to go skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado. We are not expert skiers! In fact, this was the very first time we tried cross country skiing and we loved it! We went skiing at the Breckenridge Nordic Center and would highly recommend it! The runs were smooth and fun, and they have skiing classes if you’re interested in learning the fundamentals before getting out there. We’d also recommend that or you’ll be falling all over the place like we were.

There’s so much fun to be had on a trip to Breckenridge Colorado above just skiing. There are tons of places to eat and drink, a forest troll to see, and even a winery – just make sure to make reservations and plan to drive in snowy, icy conditions.

Skiing in Breckenridge – Episode Transcript

2 (58s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today, we are taking you to the Colorado mountain town of Breckenridge.

1 (1m 6s):
So we actually try to take this weekend trip before, and we were unsuccessful in the past due to a major snowstorm that canceled our flights. And so we had to rebook and see this trip through a year later, but Breckenridge is a paradise for snow activities, and we really wanted to see it in the snow, which is why we pick to go in the month of March.

3 (1m 28s):
Yeah. So Breckenridge is located just west of Denver in the Rocky mountains. And if you’ve never heard of Breckenridge, you can equate it to probably like Aspen Vale, even tell you ride in Colorado is starting to become really popular. So Breckenridge is in those top four that I just mentioned right there of ski and snowboard resort destinations mountain towns in Colorado. And we had a really, really good time. And it’s only about what is it, Brittany, an hour and a half west of Denver. So not too far.

1 (1m 58s):
So we’re going to start off the episodes as usual with some tips for you. And we’re going to dive right in

2 (2m 3s):
Brittany’s favorite tip, download offline maps.

1 (2m 6s):
I mean, you really can’t go wrong with down lighting offline maps. I’ve said that over and over and over again, probably in every single episode, but you never know what you’re going to get. If you’re gonna lose reception out in the mountains while you’re on trails. So it’s really nice to download those offline maps that you can still navigate and knock it loss.

3 (2m 23s):
And we kind of mentioned this a little bit ago, as we were doing the intro. Brittany said it March is the snowiest month statistically of the year. So we went in March. So know that if you go during that time, that’s when it should be the most abundant with snow and you being snowed on which we actually were. There was a big storm that came in as we were leaving.

2 (2m 43s):
I’m a little conflicted on if I would recommend someone to go in March, because first major, crazy snow storm canceled our trip. Very last minute, strike one. Then we plan this trip. The weather’s looking pretty good. It’s not getting too crazy, but as soon as we get up to it, boom, snowstorm snow every day, which is great. And I think having the snowfall on us as we’re out there was really nice, but it also caused really crazy driving conditions on the freeways. And then something that we wanted to see was closed because of the storm. So that was annoying. And then just being outside, I don’t know, it was really cold and maybe April would have been better.

1 (3m 23s):
See, I don’t mind the cold, but yeah, I would say like March in hindsight, I would probably pick a different month, maybe February or April. I still want to enjoy the snow, but I don’t want my trip to potentially get canceled or for me to get snowed in.

3 (3m 37s):
See, these girls are talking about it in the sense that they’re not snowboarders or skiers. Yes, we did some snow activity, cross country skiing, but it’s not really the same. So what we wanted to do on the strip, I guess maybe that’s the reason why we’re talking. I don’t know about mark, but if you’re from the area, I guess you already know about Breckinridge would probably not listening to this episode anyway, but just keep that in mind. But keeping with that same theme of the weather, rent a vehicle with all wheel drive or four wheel drive, you’re definitely going to want it and need it.

2 (4m 5s):
This is something that we learned when we were out there walking as it’s snowing. Definitely, definitely, definitely wear sunglasses.

1 (4m 12s):
Yes, it’s super bright. And so just to have the sunglasses to protect your eyes as helpful, and when the snow’s just blown all crazy and snowing on you, it’s nice to have a mask on too. It’s like the only time you really want to wear a mask because all of that, snow’s not going onto your face.

2 (4m 27s):
The sunglasses really protect your eyes. Cause like snow was beaming right into my eyeballs.

3 (4m 32s):
Well, when it was snowing and rather windy, yeah, it was coming in and it hurt. But also in the same thought, if the sun happens to be peeking out in the clouds, go a little bit, just imagine the sun reflecting on all that white it’s bright and it hurts your eyes to even just look, you can’t even focus. So you do want some sort of eye protection and Iowa

2 (4m 52s):
Where that sunscreen too.

3 (4m 54s):
I need the sunscreen. Luckily for me it was cold. So all of my body was covered except for my face. So you do want to really put sunscreen on your face cause you’ll get a nasty burn, especially with that reflection off the snow too.

1 (5m 5s):
Another tip is that Breckenridge is a very expensive city to stay in. And so to save some money, you may want to stay outside of the city center or in a nearby town. We actually stayed in Frisco, which was about 15 to 20 minutes away.

2 (5m 18s):
That’s a really good money saving tip because Breckenridge is very expensive. We looked at hotels like the night of on hotels tonight. Usually you have good deals last minute bookings. But I think the only one available was like $650 a night.

1 (5m 31s):
It wasn’t even good. Yeah.

3 (5m 33s):
And I wasn’t going to say like, even ahead, when we were looking, it was so much more dramatically expensive. The closest town right off the freeway is Frisco. And what is that about 15, 20 minutes from Breckenridge and easily. Your hotel price is going to be cut in half. So if you’re willing to do that, it’s a good way to save money. Stay 20 minutes away.

1 (5m 51s):
Something I didn’t know, until we got to Breckenridge is it’s actually at an altitude of 9,600 feet. And so you may experience some minor altitude sickness symptoms while we were there. Kim actually said she could feel her hands and feet tingling a little bit.

2 (6m 5s):
Yeah. The tips of my fingertips almost were like hurting how weird it felt. And then we were out of breath a lot too.

1 (6m 11s):
Yes. We were like going up the gondola. I was definitely out of breath.

3 (6m 15s):
See, for me, I really didn’t feel it at that point until we started doing cross country skiing. And then when drinking got involved after the fact too, that’s when I really felt it. And I forgot what the science is behind it. But basically they say, you know, it’s not very wise if you’re not acclimated or used to that type of altitude, they’re consistently that the drinking hits you harder and you’re more likely to get a headache and a hangover, even if you don’t drink a lot.

2 (6m 38s):
And we all did get a headache too. Ooh. Another money saving tip for you is we discovered through trial and error that parking on the streets is actually a lot cheaper than parking in the parking garages and lots. So if you can go around the block to the street side of the main drag and you’ll find street parking for a lot cheaper, and then all the money that you save on parking, you can put towards the dispensaries because marijuana is legal in Colorado.

1 (7m 5s):
Oh, that’s funny.

3 (7m 7s):
And they were the first one in the U S I mean, I guess we got to throw it out there. Right. And if you don’t think snowboarders and skiers are doing that, you’re sorely mistaken. So I guess that’s a little tidbit for you guys to know,

1 (7m 18s):
Like we said earlier, Breckenridge is only an hour and a half away from Denver and it’s known for its ski resort, snowboarding, skiing, cross country skiing, but it’s also known for year round for its Alpine activities and the gold rush history. And so when we got to reckon Ridge, we really wanted to go down the main street and just get a feel for the town and main streets, really beautiful. The buildings are very colorfully painted. They’re from the 1880s, 1890s, and they have shops and galleries and restaurants, whole bunch of things to see on main street.

3 (7m 51s):
It was just really nice to go through that drag and really just see the snow falling that buildings being made of wood. It just really felt, and obviously this is so silly because we were, but felt like we were up in the mountains and it just like completed the whole ambience and vibe and made it really enjoyable in that sense of things. I really liked that it’s quaint if it was not snowing at that point in time, I would have said like, we should just walk the stretch, but with the snow, it made it a little bit more colder or felt a little bit more cold there and didn’t want to do it at that time.

1 (8m 20s):
So what did we do first guys?

2 (8m 22s):
First thing that we did when we got into Breckenridge was ride the gondola for free.

1 (8m 28s):
Yeah. So the gondola to get to the top is free. If you want to snowboard or ski down at, you do have to have those passes. But if you just want to take it up and taken the ambience and check out the restaurants or grab a drink up there completely free.

2 (8m 42s):
It’s a pretty cool gondola. It’s like the most high tech largest gondola I’ve ever been on with multiple stops and really great views when you’re at the top to,

3 (8m 51s):
Yeah, you want to get off on the third stop? Is it not? Yes. And that’s where you’re at the top and then there’s hotels and resorts. And then you have the paid for ski lifts. If you’re going to really ski and snowboard. One thing that was a little upsetting because we wanted to ride it to the top. Obviously it’s free. Get the view, just get the whole entire ambiance, but it is so crowded up there. And what I mean by that is obviously yes, people are there to ski and snowboard, but what few hotels they have and minimal restaurants, like they’re all crowded. If you want to go and get a drink, whether it be like a beer bloody Mary, or even warm up with a hot chocolate everywhere that we went, had a line of at least 25 plus minutes just to wait.

3 (9m 31s):
And that was a little upsetting to me. I was like, kind of takes away from the whole vibe of it.

2 (9m 36s):
Yeah. I would have loved to get a coffee and like chill and hang out a bit up there, but the lines were way too long. And every place that we did go into every table was full. There was nowhere

1 (9m 45s):
To sit outside.

2 (9m 47s):
Yeah. Outside seating in the snow with no heaters.

1 (9m 51s):
Yeah. You know, it would’ve been nice if like the patio or deck was covered, even if it just had like something above us and then a heater on the patio that probably would have been doable for me.

2 (10m 0s):
I think maybe it’s still developing and it hasn’t caught up with the attention that it’s gotten and how many people are coming in. Because I think Breckenridge and Denver, even as well, way under utilized their outdoor space.

1 (10m 13s):
Yeah, absolutely. Like when we were coming back to Denver, I feel like there wasn’t a lot of outdoor activities, especially in winter,

2 (10m 19s):
I can see like all glass windows being heated inside, but still like be able to take in the outside would be so nice there because of the views. Yeah. Nowhere. How did that,

1 (10m 29s):
But the gondola ride, the views were amazing and it’s a pretty long ride. It’s 13 minutes each way. And you travel about 7,500 feet and you have a left of about 400 feet. So my favorite thing to do, and whenever we get to the gondola is try to scare the Squatty, my co-host and be like, should I shake it? And then they always take me for that.

2 (10m 52s):
This one was kind of crazy though, when it would come into the stop, it would speed up. Then you’re like shaking around in there.

1 (10m 58s):
Yeah. It was crazy. And the gondolas open from mid June to mid September and then again from early November to early may. So it does shut down for the, at least for the month of October. And I think they just do like restoration during that time.

2 (11m 13s):
Next thing we did was really what we came here wanting to do. And that was cross-country ski never tried it. We didn’t take any lessons. We didn’t watch any videos. We just jumped on those skis and went to town.

1 (11m 26s):
Well, you were in the bathroom, Kevin Jamal. And I actually did scan a video that they had and that you could, like, I think it was like a QR code or YouTube. And I just like watched the first two or three minutes, but she kind of showed me like how to stop and like how to control your skis. I thought that was pretty helpful. And if we were to do this again, or for anyone that’s going for the first time, definitely watch a YouTube video before you go.

3 (11m 45s):
So I love to snowboard. It’s been a long time since I’ve done it, if I’m going to be completely honest, but I’m good enough to be able to make my down the hill without falling. Am I going off any jumps and doing anything crazy? Absolutely not. I’m not at that level. So I thought to myself, you know what, I kind of have my bearings a little bit cross country skiing. It’s going to be fun. What am I doing? All I’m doing is really kind of like gliding. So it’s not like I skating, but I’m really in a sense, just gliding on the snow, like out in nature. And I thought, oh, this can’t be too bad. It was fucking hard. Like really, really hard. That training video that Britney was talking about did me no good. I thought to myself, okay, this will be fine. But what I do think was an issue because I heard a lot of people say this on the little trail area that we did was that the snow was not helping us out at all.

3 (12m 33s):
It was a little sticky. And so when the snow got sticky, it would stay to the bottom of the skis. And then it prevented you from having that smooth glide a little bit. And did you notice, like when we would actually clean it off, we actually had a good little glide to it that made it a little bit easier.

2 (12m 48s):
Yeah. And there was someone giving lessons to a small group and I overheard some of the stuff he was coaching them on how to do it. The little tidbit I got from that coach really helped me just with how to go. I wish I would’ve watched the part of the video on how to stop because that definitely would have been useful.

1 (13m 5s):
And so we went to the Breckenridge Nordic center. And so like Kim said, they do have lessons and then you can get your rentals there as well. And so to do the rental and a trail pass, it was $55 per person for the day. And like we mentioned earlier, they did have a little video lesson that you could watch. We were kind of crunched for time too. Cause we had gotten something to eat. And so we only had about two, two and a half hours to get the most out of our cross country skiing. So we’re like, well, we don’t want to spend time watching this video. And they had people that helps you put your skis on if you’re having some trouble. So that was really nice as well

3 (13m 39s):
At, at certain points on the trail that they have, that you can go around and do the cross-country skiing. It was almost like they created their own track for you to have your skis in. And so that was at the easiest point when we came across those long stretches, if you will, it’s almost like they edged out a spot for us to really put our skis in. And because the snow was so compact, that’s when we started doing it. So we found a hill, not a very, very big hill, but a inclined enough that when you’re at the top of it, you can go down and slide down real nice, but also steep enough that when you’re going up of it, even though it’s smooth, you definitely feel that altitude. And it gave me a headache every time when we went to the top. But that was the funnest point is when we started going downhill and doing our little gliding on that

1 (14m 25s):
Probably with Jenna, like three different times.

2 (14m 27s):
Yes. It was just like Tron at Disneyland and Shanghai again again.

1 (14m 32s):
Yeah. It was really, really fun until Jamal stop and ran right into me. And we both went down.

3 (14m 39s):
No, that’s not, that’s not what

2 (14m 41s):
We actually have a video of it. We posted it on our Instagram too. And so this hill is like, there’s almost two sections of it. There’s the top part, which we went several times and then it goes to an intersection and then the hill continues down. Right. So right at that intersection, it got a little tricky cause that’s where we’re trying to stop, but it’s still downhill and that’s where you’re really like catching speed. So this was a tricky spot. That definitely caught me a few times.

3 (15m 7s):
Oh yeah. Well, did you ever stick the land in Kim? I think you fell every time. Okay. Okay.

2 (15m 12s):
So I go first, I’m trying to pick myself up off the ground. Jamal’s coming down. Oh no. Brittany, you went first. Cause you were filming all of us.

3 (15m 20s):
Yeah, because I went down first the first time because I filmed you ladies come down. So Brittany’s like, I need to film you come down Jamal. So she went in the middle. You, like you said, we’re okay. So you got Kim falling then she was still recovering. Okay.

1 (15m 34s):
I went down first and then I stuck my landing and I was super proud of myself. And I was like, all right, I’m going to pull my phone out. I’m going to get Kim. I’m going to get,

3 (15m 43s):
And I had been sticking my landings too. And I stuck this one. I’m just throwing that. I stuck it. Brittany messed it up. The

2 (15m 49s):
Video is so funny.

1 (15m 51s):
So then Kim comes down, Kim’s doing great until it comes to, to get to the landing. She falls down and in part of the video, it’s like me recording Kim, trying to get up.

2 (16m 2s):
It’s really hard to get up when you fall on these skis.

1 (16m 4s):
And then I turn the camera over to Jamal, who’s coming down the hill and I’m like, yeah, Jamal, good job giving you all this encouragement

2 (16m 12s):
And coming down slow to

3 (16m 14s):
Because I was braking and I pretty much had my stop in place

2 (16m 17s):
Pretty much, but not quite

3 (16m 19s):
Because Brittany fucked it up.

1 (16m 20s):
No, no, I did not. Jamal gets down to the intersection where I’m recording and I’m actually like out of the way. And he he’s about to stick his leaning. He’s really, really close to that. And then all of a sudden I’m like, Hey, you don’t run into me. And he’s like, I’m not. And all of a sudden he flips us both. We both fall back and I get it all in

3 (16m 39s):
The video is great. It was almost like that first person footage stuff that you see in Cloverfield there, Blair, which the camera landed perfectly on the upside for us to like see everything happen. But I’m telling you, I stuck the landing. I was trying to show off and show how precise my sticking of the landing would be and get close to Brittany. Brittany got a little nervous as she even admitted, she said, don’t hit me. So you could tell she kind of got a little scared there. And then basically like I had stuck it, but my skis did not hit her, but I came so close that my skis went under her. She got a little freaked out, lifted her feet. Her skis hit my skis and that’s what caused the fall and I’m sticking to it.

1 (17m 19s):
And I, I

3 (17m 20s):
Was coming in for the kiss on video, Brittany. That’s why I had to do that.

2 (17m 24s):
What’s funny though is before Brittany says don’t run into me. Jamal says coming in hot,

3 (17m 31s):
I did. Well, you know, we’re going to have to put up the video again now. I mean, that was the highlight of it. I loved watching you every time Kim, Paul, except for the one time you stuck it. I stuck it every time. Except for the one time Brittany messed it up for me, but

2 (17m 43s):
I’ll fell a few times, fell in different parts.

3 (17m 46s):
Oh yeah. Well not even on the downhill, sometimes you just fall. I was trying to get my stride and do it like in the flow that they do. And it’s, it’s tough. I was watching some guy just like cruising on through him. Like how the hell are these people?

2 (17m 58s):
No, I think there’s a different type of ski. We had like two options, the sports

1 (18m 3s):
Skimming, my classic and performer or something,

2 (18m 5s):
Something like that. And I think these people had the other kind because they were just like moving their feet side to side, going super fast

3 (18m 14s):
Olympians compared to us. And it

2 (18m 15s):
Wasn’t straight skiing. Like we were doing like foot, foot, foot. It was put to the side, which is a side.

1 (18m 21s):
Yeah. I never got that down. I feel like they’re kind of like, I mean, they’re not really even that bulky, but they’re so long that you really have to get a good rhythm down to get that, that movement down. We didn’t get that.

2 (18m 33s):
Nope. Maybe not.

3 (18m 34s):
It was definitely fun, but I’ve, I would try it again. Only if somebody told me the snow conditions were good. Cause I think that’s no was sticky, but it was hard. Like snowboarding was easier to me than that. Like that was hard.

1 (18m 45s):
I was really surprised that we didn’t see like any tubing and Breckenridge.

2 (18m 50s):
No,

1 (18m 51s):
Like we saw skiing, normal skiing. We saw this snowboarding, we saw the cross country skiing, but like we had such a good time when we were in Boise, snow tubing. And I thought that would have been really fun here. And we didn’t even see, that was an opportunity.

2 (19m 5s):
I’ll say too, with cross-country skiing, the trails that we were on, some of them had some Hills, they weren’t very big Hills or anything, so they weren’t too scary. But that’s what really gave you the momentum and made it fun. So if it was cross-country skiing on flat, I don’t think it would be as much fun. I don’t know if I would enjoy that or want to do that.

3 (19m 24s):
And I hated it. It was hard for us to even move like the highlight was that like what 10% grade? Downhill, probably even less than that, but it was enough to give us the flow, but slow enough.

2 (19m 34s):
Anything higher than that? I don’t, I don’t want it. It’s too fast, but this hill was the perfect size

1 (19m 41s):
And squad tip. Guys. Get a really nice picture with the trees in the background, the snow on the ground, when you’re posing with your gear makes for a nice picture,

2 (19m 53s):
Get yourself a nice snow suit for that picture.

3 (19m 56s):
I was about to say, Kim specifically got a snow suit that looked like it was from the 1980s. And I say that with a common cause like a bright pink and blue with it and it really fit. But it looked like 1980s, mountain town stuff from like movies and hot tub time machine. That’s what it looked like. And I say that in a good way.

2 (20m 14s):
What was that?

1 (20m 15s):
Did it keep you warm?

2 (20m 16s):
Oh, it was extremely warm. Yeah. Which is funny because the portion of the day we went skiing in the sun was beaming down on us. Super hot. So I was like sweating in that thing.

1 (20m 26s):
Yeah. I was debating if I was going to bring like a jacket on top of, I think my fleece and I was like, no, I’m not going to. And I was really glad that I wasn’t. Cause I was hot. Like you really work up a sweat.

3 (20m 38s):
Interestingly enough, the time that we actually did the physical activity is when the sun decided to shine and it stopped snowing. So like then it started warming up even more because we’re doing physical activity and the sun was out every other time, then it was just snowing and then cloud covered. Yeah.

1 (20m 52s):
But the Brackenridge Nordic center, the people there were really nice and helpful, like getting you your rentals and making sure you have the right size. And I remember the person, like he even remembered our names when we returned our rentals. And I thought that was really nice and personable

3 (21m 10s):
Dave and gave me a free coffee. Yeah. I was asking like, oh, it’s the coffee fresh. Like you guys have coffee. And then she was like, oh, it was maybe brewed about like 30 minutes ago. And I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, I’ll take it. And I don’t know if it was because I asked about the freshness or whatever. And she was like, oh, I don’t want to charge him. And maybe he’ll complain. I was fine with 30 minutes. And then they ended up giving it to me. I was so grateful for it. So I really liked the Breckenridge Nordic center because I agree with Brittany sentiment. Like they were really nice, really friendly and I would recommend going there

2 (21m 39s):
And it was busy, but it wasn’t as busy and crazy as it was up on the mountain. We didn’t have to wait to get help. There was a little bit of food. I think being sold there too. And they had some really cute chairs to sit on in front of their fireplace. It would have been nice to hang out there a little bit longer if we had time. Yeah,

1 (21m 55s):
We have the time. Absolutely. But we didn’t have time. We had to move on. We really wanted to do a little snow hike to see the Breckinridge troll and the Breckinridge troll has a name. His name is Isaac Hart stone and he’s a 15 foot wooden troll sculpture on the troll stigen trail.

3 (22m 11s):
They named the trail after the troll,

1 (22m 13s):
I guess. So

3 (22m 14s):
Nice little pond. They have,

1 (22m 15s):
Well, apparently the troll used to be somewhere else in Breckenridge and he was super easy to get to, but it was causing like a lot of tourists to just come and take a whole bunch of photos and copy

3 (22m 25s):
Traffic

1 (22m 25s):
Jams because there’s not a lot of bass. And so they moved him onto a trail. So you have to work a little bit to get to him.

3 (22m 31s):
It doesn’t the artist who created it. Isaac heart stone. Didn’t he create trolls and other cities too.

1 (22m 37s):
I the cartoons, the name of the troll.

3 (22m 39s):
Oh, well what’s, who’s the name of the artist because it didn’t the artist create the troll and other places.

1 (22m 45s):
Yeah. There are other trolls in other cities. I was actually posting on our Instagram and one of my friends reached out to me who lives in Ohio and she goes, oh, I went to go see the troll. And she showed me a picture. It looked pretty much the same.

2 (22m 56s):
Oh wow. There was quite a few mesmerizing sculptures that caught Jamal’s attention.

3 (23m 1s):
What was the other one?

2 (23m 3s):
Don’t you remember at the ski place? There was like some kind of statue.

3 (23m 7s):
Oh yes. After the gondola. Yeah. Between the hotels and the shops that they had at the free gondola, they had this one statue that was made out of metal and it was almost like a warrior of sorts and he was shooting like a crossbow, but it just, yeah, I was mesmerized by that. I forgot all about it, but yes I was. So Breckenridge is an artsy city apparently with sculptures and street art.

1 (23m 30s):
So it’s only about a five minute walk to get from the parking lot to the troll. And you just want to make sure while you’re there not to climb on him so that you don’t ruin him and can leave opportunities for other people to take pictures with him. But it’s a great photo op to take a photo with a troll. Hey travelers, let’s take a quick detour to talk all about our Travel Itineraries that we’ve created just for you. We now have six different trip itineraries one week in Kauai

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We have story highlights on our Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, where you can see the full guides. We’ve done all of the research and have taken these exact trips, taking out all of the guesswork from the planning. So all that you have to do is show up and have fun

3 (24m 47s):
And purchase your comprehensive Travel Squad Podcast, itinerary on our website at Travel Squad, Podcast dot com, best of all, they’re on sale right now for $30. So travel on over and get yours today. Quite honestly, I feel like Breckenridge is centered around, like we said, the snow activities. So if you’re not going to be skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, or cross country skiing like we did, you know, that downtown is very, very nice, very walkable, lots of mom and pop shops that I really appreciated. But one of the things that you have to do, obviously we all have to do it is eat. And we were trying to find the best places to eat in Breckenridge. And why don’t we talk a little bit about that?

2 (25m 27s):
There are a lot of places to choose from for a small town. They have a ton of bars and restaurants here. And so you’ll have plenty of options, plenty of different food choices, but because it was so cold, we were craving like warm food to warm us up. So we wanted, fuck, we just didn’t know lunch dinner to beating back and forth. So we chose American for lunch and we went to the canteen, taphouse and Tavern.

1 (25m 49s):
It’s actually one of the oldest buildings on main street.

2 (25m 52s):
I felt like every restaurant here kind of looked the same interior wise

3 (25m 56s):
When we saw photos online, when we were looking of where we wanted to eat. I agree with that. But we passed so many just on our little walks that we did that. Like we would say a name of one and I would forget where one was because they had a lot of like American style bars. They had one place that had what, like over a hundred beers on tap too. And I thought we were going to go to that one when we chose this one, but it wasn’t, but that’s okay. I still really liked this one. So a lot of them are the same when it comes to the American style, kind of like that bar restaurants. But they have a lot of ethnic cuisine there too. Like you said, we were trying to get fucked. Cause we wanted something to warm our soul, but we know Kim and us too, for that matter, we like tie food. So it was an internal debate.

3 (26m 36s):
It’s like, what’s going to warm our soul more. We always do Thai, but we know Ty’s going to be good. Should we switch it up and do like a soup and do FA and we ended up settling on the thought, but you have a lot of good options to choose from.

1 (26m 47s):
But at the canteen tap house, the chicken tortilla soup was really good.

2 (26m 52s):
Really good. Yeah.

1 (26m 52s):
Really enjoyed that. And then Kim and I also got a dry dock apricot blonde beer. That was also really good.

2 (26m 58s):
Very good.

3 (26m 59s):
The beers were great. Gave me a headache though. And we’re like we said earlier, do keep that in mind the altitude, if you’re not used to it. And after we did physical activity definitely kicks in a little bit.

1 (27m 9s):
Yeah. Someone was saying to us, like if you normally feel a buzz off of, to only drink one and see how you feel, cause Altitude’s going to hit you. But then for dinner, we decided to get fun. Kim had never had fun before. So this was her first experience. And we went to a place called peak of Asia and got fun and spring rolls and egg rolls.

3 (27m 29s):
How was your fall experience camp?

2 (27m 31s):
I’m glad that I had the experience, but I wish we would’ve gotten Thai food,

3 (27m 36s):
Thai food. Well, we were also even talking at the same time. We, I think we all prefer ramen over FA too. And so there was even a debate of talk of like, well, should we get ramen? Cause there was ramen places.

2 (27m 48s):
Oh,

3 (27m 48s):
I thought there was

2 (27m 49s):
No, that’s kind of crazy for a mountain town. That’s snowy. There’s no ramen.

3 (27m 53s):
Okay. I feel like on the menu we saw something that had ramen, but maybe it wasn’t a ramen place. And so it was just one thing on, but I could be just confusing myself. I

2 (28m 2s):
Think we would have went with ramen if we could have.

1 (28m 4s):
I think so too, but we didn’t, there was no option,

3 (28m 7s):
But don’t let Kim discourage you. I mean, I did enjoy peak of Asia. Kim’s always partial to Thai. So I think that’s why she actually says it. But how were those spring rolls that you got those spring rolls were prime time.

2 (28m 19s):
Those were great.

1 (28m 20s):
Spring rolls and egg rolls or

2 (28m 22s):
Actually they gave it to me in a way that I never had it before. Really? They give you a big piece of lettuce. It’s

3 (28m 30s):
It’s like a romaine lettuce

2 (28m 31s):
Romaine lettuce heart. Yeah. And then they give you cilantro and I think mint or something and you eat it like a little taco. And that was an amazing experience.

3 (28m 40s):
I’ve had spring rolls. That way more particularly at Vietnamese restaurants, they do that. And I love it that way as that little bit of freshness to it. And that’s really good. Yeah.

1 (28m 50s):
And before we went to dinner that day, we also went to a brewery called at broken compass brewing company. And Kim and I both got the mango passion, fruit sour. That was also good.

2 (28m 59s):
I liked that place. They had big long table benches and you, it was like community kind of style. Cause they were so big and it was a lot of people in there there’s families in there. It was nice.

3 (29m 9s):
There’s lots of breweries out there. There was like two other main ones where they’re not. So it was hard to choose. But I mean, we had a jam packed day. We drove that morning from Denver. Then we obviously did the cross country skiing, getting food, drinking all in between. So we weren’t at the point where we were going to bar hop. We actually tried, I don’t want to forget to talk about this. They have wine tasting out there and we were trying to go to the place to do the wine tasting, but it was all booked up so we weren’t able to do it. So that’s why we ended up going to the brewery instead.

2 (29m 40s):
That’s right. And so if looking to do wine tasting at what is it, Colorado’s highest winery. They say then definitely make a reservation. They take reservations. And if we had had one or we had an hour to wait, then we could have gotten in. But if you plan for it, you can get in.

1 (29m 57s):
So there’s a lot of things to do in Breckenridge in the winter. Like we talked about sledding tubing,

2 (30m 3s):
Tubing,

1 (30m 4s):
Not if you do something with, with a company, but if you brought your own materials, there are places to go. Tubing, snowboarding, skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing. And at Breckenridge Nordic center, you did have the option to rent snowshoes. If you wanted to. And while we were on the gondola, as we were going up, we saw people snowshoeing, you can even go ice, fishing, dog flooding.

2 (30m 29s):
Why didn’t we do dog sledding?

3 (30m 32s):
Because you , we’re so hyped up on cross country skiing from last year that I think you guys just wanted to put that into fruition.

2 (30m 40s):
I have always wanted to go dog sledding.

1 (30m 43s):
The next time we go on a winter vacation, we’re going to have to do dog flooding. They also have snowcat tours and Breckenridge has an international snow sculpture championship that takes place every January.

3 (30m 55s):
I would love to go to the snow sculpture championship. Not that fact that it’s like a championship, but I would just love to see the snow sculptures. I think that would be really cool. And I wonder if there’s like ice carvings there too, that they

2 (31m 5s):
Do.

3 (31m 6s):
Yeah. Yeah. Shots down that way.

2 (31m 9s):
It’s another one of my dreams like bucket list things. I want to have a drink out of an ice luge.

3 (31m 14s):
Can you imagine if they do a drink out of an ice luge and they also light it on fire? So it’s just like down the slide for you. That’d be great. But by the time it gets to you, it’s so cool that the fire dies out, but it’s like

2 (31m 24s):
A

3 (31m 24s):
Special effect. We should just create it and do it ourselves. That’s

2 (31m 27s):
Crazy.

1 (31m 29s):
And Breckenridge, you can visit any time of year. You don’t have to go in the winter for the winter activity is if you prefer summer warmer weather, they have hiking biking. They have a summer beer festival, a summer food and wine festival, whitewater rafting, summer dog sledding, fly fishing, kayaking and stand up, paddle boarding and even golfing in the area.

3 (31m 49s):
And how do you do summer dog sledding? Is there still snow? And they’re taking you to high elevations or instead of a sled that uses like little rails for the snow, do they have wheels? And they let the dogs pull me like, I’m really confused by that summer dog sledding

1 (32m 3s):
Dogs in shape all year round,

3 (32m 5s):
I guess. So we didn’t get to do any of this, but this is in the area of Breckenridge. And I would be remiss if I didn’t bring it up. Cause you know, the squad likes to find hot Springs. If we can, there’s hot Springs around there cam you wanted to do it for whatever reason we didn’t end up doing it. But why don’t you tell people a little bit about the hot Springs that around there

2 (32m 24s):
There’s a couple within probably like an hour or so of Breckenridge, maybe a little bit less for some of them they have a couple. So one is more of like an indoor style. I think that one’s like 45 minutes from Denver. So just about halfway between that one looked cool. The indoor aspect was a little interesting. Again, I feel like they under utilize their outdoor space, but they did have hot tub kind of things out in the outside too. And then they have a more natural one, I believe. I don’t know why we didn’t go. I think they were just kind of out of the way. And like we were talking about it to kill some time, but

1 (32m 57s):
The reason why we, I think we didn’t go is because we had our hearts that’s to go to Colorado Springs to see the pueblos and like the cliff dwellings. And so we were focused on getting there and I think we had passed them by the time we realized we should call and make sure they were open and they were closed because of the snow

3 (33m 14s):
And ride that’s right. And we didn’t want to backtrack on that, but they have hot Springs in the area too. So if the other type of activities, aren’t really your cup of tea, it’s a beautiful mountain town quaint downtown. And you can do the hot spring action. But keeping to the point of what you said, Kim, about under utilization of outdoor space. I know we talked about it like on the mountain, in that area I felt in Denver’s downtown area. They really didn’t utilize it either. I forgot what street it is, but it’s closed if I’m not mistaken, two cars. So it’s a pedestrian one and they have lots of restaurants shops on there and they have outdoor seating areas, no doubt. But during winter, like I get that it’s cold.

3 (33m 54s):
But if you had like a cover and heaters, I would choose to sit out there or like even like the glass fire pits that they have. Like I think that would be nice. I think that’s something that you ride as under utilized in the Denver Breckenridge area is outdoor usage even in winter.

2 (34m 10s):
Yeah. I mean, even in the summer you would think they would want shade with a cover. There are no covers.

1 (34m 15s):
Yeah. They’re just really not using their outdoor space. Well,

2 (34m 19s):
We did not go to any rooftop bars while here, unfortunately, but maybe next time

3 (34m 24s):
Going back to high tea though. Yes

2 (34m 26s):
We were. We were, so this is why I’m not sold on March because we were going to, what were we going to do on Sunday?

1 (34m 35s):
We were going to go to Colorado Springs and see the cliff dwelling,

2 (34m 38s):
The cliff dwellings. Yeah. Manitoba Springs. That’s where it was. And it looked really cool. I’ve always wanted to go to Mesa Verde national park and it totally looked like that. And then there was the garden of the gods nearby there too, but the pueblos was closed because of the snow. And then we didn’t want to go to garden of the gods because the road conditions were getting kind of crazy and that we weren’t even sure if that was going to be open. So we did not go there. So we went back to Denver. We were kind of just killing time because our flight was at night, really late at night actually. And even in Denver, like we went and saw the Capitol and that was cool, but it’s snowy, it’s cold. And I just kind of decided Denver is not on the top of my list of cities.

1 (35m 19s):
We went to Denver before and we kind of had the same experience. Yeah. We like took a Monday off and our flight was a little late and we’re like, oh, we’re really going to explore the downtown area. And we went to different areas and we had a good time, but I felt like there wasn’t a lot to do to fill up our time. Right.

3 (35m 34s):
And that’s one of the things about Denver. There’s lots to do, but not in Denver central like 45 minutes, hour away and all like radius around it. But in terms of like true downtown, it is just a downtown and other than like restaurants, you know, we even went to a brewery to kill time until we eventually got Southwest to get us onto an earlier flight. And we were asking even our waitress in the brewery and she was having a hard time figuring out recommendations for us to do with things close by. There was the ax throwing and indoor mini golf, pup pup, which that pup pup we were about to do until Southwest was able to switch us on to an earlier flight.

2 (36m 12s):
Yeah. So, and that would have been fun. The mini golf and Thai food we were going to get, but let’s talk about this Southwest experience because this was kind of crazy way to get our selves home early instead of getting home at like 10:00 PM, we ended up getting home at like six, I think. Yeah. So that was really nice. So we were like, let’s see what it would cost to change our flights online. It was showing one another like 200 bucks per person.

1 (36m 40s):
Yes. But we, what we haven’t mentioned is they changed our flights on us to begin with like that we were originally supposed to leave, I think Monday morning and they changed our flights. So we changed it for free to Sunday night. And then this, the snowstorm happened.

2 (36m 54s):
Yeah. So we can like see online that they are available. And it was weird. Like the times of the flights are several flights out, but the times kept, some of them were booked fully up and then others were available. And then as we kept checking it, it was like changing a little bit. And it was kind of weird. So I couldn’t change my flight online because I bought it with points. And if you buy it with points and if you want to upgrade it, any change fees are also going to be in points. And I didn’t have the points available to make that change. I didn’t have enough. So we had to call, we call once we put our number in for them to call us back, they call back like 30 minutes later, we missed the call,

3 (37m 28s):
Mr. Cole. And they didn’t give a second courtesy call. So I was like so annoyed by that. So we had to call back again, be on hold and wait like another 45 minutes or an hour for them to call us back. And that’s when we were killing time in the brewery,

2 (37m 42s):
That one, we were actually, we went to the Capitol when we were on hold and then we got on the phone and they said, oh, that flight that you’re looking for is, is not available.

3 (37m 52s):
It’s all sold out now because we saw like, there was like five seats originally. And then they told us it was sold out.

2 (37m 57s):
Yeah. So we’re like, fuck. So then we’re like, all right, we’ll go play mini golf, but we’re sitting at the brewery and I’m looking online and I see that flight’s still there. It came back and then it’s changing like two seats left, five seats left. And I’m like, what the hell? So I’m like, we’re going to call again. And we wait another hour on hold while we’re sitting there having our beer, we finally get through and we do get the upgrade and they gave it to us for free.

3 (38m 22s):
Yeah. So we did not have to pay, but it was a debacle of time calling back like three times to finally get it. But we got it for sure.

2 (38m 30s):
That was awesome. I guess something happened with like a plane, maybe wasn’t going to make it. And then that flight was canceled and then they got it back. So that was the reason things were changing. So squad tip for you all persevere, stay on, hold, get your upgrade for free. And we’ve actually called a few times like that with Southwest, where they wave the change.

1 (38m 52s):
And have you guys heard that Southwest is getting a forced here? I

2 (38m 55s):
Have heard something about

1 (38m 57s):
This. They’re actually going to start charging if you want to do same day changes. And so there’s going to be like the wanna get away, which like is the lowest fare. Then they’re going to do something in between where like you can do the same day changes for free included in that price.

2 (39m 13s):
Well, what happened to transparency?

1 (39m 15s):
I dunno. I guess they want to make some money. Maybe they’re realizing like a lot of people are doing same day changes and like maybe they can capture that audience a little bit more and

2 (39m 24s):
They really lost a lot of money when they canceled alcohol.

1 (39m 27s):
Yeah. But you know what? They brought alcohol back.

3 (39m 30s):
Yes.

2 (39m 33s):
Oh yeah.

1 (39m 34s):
So Kim, this is something we haven’t even talked about as a squad, but do you remember when we picked up our rental car in Denver and the back of the car was scratch, scratch.

3 (39m 44s):
Well, scratch. The bumper was trashed a crack in it.

1 (39m 48s):
We landed at like 11. So by the time we got to the rental car center and got our rental car, it was like edging midnight. And then we got in the car and they were like, no, there’s nothing you can do unless you want to go wait in line again. And we’re like, fuck, we’re not waiting in line. Fuck that. And then they’re like, okay, the bumpers noted. No problem. So turns out we called to complain about that. And they ended up giving us a one, a coupon for one day of like free rental for future rental. But then they try to, they did file a claim with our insurance and they sent us a bill for $8,000 saying that thing, that we were the ones that, that wrecked the car,

3 (40m 24s):
I’m pissed. I got a call from my insurance company asking for my statement about the claim. I’m like, what claim are you talking about? They’re like, you rented a car from the Denver airport. Like, oh my God. Around March something I’m like, and then I had just got so fast. Like I’m really pissed about it. So luckily we have the photo, we took a photo of it. It’s timestamped. It’s also geo located. And so we screenshotted that sent it to the insurance company. The insurance company has received from the rental car company, the contract of when we signed it. So like Brittany was saying, I mean, we rented the car by the time, like I actually signed for it. It was like 11:57 PM on what? Like March 3rd, March 4th, whatever date it was, doesn’t really matter.

3 (41m 5s):
And then they can see the photo timestamp is 12:03 AM on March 5th. You know, like the very next day at the Denver airport. So unless they think I wrecked the car in six minutes in the parking lot, like my insurance company is like, like, of course, you know, and I’m like, they, they noted it to me. And not only that

2 (41m 22s):
He said, it’s already on here.

3 (41m 24s):
Yeah. And they’re trying to hit me with an $8,000 bill. Can you believe this crap? Oh

2 (41m 28s):
My God.

1 (41m 30s):
So another squad tip for you guys is if you do rent a vehicle anywhere, whether it’s here in the U S or abroad, make sure to take a picture or video of the car, just in case something like this happens to you and you,

2 (41m 45s):
You guys are not having good luck with rental cars right now. No,

3 (41m 50s):
The one in Mexico did it for man. Now I’m on a trend. It’s like when the one thing happened to my phone and then like five times something happened to my phone each time, like I’m worried about my rental car situation.

2 (41m 60s):
This is an example of some of the negative things that happen when you travel the headaches that can come from it.

1 (42m 6s):
Yeah. And then they’ve been sending us letters and journals have to respond and they’re like, oh, that letter was sent to you on accident. And so it’s just been, it’s been

2 (42m 13s):
A mess,

3 (42m 14s):
But I’m upset.

1 (42m 15s):
Anyways. We still had a good time in Breckinridge and we didn’t mention or do any of these things, but we could have visited the distillery there. It’s like one of

2 (42m 24s):
The, we were talking about it.

1 (42m 25s):
We did stroll the historic downtown district. A bet. They have a lot of beer. So a lot of craft beer, we mentioned earlier going wine tasting. And because this is a gold mining town, they have goldmine tours and ghost tours.

2 (42m 38s):
Oh, ghost tour.

3 (42m 40s):
I don’t think we did the ghost tour. Cause we’re saving it for Savannah.

2 (42m 44s):
Alrighty. Well, it is cool question of the week time. So let’s hit it. Do we have any questions this week?

1 (42m 57s):
Yeah, we do. We have one, the question is anonymous and they ask, would you recommend Breckenridge over Aspen?

2 (43m 5s):
I’ve never been to Aspen. It’s definitely hyped up. And I would love to go at a later date when I have tons of money to blow, because Aspen is like a luxury location and knowing Breckenridge is a cousin location. And even that was expensive. I can only imagine what Aspen is like. So I don’t know if I can necessarily say I recommend it over it, but I can say for Breckinridge that, unless you ski or snowboard like down the mountain and that’s what you’re there for. I don’t know if I would go back.

3 (43m 33s):
I would say Harry and Lloyd have some good information for us about Aspen. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just watch dumb and dumber. They go to Aspen. I have the time of their life. Yeah. So maybe that’ll give you a little bit of idea. No, but like Aspen really is like the top tier ski town in Colorado. So like you said, Kim, we haven’t been there to give an opinion on it, but if you have the money and are willing to do it, it is probably going to be like double the price of Breckenridge and Breckenridge was already just ridiculously expensive to

2 (44m 3s):
Right. Squatty is thank you so much for tuning in with us this week. Keep the adventures going with us by following us on Instagram, YouTube at Travel Squad Podcast, and send us in your questions of the week.

3 (44m 14s):
If you’ve found the information, this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please be sure to share it with a friend that would enjoy it too. And as always, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes,

1 (44m 27s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, we have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you

3 (44m 32s):
Bye.