Vail Golf Course

One of my favorite things about living in Vail is the golf! Colorado is home to some of the country’s most beautiful and challenging courses.  Set against the backdrop of the Rockies, our local courses offer unparalleled vistas to go along with fastidiously manicured greens.  Summertime is all about the outdoors, and there is no better way to enjoy a “Colorado Bluebird” day than hitting the links with some buddies.  As a resident of Vail Valley, I love having access to so many courses that offer me such a variety of terrain.

The Vail Golf Club is one of my favorites!  It is right here in town, and it is considerably flatter than the area’s other courses.  It still offers a great challenge, though, with lots of fairway bunkers and beaver ponds lining the course.  The Vail Club has a course rating of 70.8 and a slope rating of 121, making it one of the “easier” courses in Vail Valley, but my score card usually doesn’t reflect that.

Eagle-Vail has a great public course too.  Located just west of Vail, this course is very convenient and very competitively priced.  The course plays longer than its 6836 yards because of the elevation changes.  The ups and downs make for a great challenge, and offer the possibility of setting a new personal best for your longest drive.  The ball really sails in this thin mountain air!

The Eagle Ranch course is great too, even though it always keeps my ego in check. With a course rating of 74.8 and a slope rating of 141, this is one of the toughest courses you will ever play!  It is an Arnold Palmer Signature design course, so you know you will get every penny’s worth of your reasonable ($95) greens fees.

This winter was absolutely amazing, but I am ready for golf season!  Maybe I will see you out there, or perhaps participating in one of the other many great activities offered in Vail during the summer.

Courtesy of TravelInParadise.com

1. Travel during mid-week days. By avoiding busy travel times such as the weekends, you will save not only on flights but lodging rates, adventure tour discounts, and save time by avoiding long, and stressful lines. Many summer events, such as the Teva Mountain Games, South of the Border Fiesta, Vail Arts Festival, and Vail America Days are not restricted to the weekend only.
2. Research staying in a vacation rental, where you will have extra sleeping space, a fully stocked kitchen (save by cooking a few meals), and plenty of other amenities. Have a very large family? Rather than reserving several rooms, look into a large family home. In resort areas, such as Vail, Beaver Creek, Aspen, Breckenridge, and Keystone are lush with others’ large vacation homes that can sleep up to 20 people in some cases!
3. Find a family of travel buddies! By traveling as a larger group, you can split up during the day so that everyone can enjoy their vacation! Perhaps one day one adult takes the children boating, rafting, biking or fishing while the other adults have spa treatment, and then switch off on the next day. All kinds of large groups receive discounts on dining, outdoors activities, and more. Plan you trip in advance and you will more than likely experience less fees.
   

   Photo by Savvy Cafe.com

4. Split up mom and dad bonding time. Take shorter trips, and take turns between parent and child. Mom can take the girls to the spa one weekend, and a few weeks later Dad can take the boys to learn golf or on a Jeep Adventure! Keep switching off until the family can find time and money for a longer ski trip next winter.
   

   Large family homes such as this one are available for summer vacationing

5. Join the locals! Ask about local events, farmers’ markets, and what locals do in general. They will know the best place for 50% of your meal, kid friendly parks, and easy day hikes that will take you off the tourist-beaten path. Don’t forget to ask how you need to be prepared for wildlife, safety, and weather. Attend a local church gathering, social club, visit the local library, or enroll in a onetime cooking lesson for a change of pace.
6. Make a travel itinerary but be flexible! Running around trying to stick to a schedule can be a true buzz kill! If you travel to a destination, research your options that way when you arrive for your raft trip and the ever changing Colorado weather brings too much lightening, you will know where the nearest science or ski museum is located!
7. Keep snacks in your travel bag. By keeping food readily available, you can intercept hunger (and tantrums) with them if you end up waiting longer than expected for your next meal. Apples, oranges, bananas, cheese and crackers, pretzels, granola bars, trail mix, and similar snacks will keep your family happy and healthy.
   

   Life vests are a quick and easy safety precaution.

JAZZ MUSIC, the American invention that was conceived during the Harlem Renaissance, has an important place here in Vail. The Vail Jazz Festival, which begins June 27^th and lasts until September 6^th, will feature an array of performances and a variety of venues including Jazz at Farmer’s Market, Jazz at Vail Square, and topped off by the Labor Day Weekend Jazz Party. Last year’s Jazz Festival provided the town of Vail with extraordinary performances that left everyone wanting more. This year is sure to have the same level of fantastic entertainment in the cool mountain setting.

Henry Bulter: Performer at Vail Jazz Festival

To kick it all off, The Vail Farmer’s market will present 10 free concerts, scheduled every Sunday from noon until 3:30pm. Local and regionally-based talent will provide natural musical accompaniments to the fantastic shopping and amazing food that The Farmer’s Market is already famous for. This is summertime hot spot for locals and visitors alike with activities and entertainment that the whole family can enjoy!

The Vail Jazz Foundation has also planned a series of evening performances, Thursdays at the Vail Square in Lionshead starting August 5^th and lasting until September 2^nd. The sounds of Jazz will permeate the cool evening air at this venue which offers over 250 covered seats for attendees to sit and enjoy the fantastic music.

The icing on this jazzy cake is the 15^th annual Labor Day Weekend Jazz Party from Thursday, September 2^nd until Monday September 6^th. This internationally acclaimed event will feature five days and nights of the world’s greatest jazz musicians. The event is hosted by the Vail Marriot Resort in Lionshead and will provide an intimate cabaret-style venue for these spectacular musicians to perform. Musicians are given creative license to engage in awesome jam sessions with other featured artists. You can’t miss this spectacular event! Tickets can be purchased through the Vail Jazz Foundation Office for $45/afternoon, $55/evening, and $350/event. For more information, you can call the Jazz Foundation at 970-479-6146 or you may order your tickets online, beginning in June at www.vailjazz.org.

Rocky Mountain Vacation Rentals is extreemely excited about all of the upcomming summer events, including the Vail Jazz Festival. If you have any interest in music, I encourage you to look into planning a visit to Vail so that you may partake in this acclaimed event. The summer months are so fantastic here and the Vail Jazz Foundation really does a fantastic job at making this a top notch event!

Our new clientele might not be familiar with the endless amount of resources that Vail has in the summer for children and adults, alike, so stop by our blog site regularly to discover what you’ve been missing! Firstly, with Father’s Day just around the corner (Sunday the 20^th), we’re dedicating the next two weeks to the special men in your life, and a perfect vacation for them. Does your father and his friends like to golf? A lot of our clients are surprised to discover that many of the 302 golf courses in Colorado to choose from are ranked in Golf Digest’s top 75 Golf Resorts in America, such as the Sonnenalp Golf Course in Edwards, Colorado, known for its clever layout, beautiful views, and wide fairways, along with the Cordillera Golf Course that can best be enjoyed by the low-handicappers out there. Don’t be deceived by the constant talk and popularity of Colorado’s world-renown ski resorts so much so that you’re only flying to the Rockies in the winter. Let Vail, the world class resort we call home, be your playground for both winter and summer activities, starting with Father’s Day weekend.

Use our vacation planning website to not only book your lodging, but also all of the activities you and your family wish to partake in through our premiere full concierge services at www.vailskivacations.com –soon to be www.rockymountainvacationrentals.com! Currently servicing the Vail and Beaver Creek Areas exclusively, our local vacation specialists at Vail Ski Vacations know everything there is to know about golfing, kayaking, white-water rafting, tubing, ATV tours, and any other activity you can imagine, along with—our specialty—the widest selection of lodging options to service the every need of our every consumer. Discount lodging, pet-friendly lodging, platinum-rated slope-side lodging, and more, choose Vail Ski Vacations to book the perfect vacation for you and your friends and family. We are not a property management company. We are a third-party intermediary vacation company, which gives us the ability to provide you with rental options from over 100 lodging providers in the Vail/Beaver Creek area, so that you are always sure to get the highest quality lodging and the best possible prices. Once you call us at (970) 477 1777 and tell one our friendly, knowledgeable locals your vacation details, we do the shopping for you, calling our professional contacts all over the valley to find you the best deals. When it comes to planning a Vail Vacation, we are the only company to go through because we are experienced locals, extensively familiar in all that Vail and Beaver Creek has to offer.

Book your vacation rental to get right down to the fun! The Eagle Ranch Golf Club, for example, is an Arnold Palmer Signature Design course that is currently offering great happy hour deals, lesson packages, 10% off Golf Shop merchandise, a $60 “Green Fee” on Mondays and Tuesdays, and much, much more! Beginning Friday, June 12^th, the Eagle Ranch Golf Club kicks off the summer with their own take on the Friday Afternoon Club (FAC), every Friday from 5:00-8:00 pm, golf pros will be giving $10 lessons for kids from 5:30-6:30, while you can enjoy happy hour, drinking specialty cocktails at happy hour prices, while relaxing on the beautiful patio! Golf in Colorado yields spectacular panoramic views, longer drives, and milder temperatures, so treat Dad to the golf trip of his dreams! Call Vail Ski Vacations TODAY at (970) 477 1777!