Discounts with the Winter Park Key Card

Your Key Card is the only card you will need to access rewards, savings, discounts and ongoing promotions in Winter Park & The Fraser Valley. Make sure you use your Key Card every time you stay, shop, dine or do an activity at participating merchants. You will will earn points and rewards every time you make a purchase and then you may redeem those points back with us. And the best part, its FREE!

Get your Winter Park & Fraser Key Card.

If you take your card to the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, they will put $10 on it to use at any of those 50 businesses for a limited time so get over there and get your $10.

Participating  Winter Park and Fraser Valley Businesses include:

Alpine Sun Ski & Sport

Arapaho Chiropractic Center

B’Jammin

Beaver Village Lodge

Best Western / Alpenglo Lodge

Blue Sky Massage

Columbia Store at Winter Park Resort

Colorado Adventure Park

Deno’s Mountain Bistro

Earth Rocks

The Eatery at Beaver Village

Epic Mountain Sports – Both Locations

Fontenot’s Fresh Seafood & Grill

Granby Ranch 8350 (Members Private Club)

Grand Sports Shop

Hernando’s Pizza & Pasta Pub

Icebox Liquors

Imaginations

Kopy Kat Office

Moose Hollow Trading Company

Olympia Lodge

Pizza Pedal’r

Powder Addiction

Rocky Mountain Chalet

Seven Sisters

Seven Trails Restaurant at SolVista Basin

Ski4Less – All 4 Locations

Ski Broker

SolVista Basin Retail & Bike Shop

SolVista Basin Cafeteria

SolVista Basin Ski Rentals & Ticket Sales

Spectrum Home Services

The Salon at Winter Park

The Sun Piper

The Viking Lodge & Ski Shop

Trails End Mercantile

Wild Horse Inn

Winter Park Chateau

Winter Park Lodging Company

Winter Park Market

Get your card and start saving now!

We can help you with lodging. We can help you with lift tickets, and ski rentals. We can even book your transportation from the Denver International Airport. The only service that isn’t included in Winter Park Lodging Company’s EasySki service is airline tickets.  So, here’s the best guide we have found for the best deals out there to Denver.

Winter Park just just a hop, skip and a jump from Denver – closest resort of all of the major ski resorts in Colorado.  And, you get to skip all of the traffic on I-70 that clogs Summit County. Take Exit 242 to Winter Park, and wave to the traffic goodbye.  You can check for cheap airfares to Denver on www.airfarewatchdog.com.

January’s Flight Deals as of 12/30/2011:

Remember to check with us for availability at a vacation rental in Winter Park for your dates first, then book your flights! Search Winter Park Lodging Company now to see what options await you.

American Blues News reviewed one of her songs, 4 Non-Blondes, as being part Rolling Stones, part John Lee Hooker, and part Dukes of Hazzard car chase. In other words, Samantha knows how to play the blues, and we’re guaranteed another amazing show this Friday. Kate Moss will certainly only add to the party; she’s no stranger to the guitar herself. With these two on stage together, be ready to dance.

One added bonus: the Blues Society is kind enough to appreciate Verteran’s Day at the show, so any Verteran plus one guest will get into the show FREE! Guess what else? If you’re a guest of Winter Park Lodging Company, mention it at the door and your ticket will be on the house too! If you didn’t book with us this time, your ticket is $10, but it’s for a good cause: the Grand County Blues Society is a non-profit, so all the cash they collect at the door goes toward keeping Blues in the School and Blue Star Connection successful programs. Plus, our donations and ticket purchases help us to to keep bringing great live blues music back to Winter Park as often as we can. So, after you’re done waxing your skis for the early opening of Winter Park Resort this Saturday, come out to Smokin’ Moes for a great night with us. Want to make a weekend out of it? Give Winter Park Lodging Company a call to set up your lodging, lift tickets, ski rentals, and some free tickets to a great show!

Also in this month’s airfare deal alert, get the scoop on the airfare hikes predicted for this ski season. Reports that high demand for holiday seats, combined with low availability, means fares for these heavy travel periods are bound to go up, soon. See MSNBC’s full video report.

November’s Flight Deals as of 11/2/2011:

Remember to check with us for availability at a vacation rental in Winter Park for your dates first, then book your flights! Search Winter Park Lodging Company now to see what options await you.

If you live in the Winter Park/ Fraser area you most likely have heard the uproar about Winter Park Resort discontinuing funding for the Fraser neighborhood service with “The Lift” ski shuttle program.  Winter Park Resort has had a lot of flak thrown its way for withdrawing this funding but truly what other ski town has the ski resort operator as the main funder of town transportation?

I think Winter Park Resort was, and is, the only one in Colorado.

Anywho, not to worry for this season, as two of our lodging competitors have stepped up to the plate to come up with the required funding to keep the purple and red  line, the line that was to be discontinued, up and running for this coming ski season.  I think this is a short term solution and that a long term solution will need to be addressed by the Winter Park and Fraser town councils in conjunction with Grand County.

The Lift will be running this year with ski shuttle service to Winter Park Resort.

Details of Ski Shuttle Service:

• Day ski shuttle will be a “New Purple” line, effectively a combined route of areas previously serviced by both Red & Purple lines in 2010-11.
• Day shuttle, on entering USA Hwy 40 from CR 8, will then take a direct “non-stop” shot to the ski area (with the exception of “dropping off” people in Fraser or Winter Park). Night shuttle will replicate service to areas provided by the night Purple line in 2010-11.
• Night shuttle will replicate service to areas provided by the night Purple line in 2010-11.

Ski Shuttle Days of Operation:

• Buses will operate for the 159 days of the 2011-12 ski season, commencing Wednesday November 16, 2011 through Sunday April 22, 2012.

• Additional bus service to cope with “Peak” demand time periods will on an as required basis to cover most Saturdays and Sundays, except November 19-20 and April 21-22 (42 days) as well as the following Holidays (12 days):
• Christmas Week: December 26-30, 2011
• MLK Day: January 16, 2012
• President’s Day: February 201, 2012
• Main Spring Break Week: March 12-16, 2012

An approximation of 250 hours of additional “Peak” service (estimated 4-5 hours per day for 54 days) were factored in to the equation.

Ski Shuttle Hours of Service:

Day Service:

• 2 buses per hour from (1 bus every half-hour) 7:30AM to 5PM with the exception of 11AM-2PM where there would be 1 bus per hour.
• This would effectively mean half-hour service 7:30AM – 10:30AM, hourly service 11AM-2PM, then half-hour service again 2PM-5PM.

               Night Service:

• Bus #1 starting at 5:30PM to 10:00PM (last run), once every half-hour

Ski Shuttle Route:

Ski Shuttle Day Route:

• Start Winter Park Resort
• Hwy 40 to Fraser, Right on CR804-MeadowRidge Road.
• R on CR834-Cranmer
• L on CR837-Balsh
• R on CR836-Hughes
• R on CR8360-Spinner
• R on CR834-Cranmer
• R on CR838-East Meadow Mile
• L on CR840-West Meadow Mile
• R on Meadow Lane
• L on CR832-Meadow Mile
• R on CR8500-Jabberwocky
• Loop through Silvercrest, L on CR8500-Jabberwocky
• R on CR832-Meadow Mile
• R on Cranmer Pl
• R on Wapiti Drive
• L on CR8
• L on US Hwy 40
• R on Winter Park Drive to Winter Park Resort

Ski Shuttle Day Stops:

• Safeway (on CR804)
• Needles Eye & Railbender
• Cabins at Porcupine Ridge
• Eagle Ridge on the Summit
• Elk Court Cabins
• Lookout Village
• Indian Peaks
• Winter Park Tennis Club & Acadia
• Meadowridge Ct #22, #17/18A/Clubhouse, Ct #29, Ct #26, Ct #6
• The Pines
• Bavarian Village
• Silvercrest
• (flag) Upper & Lower Ptarmigan
• Twin Rivers
• Winter Park Resort

Ski Shuttle Night Route:

• Start Safeway Shopping Center
• R on CR804-MeadowRidge Road.
• R on CR834-Cranmer
• L on CR837-Balsh
• R on CR836-Hughes
• R on CR8360-Spinner
• R on CR834-Cranmer
• R on CR838-East Meadow Mile
• L on CR840-West Meadow Mile
• R on Meadow Lane
• L on CR832-Meadow Mile
• R on CR8500-Jabberwocky
• Loop through Silvercrest, L on CR8500-Jabberwocky
• R on CR832-Meadow Mile
• R on Cranmer Pl
• R on Wapiti Drive
• L on CR8
• L on US Hwy 40
• L on CR804-MeadowRidge Road

Ski Shuttle Night Stops:

• Safeway Shopping Center
• Needles Eye & Railbender
• Cabins at Porcupine Ridge
• Eagle Ridge on the Summit
• Elk Court Cabins
• Lookout Village
• Indian Peaks
• Winter Park Tennis Club & Acadia
• Meadowridge Ct #22, Ct #17/18A/Clubhouse, Ct #29, Ct #26, Ct #6
• The Pines
• Bavarian Village
• Silvercrest
• (flag) Upper & Lower Ptarmigan
• Twin Rivers
• Safeway

Winter Park Lodging Company manages 11 Fraser ski condo rentals on this route, so fear not service will be here for this ski season.

Lift Ticket Lessons!

Use our EasySki service.  This ski season, guests of Winter Park Lodging Company will be greatly rewarded with convenience and low lift ticket prices (among other items) when they use our new EasySki service.  We are taking the reigns for our guests and pre-booking lift tickets from $49 to $65 each.  The catch is that you have to ski three days or more. If you only want to ski one or two days, see below in lift ticket coupons section.

Buy Early. Oftentimes, if you plan plenty of time in advance, you will save on your lift ticket costs. For example, with EasySki, lift tickets are the very cheapest before October 31st. Also, Winter Park sells their season passes at a really low price before the ski season. The earlier you buy, the cheaper the season pass. They become available in May for the upcoming winter and the price slowly creeps up through the summer and fall.  Usually skiing skiing days or more with a season pass costs less than the cost buying single lift tickets. Don’t wait until after the ski season starts, though, that’s when season prices go really high, usually over $1000 each.

Teenager Trick: If you have a teenage child between the age of 13 to 17 years old, you can get him/her a season pass for less than the cost of an adult season pass, then use the ten $69 lift ticket coupons that come with it. The adult season passes also come with the ten $69 coupons, so even if you don’t have a teenager in your family, you can still save with an adult season pass & the discount coup0ns.

Coupons: If you only plan to ski four days or less, there are other ways to save.  Coupon books area available in Denver and other Front Range grocery stores – King Soopers, Safeway or City Market. At their customer service desks you can purchase the EBook or GoldC Book, which has a variety of coupons for lift tickets at Winter Park Resort and other ski areas. The cost is $10 each and the coupons are for lift tickets for $63 to $72 instead of the $92+ price at the lift ticket window at the ski resort.

Four Pass: If you are a Colorado resident, you are probably already aware of the Four Pass, a four-day lift pass for $159. The catch is that you have to get your photo taken to get the pass, which means you have to be physically present at a Colorado vendor to purchase the Four Pass.

Gear Facts: Ski/Snowboard Equipment

If you own: Check out the option to ship your skis and bulky items instead of bringing it all on the plane. You’ll spend less to ship usually, with airlines charging as much as $100 for each oversize baggage item. Maybe consider shipping just your boots, and renting your skis and poles or snowboard.

Renting: Book your rental gear early. If you don’t own your own equipment and will be renting your gear,  it pays to book online in advance rather than paying the walk-in rates, sometimes as much as 40% less.

EasySki service: not only saves our guests money on ski and board rentals (up to 40% less than walk-in rates), it also saves you time and energy. With EasySki, you have the option to get free custom delivery with Winter Park Resort Rentals, with a custom boot fitting right in the comfort of your vacation rental, plus an express ticket to pick up your skis on the way to the lift.  Or get a basic ski rental package with Epic Mountain Sports for $18/day, plus tax. We’ll book it all for you!

What to Wear & Ways to Save

Savvy Savings on Clothing: if you live in Florida, chances are you don’t own an appropriate winter coat or ski pants. Or maybe you have kids that are growing so fast that it’s just not feasible to buy them a new coat and pants each winter. For these situations, it’s sometimes better to rent your winter clothing. I know that Ski Broker in Fraser has lots of coats, pants and other clothing items for rent from $10 to $25 per day.

Be Thrifty – get your ski gear at a consignment shop, or get your kids’ winter coats at a thrift store.  There’s no better place to get second-hand clothing and gear than in a ski town, so maybe you can wait until you get to Winter Park then shop at one of our local thrift stores. If you don’t find just what you need, then check out the clothing rentals at the ski shops.

Tips on Transportation

Drive with Your Gear instead of Flying with Fees: Sometimes taking a little more time to get to your destination can not only be a fun adventure, it can be a great way to save lots of money. Nowadays when you fly, you’re not just paying for your flight. You’re also paying for transportation from the airport to Winter Park, you’re paying for your in-flight meals, you’re paying for the privilege of checking and even carrying on bags and you’re paying even more to fly with your oversize and overweight ski and snowboard equipment.

If you Gotta fly: Sometimes it just isn’t realistic to drive, so you just gotta fly. If you do have to fly, think of creative ways to reduce the costs of traveling on a flight.

Use the free ski shuttle to get from your lodging to the ski area. Sometimes taking an airport shuttle from the airport then walking around or using the free shuttle will cost you less than renting a car, plus you have to consider the cost of gas, the risk of driving in a winter environment you’re not accustomed to. Plus it can be a lot of fun to learn about the area by getting on a shuttle and checking out areas you wouldn’t otherwise see if you were always just driving directly to and from the ski area. Shuttles also mean you can skip the hassle of parking in a huge ski area parking lot and lugging your gear around very far, since they drop you off right in the Village.

Pack Light! Really, less is more. Less to pay in baggage fees, less to lug around, less to keep track of. You can really economize your luggage by re-wearing your under layers like your underarmor wicking  gear, for example. Staying at a vacation rental with a private or even shared washer and dryer can really help. One bag really can get you by. It pays to invest in a scale to weigh your luggage to avoid fees for exceeding weight limits. Also, invest in organizing compartments for your luggage that maximize the space in your suitcases. If you can get all of your items in a carry-on, even better! You can ship your bulky coats, boots and skis or other oversize or bulky items that take a lot of space.

Learn Your Airline ABCs: Fly with airlines such as WestJet or Southwest airlines that allow two free carry on bags. Southwest even allows you to change your flight at no charge, you just pay the fare difference, if any.

More Airfare Tips:  Check fares at nearby airports instead of just the closest one to you. Sometimes driving an extra hour to the airport can save you lots of money. Use cheap airfare alerts that go directly to your inbox when a discounted flight you’re interested in becomes available. My favorite is Airfarewatchdog.com, which I use every month for our monthly airfare deals alert. Pack a lunch or dinner for you flight instead of paying for the weird airline food. Finally, maybe you can book your flights with a credit card that waives baggage fees, like the Contintental OnePass Master Card.

Food and Dining

Shop for Groceries in Denver -  as much  as I like to promote buying local to support our local economy, if you really need to eat on a shoestring, go to a grocery store in Denver on your way to Winter Park. This option is really only viable if you have your own car, though, since the airport shuttles do not make any stops on the way.

Eat in – it really helps to eat like you normally eat while on vacation, then splurging on just one or two dinners. When you stay in a vacation rental instead of a hotel, you can really take advantage of using the fully equipped kitchens to prepare at-home dinners and lunches. All of our vacation rentals have kitchens and usually have basic staples like spices, coffee filters, condiments and non-perishable items there for you to use (left by previous guests or the owners.  I recommend checking out what’s at your vacation rental before going to the grocery store for your menu items or just getting your meats, fresh veggies and fruits at the grocery store on the way to Winter Park.

Pack Lunch. Instead of paying the ridiculous prices at the base for lunch, pack a lunch and store it in a $1 locker until you’re ready for your lunch break. Maybe you can even pack it in a small backpack, come down to get it, then ride the lift to meet the family at the Lodge at Sunspot or Snoasis for lunch. If you’re staying at the base, you can eat in for lunch in the comfort of your own condo, see more below.

VIP Discount Card – for the occasions that you do want to eat out, use our VIP Discount Card to save at restaurants. More details to come, but click here for a sneak-peak.

Lodging

Staying ski-in/ski-out – It may seem counter-intuitive because the cost of ski-in/ski-out lodging is higher than non-ski-in/ski-out, but think about the trade-offs. First of all, it’s just so convenient. Also, it can completely eliminate the need for your own car, so you can cross out a car rental and gas expenses. Staying at Zephyr Mountain Lodge, Fraser Crossing and Founder’s Pointe comes with the benefit of using their private shuttle to get to downtown Winter Park or Fraser, plus the free ski shuttle is available to you as well.  Another budget benefit to staying at the base is relative to your food costs. You can come down for lunch in the comfort of your own kitchen and dining room instead of eating at the expensive ski area eateries.

Activities & Other Expenses

Check out our list of Free and Cheap Kids’ Activities.  There are many activities that will entertain the kids that don’t require you spend a lot of money. Think out of the box!

VIP Discount Card for Winter Park Lodging Company guests has deals that no other lodging company can offer. Save on sleigh rides, dining and lots of other activities in Winter Park and the Fraser Valley. More details coming soon!

Learning to Ski Winter Park, CO

Here is out latest ski video here at Winter Park Resort, Colorado’s Favorite.  We are highlighting children and the youngsters learning to swoosh down the hill this segment.  The above video is staring WPLCo’s very own and my very own twins, Nicholas & Willem.  This is Nicholas & Willem’s second year skiing and they are now able to ski from the very top of Winter Park Resort to the very bottom with only a little help from mom and dad.

The Winter Park Ski School and ski teacher Rosie have done great work with these two little tykes this year.  The boys took a a series of four ski lessons with Rosie this January that totally turned around the skiing learning curve.  They wen’t from heading straight downhill with no interest in slowing, stopping or turning to being able ski freely downhill stopping on command and turning pretty much anywhere they would like to go.

If you have kids or have someone that is learning to ski, Winter Park Ski School is a great investment of your time and money.  A couple of days with group or private lessons will turn your skiing/boarding skills around and get you enjoying being on the slopes.  As we learned with our twins trying to teach your kids yourself usually is not a good idea time-wise or for family unity.  Going skiing with kids let a professional teach them and parents can have a peace of mind that they are being taken care of and being taught the proper way to ski and board.

Check out Nicholas and Willem skiing Winter Park at 2 years of age and look how far the little boogers have progressed.

Plus, we at Winter Park Lodging Company have discounts and deals all over town, from ski rental deals starting at $18 per day, to discounts on dog sled rides, snowmobile tours & rentals, sleigh rides and more. Click here to check out all discounts offered by Winter Park Lodging Company now.

Remember to check with us for availability at a vacation rental in Winter Park for your dates first, then book your flights! Search Winter Park Lodging Company now to see what options await you.

Don’t see your departure city? Check www.airfarewatchdog.com to see if there’s a deal to Denver for you. Plus, don’t forget that Winter Park Lodging Company has discounts and deals all over town, from ski rental deals starting at $18 per day, to discounts on dog sled rides, snowmobile tours & rentals, sleigh rides and more. Click here to check out all discounts offered by Winter Park Lodging Company now.

Remember to check with us for availability at a vacation rental in Winter Park for your dates first, then book your flights! Search Winter Park Lodging Company now to see what options await you.

Don’t see your departure city? Check www.airfarewatchdog.com to see if there’s a deal to Denver for you. Plus, don’t forget that Winter Park Lodging Company has discounts and deals all over town, from ski rental deals starting at $18 per day, to discounts on dog sled rides, snowmobile tours & rentals, sleigh rides and more. Click here to check out all discounts offered by Winter Park Lodging Company now.

Remember to check with us for availability at a vacation rental in Winter Park for your dates first, then book your flights! Search Winter Park Lodging Company now to see what options await you.