Aspen, Colorado

Aspen is America’s preeminent ski town. Romantic, festive, and historic, it is a year-round celebration of urbane and earthly pleasures ensconced in a high sylvan valley, flanked by several Rocky Mountains covered with a phenomenal assortment of ski slopes, including one that ends abruptly downtown. In 1879, prospectors found silver here. A short boom was followed by a half-century decline. In the 1940s, the Aspen Institute and some of America’s first ski lifts provided the basis for the town’s ultimate destiny.

Today, the town has succeeded beyond even its visionaries’ dreams and is struggling with the inevitable side effects of being too popular. Victorian landmarks now house upscale shops, galleries, gourmet restaurants, rollicking nightlife, and plush lodgings amid pedestrian malls and creative landscaping. Recreational amenities include a network of bicycle paths and every kind of use of majestic pine-forested mountains and streams including, of course, some of the best ski slopes anywhere.

For more information, check with the local Chamber of Commerce.