Our Week in Steamboat Springs, CO | Steamboat Travel Guide

We had such a fun week skiing in Steamboat for Spring break. This was our first time skiing here as a family and we couldn’t have asked for a more family-friendly spot. We traveled with my brother, SIL and their family and my cousin that lives in Denver met us for two nights. She has been taking her family to Steamboat for the last 10 years and has been dying for us to come check it out. I am so glad we did!! I tried my best to share our entire experience and a few things that we learned about, but weren’t able to fit in. I hope this is helpful 🙂

Flying to Steamboat Springs, Colorado

The easiest way to get to Steamboat is to fly intoYampa Valley Regional (HDN). It is a very small airport, with no actual gates. It’s easy and makes it a nice, short drive to the resort (about 30 min.

Getting to Steamboat Resort from the Airport

There are some airport shuttles available from HDN to Steamboat Resort (you can also get a shuttle from the Denver airport to Steamboat) or you can grab a rental car for the trip.

Steamboat Resort is a quick 30 minute drive from the airport, and it is a very easy drive. The drive from the Denver airport to Steamboat can be about 3.5 to 4 hours on most days. We flew into the HDN airport and chose to use car services and Ubers all week long on our trip.

Steamboat Resort Accommodations

Our Hotel: Steamboat Grand Hotel
Other Options: Condos or the Sheraton Hotel at the base of the Mountain

We stayed at the Steamboat Grand Hotel, which is very convenient to the ski base (across the street from the gondola) and close to everywhere you’ll want to be. There are a variety of room types that will work well for all types of families and groups. We chose a two bedroom for our family which was extremely spacious and it had 3 bathrooms, a full kitchen, 2 fireplaces and a balcony. My brother and his family chose the same set up and we were just a floor apart. If we do it again, they actually have 4 and 5 bedroom penthouse units that we could look into to all stay together.

The hotel was great and had the convenience of a restaurant, market, ski rental shop, liquor store and coffee shop all within the hotel. It also had two large hot tubs with heated pool, a large gym, and laundry room facility (we did not have a washer and dryer in our unit). The ski rental shop was a huge bonus because you could make an appointment to get fitted right there in the hotel and then they send everything over to there main store at the base of the mountain and store it there for you during your stay. That means that you get to walk in your comfortable ski shoes across the street to the mountain every day and then change right there by the gondola.

The restaurant in the hotel was called The Cabin. They were open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and had a bar/apres ski area as well. We ate in here several different times, for a variety of meals. We enjoyed the breakfast the most and then recommend the salads and bar food at dinner tonight. You can eat in the restaurant or call ahead and pick it up to bring to your room.

The market within the hotel had just enough if you wanted to stock your room with a few breakfast items and snacks, but if you needed more, you would need to make a trip to the City Market or Safeway in town. We just made do with what was available in the market because we ate most meals out or ordered pizza for the kids a couple of nights.

Getting Around Steamboat

There are free buses that go all around Steamboat, if you don’t want to rent a car like us and the hotel itself has a shuttle service as well. We used a mix of both the hotel shuttle when we could catch it and then the bus service a time or two. A couple of the evenings we had dinner downtown which is not walking distance and we were able to catch a Lyft. I will say, that the Lyfts and Ubers are not necessarily easily available. We lucked out with ours, but just know that they are not abundant.

The rest of the trip, we just walked to everything. The beauty of the hotel was that it was so close to the base of the mountain that there were shops and restaurants close by.

Skiing at Steamboat Resort

Steamboat offers ski school (ages 5-12, teens 13-17, and adults 18+), happy camp skiers (age 2.5 to 4), happy camp childcare (12 months to 2.5) and private lessons for ages 5+ with up to 5 people in the lesson.

We did a mix of kids ski school, private lessons and Molly, our youngest, was in the happy camp skiers group. The happy campers just ski 2 hours per day. They ski for an hour during the morning and one in the afternoon. Otherwise, they have a cute building they hang out in and play games, watch movies and eat lunch. The ski school runs from 9am to 3pm each day,

I will say that we had some issues with ski school being booked, so I would HIGHLY recommend booking early. Apparently this is not normal for them at all and a result of COVID for having a lack of staffing. I also think it was a very busy spring break week, but I would just suggest to book sooner rather than later.

Things to Do in Steamboat Outside of Skiing

Steamboat Mountain Coaster – This is located right at the base of the mountain and SO much fun! It lasts 10 minutes and the first part of it feels like you might be a little bored, but then it goes downhill and is so fun and fast!
Saddleback Ranch Tubing – We did the next two items together on the same day at Saddleback ranch and everyone loved both of them so much. We were picked up right at our hotel and brought to the ranch. We actually did the snowmobiling first and then they drove us up the road to the tubing. They had a little restaurant at the tubing center to get some food and drinks which was perfect because our group was hungry after the snowmobiling.
Saddleback Ranch Snowmobiling – Our guide was so nice and everyone enjoyed this so much. Molly is 3.5 and she was able to go too. The little ones just have to ride with an adult.
Ice Skating and Bumper Cars – my SIL took her kids here and they loved it!
Old Town Hot Springs – sad we never made it here because they had big slides too for the kids and it was only 5 minutes from the hotel.
Strawberry Hot Springs – another hot springs option that is supposed to be great, but more of a 30 minute drive from the hotel. No kids allowed once it gets dark outside 😉
Rocky Mountain Day Spa – We didn’t make it here, but it was right across the street from our hotel in the Sheraton. I peeked in the window and it looked nice! It didn’t look huge, so I would probably think you need to book in advance.

Restaurant and Dining Options in Steamboat

E3 Chophouse – A great downtown steakhouse that was more kid friendly if you wanted to bring kids. The atmosphere was probably our favorite part of this restaurant with the food just being okay during our visit.
Cafe Diva – I think this was everyone’s favorite dinner spot right on the base of the mountain. The restaurant is very small with a little 4 person bar area. We went with only adults and we all loved our food and cocktails.
Timber & Torch – This is a casual lunch, dinner and apres ski spot right at the base of the mountain located within the Sheraton hotel. The food was good, but we also ate mostly bar/apres ski food.
Primrose – Delicious dinner downtown. It was small, so definitely recommend reservations and we did bring our kids, but is probably a little more of an adult spot.
The Cabin – Located in our hotel at the Grand. Best for breakfast or lunch (love the chopped salad) and bar food at dinnertime.
Haymaker Sleigh Ride Dinner – (Ours was cancelled!) We were so sad.
Paramount – small breakfast spot right next to the kids ski school.
The Egg – breakfast spot over by the Safeway grocery store (bus ride or drive away).
Blue Sage – Pizza Delivery
Brooklyn Pizza – Pizza Delivery