Colorado Vacations
Vacation Planning Guide for Visiting Colorado with the Kids
Searching for ultimate Service and Style in a Colorado Family Vacation?
Families on vacation in Colorado won't find a better luxury resort experience than at the Broadmoor Hotel.
Granted Five-Diamonds and Five-Stars longer than any other hotel in the world, the Broadmoor has long experience at keeping traveling kids and their parents happy.
Photo Credit: the Hotel Colorado
Families traveling in Colorado can find tons of history, mostly focused on its days as part of the wild west.
When its time to call it a day, kids and their parents can have even more fun staying in one of Colorado's Historic Lodges, and imagining what it must have been like to walk the same halls with gold tycoons and gunslingers of yesteryear.
Photo Credit: The Broadmoor Hotel and Resort, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The ice rink is gone now, replaced by the West Tower Building. But the hotel and resort complex, snuggled against the foot of Cheyenne Mountain on the western edge of Colorado Springs, still glides gracefully around its lake. And in spite of several additions and over half a billion dollars worth of renovations, it seems not to have changed at all. Its Italian Renaissance architecture, marble floors, ceiling murals, and reputation for excellent service all remain. It is the only hotel to have earned the Mobil Travel Guide Five Star Award and the AAA Five-Diamond Award each and every year since they began granting the honors.
Families staying at he Broadmoor Hotel will find plenty to keep them entertained. In the warmer months, parents and their little ones in paddle boats bob around on Cheyenne Lake. Meanwhile, kids laugh and scream their way down water slides into the 11,000 square foot swimming pool. A children’s wading pool with a squirty fountain provides a fun, safe place for little fishes to play. Kids can find age appropriate horseback rides plus petting zoo sheep and goats at the nearby Broadmoor stables, while junior tennis buffs can pick up pointers at the “PeeWee” drills on the courts. The hotel rents bicycles and provides maps for trips around the lake or up into Cheyenne Canyon, just west of the complex. The Bee Bunch Program, held during the summer, includes camp counselors, fun activities, and half-day, full-day, and evening camps for kids.
In the winter, kids and their parents can cozy up to huge outdoor fire rings and enjoy spectacular holiday decorations on the grounds and in the lobbies. During the White Lights Ceremony, held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Santa and Mrs. Claus, throw the switch, lighting 143,000 strands of lights. Guests can enjoy cookie decorating, stories with Mrs. Claus, performances, and a huge gingerbread village created by chefs and culinary students at the hotel. Also, each year the hotel hosts several performances of a Christmas show, held in the brand new Broadmoor Hall, a 60,000 square foot ballroom, just across the street to the east of the hotel.
While the restaurants at the Broadmoor range from the elegant Penrose Room (jacket required) to the dark paneled Hotel Bar, families will most enjoy dining near the big windows or on the patio in the Golf Club Dining Room, and making s’mores just outside at its open air fire pit.
The key, for me, however, was a scene I witnessed while dining at the Tavern Restaurant. A little girl, about 6 years old, was getting restless at her table. While her parents ate and talked, she slipped from her seat and began to wander about the dining room. A bus boy noticed that she was in danger of tripping food servers and engaged her in conversation about the lush plants growing nearby. He led her to a low brick wall near her table, and seated himself upon it, eye-level with the girl, his lanky knees bent even with his chest. She joined him on the wall, and as casual and comfortable as any dad with his daughter, the bus person and girl laughed and chatted for about 10 minutes. By then the busy rush passed, the parents finished their conversation, and the girl returned to her table for a soda that the bus boy delivered. The interaction was seamless and comfortable.
I felt that the parents were negligent in allowing their daughter to walk about the restaurant unsupervised. But given that was the case, the hotel staff person recognized a need in one of his young customers, and filled that need with grace and what appeared to be genuine affection. It was an example of customer service at its finest.
Learn more about the Broadmoor Hotel on their website, or by calling (800) 634-7711. Request information by e-mail at info@broadmoor.com.
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