Breckenridge Vacation

Good morning!! I’m finally going to be sharing my experience with our recent Breckenridge Vacation with you!  I completely fell in love with Breckenridge!  It’s such a quant little town, booming with cute local shops and excellent food! I think I just fell in love with Colorado, in general.  Who knew that Colorado had more sunny days that even Miami?!  You know that’s my number one complaint here in Pittsburgh.

I honestly just cannot get over the views and the beauty surrounding Breckenridge.  I grew up with a view of the Appalachian Mountains, but the Rocky Mountains are an entirely different!   Everywhere you look there was something unique and beautiful.  You could say that it was very calming to just engage in nature and the surrounding beauty.  I honestly wish I had gotten more pictures than I did, but I’m not used to “battling” sunlight with my camera, so the pictures I did get took me a little longer than normal.  Zero complaints about the sun, though :-).

The streets were lined with local shops that had cute gifts, shirts, mugs, and other souvenirs, but there were also unique boutiques that offered darling home decor, candles, and clothing.  Oh there were a ton of snowgear places too.  All the big names were there:  The North Face, Spyder, Patagonia.  Definitely necessary.  

If you have never been skiing out West, my number one suggestion is grab a map!  This is key because the mountains are so large and seem to go on for days!  There are so many trails off of trails and if you are a beginner like me, you don’t want to end up skiing down a black trail, when you are really a blue or green.  YIKES!

We stayed at Cedars 25 in very well decorated townhome booked on Home Away.  I actually really like this service and highly recommend it for your next trip!  Home Away is a platform where people can place their vacation homes on their site to rent out to people like you and I.  Typically it’s less expensive than going with a hotel, but the thing I like the most is that these places allow you to “live like a local.”  They are situated right where you would live, not necessarily right where you would be a tourist.  There are places all over the world and Home Away also provides a rating system as well so you can check on the reviews.  

The skiiers–  I totally forgot to take a picture of my snowboard… it was a Burton board that had cute little roses on it.  When we go on vacation, I really try to just enjoy the surroundings and no focus on “work” as much.  Sometimes you just need to vacation.  

Here are some of my favorite snaps from Instagram for last week!

Sorel Boots (Major Sale) // Ray Bans // Snowball Hat // Puffer Vest // Thermal Top // Fleece Lined Leggings // Anthropologie Mittens

If you have the urge to visit Breckenridge after seeing these beautiful views here are some tips before your trip!

Know Before You Go:

What to Pack?  Layer. Layer. Layer.  Breckenridge is very sunny, but can get very cold, especially at night.  Definitely check the 10 day forecast before you start packing, but be prepared to layer.  You may get hot during the day, but at night it will surely be chilled off.  I packed a few coats, scarves, gloves, thermals, puffer vests, and snowboots.

What to do?  Ski/Snowboard.   Maybe you aren’t into either.  There are a TON of other things to do.  You can go dog sledding, tubing, hiking, ice fishing, shopping, and of course relax with a nice spa day.  I really enjoyed sipping my coffee by the fireplace in the mornings.  It was just really nice to zone out disconnect from the internet and hustle and bustle of life.  Go Breck has a really nice website to help plan out your trip!

Where to Eat? There truely is some excellent food in Breckenridge.  I was honestly a little surprised by this because most skii resorts I’ve been to the food is never really that great.  Food is such a big part of my life, so I was thrilled!

Mi Casa– We ate at Mi Casa the first night.  This was a local Mexican restaurant.  I opted for a dairy free meal, which is probably not the best option at a Mexican restaurant, but everyone else raved about their meals.  The salsa was on point.  I’m very particular about my salsa, but Mi Casa’s was full of flavor with the perfect amount of freshness and spice combined!

Clint’s– Excellent, excellent coffee and breakfast sandwhiches.  It’s inexpensive and makes for the perfect quick drop in, eat, and be on your way type of day.  The Quiche was by far the best quiche I’ve ever had in my life.  It was so fluffy and so full of flavor.  I’m craving it right now.

Hearthstone Restaurant– I give this restaurant 5 stars.  The service was impeccable and the food was divine.  This is a little bit of a splurge, but absoloutely splurgeworthy.  The wine selection was so difficult to choose from because they had some of my favorites all on the list.  The four of us each chose different meals so we could try each others, and I had zero complaints about any of them!  We started off with the scallops and their steamed buns (their specialty), moved on to lamb, steak, short ribs,  and finished the meal with sticky toffee pudding…. I just need a minute to reminice this wonderful meal.

Linger– Our final, restaurant we ate at happened to be  my favorite meal of the day: Brunch.  We spent the day we were flying home in Denver.  Our waiter from Hearthstone suggested this restaurant and it was an excellent choice with bottomless mimosas, (more) steamed buns, crab cake benedict, the best ramen noodles you could imagine, and the juiciest beef sliders I’ve ever eaten.

I love that Colorado seems to be very health conscious with grass fed beef options, organic, farm to table style food as well as having an active lifestyle.

Note: The Altitudes.  There is a thing such as altitude sickness and being that high in the air can affect people differently.  For me, I was very winded even going up steps.  It’s crazy!  I also had difficulty sleeping, which I read was another side effect of the higher altitudes.  You want to be sure to hydrate, insanely!  Start your hydrating process a few days before your trip because flying also dehydrates you.  We actually purchased Camel Backs for the mountain to hydrate throughout the day, and they truely were a life saver.  Joey didn’t seem as affected by the altitudes, but for me they were necessary.  Better safe than sorry.

I hope you enjoyed this review and maybe sparked a little bit of that wanderlust spark inside of you!  Go out and explore.. The world is a beautiful place to see.   Have a wonderful weekend!!