On Aspen, Colorado Vacation for My 40th Birthday

For my 40th birthday, I wanted to do a little family trip but I didn’t want to go too far (we did Australia and Costa Rica earlier this year, so the idea of more jet lag and long flights wasn’t really appealing to me, especially with a busy September!).

We hadn’t been to Colorado as a family and I’d never been to Aspen, so it felt like the perfect place for a relaxing weekend as a family (and bonus points for less than a 6 hour drive!).

We left Thursday afternoon after my big girls were done with school and stopped in Grand Junction for a quick dinner, bathroom break, and to fill up with gas and then arrived in Aspen around 9:00 p.m. We unloaded the car and settled in to our Airbnb and went to bed pretty quickly so we’d be ready for the next day!

DAY 1 IN ASPEN:
I woke up around 6:45 a.m. and when I went out into the living room, Tally was already awake, listening to her audiobook on her Kindle. I caught up on some emails while she listened and then when Star woke up, we played some Cover Your Assets.

Once everyone was awake, we threw on some clothes and shoes and walked down to Paradise Bakery to get some pastries and breakfast sandwiches. All the outdoor seating was soaking wet because it had been raining all morning, so we brought everything back to the condo and tried them all together.

After breakfast, we changed into swimsuits and went down to the pool and hot tub to swim for an hour or so (it was sprinkling rain, but the pool and hot tub were warm and we had a great time).

Once everyone had had enough swimming, we got dressed for the day and the girls played Monopoly while I started a puzzle, then walked down to Big Wrap for lunch. We strolled through town to Paepcke Park and ate our lunch there and then walked over to Explore Books which was so cute (it’s an old Victorian house converted to a bookstore). When we finally pried the girls away, we walked over to Meat & Cheese and bought a couple of chocolate bars (the cardamom honey caramel one was mindbogglingly good).

We ate the chocolate bars while we walked down to the library just as it started to rain. We ended up spending quite a bit of time at the library (the little girls put on a long puppet show for us) before walking back to our condo as the rain got worse.

Back at the condo, we snuggled up to watch a movie (Father of the Bride II) and then the girls kept playing Monopoly and I worked more on my puzzle until it was time for dinner.

We looked at a few options and decided on Aspen Public House. We walked right in (hooray for the off-season) and it was the most cozy, delightful atmosphere. Ella declared it her favorite meal of the trip (on our way home on Sunday) and after dinner we walked back to Paradise Bakery and picked up some cookies and got ice cream cones.

We walked back home and the girls went down to swim while Bart and I hung out in the condo and then we put the younger girls to bed and finished our current episode of Castle with Ella before we all went to bed too.

DAY 2 IN ASPEN:
I woke up early and sat out on the deck and caught up on emails (it was GORGEOUS!). After a bit, the two little girls came out to join me and eventually everyone got up and dressed.

It was rainy but we decided to walk down to the farmer’s market anyway. Halfway there, one of my kids was incredibly unhappy about her choice of footwear, so she and I ran back to the condo so she could change while Bart took the other girls on. We met up at a pastry stand and got a few FANTASTIC pastries that we ate under the cover of a nearby building before walking to Origin for a real breakfast.

There was about a 40 minute wait, so we headed down to the basement where the girls and I played Charades with my phone and Bart worked out in the gym. When our table got called, we had the best meal of the trip, in my opinion. The avocado toast and the huevos rancheros were incredibly good (as was the chocolate chip pancake on the kids menu!).

By the time, the sky was blue and the sun was out, so we walked to Aspen Bikes and rented bikes for the whole family and then did about a 5 mile bike ride along the Rio Grande trail. It was stunning and I kept thinking “this might be the prettiest landscape of my entire life.” We stopped midway to go down by the river and skip rocks and climb around on the boulders.

When we got back and dropped off our bikes, the sky was getting dark again and we got back in the pool and hot tub for a bit before going inside to play games and work on our puzzle.

At 4:30, we loaded up in the car and headed to Maroon Bells – I’d wanted to go later in the day when you don’t have to pay for the shuttle but when we arrived, it turned out we needed a parking reservation and they were sold out for the day. Miss!

It started pouring rain, though, so we were glad not to be hiking around outside and we decided on the fly to go to Snowmass for dinner. We picked Aurum and it was delicious (although the mac and cheese was way too fancy for my kids). We finished off with dessert and then headed back to Aspen.

When we got back, everyone got ready for bed and then we sat down to watch National Treasure, just as one of my kids realized they’d left their bag with their Kindle at the restaurant. Bart called the restaurant and they had it, and there was still 30 minutes or so until they closed, so he drove the 20 minutes back to grab it while we started the movie.

Bart returned, we finished up the movie, and everyone went to bed!

DAY 3 IN ASPEN:
Everyone got up around 7:30 and we got ready, packed up, and checked out. We stopped at City Market for a few quick snacks and then drove up to Grottos Trail to hike to the Ice Caves. It was perfect weather and we had the trail almost entirely to ourselves. It was a nice short hike with a lot of fun things to see and climb on, so it was a big hit.

Forty minutes later, we got back in the car and drove to Grand Junction where we stopped for a delicious lunch at Roots Gastrohub and then drove the rest of the way home, arriving in time for a quick dinner, unpacking, and then attending our neighborhood cookie walk.

It was a perfect little trip and I can’t wait to go back!

And here are a few of the questions people asked about our trip to Aspen!

Was this your first time in Aspen?
Yes! None of us had ever been before (and none of my kids except Ella had ever been to Colorado at all!).

I’ve heard that Aspen is so $$$. How did you keep things reasonable?
Frankly, if you’re looking for an inexpensive weekend trip, there are better options than Aspen. That said, in the off-season, things are MUCH cheaper than if you went during ski season. We also didn’t do a lot of pricey activities (like riding the ski lift – we ride our local ski lift at home all the time, so it didn’t feel like the best use of our time or money). We could have eaten at the condo more which would have brought down our costs and we could have brought our own bikes and rollerblades instead of renting them.

How hard was the drive to get there from the Aspen airport?
It’s not far (less than 4 miles), so an Uber probably wouldn’t be very expensive, plus there is a free bus service so you could do it for free.

Did you need a car in Aspen?
We didn’t need our car at all while we were in Aspen (we didn’t use it for nearly 48 hours), but we did use it to go to Maroon Bells and up to Snowmass. It’s possible you could do the bus to those places, but since we had a car, I didn’t even look into those options.

What was your favorite thing you did in Aspen?
The bike ride was by far the best part for me – it was beyond stunning and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

What did you pack?
It was a pretty quick and basic trip – I packed a couple of casual outfits, pjs and loungewear since I knew we’d be hanging out a lot, 2 swimsuits, and a couple of sweatshirts and jackets. I also packed a couple of small games, 2 puzzles, and some books, plus my Kindle!

Any other questions about our Aspen trip?