This winter will welcome a crop of five-star hotel openings at regional ski resort towns around the world, all looking to push the envelope in already-luxe settings.
For most any high-end mountain resort, ski concierges and boot butlers are a given. What makes these spots shine is their commitment to modern alpine design, creating rooms that are as fit for the 21st century as your custom-molded Solomon boots.
The Dunton team struck gold with its first property, a takeover of an abandoned ghost town in a hot springs town that few had ever heard of before. Its sophomore opening, Dunton River Camp, had the fashion world clamoring to go glamping in Colorado’s remote backcountry. So imagine what they will do to skyrocket Telluride’s reputation, given that the popular (if low-key) ski resort has never had a grade-A property in the heart of its historic downtown core?
That’s the bet that’s being made with Dunton Town House, a five-room Victorian home that the Dunton team is converting into a high-design, five-room inn. The décor will riff on the heritage of Austria and Tyrol, with antique Austrian furniture, alpine-inspired Gmundner Keramik dishes for breakfast service, and art that was curated by co-owner and professional gallerist Katrin Bellinger. Doors open in November – within a two-minute walk of the lifts, no less. Rooms from $350.
Taos has tons of die-hard fans for its powdery conditions and barely-there lift lines. But up until this season, the only lodging options have been a kitschy Bavarian-themed inn and Airbnb.
Enter The Blake, part of a $300 million investment into the entire ski area. The 80-room hotel, opening February, is just one of many mountain improvements coming this season. A renovated base area, a new lift to the top of the mountain, and the development of public plazas and a Riverwalk are also in the works.
But even if the hotel was the only development, it would still be reason enough to renew interest in this uniquely Southwestern ski destination. Its 80 rooms and common spaces will blend elements of Alpine and Puebla design: The lobby will have a white adobe fireplace adorned with antlers and flanked by Native American textiles, for instance. And unlike the only other luxury resorts in the wider area, you won’t have to drive 40 minutes to get to the lifts – they’re just outside your door. Rooms from $249.
The former Vail Cascade Resort has been completely remastered and rebranded by The Luxury Collection as the Hotel Talisa – which means “beautiful waters” in the local Native American language. Those beautiful waters refer to Gore Creek, which forms a burbling backdrop for the spa and many of the resort’s 285 masculine rooms. Skip the entry-level Standard rooms, which lack the fireplaces and private terraces that you’ll find one category up, in the Deluxe rooms. And if you forget to book yourself in for a restorative massage, just retreat to your floor-to-ceiling marble-clad bathroom for a bubble bath in the massive soaking tub.
As for mountain access, that’s a point of pride for the new hotel, which opens on Jan. 20. It’s set in Cascade Village – the least-exciting of Vail’s three villages, yes – but the silver lining of being a mile away from the restaurants of Vail Village or the skating rink in Lionhead is that you’re right at the foot of the Cascade lift. According to the hotel’s Managing Director, John Garth, it’s the fastest way to zip up to the top of the mountain.
