WINTER PARK - ALPINE RESORT PROPERTIES

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My family and I were invited to spend the weekend in Winter Park courtesy of Alpine Resort Properties (www.alpineresortproperties.com). This company is designed to meet your family’s every need – whether a last minute weekend trip or a long planned family vacation.

Before we even scheduled our weekend, Diane made sure she knew what exactly we were looking for in a getaway weekend. Did we want a place with a pool for the kids in town? A condo with a private hot tub for the grown-ups? How about slope side for some ski in/ski out access at Winter Park Resort? Near shopping? House? Condo? Decisions, decisions!

We choose the Zephyr Lodge at the base of Winter Park for our getaway.

Check-in was a breeze at the clock tower in town. There we were greeted with our keys and a folder full of things to do in Winter Park and the surrounding areas. Alpine Resort Properties goes the extra step with a handout listing family friendly restaurants and activities. This was very helpful since we arrived at dinnertime with 3 hungry kids. The kids got coloring sheets with the Alpine mascot, Papa Al (Pine) the Moose that they could decorate and later turn in to decorate the Alpine office walls. Being a Friday night and expected a long wait (1 ½ hours), we put our name on the wait list at Hernando’s, went to drop our bags at our condo and returned to a 20 minute wait for some yummy pizza and subs.

Speaking of Papa Al – Alpine has a new promotion based off of Flat Stanley. They have mini-Papa Al’s of a variety of sizes to purchase (read: nice little keepsake of the weekend). From here we take pictures of Papa Al participating in all our activities (how about Papa Al on the Continental Divide during a snow mobile tour? On a sleigh ride with hot chocolate?) We email our photos to Alpine Resort Properties to win a 3 NIGHT STAY at the Miles Behind House. Yeah, we can do that!

Another promotion the town of Winter Park is sponsoring is the www.WelcomeBacktoWP.com $10,000 giveaway. Every participating sponsor in Winter Park and Fraser hand out a code card for your chance to win $10,000. Plus, you flash your room key or code card at participating shops for special deals, discounts and the chance to collect additional codes. The more you visit – the more chances you have to win! That’s a lot of mountain getaway money! Just input your code on their site for your chance to win.

Back to our stay. We had heated underground parking – nice in ski country. Our condo was a 2 bedrooms, 2-bathroom unit with a full kitchen and a fabulous view towards the Zephyr Lift and the village shops. With three kids – I’m a big fan of reducing costs with a kitchen in our unit. Lets not forget the DVD players in each bedroom for the kids to watch a little movie for quiet time while Mom and Dad get to read a book and watch the skiers buzz down the slopes.

Downstairs there was a weight room, locker room for skis, two hot tubs (towels and plastic cups provided), and walking distance to Starbucks and a little general store for those items we forgot (who didn’t pack the hot chocolate and marshmallows?!) Resort prices - but there is a Safeway the other side of town, when you plan accordingly ,if you don’t tell the kids you’ll make hot chocolate NOW. Other than the obvious Zephyr Ski Lift right outside our door – there is a mini trick area for the bigger kids and a small sled riding hill for the smaller kids – with sleds provided by Zephyr. We all had a really good time sledding.

We also found the free ice rink at Cooper Creek Mall in town. We rented skates from Christy Sports ($5/hour) and had a blast under a covered skate rink (most of the other rinks were closed due to warmer weather). There are also restaurants, shops, a fire pit and waterfalls to enjoy.

We did splurge and do the Dashing Through the Snow sleigh ride ($22 adults, $19 kids, 4 and under free; www.DashingThruTheSnow.com ). Here we took an hour ride through the trees to a site with a bonfire, hot chocolate and marshmallows for roasting before returning to the stables. It was a beautiful clear day and the kids loved it. Still want to dress warm – but they do provide warm wool blankets to snuggle under.

I was pleasantly surprised there was a lot of affordable stuff to do with the kids in a resort town. Places we didn’t even make it to included another free sledding hill and playground and climbing wall at Hideaway Park.

There are lots of things to do in Winter Park for all ages – even if you don’t ski!

Contact Alpine Resort Properties at www.alpineresortproperties.com or reservations@alpineresortproperties.com or the old fashion 800-551-9943 to schedule your getaway. You’ll be glad you did!