Wow, what great advice and so many alternatives! Let me clarify a few things that I neglected to in the OP.
We are already booked at the Hyatt convention center on Saturday and Sunday night (using a suite upgrade ^), so those nights are taken care of.
For a number of reasons, I'd like to get the real mountain experience...mostly b/c my wife is not into skiing, so if I can make her have a good time, we're a lot more likely to come back in the (near) future!
When I look at travel times to Vail/Bachelor gulch, they come up as 132 miles...with the traffic and potential weather, am I really looking at ~4 hours?
Any idea if the Ritz has decent kids skiing nearby?
As I was typing this, I just spoke to a co-worker of mine who lives in Denver (completely forgot about that
)...his suggestion was heavily weighted to Breckenridge with Winter Park as a close second...I might consider now staying two nights in the mountains and one at the Hyatt convention center. I don't think there is anything in Breckenridge redeemable for points, so can someone suggest a place in town that is walkable to the slopes and restaurants?
I know I'm kind of all over the map here, and I thank you guys a TON for all your help...my head is swimming with all the options!
