Ski Steamboat Book chalets and apartments direct with owner

Steamboat Accommodation

Book your Steamboat ski accommodation direct with owners chalet apartment or hotel.

Steamboat markets itself as a real cowboy town. Its brochures usually have horse-riding, stetson-wearing, lassoo-wielding cowboys on the cover. Even Billy Kidd, the head of the ski school is decked out in cowboy gear for the brochures. The area does still have genuine working cowboys but the old 'wagon train' atmosphere doesn't permeate the ski resort or old town much. Don't go there just for the Western atmosphere. A better reason for going is its compact area of largely easy-to-intermediate skiing. And in good snow conditions Steamboat is also one of the best resorts around for skiing off-piste in among the trees. But the skiing has neither the extent of resorts such as Vail, Aspen or the Ski the Summit areas nor the distinctive character of smaller areas such as Telluride. If you are going to travel 5,000 miles across the Atlantic and you're a keen skier, you'd be well advised to combine a visit to Steamboat with a stay at another resort. The ski resort is a 20-minute bus-ride from the old town of Steamboat Springs, and is much the most convenient place to stay. Near the gondola station there are a couple of shop- and restaurant-lined multi-level squares leading to the one main street. The buildings are all modern, but built

with some taste and plenty of wooden facades. Much of the accommodation is built up the side of the piste, so the village does have a slightly sprawling feel to it. You couldn't call it ugly but neither is it charming.

The old town is a bit of a disappointment after the hype of the brochures. Its plus-point is that it's a genuine working cattle town. And you're likely to end up chatting to friendly locals if you try some of the bars - we drank with the local on-duty taxi driver. If you go in mid-January you'll catch the Cowboy Downhill, when cowboys pour into town to compete in a fun slalom, lassooing and saddling competition. The rest of the season, there's much less of a real cowboy presence. The main (and almost only) street is very wide, with multiple lanes of traffic each way - it was built that way to allow cattle to be driven through town. It is lined with bars, hotels and shops, built at various times over the last 120 years, in a wide mixture of architectural styles, from old wooden buildings to modern concrete shopping plazas. The town got its name in the mid-1800s, when trappers going along by the Yampa river heard a chugging they thought was a steamboat. It turned out to be the sound of a hot spring bubbling through the rocks.