The Sardy House dates back to 1892, and was Aspen’s grandest residence before its 1985 renovation made it Aspen’s grandest small hotel. The Sardy House itself is no longer available on a room by room basis - it is a seven-bedroom residence, the perfect venue for a long ski holiday with several of one’s best friends, be they billionaire industry moguls or A-list movie stars.
For a slightly more traditional hotel experience, the Carriage House (naturally) is just behind the Sardy House, and is home to one luxury apartment as well as six hotel rooms. The Ajax rooms are the queen rooms, and the Pyramid the king, both named for area mountains. High speed wireless internet, DVD players, and whirlpool baths (for that après-ski soak) are all standard, as are humidifiers (a necessity in the ultra-dry Colorado winter).
There is more to Aspen than skiing, of course. Names tend toward the literal in this part of the world (I can say this, having grown up in both Littleton and Boulder), which means Aspen is named for a certain white tree whose leaves change color in a most spectacular manner. Thus the nature lover may find Aspen most compelling in the brief and unpredictable fall season. Hiking and fly fishing are leading summer attractions, and the town’s status as an upscale getaway means there is quite a bit more cosmopolitan culture here than in many other mountain towns.
This is, after all, the Athens of the West (which means Telluride is Sparta, one presumes). Plenty of mountain towns offer a similar caliber of outdoor adventure activities, but few can match such cultural attractions as the Aspen Music Festival (North America’s largest) or the Food and Wine Classic. The motto here is “come for the winters, stay for the summers,” and there is no better place to do so than Sardy House.
author Daily Tablet Hotel, source www.tablethotels.com
