Breckenridge

Breckenridge is a lovely old mining town with a long main street filled with shops, bars and restaurants - a place you could enjoy any time of year but which in winter has a special charm. Multi-million dollar developments in recent seasons have brought the slopes and lifts right down to street level.

Breck is the ski resort equivalent of Key West or New Orleans, the end of the road for fun-seekers. Despite the town's new gloss, at heart it's a place of partying ski bums. Oh, and the skiing - something for all levels, from families to gung-ho types, and the world's highest chairlift.

Resort elevation: 2,925m (9,600ft).

Top elevation: 3,915m (12,840ft).

Base elevation: 2,925m (9,600ft).

Number of lifts: 29.

Number of runs: 155.

Average annual snowfall: 7.6m (26ft).

Breckenridge is located two hours west of Denver in the Colorado Rockies.

The season runs from November to late April.

Skiing and boarding is across four mountains - Peaks 7, 8, 9 and 10. Beginners can learn at Peak 9, the base area nearest to the town centre, with decent runs there and on Peak 8.

At the top of the latter, the Imperial Express reaches a world-record 3,915m (12,840ft), opening up the wide open blacks of Imperial Bowl. It's the high point of a resort that has a base height loftier than the top of many great resorts.

The skiing's not massive but there's lots of intermediate cruising and expert terrain, as well as five terrain parks and four halfpipes. The height means there is reliable snow throughout the season. Wind power credits offset all energy use.

Breckenridge shares a lift pass with nearby Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, and Vail and Beaver Creek an hour away. The first two (free bus) should be skied; the others (cheap bus) are also worth having a look around for their shops and ambiance. Breck is a nice place to stroll. There's a good public recreation centre with swimming pool, plus all the usual pastimes - snowmobiling, skating, dog sledding, skating and snowshoeing.

Two childcare centres, at the base of Peaks 8 and 9, take ages eight weeks to five years. Ski school, offering lessons from age three, is highly rated. For older children the Peak Adventure Series gives youngsters challenging lessons. There are also Kids' Day Off and Kids' Night Out activities. The Rec Centre gives lessons on its climbing wall from age four. Breck's a good place for families to ski together, and children love the twinkling lights of town.

You can spend hours searching out quirky stores down steps, along balconies and around corners. There are more than 100 shops, from sports gear and T-shirts to individual boutiques, fascinating art galleries, food stores and places catering to everyone from pipe smokers to dog owners.

Try Goods (105 South Main Street) for unusual clothes, or Breckenridge Brewery (606 South Main Street) for bottles of beer. The factory outlet malls (50-plus stores) of Silverthorne are 20 minutes by free bus.

There's nowhere livelier than Breckenridge. Old favourites include Downstairs at Eric's (111 South Main Street), a subterranean cross between a club and a sports bar, Breckenridge Brewery (606 South Main Street), a huge, friendly brewpub (try Avalanche Ale), where you can crowd the bar or grab a table out of harm's way, and the Gold Pan Saloon (103 North Main Street), the longest continuously operated bar west of the Mississippi (from 1859), now the haunt of woolly-hatted boarders quaffing cheap beer.

The list goes on...Mia Casa (606 South Park Avenue) for margaritas, Cecilia's (520 South Main Street), Breck's largest club, Sherpa & Yeti's (320 South Main Street) for live music, or Blue River Bistro (305 North Main Street) for a quiet martini.

Breckenridge has more than 100 places to choose from, featuring just about anything you could think of. Try the Whale's Tail (323 South Main Street) for seafood in cosy surroundings, or the Hearthstone (130 South Ridge Street) for upmarket old-style American. Then the choice is yours - burgers, Mexican, southwestern, Chinese, Indian, something for every pocket.

The new gondola is in town, and the Peak 9 chairlifts nearby, hence within walking distance of much accommodation, or a free bus hop away. Free buses link with the sister resorts of Keystone and Arapahoe Basin, with inexpensive buses to Vail and Beaver Creek.

Take a snowmobile tour up to the Continental Divide (the point which decides whether rivers flow east or west) at 3,531m (11,585ft), the crest of Georgia Pass. The two-hour trip entails driving your own state-of-the-art machine. Available through Good Times Adventures (website: www.snowmobilecolorado.com).

Luxury

Hyatt Main Street Station
A 4-star condo hotel spread across several traditional, connected low-rise buildings just along from the lifts, with outdoor pool and hot tubs.

505 South Main Street
Tel: (970) 547 5200 or 1 800 869 9172.
Website: www.hyattmainstreet.com

Moderate

Breckenridge Mountain Lodge
A good-value hotel looking like an overgrown log cabin in town a few minutes' walk from the lifts.

600 South Ridge Street
Tel: (970) 453 2333 or 1 888 400 9590 (reservations).
Website: www.breckmountainlodge.com

Budget

Wayside Inn
A stylish, friendly, family-run motel several miles out of town but served by bus.

165 Tiger Road
Tel: (970) 453 5540 or 1 800 927 7669.
Website: www.breckenridgewaysideinn.com

Nearest airport: Denver (DEN).

Distance to resort: 167km (104 miles).

Driving time: 2 hours 30 minutes.

http://breckenridge.snow.com or www.gobreck.com

Environmental awareness, Families, Non-skiers, Experts, Snow reliability, Snowboarders, Beginners, Intermediates, Après ski