Vail with kids – How should we do it?

First let’s talk higher altitude. Vail is 8000+ feet over sea level and unless you are used to it, you need to remember two things:

1. Water
2. Chapstick. – Really I prefer Burt’s Bee’s

The water will avoid the massive hangover type headache you will feel from dehydration. Make sure you and the kids keep drinking all the time.

My son, Dylan, came running up the stairs almost screaming, “Why are my lips burning!” After I caught him, I realized he had not been wearing any type of sunblock on his lips. I tried to get him the Sunbum sunscreen for your lips, but alas, both kids spit it out in protest and hated any flavor. So, just use a lip balm to keep them covered and moist. The dry air will dry the lips out as well as the skin.

Those were the two things we needed constantly, but you really wanted to know what to do in Vail with kids.

Hiking –

We stayed in the Vail Village and chose a very easy to reach trail for our first day as we figured out the lay of the land. We chose Strawberry Lane. My kids are 9 and 7 and handled it well. We also had a 5 year old with us who did just fine, ran into a 3 year old who was climbing higher than we did! We were not used to the altitude difference, but took it slow in the beginning and took breaks when we needed to and all was well.

The Aspen trees are beautiful and plentiful on most trails. Did you k now that on young Aspen trees there is a fine powder you can use as a sunscreen, in a pinch. Strawberry Lane wove through the ski runs of Vail, so there were patches of trail through the trees and then we would be in the middle of a ski run taking in the breath taking views of the mountains all around us.