For spring break my family decided we were going to go skiing for the first time as a family. Being clueless about skiing, I did know that Colorado was a great place to go because of the snow and resort options. With skiing being as expensive as it was though I needed somewhere affordable and to cut costs where I could. Normally I am all about hotels and coming back to a clean room at the end of the day but hotels for a family of five can be pricey. After a lot of searching I found a VRBO to be the cheapest option and took the plunge and booked it.
Here is what I found was perks of staying at a VRBO vs a hotel in Colorado:
Hotels and resorts there are so expensive and for a big family we’d typically need two rooms. We saved money on a vacation home rental and were able to spread out.
A huge kitchen allowed us to cook meals and we ended up eating every meal in the vacation home and even packed lunches for skiing days. I could not believe how little we spent to feed my family for five days there! So much cheaper! My kids didn’t even complain and enjoyed the meals there. We did chicken fajitas, sandwiches, grilled some meats and pasta – all simple but easy to make big portions. We did a buffet with various foods for breakfast every morning. I will say too that there was not a lot of restaurants nearby so cooking definitely gave us freedom in eating what we wanted.
We stayed directly across the street from a ski resort and it was a perfect place to start off skiing. We did a bigger ski resort later in the week but my family liked the smaller one because it was less crowded but still had big hills.
We had a hot tub, shuffleboard, board games and movies we could take advantage of which saved us money from doing something in town. Yeah for free entertainment!
Multiple bathrooms, laundry and separate bedrooms helped us all wind down after a busy day of skiing instead of being cramped in 1-2 hotel rooms. We even parked our car inside the garage which was warmer and easier than trekking across a parking lot.
Honestly while I am pro-hotel usually, I definitely will keep our options open with VRBO. I think it depends on what activities you are planning on doing, the time of year and size of your family. You could also combine with another family to save even more money!