We stayeed Jan 20 - 27th. Flew into Denver and drove up. First hint: stop at Mangia in Idaho Springs to eat on the way to Vail - 90 minutes from Denver. This was a serendipitous find on the main street called Miner. Incredibly attentive service, and the best calamari we've ever had - even after 2 trips to Italy. Wonderful list of martinis, good ambiance, easy and close parking even at 5 on a Friday. All 3 of us were very happy with our entrees: pizza margherita, lobster ravioli, and a chicken and pasta dish. The pizza was a little late arriving, so they gave us free desserts - incredible gelatos - and we hadn't complained - they apologized and volunteered it!

On to East Vail. (Vail has 3 parts like Gaul.) The Racquet Club was very easy and quick to find with the directions they gave us. Front desk staff was friendly and helpful. We arrived about 6:30 p.m. We were in bldg 3 unti 3, a first floor streamside condo with a real fireplace. We'd planned on having my brother, so we had a 2 BR 2 bath but it ended up being just me, hubby and our 17 y.o. son. 900 s.f. but professionaly decorated so it felt MUCH bigger. Top flight kitchen appointments, and every tchotchke for cooking known to man - all in red to match the color scheme of the condo. Full size appliances. Laundry facilities in bldg 3 just 2 doors away. Firewood delivered automatically every day as we used it. Parking convenient and easy. Very quiet even on weekends when all surrounding units, including ones above, were occupied. Sidewalks and parking lots kept very well - shoveled and salted/cindered twice a day at least.

I went to the WalMart in the town of Avon 11 miles away twice. Prices were comparable ot WalMart here in the rustbelt! City Market had takeout sushi, lots of exotic delicacies. I cooked/heated up all but 2 dinners for our 6 nite stay. Cut expenses considerably!! I was initially very skittish about driving a strange car on a snowy interstate on an unknown moutain road, but the interstate was kept well plowed and had no scary twisty hilly parts or tunnels between Vail and Avon. A 20 minute drive from the condo's door to the WalMart. The exit is a little confusing if it's been snowing - it doesn't really LOOK like an exit for some reason. If you DO miss it, you can get off at the next exit and either get BACK on or take Beaver Road past Vail Gourmet, City Market, and then you're at the WalMart/Home Depot complex.

All of Vail seems to be within earshot of the Interstate - it's a long and narrow town for obvious reasons. But it didn't bother us: just something I noticed. Easy for us to figure out how and where to park or drop off skiers (I don't ski).

TAKE THE GONDOLA to Adventure Ridge - after 2, it's free. We went up without our skis and enjoyed the views and had hot Starbucks offerings sitting OUTSIDE without hats or gloves with coats unzipped at 3 p.m. on a sunny day - Jan 26th!!

Note to skiers: the first day, you WILL feel the altitude. Don't do what dear hubby did, and succumb to the lure of the Bowls and hiigher altitude runs on the FIRST DAY. Give your body time to adjust and go only PART way up the mountain(s) and ski the BOTTOM. If you DO feel the altitude, or worry about your spouse, you can buy a can of oxygen at the CamelBak pak store in Vail Village (not cheap at $50 but good for about 100 long shots of 02 - and probably not legal to carry back in airline luggage). You should ask your doctor before going about Diamox. One site also recommended gingko biloba as increasing the cerebral bloodflow - go to [----] for objective, screened information on altitute sickness and remedies.

Also - be careful with making assumptions about local roads. My second trip to the WalMart, I though, "oh, I'll take this Beaver road thing back - it connects to Frontage Road I bet - I can see them from the Interstate". I was by myself, enjoying the scenery and got onto the road between Minturn and Leadville. Didn't notice the "Begin Avalanche Zone" sign, I guess. Got up high, noticed that finally I was on a very twisty road with no guard rails that was going up MORE and turned around. Found the "end avalanche zone" sign on the way back!!!

The local cable channels broadcast live feeds of traffic cams at key spots on I-70 to and from Vail in both directions, and the city of Vail provides free wireless Internet access. I came prepared with login instructions, but all I did was open my laptop and we could do whatever we needed - check the weather, a map, look at a restaurant for reviews, check our flights, etc.

Vail shopping is: winter sports equipment, furs, jewelry, real estate, t-shirts and coffee. I had the most fun just sitting on one of the many benches and watching the incredible cavalcade of people passing by - families with 3 y.o.'s with cute bunny helmet covers, women with minks or sable coats that probably cost more than my car, snowboard dudes, etc. Even tho the weather stayed in the 20's to teens, I was comfortable most days without a hat or gloves if I sat in the sun not the shade. (Don't forget sun block!!!)

I was raised in Florida, and the part of Michigan we come from is as flat as a pancake, so mountain driving was something that made me nervous (not hubby, who grew up in upstate NY). We'd rented a fullsize car from Thrity at the airport - they were out and gave us a free upgrade to a Dodge Grand Caravan. I bought an extra gallon of windshield fluid just in case we'd need it on the return to Denver.

We stopped at the IHOP 2 blocks off the Wadsworth Avenue exit of I-70 in Denver to tank up before hitting the airport. Another happy accidental find.

Well, that's all I can think of. Hope this helps you all.

We were looking for a nice room for a 5 night visit to Vail for a January ski trip, our first to Vail. We choose the Racquet Club because it was the highest rated and "lowest' price" place (if there is such a thing in Vail) on TripAdvisor's top ten list for Vail.

Our visit started off poorly, with a later then planned arrival to Vail, due to a snowstorm which had us ultimately arriving at the Vail/Eagle airport, and getting a rental car just before 10pm on a Sunday night, driving in the same snowstorm. I should mention that the rental car lady at the Vail airport took pity on us and upgraded us to a better SUV to drive in the storm with, which really helped us out - we encountered a lot of friendly service in the Vail area during our entire week.

We had dumbly forgot to print out directions to the Racquet Club to bring with us, and we soon realized that finding the property was going to be near impossible due to the conditions, the time of night (everything we saw looked closed), and the fact that Vail was a whole lot bigger then it looked on the website maps (duh!), so we called the front desk from our cell phone to get directions, and luckily for us, talked to the front desk clerk just before he closed up for the night - because this is not a hotel, but basically a health club type front desk, he told us he was closing up, and our keys would be in a lockbox outside the office, and gave us directions from I-70. I'll spare the details of how lucky we were to eventually stumble on the place, as the combination of his not-too-great directions (you could tell he just wanted to go home), and the confounded 'roundabouts' in the roads all around Vail that we had to deal with all week (whoever designed these things should be condemmed in hell to driving around them endlessly) made it a real challenge.
We did find the office by the grace of the snow Gods, and found our 1 bedroom unit. It was on the 2nd floor of a 3 story unit, was nicely decorated, and did have everything advertised that it would. Here's the short list of the good and bad features:
Good:
- Nicely decorated, comfortable, on the small side, but doable for us, because we just needed a place to sleep and shower, as we planned on spending most of our time on the slopes and in the village, which is how it pretty much worked out.
- Kitchen was nicely equip[ed with all the essentials, everything was on the newer side.
-Living room was comfortable, but more than 2 people would be a crowd in our 1 bedroom unit.
-The free Vail bus service was great, especially after having a few drinks in the village and not having to drive afterwards. There are actually 3 stops at the Racquet Club, just a short walk from wherever your unit is.
-Parking was easy , right by your door, and free ( we didn't know that you have to pay to park in Vail at a lot of other places)

Bad:
- The thermostat is for decoration only. The room stayed too warm (about 82), no matter what you turned the dial to.
- The bathroom is extremely small, and the space for sitting on the toilet would challenge a contortionist - it was crammed in a space just big enough to fit it between the wall and the bathtub - if you are claustrophobic at all, this is not the place for you.
- We did have a fireplace, but actually lighting a fire was impossible with the wood they provided - it was the stuff you buy at the convenience store, advertised as "seasoned and quick lighting", which was a joke - a blowtorch wouldn't light this stuff.
- The maid left our door unlocked on two days - luckily, the front door is in a hallway shared with one other unit, so nobody noticed , and we were not missing anything, but we took everything valuable to our car during the day for the rest of our stay, as we didn't trust them to lock up properly.
-We never did try the on-site restaurant, as the price list seemed high, and there are so many other restaurant choices in the Village to choose from.
- Your "concierge" will probably be a ski-bum college kid who will most likely address you at some point as "dude".
- The bathtub had such slow draining water that we took it into our own hands (literally) to fix the problem, and used the toilet plunger under the sink to try and speed things along - and brought up a huge chunk of hair, which fixed the problem - but who wants to deal with that on their vacation ? Plus, there was some mildew along the bathtub tiles.

On the whole, it was nice , but just OK, and we would only recommend the Racquet Club if the price was right for you.

While looking for a place to stay at Vail, we found almost everything to be too expensive that was near the mountain. So we looked a little farther from the mountain and found this place - what a steal! We rented what was basically a one bedroom condo/time-share for 3 nights, and while smaller then a real condo, it was perfect. It had a working fireplace, BBQ, small deck, ski storage, nice decorations, full kitchen, seperate bathroom/sink area and so on. The front desk staff were really nice, and your stay entitles you to access to a sauna and gym facilities. Everything was modern and up to date. The area was quiet - we could not hear people in other units - and there was a private entry to each unit from the outside.

If you rented a car and are going to ski Vail, getting on/off the highway is a piece of cake from this location. This place is NOT near the mountain (it’s about an 8 minute drive in good road conditions) but it does offer a few free shuttle bus stops on the condo property. For those who can’t brave the cold, note that the shuttle stops are not necessarily anywhere near your condo (up to a half mile away in some cases) and may not be covered - ask when booking to be near the shuttle stop if you can!

A few other notes we learned about the rooms... Try to get a room that doesn't face the highway. It doesn't really matter that much, but it's good to ask. Even if you get a room that DOES face the highway, you likely won't be able to hear or see the highway - the elevations of the condos and the highway are significantly different, and there is a stream and trees between you and the highway so it's not really a big deal. (Our room DID face the highway - it was a non-issue)

Also, some units have gas-powered fireplaces and some are wood/real fireplaces. Our preference was gas actually, but your preference may be different. Ask!

Finally, note that if you're doing the late check-in thing, you should call in advance during the day to get the lockbox code. There is no 24 hour front desk service and on the Expedia booking page it was VERY unclear that there were special arrangements to be made for after-hours check-in. Luckily, you can call the hotel and push a button to get "after hours" service, but it's just an answering service. Save yourself the headache - call ahead and let them know you'll be checking in late!

One last tip about the area... Save money! Pack a lunch for the slopes and cook dinner at the condo. A corner store named Sim’s is just down the road from the condos. They have just about everything you might need for simple lunches/dinners, although you have to hunt a bit for it as the store is not a full grocery and it's probably $0.50 more per item then a real grocery. They also have an attached full liquor store.

If you are looking for a great value, The Vail Racquet Club is the place to stay. My family was looking for a affordable weekend getaway and we found that there. We had a 2 bedroom condominium and it was just perfect. The condo had a comfortable amount of space and it was very nicely appointed. Also, who can go wrong with 2 outdoor hot tubs and an outdoor heated swimming pool in the clubhouse area. I even attended a yoga class, I thought I might as well since it was free. I've stayed several other places in Vail and you really can't beat The Vail Racquet Club with their prices and all the ammentities they offer.