The lifts may have stopped running, but ask any local and they’ll tell you how much they love off-season. It’s like the feeling you get in between turns, a little float, a quiet suspension of time and space that feels just right. It’s a time when the town becomes small again, when you know everyone you see at City Market, and it’s easy to get a table at your favorite restaurant or better yet, a parking spot out front.
The weather might be as ideal as it is predictable, and it’s true the mud might come between you and your jump start on your favorite summer outdoor sports, but there’s still plenty to do. And the best part? You won’t have to wait in line.
FOR THOSE IN NEED OF RELAXATION
Steamboat locals are always in motion, whether it’s skiing, hiking, biking or a combination of all three. Off season is the perfect time to relax, restore, rejuvenate and give those muscles a little rest. For a spa day that goes beyond pampering into something more therapeutic, check out the salt room at Waterside Day Spa. Microcrystals of therapeutic grade salt are dispersed into the atmosphere and act like a sponge to absorb any toxicity or mucus in the lungs, reduce bacteria and inflammation on the skin, and can also help alleviate allergies, sinus pressure, cold/flu, asthma, bronchitis, eczema, psoriasis and even help with acclimating to altitude. As an added bonus, through April and May they are offering half off all of the salt room memberships.
If you really want to go deep, try IV therapy at Replenish, Steamboat’s first and only wellness clinic specializing exclusively in IV therapy. Choose from a menu of formulas to address everything from immunity and hangover recovery to altitude sickness and even to enhance athletic performance and beauty.
FOR FAMILIES
For those days when the weather gets ugly and playing outside is just out of the question, let your kids burn some energy rock climbing the indoor wall at Love Climbing Adventures (LCA Climbing Center). There are a series of walls ranging in difficulty and size for climbers of all ages, sizes and abilities. You can also try your balance on the slack line. It’s all fun and games and the newly renovated Snow Bowl in West Steamboat, with new lanes, a redesigned interior and more refined menu. Bye-bye snack bar, hello restaurant and cocktail bar—that means fun for kids and parents, too.
FOR THE ACTIVE
If you time it just right, it’s possible to let your athletic seasons overlap. Follow the snow line up Rabbit Ears Pass where you can Nordic ski in the morning and then hit the pavement in town later that afternoon for a scenic road bike ride. Be sure to swing by Orange Peel and see Brock and the boys for a spring tune up and that cold weather cycling gear you’ve been meaning to buy.
If the weather’s not cooperating, check out a yoga sculpt class, experience your first wall yoga class, or wind down with a restorative yoga session at Rakta Hot Yoga, voted Best of the Boat 2018.
FOR THE FOODIE/CULTURED
Some of the best things about off season are the specials at some of Steamboat’s best and most popular restaurants, where you can get a seat without waiting, and find some great deals too. Start the day at Freshies Restaurant for their “8 Before 8” special ($8 Breakfast before 8 a.m.). You may want to plan a little extra time because you are likely to you run into everyone you know.
For dinner, sample everything on the menu at locals’ favorite Table 79 where they are offering the “Passport Program.”You can purchase a “passport” for $10, with 100% of the passport proceeds going to the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club. That passport gives you and one other person access to the 50% off entrees special, offered through both the spring and fall off-seasons at Table 79 and their sister restaurants Aurum Steamboat and Aurum Breckenridge.
At Besame, there’s a special almost every night of the week, like all night Happy Hour on Wednesdays and half price cocktails for Ladies Night on Thursdays—the perfect excuse for that girls’ night out you’ve been waiting for.