Four Seasons’ entry into Vail Village in 2011 raised the comfort factor in this Colorado ski area. While the hotel does not offer ski in/ski out access, Mercedes SUVs and shuttles ferry families from the hotel to a Four Seasons ski club at the base where hot chocolate awaits and valets help skiers buckle their boots and deliver their skis to the gondola, making the Four Seasons Vail a safe bet for those who want a major mountain ski experience as well as major cosseting. After a day’s skiing, there is an impressive 14,000-square-foot spa and outdoor heated pool on-site as well as a kids’ club, teen room and an excellent modern steak house called Flame. The only complaint: shuttling back and forth to the base can be chaotic and the walk to the slopes is about ten minutes.

At a reported $350 million to build, the property delivers a substantial grand mountain resort experience. The lobby level is on the fifth floor where guests are greeted by a great room with fireplaces and views over the outdoor pool and to the mountain. The 121 rooms and residences have stone-hearth fireplaces, leather club chairs and solid oak furniture; and the best have balconies and views facing over the village to the mountain. Conveniences on property include a lobby-level deli and ski rental shop. Flame restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The pedestrian village with its many casual restaurants and shops is only a block away and the Solaris center, with an ice skating rink, Cinebistro and the bowling alley named Bol, is just two blocks away so families are well positioned for après ski activities.

A fantasy log cabin on the mountain with ski-in, ski-out access and every comfort imaginable, Game Creek Chalet is ideal for a romantic escape or bonding with family and friends. Set on the mountain just beneath the exclusive Game Creek Club, a members-only restaurant in Game Creek Bowl, this lodge-pole chalet features three-bedrooms and five bathrooms as well as a kitchen and outdoor hot tub for après-ski soaking. The living room on the main floor has a cozy fireplace, dining area and big comfy couches with views on to the slopes. Downstairs are a library/TV room and the three bedrooms (this is not a house for those who cannot handle stairs). The décor is western comfort with mammoth couches, wrought-iron lamps and Bavarian touches like botanical prints and country plaid fabrics. The concierge staff from the Arrabelle services the chalet and will arrange snow-cat pick-ups and ski rentals in the winter or fly-fishing and Jeep expeditions in the summer, along with restaurant reservations or a private chef to cater your meals.

The bright yellow castle-like building that houses the Ritz-Carlton Residences, a combination of private homes and rental units, evokes a modern version of the ski palaces in Switzerland. The sprawling Bavarian edifice is located a five-minute walk from the Lionshead lift in Lionshead Village and caters to families and couples who often check in for weeks at a time.

Oriental carpets, chandeliers and wood paneling in the lobby announce the old world luxury that is laid on thick here. The adjacent library with its shelves of books, comfy couches, large fireplace and jovial bartender create the feeling of a welcoming private members’ club—only this one looks out on to a pool area and the mountain beyond. The rooms are really residences, ranging in size from two bedrooms to five bedrooms. The design aesthetic is Cowboy Comfort with lots of wood, wrought-iron and leather accents and every unit has a living room with an entertainment center and gas fireplace, a kitchen with granite counters and top-of-the-line appliances (including wine coolers) and bathrooms have marble vanities and heated tile floors.

The state-of-the-art gym and fitness center features a private trainer and regular yoga classes. The pool area draws families to swim during the day and in the evening they gather around the fire pit or for barbecues around the outdoor grill. The club concierges go out of their way before and during guests’ stays to play up the club aspect so they arrange for grocery stocking, ski guides, restaurant reservations and any other arrangements for a memorable mountain holiday.

If there were a category of resort hotel called Upscale Contemporary Bavarian, the Sonnenalp would own the franchise. Managed and impeccably run since 1979 by Johannes Faessler, whose family still owns the original Sonnenalp in Germany, this spotless property exudes old-world style at every turn. The intimate lobby, with its stone floors and low stucco arches, conveys a feeling of warmth and welcome, in contrast to some of the grander properties like the Arrabelle.  Behind the lobby is a series of intimate lounges furnished with heavy woods and deeply comfortable seating. Beyond that is Ludwig’s restaurant, which contains both a sunny, glass-enclosed terrace and the Stuberl, a cozy nook furnished with wood salvaged from an old German farmhouse. Executive Chef Florian Schwarz incorporates ideas from all over Europe, with a special emphasis on fresh fish. Off to the side is the more casual Bully Ranch, with a popular menu of salads and sandwiches, and a sunny afternoon terrace. The 115 rooms and 12 suites are cozy and surprisingly free of Alpine kitsch. Junior suites like the Blue Spruce are especially appealing, with sleek granite bathrooms and spacious closets. The spa is airy and elegant in a Swedish Alpine kind of way, starting with the sunken firepit with white and yellow seating, and an oxygen bar where you can inhale O2 scented with lemongrass or peppermint. There’s a long list of treatments, with detox foot baths and HydraFacials being especially popular.

Opened in early 2008, the Arrabelle at Vail Square is owned by Vail Resorts and managed by its subsidiary, RockResorts. The hotel is the centerpiece of the extensive redevelopment at Lionshead, the self-contained enclave of what was once moderately priced, family-oriented lodges and condos on Vail’s western end, and now contains the Ritz-Carlton Club and several recently upgraded properties. The 36 spacious guestrooms and 65 condo units, ranging from one to five-bedrooms, are arrayed in four interconnected buildings surrounding an open square. There’s a skating rink, a Vail Square glockenspiel and carillon bell tower, and a European-style café to continue Vail’s characteristic Old World feeling. Inside, the lobby has a rather eclectic, if not exactly authentic baronial feel, with the sprawling Tavern on the Square three-meal restaurant in the far corner. A typical Premier Executive suite is big enough for three sitting chairs and a sleeper sofa, plus a king bed with ceiling drapery that looks like a velvet cape issuing from the crown molding. Bathrooms are equally vast, with glassed-in shower stalls running the full length of the room.

Vail’s grande dame, which dates from 1962, has undergone various expansions and renovations over the years, but its lobby has remained a prime people-watching spot since the doors first opened. Now managed by RockResorts (itself a subsidiary of Vail Resorts), the Lodge has added a much needed spa and some spiffy chalets just up the slope from the main, U-shaped building. There are four categories of rooms here, plus suites and privately owned condos (the late President Ford used to own one), but all were renovated in 2014 and feature soft, cozy interiors and modern touches like Apple-compatible TV's.

The location can’t be beat—the Vista Bahn Express chairlift is right out the back door. The big news on the food scene is Elway’s, a steakhouse where the legendary Broncos quarterback calls the signals. The more casual Cucina Rustica, right next door, now serves breakfast and weekend brunch only, though with the same impressively high standards.

Constructed in 2007 and originally opened as the Vail Plaza Club & Hotel, The Sebastian was acquired by new owners: an investment company owned by a Mexico City family with long ties to the Vail area. Renovated and rechristened as The Sebastian, the property is now a combination hotel (100 rooms) and private-residence club (36 units) under the management of Colorado’s Timbers Resorts. From the outside, The Sebastian still conforms to Vail’s general style—its stone-and-stucco façade is made quaint with wooden balconies and a scalloped Alpine roofline—but once inside, you are definitely not in Bavaria anymore. The lobby’s scale is mountain monumental - no surprise there - with a huge fireplace and similarly oversized chandelier and sofas as the focal points, but the fireplace itself is freestanding and made of dark-chocolate beams that look like the Legos-on-steroids of a design-savvy (and Gulliver-sized) child.

The chandelier, with its profusion of twig-like branches, harkens to the traditional antler fixtures of yore and yet, randomly studded with a blizzard of small bulbs, it’s the antithesis of traditional; it resembles an electrified anemone as much as any animal’s horns. Works by Mexican abstract artist Manuel Felguerez—including two large moody paintings in the adjoining library, alongside smaller sculptures that could be Braque figures come to life in shiny metal—look right at home here. If that home belongs to an art collector, that is. Similarly, the giant “icicles” hanging above the Frost bar, also just off the lobby, would not be out of place in the coolest Los Angeles (or Las Vegas) bar—no doubt a reason why the space, which has live music nightly, is attracting not just guests but also locals bored with the more predictable bars and lounges around town.

The Sebastian’s public spaces are new-school Vail, making it a modern lodge for a cosmopolitan guest. Upstairs, its rooms and residences retain a more-typical Western look—Indian-print pillows, square-legged tables—but overall the property is worldly and full of personality, well-suited especially to both couples and very well-traveled families. The main restaurant, Leonora, features well-executed ceviches and small plates in the Spanish style, plus excellent entrées. One bite of the mushroom risotto, with its pure, piercing distillation of porcini’s nutlike flavor, and you’ll consider ordering it every night. Breakfast at Market, the café next door, might have a way to go—perhaps offering a buffet daily and not only on weekends would give mountain-bound visitors the flexibility and the speed that can now be missing.

Located in Vail Village, just across the street from the Sonnenalp in one direction and the Four Seasons in the other, The Sebastian is not ski-in/ski-out. But it’s an easy ten-minute walk to the main base, where the hotel has an adjacent ski valet desk whose excellent staff can set you up with rentals and take care of them for you overnight too. For your own after-ski pampering, do not miss a treatment or two at The Sebastian’s Bloom Spa.

The reborn Tivoli Lodge sits at the quiet eastern end of the village, a few blocks from the center of the action, but just a snowball’s toss from the uncrowded lifts and trails of the Golden Peak area. One of Vail’s original lodges, the Tivoli has been owned (and lived in) by Bob Lazier and his family since 1968. After knocking down the old building a few years ago, they erected a 62-room boutique hotel that’s thoroughly modern, moderately priced (at least for Vail) and family-friendly. In fact, the Tivoli offers many of the same amenities of the fancier places, such as hot tubs, a ski valet, down pillows and a nice breakfast buffet, but without the frills. The rooms are spacious and up to date (granite countertops, down pillows) yet still warm and cozy thanks to a deep red color scheme accented by alderwood trim.