Last week we rode up the chairlift at Vail with a couple who said they were from Tahiti. Tahiti! That’s almost 5,000 miles across a tropical ocean from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. It was certainly the farthest flung origin I’d ever heard about, even at Vail, an international enclave. We’ve met people there from Mexico, Germany, Portugal, and elsewhere. Though Tahiti was a new one. I forget sometimes what a huge draw winters in Colorado are for people who live elsewhere. We get dumps of snow off and on, but we also get regular days of sun that quickly melt it all away. In fact, today, late February, I’m sitting outside in the sun writing this. It’s in the 60s and with the sun it feels warm enough for just a T-shirt and jeans.

We have ski passes again this year. If we buy them early enough and ski often enough the price works out to be about a third less than a lift ticket. And the more we ski the cheaper it is. Though Vail does charge about $30 this year just to park the car. So, there’s that. As prices have risen and ski resorts have been apparently catering more and more to out-of-state skiers who come for days or weeks, we have been forced to get a little more creative in how we ski, just to be able to afford it. We have a few cheat codes.

First, we ski mid-week when we can. It’s not cheaper, but it’s more fun. A Tuesday or Wednesday is far less crowded, which means a smoother and faster drive up the mountain, less time in lift lines, and fewer out of control skiers and boarders running into me.

Second, at Breckenridge we park at the free lot and take a bus to the lift. Whenever and wherever we go we usually pack our lunch and avoid the movie-theater-concessions pricing for food at the resorts. Just when I think I feel too much like a skin flint, I see other people eating food they brought as well. 

It isn’t just skiing; we travel cheap in general. Last September, we found ourselves housesitting again on the Gulf Coast of Florida and a woman taking tourist surveys approached us near the beach at Sarasota and wanted to know how we had spent only a few hundred dollars for a two-week beach trip. Pretty sure we skewed her survey results. Along with housesitting, we “freecationed” by cashing in some credit card miles to stay a couple nights at a fancy hotel and do a kayaking tour to see manatees in the bay. (Though that wouldn’t be financially savvy if you didn’t pay your card off, obviously.) We also ride local buses in lieu of more expensive ride shares. We walk and bicycle. We do libraries and parks, walk along the beach and window shop. And we get food from the grocery store and reserve eating out for a few well-timed occasions. A perk of living in a place like Colorado where everything from food, to stays, to skiing, is expensive, is that when we go most other places, we get a little bit of a price break.

Also, just being able to go find adventures makes us both happy enough that we don’t need luxury level. And each foot we gain in altitude driving up into the mountains to ski pulls the stress and worry from our faces. The vertical feet we drop zooming down the runs helps us find our happy places, too. Maybe a piece of it is something of the discipline of simplicity. If I remind myself of that, I can be even happier thinking about freely enjoying the great riches of a place like the mountains. And how spoiled we are to know their Creator–the same one who also made Tahiti!

And once we’re tired, maybe a little sore, and ready to change the heft of ski boots for bare feet, we sometimes head to the nearest hot springs. We’ve been to more than half a dozen around the state over the years. I wish we could go more often but spoiling ourselves with a relaxing soak has gotten expensive. The only way to save money is to bring your own bathing suit, towel, and water to drink. The steamy view of the snowy hills and red rocks, the sound of the river gurgling by, maybe eagles soaring overhead or a meandering bighorn sheep—all no extra charge.

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