This post is all about how to take a cheap Colorado vacation — without sacrificing luxurious accommodations, adventure nor delicious 4-star dining — just like I did. We’re talking about a 4-star resort stay, incredible resort food for free, extremely cheap flights and more. Here’s exactly how to visit Colorado for cheap.
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Cheap Colorado Vacation Cost Breakdown
First, I’m going to give you a full cost breakdown of our cheap Colorado vacation. In total, our Colorado trip cost about $42 per person per day. We spent four days and three nights exploring Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park. We rented a car, slept in a luxurious 4-star mountain resort, ordered more delicious food than our stomachs could handle, and hiked our hearts out. Here’s the total cost breakdown for two people.
Flights: $40.28
Accommodations: $114.84
Rental car: $0.00
Dining out: $38.60
Activities: $152.59
Total for two people: $344.51
Total per person: $171.23
Final total per person per day: $42.81
Now, I’ll explain exactly how I got all of these trip costs down so low. And, of course, how you can too. Let’s start with the cheapest time of year to visit Colorado as well as how long your cheap Colorado vacation should be.
When Is The Cheapest Month To Go To Colorado?
The cheapest month to go to Colorado depends on which city you’re visiting. If you’re visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, the cheapest months to go to Colorado are from November through February. If you’re visiting a ski town, the cheapest months to go to Colorado are in spring and fall.
The time of year you visit Colorado plays a large role in how expensive your flights, accommodations and activities cost. We decided to take a winter trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, which was both beautiful and cheaper than peak season summer months. If you want both the best possible weather and most affordable prices, you should generally visit Colorado during the shoulder season months: October-November and March-April.
Is A Weekend Trip To Colorado Worth It?
Yes, a weekend trip to Colorado is absolutely worth it. You can do a lot in just a couple days in Colorado, no matter if you’re hiking in the summer or skiing in the winter. Like the time of year, the length of your trip will also play a large role in your Colorado trip cost — the longer the trip, the more costly. We opted for a four day, three night stay and had a fantastic time exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. Even though we slept over an hour outside the national park boundary, we were able to go on four different hikes, cross country ski, relax in our resort hot tub every night, and go out for all of our breakfasts and dinners in just one long weekend.
How To Get Cheap Flights To Colorado
In total, our flights to Denver, Colorado, from our small hometown airport in Wisconsin cost just $40.28 out of pocket. This price included both of our flights to Denver as well as our return flights. The original cash value for our round-trip flights was over $920. However, we used credit card points and miles to bring the cash cost down from over $920 to just a little over $40.
For our flights to Denver, I used 23K United miles plus $11.20 to book both of our flights. I earned these United miles with a generous welcome offer on my United card, which has no annual fee for the first year. This card also came with two one-time passes into a United club lounge, which I’ll mention later.
For our flights home from Denver, I used a couple of different budget travel hacks. For my return flight, I redeemed 19K United miles plus $5.60 to book. I earned these miles from the same United card welcome offer previously mentioned. For my husband’s return flight, I loaded our United Travelbank in two $100 increments with our $200 airline incidental credit from our AMEX Business Platinum card. This is a fantastic points and miles loophole to use the AMEX airline incidental credit to pay for flights. Just make sure to designate United as your incidental credit airline in your AMEX account first. Then, I booked his return flight with the $200 credit plus $23.48. In total, we spent just $40.28 on our round-trip flights to Colorado.
Want access to all of my beginner points and miles tips to travel for basically free on points? Download my Budget Travel Bible ebook here.
How To Get A Cheap Luxury Resort Stay In Colorado
Next, our luxury resort accommodations in Colorado only cost $114.84 out of pocket. We stayed at the Omni Interlocken Hotel, which is a fabulous 4-star mountain resort located just outside of Boulder in Broomfield, Colorado. It’s about 30 minutes away from the Denver airport, and one hour away from Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. The cash value of our stay was well over $1000 for three nights, including our massive food and beverage credits that I’ll talk about later. The resort was beautifully designed with classy curated outdoorsy decor.
As for the hotel, the service was stellar, and the amenities certainly did not disappoint. There are several dining options on site, including an incredibly decorated breakfast restaurant, bars, a pub-style dinner restaurant and more. Additionally, there are numerous outdoor heated pools and hot tubs that are open year-round next to the spa. And, the resort is also home to a golf course with extensive on-property walking trails, although we didn’t participate because we visited in winter.
I booked our stay at the Omni Interlocken using our annual $300 American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts credit that comes with our AMEX Business Platinum card. Most of the AMEX Fine Hotels + Resorts cost over $1000 per night, which is not worth using the $300 credit for me. So, instead, I browsed the AMEX Fine Hotels + Resorts special offers page to find a stay as close to $300 total as possible. This is how I found the Omni Interlocken (which is part of AMEX’s The Hotel Collection, similar to the Fine Hotels + Resorts collection) and what inspired me to book this entire trip. Our total stay originally cost $414.84, but we only had to pay $114.84 thanks to the $300 AMEX credit.
How To Get Cheap Eats In Colorado
American Express Food And Beverage Credits
Speaking of AMEX’s The Hotel Collection, let’s talk about how we got 4-star meals during our cheap Colorado vacation. Because we booked through AMEX with our AMEX Business Platinum card, we got a variety of other amazing benefits, including late 3:00 p.m. checkout, an upgraded mountain view room, free breakfast for two up to $68 per day, as well as a $100 resort credit.
For breakfast, the Omni offered $68 per day total in credits to be used at the resort’s breakfast restaurant. The on-site breakfast restaurant is sit-down style, not buffet style, which made the dining experience at lot more luxurious. The restaurant was decorated with perfectly curated outdoor gear, which was an ideal start to our days out in Rocky Mountain National Park. And, the food? Even better. Our favorite meal was the Rocky Mountain braised bison hash. Plus, the $68 was more than enough to cover our fancy iced lattes, two entrees, a side and the tip. We only went $3.00 over during the course of the three mornings.
Next, the $100 resort credit was eligible for use anywhere on the resort property: at the restaurants, bars, spa, golf course and more. All we had to do to use the credit was charge the resort purchases to our room. Because we were trying to make our Colorado trip as cheap as possible, we choose to use this credit for two out of our three dinners on our trip. We only went over $2.50 over the course of the two dinners. We got Chipotle for the third dinner and free airport lounge food for our fourth dinner. In total, we spent $5.50 on resort food and $33.10 at Chipotle for a grand total of $38.60 on food out during our trip.
Airport Lounge Access Food
Speaking of airport lounge food, we got our lunch for free on the way to Denver in one of the O’hare Airport United Club Lounges using our free one-time lounge passes from our United credit card. Plus, like I just mentioned, on the way back home from Denver, we got dinner for free in the Denver Capital One Lounge, which we got free access to with our Capital One Venture X card. (Side note: the Denver Capital One Lounge had oat milk iced chai lattes on tap to-go when we visited. Incredible. They’re speaking my language.)
Other Free Food
Moreover, I can’t complete this Colorado cheap eats section without talking about the free specialty coffee and decadent red velvet cheesecake we got at the Omni. Right after booking our hotel, I made an Omni loyalty account. As an Omni loyalty member, we were given one free drink at check-in. The free drink could be redeemed at the hotel bar. Or, it could be redeemed at the resort coffee shop. I personally opted for a free medium almond milk latte with caramel syrup at the coffee shop.
Similarly, before our trip, I used my free hotel upgrade email template (download it here) to kindly request any complimentary celebratory amenities that the resort had to offer. We were happily surprised with a free fancy red velvet cheesecake in our room at check-in, topped with in-house whipped cream and macarons.
Needless to say, we had enough free food to cover all of our meals for our trip. In fact, we had too many leftovers to eat before checkout. For hiking snacks, we picked up quick Walmart groceries using my road trip grocery list.
How I Got My Colorado Rental Car For Free
The last big expense for any trip, including a cheap Colorado trip, is ground transportation. When you’re traveling around the national parks, renting a car is usually necessary. (Check out my step-by-step guide to planning a national park trip here.) We rented our car for free using part of our Capital One Venture X $300 annual travel credit. The rental for three nights cost $133.88 through the Capital One travel portal, leaving us with a whopping $166.12 in credits to spare for future trips.
Other Expenses To Consider
Other expenses to consider for your cheap Colorado vacation primarily include tourist taxes and activity costs. For example, when I checked out of our resort, I was surprised to find out that there was a $25 per night city tourist tax. You also have to pay to enter the national parks, typically around $35 depending on what vehicle you’re driving into the park. Although, we already had an annual national park pass from a national park road trip earlier in the year, so our entrance into Rocky Mountain National Park during this trip didn’t cost us anything extra.
Finally, if you plan to take any tours or rent any outdoor gear during your trip, you should definitely consider these expenses when planning your trip budget. For example, we rented cross-country skis to ski inside the national park. Our one-day rentals cost a reasonable $35 per person at Estes Park Mountain Shop. In total, on this trip, we spent $152.59 in city tax and activities. But, obviously, this could vary for your trip.
Want more tips to travel the national parks on a budget? Read this blog post next.
More National Park Budget Tips
10 Tips For Visiting National Parks On A Budget
Ultimate National Park Trip Planning Step-By-Step Guide
How To Get Free Hotel Upgrades (Email Template)
How To Get More Credit Card Points Without Spending More
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