Telluride sits at the head of a box canyon in the San Juan Mountains, ringed by 4 000 m peaks that come right down to the edge of town. The remoteness keeps the day-tripper crowds away. The setting is the most dramatic in American skiing, and the historic Main Street is connected to the modern Mountain Village above by the only free public gondola in the country.
Run counts and piste kilometres are indicative. Green runs only exist in France, Spain, Andorra, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, the United States, Morocco, Algeria, Lesotho, South Africa, Egypt, Canada, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand; Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany start at blue. Indicative average snow depth near the top of the resort, in cm.
A handful of well-rated hotels in and around the resort. Pick one, then compare live prices across Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Excellent · 541 reviews
Moments from the lifts in Telluride, so you can ski back to the door and skip the morning queues.
Guests rate this hotel as excellent (4.7/5 from 541 reviews). It sits about 50 m from the slopes. A luxury option for Telluride, with live nightly rates shown for your exact dates so you always see the best price.
Very good · 770 reviews
A long-standing favourite in Telluride, trusted by thousands of guests before you.
Very good · 681 reviews
A long-standing favourite in Telluride, trusted by thousands of guests before you.
Very good · 492 reviews
A dependable, well-reviewed choice for a stay in Telluride.
Very good · 463 reviews
A dependable, well-reviewed choice for a stay in Telluride.
Excellent · 182 reviews
One of the highest-rated places to stay in Telluride, with guests singling out the service and comfort.
Excellent · 46 reviews
A polished, high-end base for Telluride when you want to be properly looked after after a day on the snow.
Ratings from Google, prices indicative per night. Live availability and rates via our booking partners.
True ski-in/ski-out is concentrated in Mountain Village, where flagship hotels open onto the snow. Historic Telluride town below has almost no ski-on lodging: the free gondola gets you to the lifts in thirteen minutes.
The skiing splits between two characters. The lower half is gentle, sunny, perfectly groomed and works for almost any level, including beginners learning on broad meadow runs in Mountain Village. The upper half is something else: Gold Hill, Bald Mountain, Black Iron Bowl and, above all, the hike-to terrain on Palmyra Peak at 3 735 m, where a 45-minute climb on a wind-blown ridge opens out into some of the most committing in-bounds terrain in the United States. There are not many places in America where you can ride a fast quad and then bootpack into something this serious. The town below is the other half of why people fall for Telluride. It was a mining camp in the 1880s, a counter-culture hideout in the 1970s, and is now a National Historic Landmark District whose old buildings are filled with a handful of excellent restaurants, a couple of serious bookshops, the festival venue that hosts Telluride Film Festival every Labor Day weekend, and a population of locals who skew toward low-key sophistication. Mountain Village above is more polished, more convenient for skiing, and more expensive. Getting there is the only thing that is genuinely hard: either fly into the small Telluride Regional Airport, into Montrose forty-five minutes north, or commit to a five-hour drive from Denver.
Hotels and apartments around the lifts. Compare prices on Booking, Expedia and Hotels.com.
Telluride offers 155 km of pistes across 18 lifts, from 2,660 m to 3,735 m. Whether it suits beginners depends on the dedicated learner zones at the base of the slopes, so check the local ski-school options for green and blue run access.
The season runs from Nov 28 to Apr 6, with a snow score of 89/100. The best conditions are usually from late January through February, while spring skiing in March and April brings longer days and softer afternoons.
True ski-in/ski-out is concentrated in Mountain Village, where flagship hotels open onto the snow. Historic Telluride town below has almost no ski-on lodging: the free gondola gets you to the lifts in thirteen minutes.
Telluride has 155 km of marked pistes served by 18 lifts, between 2,660 m and 3,735 m of altitude.
Telluride counts about 148 marked runs in total. The colour breakdown above shows how they split by difficulty, a good guide to whether the resort fits your level.
Similar style, different mountain.
Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies