The Village at Steamboat

Stayed there July 2007. Very convenient to downtown/resort area. Great pools and hot tubs. Room very spacious and staff very helpful and friendly. Will stay there again.

Stayed in July 2007. No elevator.... No ceiling fan in Bedroom(it was hot!) Kitchen cabinets were unfriendly( my wife(5'3") could not reach, two cabinets) Swimming pool crowded in afternoon.

Took tour of World Mark in same facility and it was much nicer, even had Air Conditioning and an elevator.

Part of this resort is Worldmarkand I was able to get four nights recently thru Fairfield pts. on short notice. Excellent 1 bdrm unit. very clean; very new looking; fully equipped; roomy; helpful staff; good location vis a vis town; good center w/pools etc. Only one drawback - very little by way of planned activities.

The Village at Steamboat was originally developed by Vacation International around 1990 or so. V.I. was subsequently bought out by Sunterra, and the V.I. VTS resorts are now known as Sunterra Pacific (as opposed to Club Sunterra).

Sunterra had their financial problems about the time they were adding a 2nd building to this resort, so they sold that 2nd building to Trendwest, and it is now called Worldmark at Steamboat. They share the amenities with the Village (game room, indoor pool, indoor and outdoor hot tub, 2 racquetball courts and lobby). The Worldmark is considered a Gold Crown resort. As of now, the Village is considered a Resort of International Distinction, even though they are essentially the same property. Sunterra recently announced they are discontinuing their RCI affiliation, and I don't know what I.I.s rating is.

This property is even better than most of the Sunterra properties, which tend to be very nicely designed, maintained and furnished, and are generally in very desirable locations.

The Village at Steamboat consists of nice size studios, 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom condos in a 3 story building that has an underground garage. I don't know if the garage is heated, but it stays quite warm in the winter, and has big vent fans to keep the exhaust fumes from being a problem.

The building has no elevator, and most of the 2 bedroom units are on the 3rd floor, with a loft for the huge 2nd bedroom and 2nd bathroom. The downstairs bathroom opens up off the master bedroom and the hall. The downstairs bath is not large, due to the water heater and washer/dryer being located in the bathroom (stackable unit behind bi-fold doors). I believe all 1 and 2 bedrooms have washer/dryers, and none of the studios have them.

All units open up from an outside walkway, a la a motel. You enter through a ski and boot storage area, then another door takes you into your unit. This is a nice feature during ski season.

The kitchen is adequately stocked for cooking any meal, we frequently cook in for our family of 4. Dining would be tight for more than 4 people. The living room is pretty nice, with seating for 4 comfortably. More than that would be a squeeze. There is a gas fireplace and a VCR. All 2 bedroom (and I believe all 1 bedroom) units have a nice patio with a great view of the ski mountain.

The ski resort is about a 1 or 2 minute drive. The Village has a private shuttle van that runs every 15 minutes during the ski day. It is a little crowded during peak times, occassionally someone may have to wait for it to get back, but it doesn't take long.

The amenities used to be underutilized, now that they have built the worldmark building, they are a little too crowded during peak times. For example, new year's week the hot tubs will be full from 4:30 - 5:30. I don't know if there are plans to add on. If that happens, I suspect it would be Worldmark doing so, and I doubt that Sunterra Pacific owners would be allowed to use them, but at least that might take the Worldmark crowd out of the mix.

The resort is close to the Chart House restaurant, and within a few blocks of a very nice grocery store (City Market). It is a mile or so to town. The town of Steamboat Springs is very nice, with lots of restaurants and bars and nice shops. Not as fancy as Vail or Breck, perhaps, but certainly more reasonably priced. There is a great microbrewery and restaurant in town, I think it is called the Tavern.

Steamboat Springs has an awesome ski area, with night tubing. They have over 350" of snow per year. It is a high tech resort, with modern gondola, high speed express lifts, lots of snowmaking and grooming equipment. They have a great ski village with lots of independantly owned restaurants and bars all over the mountain and at the base. The Slopeside Grill is a favorite of ours. One of the best things about Steamboat is the price. If you get at least a 5 day pass, a family of 4 with 2 children under 13 can rent their equipment and get lift tickets for around $120 a day.

I rate Steamboat Springs ski resort a 5 star resort, the town of Steamboat Springs a 4 star (for ski resort towns), the ski village a 3.5 star, and The Village at Steamboat condos a 4 star.

P.S., the exterior picture on this web site is building 2 (the Worldmark at Steamboat). It is not a picture of building 1 (Sunterra Village at Steamboat). Notice the exterior picture has inside entry to the units, building 1 has the outside entry. The interior picture is the correct picture.