The Best Places to Stay and Do in Rifle

A library with working fireplaces sits at the heart of this alpine resort, which puts it squarely between the gondola and lift at the base of Aspen Mountain. The 179 rooms lean into dark woods and leather club chairs, and the St. Regis butler service means someone is quietly attending to details you hadn't thought to request. The kind of crowd that plans a ski trip the way others plan a wedding fills the place all season.

The brick facade on Main Street has been hosting Aspen's overflow of ambition since the silver boom, and the lobby still feels like a place where someone famous might be waiting in a chair. Hotel Jerome is a Michelin Key hotel in the Auberge Collection, equal parts mountain lodge and grand European inheritance, with rooms that lean into the altitude and outdoor Jacuzzis that make the cold feel like a feature rather than a problem.

MOLLIE Aspen earns a Michelin Key for doing what almost no Aspen ski hotel bothers to attempt: taking design seriously. The look is somewhere between Bauhaus and Japanese-Scandinavian minimalism, which sounds like a grad-school thesis but reads as calm and cool in person. It sits just off Main Street, a short shuttle from the mountain, and the on-site bar and restaurant keep things lively once the lifts close. Not a log in sight.

Aspen has always had the mountain town aesthetic handled; what it lacked was a hotel that leaned fully into the scene. The W fills that gap with a boutique-scale property that nods just enough to Alpine without surrendering an inch of sleek. Expect the full spa, ski, and fitness setup that the brand runs on, plus a food truck and an Asian-fusion bar for après. Priced accordingly, and the clientele dress like they know it.