State booming with options this year

Colorado has a big year ahead, with a new Ritz-Carlton already open in Denver, a $17 million activities center with activities just for kids in Aspen and a high-high-end hotel under construction in Telluride, among other things.

Here’s what you can add to your ski trip agenda this year and next.

Hotels

The Ritz-Carlton, Denver, a 202-room property with a main entrance on Curtis Street in downtown Denver, opened last month with spacious guest rooms — the minimum is 510 square feet — outfitted with Frette linens, in-room cappuccino/

coffee/tea-maker, featherbeds with down comforters and the usual upscale Ritz amenities. There’s also a restaurant, Elway’s. Rooms start at $249 per night double on weekends, $349 a night weekdays.

Reservations: 866-755-5798 or online at www.ritzcarlton.com.

In other ritzy developments, Wolfgang Puck’s Colorado version of Spago opened in December at The Ritz-Carlton, Bachelor Gulch. And Capella Telluride — an ultra-luxe hotel and condo property with personal assistants on each floor — is the vision of Ritz-Carlton’s founding and former president, Horst Schulze. Guests in the 148-unit ski-in, ski-out resort will enjoy a private lounge called the Living Room, and services like ski boots warmed for them before they hit the slopes. It’s expected to open this winter.

Information: www.capellatelluride.com.

Skiing/recreation

Finally, a good spot for the kids, whether they want to learn to ski or not. The Aspen/Snowmass Treehouse Kids’ Adventure Center opened late last year. The two-story, 25,000-square-foot center has seven rooms, each for a specific age group, offering non-skiing programs for kids 4 and younger, and snow or outdoor programs for ages 6 ½ and up.

There are nursing and changing rooms, and the center promises no TV or video games — except for the nanny cams posted in key areas. The center is linked to seven new lifts for ski-in, ski-out access. A sample price: One day’s ski lesson for a potty-trained 3- to 4-year-old with lift ticket, rentals, helmet and lunch is $147.90. More information: www.aspensnowmass.com.

For adult kids in Steamboat Springs, there’s a new Dig This Heavy Equipment Play Area, with full- and half-day courses.

Grown people who have always wanted to run bulldozers but were stuck in the office can operate brand-new dozers, excavators and skid loaders at work sites.

Playing with big toys isn’t don’t come cheap: A half-day is $400. Information: www.digthis.info.