Spring Festivals in the Mountains

SPRING BACK TO VAIL

The Real Deal: Lodgings discounts from $105 per night and big-name concerts

When: Festival, Apr. 3 - 16, 2006; Hotel packages, Apr. 2 - 23, 2006 

Details: Additional hotel taxes of 9.8 percent. Breakfast is not included

Book By: No deadline; based on availability

Contact: Vail, 877/204-7881, vail.com; springbacktovail.com

Vail is offering a variety of lodgings discounts based on groups of two or four people, with lift tickets included in select cases. (The tickets are valued at $81 per person per day.) All of the properties are within a few minutes' walk from the mountain except for Vail Racquet Club, located about a 10-minute drive away in East Vail.

For a Twosome:
At Lodge at Lionshead, a three-night stay in a double occupancy studio condo starts at $564 per group. At Evergreen Lodge, a one-night stay is $105 per group (Apr. 1 - 18). At Mountain Haus, a three-night stay is $432 per group. At Vantage Point, a two-night stay is $300 per group (Apr. 4 - May 1).

For a Foursome:
At Vail Racquet Club, a four-night stay and a four-day lift ticket start at $248 per person. Vail Condominiums start at $213 per person for a four-night stay and four-day lift ticket. At Simba Run, a four-night stay in a quad occupancy room starts at $584 per group ($146 per person).

Headliners for the weekend of Apr. 7-8 are G Love & Special Sauce with a second act on Saturday and P.O.D. with a second act on Sunday. Tickets for G Love are $20; check springbacktovail.com for ticket price and band updates. During the following weekend of Apr. 14-15, a series of lesser-known acts play for free. There's a party-happy, spring-break vibe with plenty of happy hours and ski/snowboard contests. One of the crazier events is the annual pond skimming contest, in which costumed participants ski or snowboard down the mountain and onto a water-filled pit dug at the foot of the slope.

Getting to Vail: About half-an-hour away, Eagle Airport is the closest and most convenient, but flights can be up to three times the price of those into Denver. The catch with choosing Denver is that the hour-and-a-half drive crosses two mountain passes, so bad weather can cause serious delays. Colorado Mountain Express runs shuttle buses between both airports and Vail. In early April, a one-way trip is $44 per person from Eagle and $68 per person from Denver. An economy car rental starts at $20 per day (Advantage).

The lowest fares we've found for round-trip flights to Denver in mid-April are: $210 (Northwest) from New York City; $283 (United) from Miami; $238 (Northwest) from Washington, DC; $152 (Frontier) from Chicago; $259 (Frontier) from Seattle.