{"id":2005,"date":"2015-09-26T23:08:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-27T06:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2015-09-29T20:09:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T03:09:24","slug":"hit-the-slopes-in-vail-at-the-sebastian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/2005\/hit-the-slopes-in-vail-at-the-sebastian","title":{"rendered":"Hit the Slopes in Vail at The Sebastian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Frost\"<\/a>

“Frost” is one of Vail’s hottest nightspots in summer and winter at The Sebastian Hotel. Photo Credit Michael Patrick Shiels<\/p><\/div>\n

When choosing a travel destination or a home, is it the sight of the deep blue sea\u2026or the majesty of mountains\u2026that moves you most? Julie Goraj, a South Dakota native, had trouble answering that question definitively. So she bounced – like a basketball – to the eastern seaboard to work in marketing for the Knicks at Madison Square Garden; but then after a few years slid back \u2013 in time for ski season – to Vail, Colorado. Her bite of the big time is not limited to the Big Apple, though, since her position as senior marketing manager of The Sebastian \u2013 Vail puts Goraj at the luxury boutique hotel Conde Nast Traveler Magazine\u2019s readers picked as the \u201cbest in the west.\u201d And while Goraj had been courtside with the likes of Spike Lee, Al Roker and Howard Stern, now she\u2019s slope-side with The Sebastian\u2019s celebrity guests including the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters, Natalie Portman, and the Jonas Brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sebastian subtly displays millions of dollars worth of commissioned paintings, sculptures and custom details plus pieces from the personal collection of our owner the Ferruco family. Virtually everything at this property is a pure work of art,\u201d Goraj says while walking past a 20-foot high, 1,000-bottle glass wine tower in Leonara, the hotel\u2019s restaurant named after the artist\u2019s whose creations are the property\u2019s most pervasive and prominent. \u201cEven the faux icicles adorning our cool \u2018Frost Bar\u2019 are made of individually hand-blown glass.\u201d As a spot for nightlife, \u201cFrost\u201d is hot.<\/p>\n

The eye candy portends, without being pretentious, the creature comforts, too. Upon arrival at The Sebastian, in the heart of Vail Village, guests needn\u2019t touch their skis, or the equipment they rent right on-site, until they\u2019re stepping into their warmed boots and onto the Gondola One lift at the nearby, private \u201cSebastian Base Camp\u201d which also welcomes returning skiers with hot chocolate and a place to shed clothing layers. The \u201cBattle Mountain Kids Camp\u201d frees parents to explore Vail Mountain or dig in to the meeting or conference they\u2019re attending.<\/p>\n

Settling in with a book in the cozy Library Room, choosing a spa treatment, or taking a dip in the mountain-view swimming pool and hot tubs serve as fine rewards after a day of zip-lining, hot air ballooning, kayaking, fly fishing, hiking, climbing, or horseback riding scheduled by The Sebastian\u2019s \u201cadventure concierge.\u201d Golf is available at the low-lying, walk-able, and believe it or not bike-able, scenic Vail Valley Golf Club thanks to specially built \u201cgolf bikes.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll want a power cart up on the mountainous, nearby Beaver Creek GC.<\/p>\n

A celebrity athlete fix, should Goraj be nostalgic for it, is blocks away from The Sebastian at John Elway\u2019s steakhouse, where the former Denver Bronco superstar quarterback is said to favor the bone-in ribeye, but the menu bills \u201c#7\u2019s Favorite Burger\u201d as featuring smoked gouda, bacon, and an over-easy egg, with shoestring potatoes and garlic aioli between the buns.<\/p>\n

Visit thesebastianvail.com<\/a> and Elways.com for more information.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael Patrick Shiels may be contacted at\u00a0<\/em>InviteYourself@aol.com<\/a>\u00a0or via TravelTattler.com\u00a0His talk show can be heard weekday mornings in\u00a0Lansing\u00a0on 92.1 FM.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When choosing a travel destination or a home, is it the sight of the deep blue sea\u2026or the majesty of… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3665,17],"tags":[94915,277,451,126509,998759,455],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-library","category-courses-and-travel","tag-golf-2","tag-colorado","tag-skiing","tag-john-elway","tag-the-sebastian","tag-vail"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2015\/09\/Frost1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2011,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions\/2011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}