The Arrabelle Car Service

The Arrabelle at Vail Square is the crown jewel of Lionshead, and maybe of all Vail. Walk out the lobby and you are standing at the base of the Eagle Bahn Gondola and Chair 8, the Born Free Express, the hotel wrapping around Vail Square with the open-air ice rink smack in the middle, and the spa and Tavern on the Square just inside. In summer it is every bit as beautiful, the rink giving way to an open square that looks out over Gore Creek. You are not staying near the mountain. You are staying on it.

That is the part guests remember most. At the end of the day you ski right down into the best après-ski in Vail. Tavern on the Square sits slopeside at the foot of the run, and the whole base is rocking by mid-afternoon. You click out of your skis, hand them to the ski valet, and you are already where the night starts, with the hotel right there.

The spa alone is reason enough to come. Ten thousand square feet of it, the RockResorts Spa, with a steam room, a sauna, wet rooms with Swiss showers, and a rooftop pool and hot tubs that look straight out at the mountain. The treatments are built around the valley itself, down to the mountain juniper. Plenty of people book it without ever taking a room.

Getting you here, off any flight and in any weather, is the part we handle.

The Arrabelle sits at 675 Lionshead Place, at the base of the Eagle Bahn Gondola, wrapped around Vail Square with the open-air ice rink at its center. It is one of the few luxury properties in Vail you can actually pull a vehicle up to, but only if you know the approach. Lionshead is a pedestrian village. Most people who drive themselves end up in the public parking structure, hauling bags and ski gear across the plaza in ski boots.

We don't do that to you. We bring you to the hotel's arrival entrance off Lionshead Place, where the bell staff and ski valet take it from there. You step out, your bags come off the back, and you are inside.

Getting to that door starts on the highway. From the airport we come off I-70 at the main Vail exit, through the roundabout under the overpass, west on the South Frontage Road, then in along West Lionshead Circle to Lionshead Place. It is a short, specific sequence, and we have driven it in clear weather and in whiteouts for years.

Ski-In, Ski-Out Means the Valet Keeps Your Gear

Ski-in, ski-out at the Arrabelle means the ski valet takes your gear at the base, so nobody is lugging skis and boots back to the room. Most people rent right here in Vail, and the valet holds it all from the first morning. No kid melting down at the end of the day from carrying their own gear, no skis riding on your lap in the car. You fly in light, just luggage and boot bags, and our Suburbans carry up to 6 with the bags while our Sprinters take up to 14 with room for everything.

When You Land, We Are Already There

The moment your wheels touch the runway, you get a text from your driver with exactly where to meet. We track your flight in real time, so an early landing or a delay is our problem to manage, not yours. Bag came out late? We wait. The whole vehicle is yours, direct from the curb to the door at Vail Square.

One private vehicle, one driver, all the way to the hotel.

Skiing with kids out of The Arrabelle is about as easy as it gets. It is ski-in, ski-out, so the gear never leaves the hotel. The Arrabelle ski valet holds the whole family's skis, boots, and helmets at the base. You click out at the end of the day and hand it over, and the next morning it is waiting in one spot on the way out. No scramble up in the room, no "I only have one glove."

From there it is a few steps to the Eagle Bahn Gondola. Load the kids in, ride up warm and dry, and you are at Eagle's Nest in minutes. The whole top of the mountain is built for them. The Little Eagle lift, Chair 15, serves a run of kids' adventure zones tucked into the trees: Sherwood Forest right underneath it, full of caves and animated characters, the Magic Forest off Minnie Ha Ha, and Chaos Canyon, the one every kid begs to lap again. Around it spreads Practice Parkway, the biggest beginner area on the mountain. In winter the summit is Adventure Ridge for tubing and snow play, and in summer it turns into Epic Discovery, with the Forest Flyer mountain coaster, ziplines, and the climbing wall.

When the kids have had enough of the mountain, you do not even have to leave Lionshead. Onion Park, Sunbird Park on the town map, is right behind the Arrabelle, one of the custom-built playgrounds we walk through in our guide to every Town of Vail park.

It is, plainly, a little ripper's dream vacation. And getting the whole family and all that gear up here from the airport in the first place, car seats and all, is the part we take off your plate.

Step out of The Arrabelle and the rest of Lionshead is yours on foot, no car and no drive. Here is where we send people.

Fine Dining

• Vail Chophouse. Part of the Arrabelle itself. Steaks and seafood off a deck over the mountain, with a great après scene and local legend Phil Long playing live on peak nights.
• Montauk Seafood Grill. Fresh fish flown in since 1987. Dinner only, and worth the reservation.

The Main Section

• Garfinkel's. Garf's to anyone local. The deck the whole base lands on when the sun is out, and a burger worth the trip up to it.
• Bart & Yeti's. One of the last classic ski bars left in Vail, named after a couple of dogs and going since 1976. Pull up a stump and you never know who's sitting next to you. It might be a legendary ski patroller, a mogul champion from the '80s, the Mayor of Vail, one of the Lionshead Mafia, a patched-in member of the local Ravinos, or a dog. I've seen all of the above.Before long, someone will start telling stories about the Great Race, about BB&B, about the time Shane McConkey did that thing on Look Ma, about when Vail had World Cup races and not just World Cup parties. That's Bart & Yeti's. Order a basket of the Normy wings and settle in. The beer is cold, the stories get better with every round, and everyone gets a seat at the table.
• Little Diner. Ask around long enough and someone will tell you the Little Diner is the best restaurant in Vail. Brian and Peg Little run it. It is diner food, but executed perfectly every single time, which is exactly why the wait runs out the door. And it is not only breakfast. Kyla swears the BLT is the best she has ever had.
• Tavern on the Square. The Arrabelle's own, right off the lobby. Gastropub plates and slopeside après at the foot of the run.
• Blue Moose Pizza. Hand-tossed New York slices right by the ice rink. Where the families end up.
• El Sabor. Street tacos and tequila on a deck right next to Gore Creek by the skier bridge.
• Lost Heaven. Pan-Asian and sushi when you want something different.
• Casa Jalisco. Authentic Mexican over by the Little Diner, enchiladas to chile rellenos.
• Revel Lounge. Over at the Hythe, craft cocktails and Colorado plates.

Grab and Go

• Alpine Pizza. Detroit style, by the slice or the whole pie, made to go.
• Alpen Dogs. Best hot dog you will ever have. Owned by Brian and Peg Little, the same family behind the Little Diner, so you know it is done right. Grab one and keep moving.
• Les Délices de France. The French deli by the gondola. Crepes and Lavazza since 1984.

The Market

• The Market at Vail. The grocery right in Lionshead for stocking the condo, with a deli and fresh bread. The only real market in the village.

For dessert you barely leave the building. Rimini does gelato and crepes, and the Häagen-Dazs café is right downstairs in The Arrabelle, which the kids will find on day one.

That is the beauty of staying here. You will not touch a car all week, which is exactly why the only ride worth booking is the one to and from the airport. That part is ours.

How much is a car service from the airport to The Arrabelle?

Eagle County Airport (EGE) to The Arrabelle starts at $290 in a Suburban and $430 in a Sprinter. Denver International Airport to The Arrabelle starts at $595 in a Suburban and $895 in a Sprinter. All pricing is flat-rate and all-inclusive, with no surge fees and no surprises at drop-off.

Where do you drop off at The Arrabelle at Vail Square?

We take you to the hotel's arrival entrance off Lionshead Place, where the bell staff and ski valet meet you, rather than the public Lionshead parking structure. Lionshead is a pedestrian village, so knowing the right approach matters.

How long is the drive from Eagle County Airport to The Arrabelle?

About 40 minutes and roughly 35 miles, straight east on I-70 to the main Vail exit. From Denver International Airport it is about 2 hours via I-70 West, longer in heavy weather or holiday traffic, which we plan for.

Do you provide car seats for families staying at The Arrabelle?

Yes, and always free. Every vehicle carries rear-facing infant seats, forward-facing toddler seats, high-back boosters, and backless boosters at no additional charge. Most car services in the valley charge $15 to $25 per seat. We never have.

Can you handle ski and snowboard gear?

Yes. Our Suburbans hold luggage and gear for up to 6 passengers, and our Sprinters carry up to 14 with room for everyone's luggage and boot bags. The Arrabelle is ski-in, ski-out at the base of the Eagle Bahn Gondola, so you are on snow minutes after we drop you.

Are you available for early flights and late arrivals?

Yes, 365 days a year. Red-eye landings, early departures before the lifts open, holidays, and storm days included. Call or text George and Kyla directly at (970) 471-9792.

Long before the clock tower and the ice rink, this corner of Lionshead was the base of the old gondola. The lower terminal sat right here, and the bull wheel that pulled the cable turned about where Tavern on the Square pours drinks today. That gondola went up for the 1968-69 season.

For years this was where the town hung out. Kyla worked at the Trails End, and the Kaltenberg Castle and the Sundance ran here too. The Kaltenberg was a Royal Bavarian beer hall that Prince Luitpold of Bavaria built in 1997, modeled on Neuschwanstein, pouring its own pils at long communal tables. Just about anyone who worked a Vail winter put in time in one of them.

The old skier bridge into Lionshead back then was a narrow, sketchy thing, and there was always action on it. Vail Resorts cleared the whole site in 2005, and The Arrabelle opened here a few years later.

For the record, the yellow gondola people remember from opening day in December 1962, the one folks call Colorado's first, ran out of Vail Village, not here. Different lift, different base. We have been driving people to this spot since long before it carried the name Vail Square.