Transportation in summit county is something that I think everyone struggles with in the winter. To drive or not to drive!?
You basically have three options to get to summit county. I would not rely on Uber/Lyft as you will probably get up here fine, but getting back is much harder. There have been visitors that thought they’d do Uber to get back to the airport, but were left scrambling at the last minute when their Uber didn’t show or cancelled. We just don’t have a lot of Uber drivers up here. Not saying there are none, there just aren’t a lot. So it is a risk.
Rent a car
There is lots to consider when renting a car. It is not as cut and dry as it’s cheaper for our family. Consider your previous experience driving in snow and your activities while visiting Summit County. For instance are you going to do a ski day at Vail, or go to the hot springs in glenwood,, etc… Then if you don’t mind winter driving, a car may serve you well.
Bus
Snowstang/ Bustang in Denver are nice to have, but they are not convenient for people arriving to the airport. The buses don’t leave from the airport, so you have to take the train from the airport down to Union Station. Which can be cumbersome with ski luggage. Also the schedules may not work for you. However they are the cheapest way to get to summit county.
Shuttles
The most convenient way to get to summit county without driving is a shuttle. But I will warn you in the winter they are very expensive, especially for a family. The shuttles do pick up at the airport though.
Rent a car
There are things to consider with renting a car. Do you have experience driving in the snow? Driving in the mountains with no snow experience is no joke. True, you could end up with blue bird days and you’ll be fine, but if we end up with storm you could be in for a stressful experience. Something else to consider in renting a car is what are your plans while you are here. Do you have plans to do things, outside of town? For instance do you want to hike at trailhead that is not accessible by the bus? Maybe you’d like to take a day trip to Nathrop or Glenwood Springs to go to the hot springs. Maybe you’d like to ski at Beaver creek for a day. Getting to eagle county via bus is tricky from Breckenridge and time consuming. Trips outside of the county may warrant renting a car.
If you decide that renting a car is the best option for you, please do this one thing! Before you leave the rental car location make sure that the tread on your tires is good. Rental car companies are not required to have snow tires on cars. So you will want to make sure the tread is good. Bring a penny with you! Also please familiarize yourself with the Colorado traction law.
https://www.codot.gov/travel/winter-driving/tractionlaw
I always see the question too, do I really need 4WD/AWD? Well if you are here on blue bird days it’s true you may not need it. But if it does snow while you are here, you will be happy to have it. I say just splurge and get 4WD/AWD not only for the roads but for the traction law. If you stay at a house with a steep driveway you will want it too. I live in Blue River, and although our driveway is not steep, there are some in our neighborhood that are.
Snowstang/ Bustang
It is great to have a bus option to get to the ski resorts, but I will say that it is not super convenient for people flying into the airport. You need to have some patience and willing to travel with your luggage. You have to pick the bus up from Union Station in Denver. That means taking the train into the city or taking an Uber/taxi. Then the schedules may not work well with your flight schedule wither. Some people spend the night in the city and take the bus up the next morning. Which is not a bad thing, to adjust to altitude.
Here is a link to the schedules for the buses.
Shuttles
There are lots of shuttle options to get to summit county. My suggestion is to look at the schedules and see which one aligns with your flights the best. I think they are all pretty equal.
Epic: https://www.epicmountainexpress.com/
Peak one: https://www.mountainshuttle.com/
Summit Express: https://www.summitexpress.com/
Fresh Tracks: https://freshtrackstransportation.com/
Jakes Mountain Shuttle: http://www.jakesmountainshuttle.com/
Breck/Summit County Buses:
Once you are here, we have decent public transportation. And the best part is it isFREE! The Breckenridge bus system is called the free ride. There is even an app that will help with schedules and tracking. This is handy when you’re waiting, you can see the tracking to know where the bus is on its route.
The county has the summit stage buses. These buses will get you all around the county. You can even take the swan mountain flyer to Keystone or A basin from the Gondola.
Denver International versus Eagle:
If you are coming to Breck, the Eagle airport really doesn’t save you a lot of driving time. The Eagle airport is about 1 hour 20 min away from Breck. Denver International is about 1 hour 45 min (with no traffic). Yes, Eagle is a smaller airport and it won’t take you too long to go through security, but make sure to consider some other stuff in your decision. Tickets to Eagle usually cost more. When I look at Eagle vs DIA it is always way more expensive and not worth it from the Breck area.
Some other things to consider if you fly into Eagle, you still have to drive over Vail Pass so you don’t avoid a high altitude pass. Vail pass can be nasty in a storm. Something else to note, is that flight into Eagle can be very bumpy! That just comes with flying right into the mountains. If you’re not a fan of turbulence it could be a not fun ride.
There is also more opportunity for flights to be cancelled at the Eagle airport due to weather. At Eagle you are in the mountains, at DIA you are on the plains. The weather is very different at those two locations. Now, if your flight gets cancelled at Eagle, there aren’t a lot of other options for flights and you may end up at DIA anyway. If the weather is bad at Eagle, you could also get diverted to another airport.
Now if you are flying into DIA on a Friday evening you may experience a lot of I-70 traffic heading up to the mountains. Time your flights right and I70 is not always as bad as people make it out to be. The times to avoid driving up I70 are Friday evening, early Saturday and Sunday mornings (6-10ish). Driving back to Denver you want to avoid the Saturday/Sunday later afternoon/ evening times (It’s hard to put a time on that but when I lived in Denver there were times where it took us 4-5 hours to get home on a bad traffic day). This was one of the reasons we moved up to summit county.
These are all things to consider when deciding which airport to fly into.
