The coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has dis­rupt­ed just about every facet of our lives. Chief among them: our abil­i­ty to trav­el, espe­cial­ly internationally.

Europe, in par­tic­u­lar, does not want Amer­i­can vis­i­tors right now (and, hon­est­ly, we can’t blame them). This means that if you were plan­ning to take one of Den­ver Inter­na­tion­al Airport’s handy non-stop flights to des­ti­na­tions like Lon­don, Paris or Frank­furt, you’re out of luck for the fore­see­able future.

There’s nev­er been a bet­ter time to plan a Col­orado road trip and check out some of the state’s des­ti­na­tions you’ve been mean­ing to vis­it, but just haven’t got­ten around to yet. Before you hop in the car, how­ev­er, be sure to check out your destination’s coro­n­avirus rules, reg­u­la­tions and restric­tions (and actu­al­ly fol­low them!) so that we can all trav­el safe­ly and responsibly.

Don’t get dis­cour­aged by your dashed Euro­pean trav­el plans. Instead, set your sights on these Col­orado vaca­tion ideas that will make you feel like you’re trav­el­ing in Europe.

European fall menu at C Lazy U Ranch

Take an extend­ed tour of Europe’s moun­tain regions via your taste­buds with a vis­it to C Lazy U Ranch in Gran­by. Exec­u­tive chef Cory Untch cre­at­ed the ranch’s fall menu with Euro­pean trav­el (or, rather, the lack there­of) in mind, con­duct­ing exten­sive research about the foods that are pop­u­lar in north­ern Italy, Aus­tria, Switzer­land, France and Germany.

And this isn’t your typ­i­cal “dude ranch” cui­sine, either; far from it. Untch is an accom­plished chef who has trained in kitchens at The Lit­tle Nell in Aspen and at Ritz-Carl­ton hotels all over the coun­try, among others.

“Peo­ple can’t real­ly trav­el right now,” said 37-year-old Untch, who began lead­ing the ranch’s culi­nary pro­gram in Jan­u­ary. “With every­thing that’s hap­pen­ing, we want to try to bring them that expe­ri­ence through food. Even if you’ve been there before, maybe we can make a dish that strikes a note with you, that brings you back to that time and place.”

On the menu, you’ll find dish­es using polen­ta, risot­to, osso buco, house-made pas­ta, sauer­kraut dumplings, fon­due and more. Untch plans to play up fonti­na and pecori­no cheeses, as well as meats like pro­sciut­to, mor­tadel­la and guanciale.

Since all meals are includ­ed in your stay at the ranch, you don’t have to be bash­ful about ask­ing for sec­onds, either. And if you’re the type of per­son who likes to earn your din­ner, the ranch has plen­ty of activ­i­ties to help you work up a sweat — horse­back rid­ing, hik­ing, moun­tain bik­ing, fly fish­ing, ten­nis, archery, hatch­et-throw­ing, a ropes course, swim­ming and vol­ley­ball, just to name a few.

C Lazy U Ranch, 3640 Col­orado High­way 125, Gran­by, 970–887-3344, clazyu.com

German Bauhaus style in Aspen

White set­tlers flocked to Aspen in the ear­ly 1870s in search of valu­able sil­ver buried under­ground. And even after the sil­ver mar­ket col­lapsed in the ear­ly 1890s, many Aspen­ites still saw val­ue in this beau­ti­ful place. Among them: Wal­ter and Eliz­a­beth Paepcke.

In addi­tion to help­ing Aspen become a world-renowned ski­ing des­ti­na­tion, the Paepck­es are respon­si­ble for much of Aspen’s cul­tur­al and artis­tic prowess. Case in point: In 1949, the Paepck­es found­ed the Aspen Insti­tute, a place where peo­ple could dis­cuss big ideas, art, phi­los­o­phy, human chal­lenges and great writing.

They com­mis­sioned Aus­tri­an-born design­er and archi­tect Her­bert Bay­er to cre­ate the institute’s cam­pus in the dis­tinc­tive Bauhaus style, a very spe­cif­ic form of mod­ernist Ger­man archi­tec­ture and design from the 1920s and 1930s.

Today, a vis­it to the insti­tute, which is also a hotel and resort, is like tak­ing a trip back in time and a trip over­seas. The style is so unique that you’ll feel like you’ve left Col­orado and touched down in anoth­er coun­try — no, seri­ous­ly. There are bold pri­ma­ry col­ors every­where, sculpt­ed land­scape mounds called earth­works and tons of Bauhaus-style sculp­tures and art pieces every­where. It’s funky and awesome.

Dur­ing your stay, you can take a self-guid­ed art tour or call ahead to ask about reserv­ing a social­ly dis­tanced guid­ed tour for your group.

Aspen Mead­ows Resort and the Aspen Insti­tute, 845 Mead­ows Road, Aspen, 970–925-4240, aspenmeadows.com

Inn-to-inn hiking in Estes Park

If you’ve ever dreamed of doing a hut-to-hut hik­ing trip in the Alps or the Dolomites, you’re in luck: You don’t have to trav­el to Europe to get a sim­i­lar expe­ri­ence. In fact, you don’t have to trav­el far at all.

After hik­ing exten­sive­ly in Eng­land, France, the Nether­lands and else­where, David and Phebe Novic fell in love with long-dis­tance trekking. They real­ized they could link togeth­er sev­er­al well-known trails in Rocky Moun­tain Nation­al Park to cre­ate a long, con­tin­u­ous route. Even bet­ter? They dis­cov­ered inter­est­ing lodg­ing options along the way. Thus, they cre­at­ed the Wal­ter Tish­ma Way, named for the Bosn­ian-born man who vol­un­teered at the nation­al park and climbed Longs Peak more than 100 times.

You can book a self-guid­ed inn-to-inn trip along the Wal­ter Tish­ma Way through Foot­paths of the World, the Novics’ hik­ing com­pa­ny (they also orga­nize self-guid­ed day trips, an inn-to-inn trip near Win­ter Park and a hik­ing excur­sion to France). The 42-mile trip starts in Estes Park and ends in Allenspark, with lodg­ing along the way. You’ll hike 7 to 11 miles each day, though the total num­ber of nights you spend on the trip varies based on the sea­son and your pref­er­ences. Your lug­gage is trans­ferred from inn to inn so all you real­ly need to bring is a backpack.

The trip is self-guid­ed, or you can hire a pri­vate guide for some or all of the days.

“It’s addict­ing,” said Phebe Novic. “It’s very fun to be tired, walk­ing down the trail and look­ing for that lodge. And when you walk through the door, unload your pack and sit down, take off your boots and have a cold beer, there’s noth­ing bet­ter. Your lug­gage is there. A hot show­er, din­ner and a com­fy bed await.”

Foot­paths of the World, Estes Park, 970–584-9122, footpathsoftheworld.com

Bavarian architecture in Vail

You’ve prob­a­bly been to Vail before — to ski or ride, to hike, to moun­tain bike. But have you ever stopped to real­ly look at the archi­tec­ture of this moun­tain town?

You see, it’s no acci­dent that Vail looks like it was picked up straight from Bavaria and plopped down in Col­orado. Pete Seib­ert, one of the ski resort’s co-founders, was a mem­ber of the famous 10th Moun­tain Divi­sion of sol­diers who spe­cial­ized in ski­ing and moun­taineer­ing dur­ing World War II.

Seib­ert and oth­er sol­diers (some 15,000 of them!) trained at Camp Hale, locat­ed between Vail and Leadville. Though not iden­ti­cal, the alpine topog­ra­phy was good prac­tice for the Alps of north­ern Italy and Austria.

After the war end­ed, Seib­ert returned to Col­orado to heal from injuries he suf­fered in bat­tle. Lat­er, inspired by Vail’s epic land­scape, Seib­ert and his friend Earl Eaton decid­ed to cre­ate a world-class ski resort here. But they want­ed the sim­i­lar­i­ties with the Alps to extend beyond the moun­tains, so they mod­eled the resort’s vil­lage after Bavar­i­an architecture.

Just spend­ing a few days here immersed in the archi­tec­ture will help you pre­tend you’re actu­al­ly on a vaca­tion in Europe, we promise. But if that’s not enough, you can take it even fur­ther. There are a num­ber of Vail restau­rants, hotels and shops owned by Aus­tri­an and Ger­man fam­i­lies, such as Son­nenalp Vail, which was found­ed in 1979 by the Faessler fam­i­ly and mod­eled after its sis­ter prop­er­ty in Ofter­schwang, Germany.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Vail’s Okto­ber­fest fes­tiv­i­ties are can­celed this year, but you can still enjoy plen­ty of fall activ­i­ties in Vail.

Swiss ice climbing in Ouray

This one is prac­ti­cal­ly a no-brain­er, since Ouray is called the “Switzer­land of Amer­i­ca” for its loca­tion among the crag­gy peaks of the San Juan Moun­tains. Also like Switzer­land (and oth­er cold-weath­er Euro­pean des­ti­na­tions), Ouray is home to some tru­ly incred­i­ble ice climbing.

Even if you’ve nev­er climbed before, you can still take advan­tage of the Ouray Ice Park, a free, pub­lic park with more than 100 ice and mixed climbs. There’s even a spe­cial kids’ wall. You can rent your ice climb­ing gear from many out­fit­ters in town and even hire an expe­ri­enced guide to show you the ropes (pun intend­ed). Weath­er-depen­dent, the park is on track to open in mid-Decem­ber this year.

The non­prof­it park is fund­ed com­plete­ly by dona­tions, so con­sid­er chip­ping in a few bucks or becom­ing an ice park mem­ber so that this Col­orado gem can con­tin­ue to exist and thrive into the future.

The sim­i­lar­i­ties to Switzer­land don’t stop with climb­ing, either. After­ward, soak your aching bones in the Ouray Hot Springs, which is rem­i­nis­cent of the many Swiss out­door ther­mal baths and spas.

Ouray Ice Park, 280 Co Road 361, Ouray, 970–325-4288, ourayicepark.com

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