Hotel Jerome in Aspen

My husband has a big birthday coming up and he wanted to celebrate in Aspen with some friends. One of our friends was familiar with the Hotel Jerome and he not only recommended it but also set up our stay. We arrived to Aspen around 9:00 in the morning and we were picked up by Vanessa, one of Hotel Jerome's drivers. She waited on our luggage with us and brought us promptly to the hotel.

The hotel was built in the 1880's by one of the owners of Macy's department store. It is a smaller boutique hotel with only 94 guest rooms. It has been fully renovated while maintaining its original masculine Victorian style. We were extremely pleased to be accommodated with an early check-in on arrival. The room was comfortably sized and attractively decorated with a modern lodge look complete with faux animal heads. We freshened up and hit the streets.

The Hotel Jerome has a fantastic location in downtown Aspen on Main Street. It is in easy walking distance to the Rio Grande Park, Aspen Mountain, shopping of any kind, a bike rental shop and great food and wine, all of which we enjoyed during our short 4 day and 3 night stay.

The Hotel Jerome is known for its famous J-Bar. This bar opens out onto Main Street or can be accessed through the hotel lobby. It is known for a drink called the Aspen Crud which is essentially a milk shake with whiskey. This was the drink through which the locals thwarted Prohibition laws back in the day. The bar is also known as an office of the late writer, Hunter S. Thompson. While we certainly enjoyed a drink there, we were more prone to having drinks outside on the patio near the pool by day or at the slightly more upscale feeling Dining Room bar in the evening. The hotel has a good wine list and also makes excellent craft cocktails.

We ate breakfast twice at Prospect, an on-site restaurant, where I enjoyed The Jerome Breakfast one morning and the Prospect Continental another. The food was fresh, properly prepared and quickly served. Our group all enjoyed burgers from the J-Bar out by the pool for lunch one day which were made with high quality Colorado beef and served with fries.

We also made use of the Hotel Jerome's Mercedes GL-450 loaner car. They allow each guest to borrow it for four hours during their stay at no cost. We drove to nearby Glenwood Hot Springs, aka The Spa of the Rockies, to check out the world's largest hot springs pool. This venue had a bit more of a waterpark or amusement park feel than others that we have enjoyed. Another group that we spoke with had used the car to drive up into the Maroon Bell mountains, also very doable in the allotted time frame.

We had a couple's massage scheduled at the Hotel Jerome Spa when we returned from the hot springs. As this is a boutique hotel, there is no playground type of water circuit as part of the experience, it is a small service-centered spa which was closed to all but us. We were in a large room for our massage and we shared a large dressing/locker room with a private sauna/shower. My head-to-toe massage was as good as they get. (I, unfortunately, forgot my therapist's name or I would recommend her.) We did enjoy the hotel's small heated pool which has two hot tubs afterwards.

On our final day, the hotel was quite full with a wedding party so we did not get the late checkout for which we had hoped but the hotel was able to keep our bags until our departure time. Again, they provided our ride to the airport.

The Hotel Jerome is a highly recommended hotel for your Aspen spring or summer time stay. You can expect excellent food and beverage options, comfortable rooms and impeccable service. The airport shuttle service, the loaner car and the central location for walking around in downtown Aspen made this our ideal home away from home on this trip.