If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD160.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
In the shadow of some academic alps (AKA the Collegiate Peaks), Surf Hotel & Chateau is a hotel of two halves, with a separate castle (sort of) that has more than a passing French flavour arranged around a courtyard. Colorado may be landlocked, but surf’s still up here in Buena Vista, because who says you need an ocean when there’s a river to ride instead? Almost every other adrenaline-junkie facilitator is also on offer at this great-outdoors playground in the Wild Wild West, notably white-water rafting on the rapids rushing by.
Double rooms from £142.92 ($178), including tax at 11.55 per cent.
More details
Rates don’t include breakfast, which isn’t available on the property, except for brunch on Sundays.
Also
Some of the rooms at Surf Hotel & Chateau are ADA-approved for guests with mobility issues, but the Chateau side doesn’t have an elevator.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, fridge, kettle and Nespresso coffee machine, TV and Gilchrist & Soames bath products.
Our favourite rooms
The rooms in the Chateau have more of a French flair, starting with the doors and the steeply pitched roofs. For prime views of the peaks, choose a room on the river-facing side – many of these share a veranda, with perfectly positioned patio furniture to sit on for good views and friendly chats. Some Riverfront Kings have outdoor rocking-chairs, too. For a fancy bath tub, book the Nola Suite or Honeymoon Suite in the Surf Hotel half, both of which have a claw-foot one.
Packing tips
Adventuring attire and things that you don’t mind getting wet.
Children
Kids are welcome at Surf Hotel & Chateau and there are rooms with bunk beds and double queens for families.
Sustainability efforts
The meat, fruit and vegetables served in the restaurant are sourced locally and are as sustainably grown as possible. Disposables are reduced, with proper glassware instead of single-use plastics. And the toilet paper is made from planet-friendly bamboo.
Peak perfection in table form awaits out on the patio, or book the private dining room.
Dress Code
Fresh off the mountain.
Hotel restaurant
The Wesley & Rose lobby bar next to the lobby serves all-American dinners to set you up for a day in the great outdoors/help you recover from one. The menu spans salads (kale Caesar, green goddess), soups (roasted tomato and, naturally, French onion) small plates (parmesan truffle fries, shrimp and polenta, lamb pops) and sandwiches, heartier mains such as lasagne with meatballs or fennel sausage, bison short ribs with sweet potato purée and pappardelle with elk bolognese, and pizzas in case that doesn’t sound sating enough.
Hotel bar
The drinks list at Wesley & Rose has all of the classic cocktails covered, but with a Colorado twist: even-smokier Old Fashioneds and a signature mountain-town spritz to further refresh you after your high-altitude adventures.
Last orders
Wesley & Rose opens daily for dinner, from 4pm to 9pm (10pm in summer). Brunch on Sundays is served from 9am to 2pm.
Surf Hotel & Chateau is on the banks of the Arkansas River in Colorado, a two-and-a-half-hour drive south of Denver.
Planes
The nearest international airport is in Denver. There’s also an airport in Colorado Springs, just under two hours away by car.
Automobiles
Most of the activities in Buena Vista take place on another mode of transport (various rafts and boards), but you’ll need a car for seeing more of the Colorado countryside and Rocky mountains. There’s a small parking lot at the hotel and lots of free on-street parking nearby.
Worth getting out of bed for
There may be no ocean but that doesn’t mean you can’t surf at Surf Hotel & Chateau in the cute Colorado town of Buena Vista, since the Arkansas River has three primary waves for you to catch. Adventurous activity-seekers can also do just about everything else: white-water rafting, kayaking, mountain-biking, snowshoeing, hiking… In small-town Buena Vista itself, there’s architecture to admire, a distillery and brewery, and boutiques to browse, all with a backdrop of the mighty Rocky Mountains.
Local restaurants
House Rock Kitchen on Main Street in Buena Vista serves a somewhat healthier take on American classics, with kombucha in the soft drinks, super slaws made of superfoods, and meat that is locally sourced, grass-fed and hormone-free. When it’s not busy making whiskey, the Deerhammer distillery moonlights as a restaurant where, of course, the dishes are inspired by the water of life. And the best sushi, sashimi and sake in town await at the Asian Palate, also on Main Street.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this riverside hotel in Colorado and unpacked their (river) surfboards and white-water rafts, a full account of their adventurous break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Surf Hotel & Chateau in Buena Vista…
If you thought you needed an ocean to surf, think again: Surf Hotel & Chateau in the Colorado town of Buena Vista is here with rivers, rapids and rips. As the name suggests, the stay is split between the Surf Hotel and the Surf Chateau, the latter of which is where to check in if you like your getaways to be Gallic. Rooms in this half have steel beds with billowy canopies, a chic almost-all-white palette and the odd claw-foot bath tub. The main dealbreaker is the prime Collegiate Peak view – for this particular buena vista, book a room on the south or east side. Ready to reward you after a day’s adventuring is the Wesley & Rose lobby bar, happily dispensing goodness-giving salads, truffle fries and elk pappardelle. Outside, along with the Arkansas River, the Rockies are ready for some fresh-air fun. Everybody’s gone surfing (and white-water rafting, and hiking, and…).
