City overview

Vail is a small resort town strung along I-70 in Colorado's Gore Valley, with Vail Mountain rising directly behind its pedestrian villages. Jewish life for a visitor centres on one institution: Chabad of Vail, the Jewish Community Center at 450 E Lionshead Circle in Lionshead Village, close to the Eagle Bahn Gondola. It holds Shabbat morning services with a Kiddush lunch, runs a Minyan Maker sign-up for weekday minyanim, and organises holiday programmes through the year. Kosher food in Vail comes mainly through Chabad, which stocks frozen kosher meat, poultry, hot dogs, sausages and cold cuts and runs a pre-order Shabbat menu delivered to hotels in the ski season, and through certified packaged products at City Market, which carries kosher breads, challah, grape juice, wine, pastries, cheeses and dairy. For a Shabbat-observant visitor, Lionshead is the practical base: about a dozen hotels and condominium buildings there are an estimated 5-to-10-minute walk from Chabad. Vail Village lies further east along the pedestrian core, while West Vail and East Vail depend on the town's free buses.