A-to-Z booking: The romantic escape

The key to a romantic getaway is, well, to get away — from the throngs, the busyness, the rowdy revelry that you reserve for your family vacation. Keystone’s Ski Tip Lodge — arguably the gold standard for intimate inns — whisks you away not only to another place, but also another time.

This 10-room, cottage-style bed-and-breakfast — originally a stagecoach stop in the 1880s — opened in 1947 as Colorado’s first ski lodge. Adorned with ski-country antiques and sprinkled with tributes to founders Max and Edna Dercum (who also helped build Keystone Resort), the inn oozes history. Each room is uniquely decorated with trimmings such as old-time skis and antique quilts and without telephones or televisions (even the lodge’s common areas are sans TVs).

This will encourage you to linger over your haute-cuisine, four-course dinner prepared by Chef Kevin McCombs. The menu changes nightly, but two things are certain: the wine list will be exquisite (as Wine Spectator confirms) and the famous desserts delectable, especially when enjoyed by one of the great-room  fireplaces as you cozy up to your companion.