“Don’t book a car based only on the airport trip

Aspen —“Don’t book a car based only on the airport trip.”

That’s the blunt advice from the Vail Daily, and it cuts to the heart of a decision that costs thousands of dollars in aggregate every winter. For context, the average visitor to Vail spends roughly $150 to $200 a day on lodging and food. Now, layer on a rental car. On paper, it’s insurance against missing a restaurant or a scenic overlook. In practice, it’s often a metal box sitting in a garage, bleeding money while you ski.

Let’s do the math. A standard sedan from Denver International Airport might look like $40 a day. But that’s the sticker price. Add the airport concession fee, the tax, the gas to fill the tank before you return it, and the parking fee at your hotel — often $25 to $30 a night for a spot. Suddenly, that “$40” car is costing you $80 to $90 a day. Over a five-day trip, you’ve spent nearly $450 on wheels that were parked for 20 of those 120 hours.

The Vail Daily notes that for many, the longest drive is from the airport to the hotel. Once there, the car sits. If you’re staying in Vail or Beaver Creek, you can often walk to the lifts, the shops, and the restaurants. The car becomes a liability, not an asset. It’s only useful if you’re planning to drive every day, exploring beyond the resort, or if you’re staying somewhere that requires a drive for most outings.

But there’s a catch: the airport. If you’re flying into Denver, you’re looking at a two-hour drive on I-70. Traffic, crashes, and winter weather can turn that into three or four hours. You’re paying for the car, the gas, and your own time. If you’re flying into Eagle County Regional Airport, the drive is 20 minutes. That shorter trip makes a weeklong rental harder to justify if you’ll spend most of your time near your hotel.

So, do you really need a rental car? Not usually. Unless you’re planning to drive every day, explore more of Colorado, or you’re staying somewhere that requires a drive for most outings, the car is a waste of money. It’s a luxury item, not a necessity. And luxuries are what you cut first when the budget tightens.

The bottom line: if your car will spend most of the week parked, it’s not worth the cost. Pay for the parking, keep the car, and save the rest. That’s the deal.