The Little Nell

Guide to Gay Friendly Hotels in Aspen Colorado

Search and book Lesbian and Gay friendly hotels Aspen, Colorado.

Lesbiangaybisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in the United States have evolved in recent decades. However, LGBT Americans may still face some legal and many social challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, particularly in states with large conservative populations, such as in the Deep South; in rural areas; and in some Native American tribal nations.

U.S. federal law does not explicitly include protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sexual orientation and gender identity are included under “sex” as a prohibited ground of employment discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Colorado is frequently referred to as one of the most LGBT-friendly states in the Mountain West. The LGBT think tank Movement Advancement Project ranks Colorado second in the region for LGBT rights legislation, behind Nevada.
Aspen has a long history of being a  gay friendly resort and in downtown we can find a few gay friendly bars as well as  Eric’s Bar or Escobar Aspen the most famous gay friendly bars in Aspen, Colorado.
Aspen, in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, is a ski resort town and year-round destination for outdoor recreation. It’s also known for high-end restaurants and boutiques, and landmarks like the Wheeler Opera House, built in 1889 during the area’s silver mining boom. The Wheeler-Stallard House is a local history museum set in a 19th-century, Queen Anne–style home, while the Aspen Art Museum displays contemporary artworks.

Top attractions to visit in Aspen

Best for tours in Aspen

See more tours in Aspen on Tripadvisor

 

1. St. Regis Aspen Resort 4* – Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen

St. Regis Aspen Resort
St. Regis Aspen Resort

Located at the base of Aspen mountain, St. Regis Aspen Resort features an outdoor pool and ski storage space. Guests can enjoy on-site restaurants and spa services. Private parking is available on site.

Each room at this resort is air conditioned and comes with a TV with cable channels. Rooms are equipped with a private bathroom. Extras include bath robes and free toiletries.

St. Regis Aspen Resort offers 5 different options. The Velvet Buck offers mountain cuisine with local ingredients. Chefs Club Aspen serves seasonal fare. Guests can enjoy a handcrafted cocktail at Mountain Social. During the summer months Splash pool lounge offers cocktails and handcrafted cuisine. Private dining is also available.

This upscale resort hotel is set in a grand redbrick building that’s a 3-minute walk from the gondolas of Aspen Mountain and 2 miles from Aspen Golf & Tennis Club.

The apartment-style rooms have high-end classic decor, private bathrooms, fireplaces and kitchens with fridges, coffeemakers and minibars. They feature TVs and CD players and Wi-Fi. There’s also 24-hour room service.

Free limited local and airport shuttle service is available. There’s also a heated outdoor pool, a spa and a fitness center, plus an on-site restaurant, a lounge and a business center. Valet parking is offered for a fee.

Embrace the extraordinary at The St. Regis Aspen Resort, a five-star luxury destination nestled at the base of Aspen Mountain. From our hotel’s enviable vantage point, guests can enjoy world-class skiing or stroll over to historic Aspen, where luxury boutiques and charming restaurants beckon. Remède Spa, our award-winning wellness destination, is renowned as one of the world’s premier hotel spas, while our heated outdoor pool and hot tubs overlook stunning Aspen Mountain.
A host hotel of the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen, our resort is defined by exceptional culinary experiences; Velvet Buck presents modern mountain cuisine and Mountain Social is the definitive après ski destination serving handcrafted cocktails. Retreat into sophistication in our luxury rooms, suites and residences, each featuring sumptuous 400-thread-count Frette linens, spacious marble bathrooms and custom furnishings by Ralph Lauren. Throughout your stay, our St. Regis Butler Service stands ready to assist you 24 hours a day.
The service at this resort is impeccable. From concierge to maid service to valet, we were impressed with the level of care the employees took. I don’t understand the negative reviews because we didn’t notice anything out of sorts or out of place. We also used the car service to get a ride into town and they were also very prompt in picking us up after dinner. The location is convenient for the bus rides to Snowmass and ran consistently.
Aspen is a very expensive resort town from the hotels, to the restaurants. Everyone knows this going in so I’m not going to comment on the price. It’s just a given.
The St Regis Aspen resort is a very friendly, well maintained hotel. Staff are very attentive to your needs. The location in very central to the local restaurants and shops. The Roaring Fork Transport Authority bus station is a short walk away for your commute to the local ski slopes. Aspen Sports have an hire shop in the Hotel grounds very good service.
Aspen is not cheap.. That goes for the St Regis as well, food and drink can be expensive, but you do get a free champagne every day at 4:45 with the bottle opening ceremony. Lots of local restaurants to choose from, varying prices. Aspen is at altitude so you can get out of breath walking up hill and about town.
Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen
Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen

Room:

We really liked our room (434), since it was much quieter and had a better view than our initial room (232). The room did feel a little small, especially with so many bulky items packed for a ski vacation, but it had a good amount of storage and was nicely decorated with a décor that felt both upscale and cozy in line with the mountain location. The king bed was very comfortable with Frette linens, and I loved that there were two comfortable armchairs, rather than just one, so both of us could sit and relax.

The bathroom was luxurious and appointed in gray marble throughout. It also featured a nice sized vanity with two sinks, as well as a freestanding tub, a large walk-in shower, and the toilet behind a frosted door. The only minor issue we had was that the shower always leaks water all over the floor, creating very slippery marble floors.

The tub is separated from the bed by folding doors that can open or close, but I don’t see the draw of this design. Even when the doors were closed, light leaked out the edges if someone was trying to use the bathroom while another person is sleeping. The main doors to the bathroom were also of a sliding variety that didn’t fully close, so there’s a general lack of separation/privacy between the room and bathroom that doesn’t seem necessary.

As far as room view, we were upgraded to a Grand Deluxe Room, which has a direct view facing Aspen Mountain and looking out across the hotel courtyard. This view was absolutely beautiful. We were told that the Deluxe Room we had booked would have had a partial mountain view or general courtyard/grounds view. I assume the basic Superior Rooms have the worst views, looking out to the streets surrounding the hotel.

Housekeeping did a good job keeping our room clean, and I appreciated that they made the effort to help keep our things organized, which is always a nice aspect of housekeeping at luxury hotels. On days when we wanted our room cleaned at a particular time, I used the Marriott app to request this through the chat feature, and it was always completed as requested. Turndown service was also provided each night, with chocolates and water bottles left by the bed, as well as a refresh of towels in the bathroom. I found that the housekeepers were generally not very friendly when passing them in the halls (they’d generally just glare at us, rather than saying hi), but they did a very good job at cleaning our room.

Spa & Other Hotel Amenities:

We spent one day at the resort’s Remède Spa, located on the lower level of the hotel, and it was a great place to relax between active days outside. My wife and I each enjoyed a hot stone massage and facial at the spa, and we both had only positive comments about our treatments and technicians. I loved the spa amenities, which include an oxygen lounge, a warm coed waterfall pool, and steam rooms, cold plunge pools, and hot tubs in each locker room. All of the amenities had capacity limits while we were there, but we always had the pools and steam rooms to ourselves. The spa staff was all incredibly nice, and constantly offered us lots of champagne, fruit-infused water, and small snacks. Although the spa is pricey, I highly recommend it.

Due to capacity limits in the spa, the hotel is currently not allowing hotel guests to use the spa facilities without booking a spa treatment. The gym is also located next to the spa and requires reservations to use it right now.

The hotel offers its heated outdoor pool and hot tubs in the courtyard year-round, and we enjoyed some time in the hot tub one afternoon after skiing. There are only three hot tubs, and with the current rule of one family per hot tub, it can be a bit competitive to get one. It would be nice if there was a reservation system or waitlist for these, to avoid walking all the way out there and finding none available.

The hotel also loves to advertise its Bernese mountain dog, Kitty. We love dogs, so we were interested in meeting him during our stay. The pre-arrival materials made it sound like he’s not as accessible as in past years due to Covid, but an email address was provided to set-up time to see him. I emailed Kitty’s email address several days before our trip to inquire about this, but never received any reply at all. It wasn’t a big deal, but was a bit disappointing.

Dining:

There are two main food/beverage options at the St. Regis right now, Mountain Social Bar and Velvet Buck. There is normally also the Chef’s Club Restaurant, which features rotating visiting chefs each year, but it is closed this year.

Mountain Social is the lobby bar, and it appears that the bar has taken over much of the normal lobby seating this year. There’s really no place to sit in the lobby unless you want to check in with the hostess to get seated for a drink or snack at Mountain Social. We thought the couch seating in the sunken part of the lobby was really nice, with a cozy ambiance created by the large fireplace. We enjoyed getting drinks and appetizers there, and the service was attentive and friendly. The drinks themselves were very average though, especially for the high price point.

Local Area/Transportation:

The St. Regis has a perfect location in Aspen, just a short walk to Aspen Mountain and all downtown restaurants and shopping. If you need to leave Downtown Aspen, which we did for skiing in Snowmass, the hotel is only a block away from the Rubey Park Transit Center, where free RFTA buses go everywhere in the area.

The hotel also offers free car service to go anywhere within Downtown Aspen on a first-come, first-served basis. This is basically like a free Uber, and we used it on one particularly cold night to get to dinner. The valets told us that the service is pretty much always available with no more than a 5-minute wait.

If going further than Downtown Aspen, guests can also rent the hotel’s BMW X7 for free for up to 4 hours one time during their stay. Unlike the car service within Aspen, this can be reserved in advance, which we did one morning when we needed to get to the outskirts of Snowmass. It was so convenient to have the car to check out for a few hours.

Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen CO
Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen CO

How much does a room costs at St. Regis Aspen Resort?

Prices start 388$/night for Superior, Guest room, 1 King. The Grand Deluxe, Guest room, 2 Double is  695$/room per night with breakfast included – if coming on a honeymoon this is the perfect choice for gay couples.

This double room has air conditioning.

Where to book online – St. Regis Aspen Resort – Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen CO – you can find the best hotels deals in Aspen during Aspen Gay Ski Week which  is celebrated with much enthusiasm in Aspen CO on Booking.com or Hotels.com or Hotelscombined.com and see more reviews on TripAdvisor.

2. Limelight Hotel Aspen 4* – Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen Colorado

Limelight Hotel Aspen
Limelight Hotel Aspen

Within walking distance of Aspen Mountain, Limelight Hotel features guest rooms with free Wi-Fi and 32-inch flat-screen cable TVs. This Colorado hotel offers an outdoor pool, hot tub and rooftop terrace.

Guest rooms provide iPod docking stations and laptop safety deposit boxes. They also have seating areas, desks and ironing facilities.

Limelight Hotel serves breakfast and offers a ski guide service and gym. A business center and meeting rooms are also available to guests.

This hip hotel, built on the site of the storied Limelite Lodge and Ski and Spur Bar, is a 5-minute walk from the Aspen Mountain ski lifts and a 6-minute walk from the Aspen Art Museum.

Refined rooms and suites feature flat-screen TVs, iPod docks and Keurig coffee makers. Deluxe rooms add wet bars and kitchenettes. Suites offer terraces, kitchens and living rooms.

A resort fee covers Wi-Fi, airport/local/ski shuttle service, use of the fitness center, loaner bikes, ski lockers and continental breakfast. The hotel also features an outdoor pool, 2 hot tubs, a rooftop terrace, a lobby fireplace, and a lounge with live music and light fare.

Like the highest Rocky Mountain peak, The Limelight Hotel reveals the best views and access to Aspen’s most sought-after terrain. Whether you seek ruggedness or sophistication, authenticity or glamour, The Limelight Hotel holds your reservation to the finest of Aspen experiences.Nestled steps from Aspen Mountain and just beside Wagner Park, the Limelight is located within walking distance to all of Aspen¹s renowned landmarks, restaurants and hotspots .
No need for vehicles: complimentary transportation to and from the Aspen Airport, as well as through town, whisks you back and forth from Aspen’s most inviting hotel.With its fresh, contemporary design, a relaxed atmosphere and an eager-to-serve staff, the Limelight is an ideal spot to start and end your epic day in the mountains.Community-style breakfast and daily après ski/ the longest happy hour in Aspen are part of the Limelight culture.
Sumptuous leather couches and a crackling fireplace will beckon you and your dog to the Limelight Lounge at the end of the day; piping hot pizzas, great local bands and outdoor hot tubs succeed in lightening you up. For skiers and snowboarders, exclusive access to the best of Aspen Snowmass’ four mountains is part of the Limelight’s unparalleled value. A three-night stay may include 4 free lift tickets, complimentary ski/snowboard guided tours, and always highly coveted: First Tracks on the hill.
This hotel caters to adventurous souls in the summer as well with unique amenities for bikers. As the gem of Pitkin County, the city of Aspen exposes social adventurers of all ages to a range of breathtaking outdoor experiences, haute cuisine and cultural delight.
The Limelight was a wonderful hotel that had nice amenities. The rooms are large and they each had a mini fridge, sink, microwave and dishware. It is centrally located and is within walking distance to all that Aspen has to offer. The included breakfast that was offered each morning was more like a Sunday brunch that restaurants offer than your typical hotel breakfast. It was amazing!

! Outdoor furniture includes a couch and coffee table, two chaise lounges and an elevated table with four chairs. The terrace is not completely isolated from the adjoining terraces but does afford some privacy. There is also a communal terrace available for those who do not have terrace rooms.

Breakfast is included in the room price and it was always very good. Some days the feature protein was better than others but there were always a lot of great choices. Since we had the wonderful terrace, we always took breakfast back up to room and out there.

Location is perfect for walking most places in town. Staff was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. Housekeeping great. Internet coverage is good but it is not password protected!

If you have a car, there are two options – park in the garage under the building or get a pass for street parking nearby. We opted for the street parking and never had an issue getting a close spot, even on the weekend.

Walls are somewhat thin. We love dogs and kids but you can hear them at all hours.

The room was equipped with a minifridge and a microwave. There was a glass fireplace in the room which was easy to operate but it really did not add much in the way of ambiance or heat. Guest laundry on first floor. They have complimentary bikes for your use. We did not use the fitness room but we cut through it en route to car and it seemed to contain adequate equipment. We enjoyed the live music in the lounge several evenings.

All-in-all, we were happy with our Limelight experience and will choose it next time we return to Aspen.

Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen
Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen

How much does a room costs at Limelight Hotel Aspen?

Prices start 500$/night for Standard King Room. The Luxury King Room with Fireplace is  655$/room per night with breakfast included – if coming on a honeymoon this is the perfect choice for gay couples.

This spacious room offers a fireplace, a terrace with city views, free Wi-Fi, an iPod docking station, and flat-screen TVs, a work desk, a kitchenette with a refrigerator, a microwave and coffee-making facilities. Contemporary mountain décor and an en suite bathroom with plush robes is also included.

Where to book online – Limelight Hotel Aspen – Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen CO – you can find the best hotels deals in Aspen during Aspen Gay Ski Week which  is celebrated with much enthusiasm in Aspen CO on Booking.com or Hotels.com or Hotelscombined.com and see more reviews on TripAdvisor.

3. The Little Nell  3* – LGBT Friendly Hotels Aspen Colorado

The Little Nell
The Little Nell

This luxurious mountain hotel is the only hotel in the heart of Aspen that boasts ski-to-door access. It features an onsite restaurant with an award-winning wine list and a tavern on-site. Summer, Fall, and Winter activities are all available from the property.

Free Wi-Fi is offered in all rooms at The Little Nell. Each spacious room includes a flat-screen cable TV, an iPod docking station, a fireplace and a minibar, which includes non-alcoholic beverages and snacks. Rooms offer either city or mountain views.

Offering farm-fresh Italian cuisine, Element 47 restaurant is located on-site at Aspen Little Nell. The restaurant offers world-class dining with wine suggestions from a master sommelier. Serving lunch and dinner, the on-site Ajax Tavern offers a Franco-American bistro-style menu with daily specials.

This chic ski-in/ski-out resort on Aspen Mountain is at the base of the Silver Queen Gondola and 2 minutes’ walk from Aspen Art Museum.

Stylish, contemporary rooms and suites come with fireplaces, marble bathrooms, flat-screen TVs with Blu-ray players, iPod docks, and balconies with city or mountain views. Suites add Jacuzzis or steam showers. In-room snacks and non-alcoholic drinks are free, as is Wi-Fi.

There’s a posh restaurant and an informal tavern, plus 3 bars. A resort fee covers airport, in-town and ski shuttle transfers, as well as a ski concierge, a spa.

The city of Aspen at our front door, Aspen Mountain at our back door. And in between, a gathering place for the free-spirited. We’re proud of our 5 Stars and 5 Diamonds — hospitality is our passion. From our kitchens to our cellars, with their 20,000 bottles of wine, from the Concierges in our lobby to the Concierges on our mountains, and from family adventure to apres ski, this hotel is, guests have said, “the Aspen of Aspen.”

A getaway to Aspen is always wonderful and I’d often heard about the Nell and how great it was. I never truly understood or appreciated the rave reviews until I was able to stay there in mid-January 2021 and wow, I was amazed. First up, the rooms are so well-appointed, spacious (we were in a Town Side Guest Room) and fresh (design is more contemporary and light/airy than what you typically find in a mountain town). As the website says… there’s nothing standard about this.

The condition of the property, and details of the guest rooms are far superior to some comparable hotels. The ski gondola is just steps from the property for summer adventure or winter skiing. Located in the heart of Aspen, shopping, dining and town parks are all within a short walk.

The Little Nell has the best staff, best rooms, and best location in Aspen- it is literally the perfect place to stay! They take their 5-star service seriously, too. The staff, while being incredibly warm and friendly, are also ON IT with their service.

I can’t say enough how amazing the staff and service are here. The rooms and bathrooms are super comfortable and spacious, and the location is perfect- literally at the gondola. Best Apres Ski, and you are walking distance to everything, although their drivers will take you anywhere you want to go. The Nell is worth every penny, winter or summer. I’ve stayed there many, many times and wouldn’t go anywhere else! Thank you again for an incredible stay.

The rooms are spacious and comfortable, it has all the amenities you could need, and also all the snack that any one in the mountain would desire, the beds are soft and comfortable, a bis enough bathtub where you can relax after a day hiking in the mountain. Have been here during winter and summer and they never failed.

Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen Colorado
Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen Colorado

How much does a room costs at The Little Nell?

Prices start 650$/night for Deluxe Room with City View. The One-Bedroom Suite with Mountain View is  2200$/room per night with breakfast included – if coming on a honeymoon this is the perfect choice for gay couples.

This contemporary suite features mountain views and is decorated with original artwork. Suite includes Fila D’Oro down comforters, white goose-down pillows, a fully stocked refreshment bar, a flat-screen HD cable TV, a CD player with iPod docking station and an upscale coffee maker.

Where to book online – The Little Nell – Gay Friendly Hotels Aspen CO – you can find the best hotels deals in Aspen during Aspen Gay Ski Week which is celebrated with much enthusiasm in Aspen CO on Booking.com or Hotels.com or Hotelscombined.com and see more reviews on TripAdvisor.

by Sorin

Sorin is a freelance travel writer. He is an experienced travel writer and traveller. Since 2012 he explored more than 60 countries on 4 continents: Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. Currently is based in Romania after spending the last 7 years in Myanmar.