Jaunted

Travel Contests / Film Festivals / Festival Travel / Airline News / Virgin Atlantic / Telluride Film Festival / Facebook / → All Tags

How to Be a VIP for Free at the Telluride Film Fest: 'Like' Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic has managed to align itself with anything sleek, sexy, and, well, just plain awesome on the travel front, with this cool cache now extending to international cultural happenings. Film festivals—what with their covetable goodie bags, after parties, and celebrity pull—certainly fall into the "Ever-So-Hip" category, which is likely why VA has aligned itself with the forthcoming Telluride Film Festival, set to take place from September 2-5, 2011.

VA will serve as Telluride's partner airline, hosting a splashy tribute event during the festival run and a contest that gives film aficionados a shot at attending TFF come fall.

more ›

Volunteer Travel / Film Festival Travel / Memorial Day Travel / Telluride Travel / → All Tags

Sweet Perks and Free Films for Volunteering at Telluride's Mountainfilm Fest

On May 28th-31st, Tom Cruise's favorite vacation spot, Telluride, CO, will celebrate documentary film with the 2010 Mountainfilm Festival. The festival features documentary screenings and special events throughout town like an Ice Cream Social, a Gallery Walk, Breakfast Talks and a Closing Night Picnic in Telluride's Town Park.

Telluride depends on volunteers to keep the festival running smoothly. This year, they are looking for more than 150 people to help out in various jobs that include everything from office work to food prep. Anyone who is 18 years or older and is "willing to smile endlessly, get their hands dirty, problem solve, work hard and commit to a four-day weekend of rubbing shoulders with filmmakers, environmentalists, activists, writers, artists and concerned citizens of the world" is welcome to apply.

more ›

Celeb Travel / Fourth of July / Tom Cruise / Katie Holmes / Suri Cruise / TomKat / Oprah / Britney Spears / Super World Travelers / Brad Pitt / Angelina Jolie / → All Tags

Holiday Travel: TomKat Fritter Away Their Fourth

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and baby Suri went for a stroll on Independence Day in Telluride, Colorado. Cruise has owned a home in the ski town for years, sharing the local mountain air with Oprah and Oliver Stone.

Other stars used their holiday weekend to visit summer homes, plan sexy getaways or just get out of the house for a bit.

more ›

Ski-Resorts-in-Summer / Beer / Beer Travel / Music Festivals / Festivals / Summer Travel / → All Tags

Ski Resorts in Summer: Telluride Blues and Brews Festival

Although this 3-day weekend of live music and great microbrews from the southwest and beyond is not technically at the resort, the town of Telluride, Colorado wouldn't be much more than a tumbleweed museum and billy goat hang out without the mountain destination.

You can expect lots of great blues and roots bands at the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival starting September 12, including Canned Heat, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, G. Love and Special Sauce and Gov't Mule. The list of brewers is 56 strong and will include heavy hitters and little-knowns alike from as far way as Georgia. Big names to look for include Sierra Nevada, Moab Brewery and Santa Fe Brewing Company.

There are lots of hotel options available in town and there is camping available for $40. Entrance to the festival can be purchased day-to-day or you can go for the full monty for $155. Birkenstocks, patchouli and dreadlocks will not get you any discounts either, hippies!

Related Stories:
· Telluride Blues and Brews Festival [Official Site]
· Ski Resorts in Summer coverage [Jaunted]
· Summer Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of The Black Crowes at Blues '07: Barry Brecheisen]

Celeb Travel / → All Tags

A Celebration of Nothing in Telluride

By this point, everyone and the Pope knows that Tom Cruise has a house in Telluride.  And while recent press coverage likes to paint the locals as twittering celeb-obsessed idiots, the truth is they're used to Hollywood: Oprah has a house there too, and given that she only needs one name, she's the bigger star.

Huge crazy-person egos notwithstanding, Telluride has a reputation as the most low-key of resort towns, with more dogs than cars.  Although they have festivals more weekends than not, the town keeps a sense of humor about it, with a "Nothing Festival" for the one summer weekend not booked by a real festival.  This NY Times article has a good rundown of places to see, things to do in between all the festival-izing.

Airlines / Rocky Mountains / Mr. Calacanis / → All Tags

Do you have the stomach for a winter flight into Telluride?

The Telluride airport, which is at the highest altitude of any airport in North America, is unavailable for landing about 35 percent of the time during the winter.

The diversion, usually to Montrose means a 1.5 hour transfer by van back to Telluride. America West appears to be the only major airline that flies in and out of Telluride.

However, despite the relative routine-ness of these winter diversions, an aborted landing in heavy winds is enough to rightfully scare the bejesus out of most newbie Telluride bound passengers.

Check out blogger Jason Calacanis's Telluride experience/reaction:

Almost died last week. Was flying into Telluride airport on one of those prop planes designed to land at small airports and we got caught in a wind storm.

As we were dropping down the side of the cliff while flying sideways I thought for sure this was it. The engines started to make some really strange whizzing and groaning noises. I figured they were either fighting the crazy winds or the pilot had powered the engines all the way up. The plane straighted out and we were heading back up in the air.

The pilot came back on the radio and informed us that we missed the runway. Really?! I had no idea. The  turbulence started again and we circled the airport, at which point I told the flight attendant that we better not be trying another landing at that airport. He agreed, and said that the airport had now been shutdown after a couple of aborted landings.

A couple of aborted landings!? WTF!?! Why was American West even attempting to land when winds are gusting like this? Why did we even try to land when other planes had to abort.  

So do you have the stomach to try flying into Telluride in February?

image focalplane/Flickr

Related Stories:
·   Fly Telluride [Official Site]
·   Telluride Airport [Mountain Flying]

Music / Festivals / → All Tags

Music Festivals Pt. I: Telluride Blues and Brews

As sometimes we get a little musically obsessed ourselves, this week we're going to tell you about a new, lesser-known music happening each day in some unbeliveable location that all outdoor summer music festivals seem to have. So whip out your calendar.

Today's pick is the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival, from Sept. 16th-18th. Not only is the music lineup impressive (Al Green, The Black Crowes, The Robert Cray Band), but 50 microbreweries will pour their best brews during a tasting on Saturday. Not to mention the amazing surroundings, local jams in area bars and the Acoustic Blues Camp classes and lessons.

A three-day pass is $140, and daily passes are about $50. You can even camp out at the Telluride Town Parkground (adjacent to the festival) for less then $20/night.

Related Stories:
·   Telluride Blues and Brews Festival [Official Site]
·   Telluride Happenings [Denver Post]

Festivals / → All Tags

Class it Up Cooking in Telluride

Tired of only seeing Telluride covered in snow or in beautiful people when the film festival's in town? In our ongoing festival/weight gain coverage, we offer you the Telluride Culinary Arts Festival from August 12th-14th.

Foodies live it up at this one. It's got celebrity chef demonstrations in Viking outfitted kitchens, a 'Grand Tasting' night with music, samples and wines from the area and a progressive dinner where you can walk through town and stop to eat at four different restaurants.

Admission might set you back a little at $90 for the Grand Tasting event to $330 for a weekend pass that includes everything. But at least you know those calories will be damn good.

Related Stories:
·   Telluride Sulinary Arts Festival [Official Site]
·   Food unites Telluride through festivals, farmers market [Inside Bay Area]