If you can imagine elegance married to adventure, outdoors brought indoors and old world blended with the old west, you’re going to love the Broadmoor Resort, perfectly situated at the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the city of Colorado Springs. From the moment you arrive, you know you have found a unique melding the Wild West and European charm.

At the porte-cochère, where guests arrive, a buffalo head on one side, exchanges glances with the face of a long lost Greek deity on the other. This subtle juxtaposition is noticeable throughout the Broadmoor. Classic rough and tumble Remington statues nestle beneath, oiled paintings of bucolic vales, lords and ladies.

Inside you’ll find an art aesthetic mixing western and modern sculptures with gorgeous ceilings, wallpaper, rugs, fountains and furniture. Outside, is subtle but whimsical building decoration along with water features all combining to amuse or still your imagination.

I’ve only seen pictures of Northern Italy’s Lakes Districts (2); fabled destinations such as Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano and Lake Como (3), but these images come to mind as you sit enjoying an espresso while swans sail by on the Broadmoor’s lake, nestled beneath majestic Cheyenne Mountain.

On land originally in use as a farm then a casino and hotel and finally a girls boarding school, came Spencer Penrose, who’d made his fortune in gold and copper mining.

Penrose retained the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, who would also design New York’s Grand Central Station, the New York Yacht Club, the Texaco Building in Houston, Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC and Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu. Broadmoor incorporates many of the massive scale and formal elements of Italian Renaissance architecture seen in Europe.

From the moment you leave either the Broadmoor Main Tower or the West Tower, you find yourself in a fairy book setting. A tree lined lake, offers numerous locations to sit and …ponder life. The swans gliding about luxuriously almost make you think they were ordered up from central casting of a Hollywood studio. 

On the pond’s north side you’ll find a swimming pool complex with a water slide, cabanas and an infinity edge pool seeming to draw you into the lake beyond.

At the other end of the lake is a world class spa and fitness center leading to two magnificent golf courses. 

Try not to get distracted by the surrounding mountain vistas. Designed by famed golf architect Donald Ross with a redesign by Robert Trent Jones Sr., both the East and West courses will require you to use every club in your bag. The East course is where golf legend Jack Nicklaus won his first U.S. Amateur title.

Across the property, there are 17 restaurants and cafes to satisfy every palette. You will be challenged to try everything from the finest Italian, or contemporary American menus to English pub fare to a sports bar restaurant with its own bowling alley. In the morning, enjoy an espresso and croissant overlooking the lake and return at dusk for a cocktail as the sun dips behind Cheyenne Mountain.

And off the grounds, it is a short jaunt to the new U.S. Olympic Museum where you will find an astonishing array of Olympic and Paralympic accomplishments, sports technology and interactive exhibits that put you into the Olympic experience.

A couple of displays worth noting are the massive glass cases containing a copy of the torch used in each opening ceremony, as well as the gold, silver and bronze medals from every Olympic games since Paris in 1896 to Tokyo in 2021.

But perhaps the very best thing about the Broadmoor is the incomparable hospitality! Attention to detail is part of the DNA at Broadmoor. I literally could not find a single Broadmoor associate who was not genuinely interested in answering every question or resolving any issue that arose during our stay. Where can you find that today?

As they say in the Navy, Bravo Zulu Broadmoor. Well done!