(This is a sponsored post written on behalf of Wyndham Vacation Rentals.  All opinions shared are 100% my own.)

I remember listening to a speaker at a conference I was attending talk about how he and his wife planned to take a trip together without kids EVERY YEAR.  I was astonished.  I remember thinking, their kids must not need them as much as my kids do.  My kids would be a basket case.

Here I am now, married for nearly 20 years and I was offered the opportunity to go on a trip without my kids.  My oldest is 18.  My youngest is 1.  In fact, my youngest is pretty clingy and still even sleeps with us, so I wasn’t sure if I could really pull it off.  After discussing it with my husband, we decided to do it for our 20th anniversary, but we decided we really wanted our friends to go with us.  They never get away without their kids either and we just love hanging out with them.  (Our anniversary is March 23rd, so we went a little early).

I began making plans for the kids.  We have 2 sets of grandparents that live nearby and they were more than willing to help out.  My 16 year old was willing to be the main caregiver to the one year old who often needs to sleep close to mommy to be happy, but have grandparent help available to her any time.  It looked like our plans were falling into place.

Up until right before we left, I remember feeling nervous.  What if everyone back home was miserable? What if they had an emergency?   Well… once we were driving, I just didn’t worry nearly as much as I did while I was there.  Ultimately, I knew they’d all be OK.  I just hoped they got sleep!  It turns out, everyone slept great!  They did miss their mom and dad (except for maybe the 18 year old, lol), but they managed to survive without us for a few days.  That was golden!  And…we got our batteries recharged.  You know what that means, don’t you?  We can give back to our kids even better now… as we are refreshed!

Now, let me tell you about where we got to go… because it was absolutely AMAZING!

9 Reasons To Choose Breckenridge, Colorado as Your Next Romantic Destination

Now before I get started on my 9 reasons to go here as a romantic destination, I just wanted to clarify how much I love my kids.  I really love traveling with them and I love hanging out with them and experiencing life with them.  They’re great!  But… I also love the chance to just focus on my spouse and do things together, focusing on each other without little kids in tow.

I also want to point out that I believe Breckenridge is a GREAT family destination, too.  I would just spend my time & money in different ways if they were along for the ride.  We do think we’ll be bringing them back here…as they would love to see everything we saw and experience the mountains in this way!

Now… on to my reasons you should take your spouse here….

 1.  It’s beautiful…and you’ll bask in that beauty without any kid interruptions.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love traveling with my kids!  But… I find that I notice more about my surroundings and really enjoy being able to take it all in, without any interruptions.  At least every once in a while!  Part of our time, we hopped on a gondola ride…something we couldn’t have put our whole family on, because there’s too many of us for one car….crazy I know, considering it holds 8!

2.  You can enjoy things like snowmobiling, ski school and skiing!  

As you can see, we chose snowmobiling.  It was so neat to be able to see the mountains out in the middle of nowhere.  It was a bit scary at times, coming close to the edge of a steep drop with no rail to keep you from sliding off.  Needless to say, I was taking it really slow when I got close to those drop offs!  Our next trip out, we’re definitely going to try skiing.  It looked amazing, too!  

3.  Fine Dining – Breckenridge has so many amazing choices of places to eat!  There were many restaurants to choose from that were local and not national chains.  You could choose traditional pizza (like we had our first night) or something much more exotic like an appetizer tray that had elk, boar and pheasant sausages (like our friends had our last night there).  Seriously, you’ll have fun trying different foods that you’d never try if you weren’t on vaction.  It’s all about pampering yourself!

4.  Amazing places to stay.  

Think of it like it’s a honeymoon.  Book yourself an amazing place with Wyndham Vacation Rentals.  We had a 2 bedroom condo at the Wyndham Blue Sky Resort.  Ours wasn’t quite a honeymoon experience, because we decided to bring another couple, who happen to be a pair of our best friends, along for the fun!  We had a ball utilizing the amenities at the resort.  We even spent one evening in, playing a fun little card game that we bought at a neat little game shop downtown.  

5.  Hot tubbing in the snow.   

I must admit that I was completely skeptical about this.  Who in their right mind would want to go outside in the snow in your bathing suit.  Now that I’ve tried it, I say me, me, me!  It was awesome!  Seeing the snow all around you just added to the beautiful scenery.  I wasn’t cold a bit and the air was extremely clean feeling compared to what you would get if it was an enclosed, chlorine-filled pool room.  In fact, I got hot for a while and had to stand up.  Ryan jumped in the nearby pool for a while just to cool off.  

6.  Getting Pampered – get a massage right there at the resort, a pedicure, manicure or just take advantage of the free wine and cheese.  

7.  Shopping –  There are so many amazing shops to browse in.  We were admiring art in an art store and playing games in a game store.  There were even thrift stores (which I happen to love for the treasures you may find) right there on Main Street.  They had every kind of shop you can think of to shop in.  

8.  Plenty of Events to Choose from:  The weekend we were visiting Breckenridge, they had a couple of skiing events that you could choose to ski in and/or just observe the amazing skiers!  We chose to view Hope on the Slopes.  The skiers in this event were raising money for the fight against cancer.  It was so neat to see all of the skiers in action for such an amazing cause!

(this was at the bottom of one of the hills…right before they headed back up on the ski lift)

9.  Choices….  Stay in or go out.  I mean seriously… you could sit around in the living room with a fire lit and just enjoy the company of your spouse!  You could stay in and cook in your own kitchen and avoid crowds at the local restaurants.  OR you can go out.  When we checked in, the Wyndham staff offered a driver to drive us anywhere we wanted in Breckenridge for no charge.  How’s that for service?  While we didn’t take them up on the offer, it was comforting to know that they would do it if we needed them to.   All in all, the point of this whole trip is to just be together…and enjoy it, because you know this much alone time won’t last forever. You don’t even want it to last forever…but while it’s here, you may as well LIVE IT UP!

About Wyndham Vacation Rentals

Wyndham Vacation Rentals is the world’s largest professional management company of vacation rental properties. They have over 550 destinations to choose from worldwide, including these amazing ski destinations in the US:

• Whistler, British Columbia

• Park City, Utah

• Vail, Colorado

• Aspen, Colorado

• Beaver Creek, Colorado

• Breckenridge, Colorado

• Keystone, Colorado

• Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Booking through Wyndham Vacation Rentals means you have access to some of the best resorts out there.  In those resorts, you’ll enjoy homelike amenities (as pictured above), such as fully equipped kitchens, spacious living areas & bedrooms plus you’ll likely even have a washer and dryer right there in your condo, so you don’t have to go home with dirty clothes!  In addition, you’ll have hotel-life amenities.  The best of both worlds if you ask me!

By booking with Wyndham Vacation Rentals, you’ll know that their experienced hospitality professionals are there to make your trip amazing!  It’s the little things, like every time I walked into the lobby, the person who originally checked me in, addressed me by name.  I was amazed she still remembered my name and that I wasn’t just another room to fill.

By booking with Wyndham Vacation Rentals, you’ll know that your trip is backed by the Vacation Rental Bill of Rights, a pledge that lets you know they’re there for you before, during and after your stay.  After the care I had while staying at this resort, I fully believe that they mean every word of that!