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1) I’d recommend going up the night before and spending the night somewhere in Frisco, Silverthorne, or Dillon. There are a bunch of clean but Spartan places up there that can be had for around $100/night. This way you can wake up early, pack up, and find the best snow or conditions. Best thing, depending on how early your flight is the next day is to spend the second night there and book out early in the morning to the airport. The traffic back to Denver on I70 can be just as bad as the drive up to Denver 2) If you don’t stay up there for a night, leave Denver very early in the morning. If there is any kind of traffic problems I70 can become a parking lot mess. It’s better to hang out at the base area eating breakfast than to be frustrated in traffic while you watch your ski day tick by at a stand-still in traffic 3) Vail: Leave this one be for now. You can literally spend days and days at Vail and still not ski it out. You’ll put a scratch on the surface and leave frustrated. Wait until you can come back for a few days to ski here at least 4) For a day of skiing, Beaver Creek is nice. You’d probably have a blast there. The only issue is that it is beyond Vail about 20 to 30 minutes and kind of a lot of driving for a day worth of skiing. Combine this one with your longer trip to Vail. 5) WinterPark / Mary Jane: Very good ski area (they are combined into one area). The only issue is going over Berthoud Pass – it can be scary with snow on it. 6) Steamboat. Long drive. Treat this one like Vail. 7) Best All Around for a day trip: Breckenridge or Copper Mountain I think. Breckenridge is four mountains and be certain not to miss out on Peak 7 (lots of nice cruiser runs there). Copper Mountain has a lot of topography too that will keep you interested for the day. These two hills are big enough to enjoy skiing most of them in a day without being felt like you didn’t see the bigger parts of the playground at the end of the day. For instance, at Vail, Blue Sky Basin is a great place to ski. The only issue is that it can take the better part of an hour or so (or more) to get back there to enjoy it. 8) Get discount ski tickets at the grocery stores (I still think they sell them there – try King Soopers). You’ll save a few minutes time on the slope side. Ask your co-workers to take you to lunch and pick one up. 9) Skiing for a day at Breck: Get there early! Park in the gondola lot. Get off at the Peak 7 station a few minutes before the regular hill-lifts open. Use the facilities in this Peak 7 base area. Walk to the lift. Ski the Peak 7 runs in here. Usually no people around and there is a high likelihood of a few inches of powder to play in. When people start to arrive, start over to the other hills. Ski over to the T-bar and take a run called “Pika” down. More like advanced intermediate that expert (but the snow can be wonky and wind blown up here). Ski down to the Peak 8 base area and take the lift up from there. Try some Peak 8 runs, then take Frosty’s Freeway to the old two person lift to go to Peak 9. Ski a few runs here using the Mercury Super Chair. Then stop for lunch at the 10-Mile station. After lunch, hit a few runs off Peak 10 then start back to the Peak 8 base area where you’ll take the gondola back to the parking lot. Do this and you’ll end up being ahead of most of the crowd for the day and get about 18 to 25 runs of skiing in. 10) Copper Mountain? Sorry, can’t tell you too much about this. Know where to ski there, but can’t quite articulate it good enough for words here. 11) Keystone? A good ski area but since it’s the first ski area that has main-line all around skiing on it off I70, lot of folks from Denver don’t foray any further. 12) Loveland: Yep. No Ritz, No Glitz, just skiing. Same goes for Arapahoe Basin. If you want long blue cruisers, you're best bets are Breckenridge or Copper Mountain. Drop a line back if you want more detail Hope it helps!