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Lodging ● Transportation ● Food ● Entertainment & Nightlife

Telluride is a beautiful and inspiring location for TSRC workshops, but it can be expensive if you are not careful. Below are tips for anyone who wants to be budget conscious.

Student Scholarships

If you are a student or post-doc, TSRC offers half-price workshop registration fees through our "Peter Salamon Young Scientists Scholarship Award" program. Please contact your workshop organizer for details.

Here’s how it works:

• The graduate student or post doc registers for a workshop at the invitation of a workshop organizer or by way of an invited participant
• In his or her on-line registration form, the cost of the registration fee will appear at full price; there is no “student button” in the registration process
• The workshop organizer must then contact TSRC, identifying who is a qualified graduate students or post doc
• At that time, TSRC will adjust the registration fee

Below are some tips for visiting Telluride on budget.

Lodging

The most economical lodging choice is to rent a large condo and split the cost among several roommates.

• Book early to get the best rates and best selection of larger condos.

• Go to the TSRC Lodging page and look at the student options under Alpine Lodging and Telluride Lodge. They have selected certain condos that will sleep many – on sofa-beds, twin beds, lofts, etc. In most cases, there will be more than one bed in a bedroom, but what you give up in privacy you gain in savings.

Transportation

• Try flying into nearby towns if the rates to Telluride are high: Montrose (1.50 hours by car to T-Ride), Durango (2 hours), Cortez (1.75 hours). Sometimes the airfares into these towns are cheaper. There are shuttle services from these outlying towns into Telluride. But, the prices of shuttles can be expensive to so be sure to weigh the time/expense ratios when booking travel arrangements. Check the Getting Here page on this website to connect to Telluride Express shuttle service or get driving directions to Telluride.

• If you have more time, the cheapest route may be to fly into Denver with a few other folks, rent a car there and drive to Telluride (about a 7 hour drive). It’s worth seeing this beautiful state.

• Try flying in and out on Saturdays. The fares could be cheaper. If you rent a condo, you will not pay any more for lodging for any extra nights up to seven nights. Condos are rented on a weekly basis so stays from 5-7 nights are the same price.

Food

Cooking in your condo is the cheapest way to go, but groceries are (natually) also expensive in Telluride. If you can stock up in Montrose, Durango, or Cortez, do so before coming to town. If you are going to be renting a car this becomes much easier.

When you want to eat out, locals tend to eat at or take out from these more affordable spots:

• Street food is the cheapest. There are usually two or three stands by the Court House on Main Street for lunch (hot dogs, gyros, and sometimes crepes), and a local favorite, The Taco Stand (aka La Tapatia) near Ace Hardware on Main Street.

• Merle's Brown Bag, soups, salads, sushu, sandwiches (lunch)

• Corner House Grill, classic bar food, (lunch and dinner)

• Fat Alley BBQ, not necessarily heathful, cajun style BBQ (lunch and dinner)

• La Cocina de Luz - a little more expensive, but it is organic (breakfast, lunch and dinner)

• Maggie's , decent food, unfriendly service, but very local (breakfast and lunch)

• Brown Dog Pizza, loud sports bar (lunch and dinner)

• Shanghai Palace, typical chinese (lunch and dinner)

• Baked in Telluride, bakery plus (breakfast, lunch, dinner)

• Smugglers, brewpub and diner-like food (lunch and dinner)

Entertainment & Nightlife

• Every Wednesday night in summer in the Mountain Village is a free outdoor concert called the Sunset Concert Series. Bring a picnic, some beer, or a bottle of wine. The bands are great, the setting is beautiful and there is no admission fee.

• The cheapest bars are the Last Dollar Saloon (known locally as “the Buck” and recently cleaned up) on Main and O’Bannon's, Telluride's truest dive bar, located just south of Main on Fir.

• Fly Me to the Moon Saloon usually has some great late night music scene. Check out the Calendar pages in the local paper to find out who's playing.

• The Sheridan Bar is one of town’s oldest and most established drinking holes and a long-time favorite of TSRC scientists. Food is available occassionally from the fabulous Chop House restaurant located in the same building. The Sheridan is a classic Telluride experience. Not cheap but not expensive. The atmosphere varies by the hour, sometimes dominated by local real estate tycoons, sometimes by tourists, sometimes locals. There are pool and foosball tables in the back room.

NOTE: Colorado law does not allow smoking in any bar or restaurant