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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 to 16 awardees 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 and request an awar. These awards are granted on a first-come, first-serve basis. 
• At that time, TSRC will adjust the registration fee, if the awards are still available for a given year. 

Lodging 

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

• Book early to get the cheapest rates and best selection of larger condos. The cheapest options are the bronze, three- bedroom condos at Telluride Lodge and "Around Town Lodging." Indicate if you are willing to sleep two to a room or sleep on a sofa bed. If you know who you want to share with, contact them first and designate a "head roommate," who must register first. 

• If you want help in finding roommates, choose the "TSRC Roommate Connection" option and we will do our best to hook you up with roommates in the lowest priced condos.

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, although in winter the driving can be treacherous.

• Try flying in and out on Saturdays. The fares could be cheaper. If you rent a condo, you will not pay more for staying an extra night or two, up to seven nights. Most 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 at 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 relocated in summer 2011 to the Gondola Plaza in Telluride in the Camel's Garden Hotel Building. It is now called "Oak, the New Fat Alley." Food is still affordable and the menu has expanded (lunch and dinner)

• La Cocina de Luz - a bit more expensive, but organic and delicious (breakfast, lunch and dinner)

• Brown Dog Pizza, loud sports bar, good pizza by the slice (lunch and dinner)

• Shanghai Palace, typical chinese (lunch and dinner)

• Baked in Telluride, bakery plus (breakfast, lunch, dinner). BIT burned to the ground February 2010, but is was rebuilt and re-opened summer 2011 in the same location

• Smugglers, brewpub and bar menu (lunch and dinner)

• The Llama, bar menu (lunch and dinner) 

Nightlife and Entertainment

• 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 Last Dollar Saloon (known locally as “the Buck” and recently cleaned up) on Main Street is a long-time favorite. It fills up on weekends and has a few decent video games.

• O'Bannons is a personal favorite among TSRC staff and a growing number of participants. Equipped with pool, darts, foosball, video games, a juke box and well drinks at rock-bottom prices, O.B.'s won't let you down. Located on Fir Street just south of Main. 

• The Steaming Bean is a wireless-enabled coffee shop by day and Telluride's newest music venue and watering hole in the evening. The owners do a good job of filling their summer schedule with live music. 

• 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 ski bums and dirt bags (we use this language affectionately). There are pool and foosball tables in the back room.

• The Llama is a large restaurant and bar that hosts live music on most nights. It is located across the street from the Buck.

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