Eagle's Nest Wedding Shuttles
Receptions at Eagle's Nest run from 6pm to 11pm. At 11 the gondola starts bringing everyone down, and 250 people land in the Lionshead mall in cabin sized groups, a few at a time, not all at once. That download is the whole transportation problem at this venue. Everything else is a footnote.
Eagle's Nest is Vail Resorts' on mountain reception venue at the top of the Eagle Bahn Gondola, with an outdoor deck and room for 250 seated or 300 standing. The gondola ride is part of the package and there is no road to it. Guests go up from the Lionshead base and come back to the same spot. The resort owns the vertical leg. We own the ground.
What happens at the base after 11pm
The Eagle Bahn loads inside the Lionshead mall, which is pedestrian. The nearest place a vehicle can stop is West Lionshead Circle, off the South Frontage Road, the same circle that serves the Lionshead hotels. It is a loading lane, not a lot, so a van drops or picks up and moves on. Guests walk a short distance between the gondola and the circle.
Reviewers mention gondola delays, and a delay at the top becomes a crowd at the bottom. Our vans are at the circle before the first cabin comes down, not summoned once it has. Lionshead guests walk home. Vail Village guests ride a loop between the circle and the Vail Village parking structure, about 4 minutes each way, until the planner says the base is clear. Guests in Avon or Beaver Creek, 13 to 18 minutes out, ride timed vans that leave as soon as they fill rather than on a schedule, because nobody wants to stand in the cold waiting for seat number fourteen. For 250 guests with 100 in the village and 50 down valley, that is four Sprinters staged at the circle at 11.
Going up is the easy half
The afternoon load is spread out and predictable. Two Sprinters on the village loop for the hour before the gondola time clear 100 people with room to spare. Valley guests leave their hotels about an hour and 40 minutes before the load time so they are not the ones holding the cabin. Our Sprinters and SUVs are all wheel drive, which the winter season needs more than the summer one does.
Pairing with the Holy Cross Event Deck
Eagle's Nest is the closest reception site to the Holy Cross Event Deck, so the two are often booked together: ceremony on the deck, reception at the Nest, one gondola ride up for both. For us that is good news. No ceremony to reception shuttle is needed, just the base plan at each end of the evening. The Eagle Bahn loads 200 yards from The Arrabelle, so a block there needs no vehicle at all on the wedding day.
Two seasons, one base
- Mid June to late September.
- Late November to mid April.
Winter changes the Frontage Road and the circle, not the plan. Same drop, same download, the vans just need a little more room in the schedule.
Send us the headcount, the hotel split and the gondola load time, and we will size the base plan around the 11pm return. Those three numbers are all we need when you request an event quote; the wedding transportation page covers the rest of Vail. Guests flying in use the Denver Airport to Vail lane.
