Vail Racquet Club Wedding Transportation
Why 10pm is the whole schedule
Receptions at the Vail Racquet Club have to finish by 10pm. That is a Town of Vail noise rule for East Vail, not a venue preference, and it does not move. The after party carries on in the restaurant bar on property, but the band stops, the lights come up and 100 people who are not sleeping on site all want to leave within the same quarter hour, from a resort that is a real drive from anywhere else in town.
So we build the night backwards from ten. The full set of vans is on the property by about 9:40pm. Guests headed back to Vail Village, which is roughly a 10 minute ride, go in continuous rounds until the last of them is gone. Anyone staying for the bar catches a later sweep that we agree on in advance. Nobody stands in the dark on Bighorn Road waiting for a cab that is not coming.
Exit 180 and the narrow end of Bighorn Road
The resort sits on Vail Racquet Club Drive off Bighorn Road, about five miles east of Vail Village. From Interstate 70 take exit 180, the East Vail interchange, and follow Bighorn Road in. Past the interchange it narrows, which is fine for a Sprinter or an SUV and a bad idea for anything bigger. The streets are public and residential. Lodging guests park free, but a shuttle drops at the resort and loops out rather than lingering.
We have only made a few trips out to the Racquet Club, on hotel runs over the last couple of seasons, so we confirm the exact drop point with the resort for each wedding rather than assume it. They host one wedding a day, so the drop will be yours.
Who is riding, and from where
Room night minimums push most guests onto the property, where everything is a walk. The Royal Elk Room seats 64 indoors, the Royal Elk Terrace tents up to 130 from mid May to mid October, and round tables top out at 96. The Park and The Meadow are the two outdoor ceremony sites. Neither has electricity and The Meadow allows no food or drink, so ceremonies there are brief and guests walk to the terrace or the Royal Elk Room afterward. No tents go up between November and April, so a winter wedding here is indoors and under 64.
The guests who do need us are the ones in Vail Village, Lionshead, Avon or Beaver Creek, and East Vail is further from all of them than people expect. Avon is about 25 minutes, Beaver Creek about 30, Eagle County Regional about 50. For a 100 guest tented reception with 40 guests in Vail Village, one Sprinter on set departure times brings them out in three rounds, or two vans do it in two. If the vows are at the Vail Interfaith Chapel on Vail Road first, two Sprinters shuttling from the chapel will have everyone in East Vail within about an hour.
Every vehicle we send out Bighorn Road is all wheel drive, and that is a winter requirement here rather than a nice to have. Tell us your date, your count and your hotel split and we will time the 10pm departure properly. Then request an event quote with that information; the wedding transportation page has the detail, and you can point flying guests to Eagle County Airport to Vail.
