Comment on 7 great tax refund vacations

Picture this: Daylight is petering out behind the snow-capped Rockies, and it’s getting cold — really cold. You’re comfortable, though, sipping loose-leaf tea from a pot, nibbling on delicate, scratch-made pastries. Afternoon tea is a delightful ritual that Anna Maria Russell, Duchess of Bedford — one of Queen Victoria’s besties — improvised in England in the 1840s. According to the tale, the Duchess complained of a sinking feeling in her stomach between her midday meal and late-night dinner.

More than 1 million travelers are expected to pass through a new configuration of security screening checkpoints at Denver International Airport from Dec. 19 through Jan. 1, Transportation Security Administration officials said Thursday. TSA supervisors also are anticipating a surge of items in baggage that agents will have to confiscate. They displayed a cache of seized items including a cane containing a two-foot sword from last weekend, fireworks, pepper spray, activated stun guns and carefully wrapped holiday gifts, which often contain material requiring secondary inspection.

Remember when a wellness tip meant someone telling you to go outside, run around, and play in the snow and fresh air? That might still be good advice. But now, some experts might add that spa treatments and facials are necessary to support those choices and fight the effects of intense activity and sun exposure — even in winter. No matter where you go this winter — Colorado’s Front Range or the high country for a ski trip — you can find a spa treatment to help with what ails you during these colder months. “Winter brings unique challenges to how we get outside to exercise, socialize, and recuperate,” said Joren Joyce, lead massage therapist at Durango Hot Springs Resort and Spa. “Physically, cold weather causes nerves and blood vessels to constrict, decreasing blood flow and circulation.

In mid-November, just as the mountain towns were waking up from shoulder-season hibernation and preparing for the ski season, my husband and I popped into Minturn and stumbled upon the cutest (and likely smallest) whisky tasting room in Colorado. No hyperbole: The Wee Dram on Minturn’s Main Street is a cozy, 135-square-foot, 12-seat drinking den where husband and wife Spence and Stefanie Neubauer pour tipples of single malt whisky and serve cocktails like Old Fashioneds and peated Manhattans. The Wee Dram tasting room is a cozy, 135-square-foot, 12-seat drinking den.

Let’s face it: The best skiers in the world all started as soon as they could walk. In your group of ski friends, there’s a good chance the one with the best form tackles any terrain and is always first back at the chair learned as a kid, lucky enough to live in a place with skiing and parents who supported it. R.

MOSCA, Colorado — A handmade sign at the start of a long dirt road in the rural San Luis Valley indicates to visitors that they’ve arrived at the future site of Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Spa. The peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains barely make a dent in the big blue skies above the 40 acres purchased by founder and CEO Gamal Jadue Zalaquett.