My Notes While Planning NYE 2027 in Vail, USA (Still a Work in Progress) Okay so I've been going back and forth on Vail, USA for New Year's Eve 2027 for a few weeks now, and I finally just opened a notes app and started dumping everything down as I figured it out. Sharing it as-is because honestly, this is probably more useful messy than it would be all cleaned up and "10 tips" formatted. ________________________________________ Early planning, still deciding Keep seeing Vail, USA pop up as a top NYE destination. Makes sense why — but also makes me nervous, because "popular" usually means "book early or get stuck with scraps." Need to actually commit to a hotel search soon instead of just browsing. Note to self: stop "just looking" and actually book something. Prices are only going one direction from here (up). ________________________________________ A few days later Okay, did some actual digging. Turns out the hotels close to where the actual countdown happens go way earlier than I expected — like, we're talking real availability drop-off starting way before December. Kind of assumed I had more time than I do. Also realized — and this is dumb, I should've thought of this already — that "close to the fireworks" and "close to where I'm sleeping" need to be the same answer, or the walk back at 1am is going to be miserable. Adding "location relative to viewing spot" to the list of things that actually matter, not just price. ________________________________________ Thinking about where to actually watch There's apparently a big free spot everyone goes to. Free is tempting, obviously. But then I read you basically need to show up hours early to get any kind of view, and just... stand there. For hours. In a crowd. Weighing that against just paying for a ticketed spot or a rooftop thing instead. Free sounds good until you actually think about what "free" costs you in time and personal space. Leaning toward paying a bit more, ngl. ________________________________________ Dinner — almost forgot about this entirely Genuinely almost didn't think about food until just now. Went to check restaurant availability for NYE night in Vail, USA just to see what's out there, and... a lot of the good places are already showing limited availability. This far out. That's alarming. Lesson learned before I even made the mistake: book dinner now, not "later." Apparently "later" doesn't exist for this particular night. ________________________________________ The thing nobody warned me about — getting home This one I only found out about because I went down a rabbit hole reading other people's NYE trip recaps. Multiple people mentioning the same thing: getting home after midnight is its own whole ordeal. Roads closed, transit packed, rideshare prices doing something unreasonable. Adding this to the plan: figure out exactly how we're getting back BEFORE the night happens, not as a "we'll sort it out" thing. Learned this from other people's mistakes instead of my own, which I'll take. ________________________________________ Random realization Also just remembered — it's not only the fireworks. There's apparently other stuff going on around Vail, USA that night, parties and events and things, that never show up when you just search "best fireworks spot." Making a mental note to actually look into that instead of assuming the one big countdown event is the whole night. ________________________________________ Where I've landed so far Honestly this planning process has been more involved than I expected for what I thought was just "book hotel, watch fireworks, done." Between the hotel timing, the viewing spot decision, dinner booking way earlier than feels natural, and the whole getting-home logistics thing — there's more moving pieces than I initially gave it credit for. Ended up putting together a fuller resource once I'd done all this digging myself — [ https://nye2027insider.com/new-years-eve-2027-in-vail-usa/ ] — basically the organized version of these messy notes, specifically for Vail, USA and a few other big NYE 2027 destinations. It's got: • Hotel picks by budget and area, factored around the actual booking timeline, not the "few months ahead" generic advice • A real comparison of countdown/fireworks viewing spots, ticketed and free, so you know what you're trading off • Restaurant recommendations that account for how early things book out • Actual transport planning for getting home, not just getting there • A look at what else is happening besides the main countdown • Skip-the-line and official ticket options, if crowds aren't your thing If Vail, USA is on your radar too, might save you some of the back-and-forth I went through: [ https://nye2027insider.com/new-years-eve-2027-in-vail-usa/ ] ________________________________________ Last note to self Still finalizing a few things, but the big lesson from all this note-taking: basically everything about NYE in Vail, USA needs to happen earlier than instinct says it should. Hotel, dinner, viewing spot, transport plan — all of it. Wish I'd known that from day one instead of piecing it together over three weeks of random research sessions. Full breakdown's here if you want the short version instead of my scattered notes: [ https://nye2027insider.com/new-years-eve-2027-in-vail-usa/ ]