Timbers Resorts' affinity for The Arts can be traced through our properties' designs and decor, temporary exhibitions and permanent collections, culinary programs and special menus, vineyards and wine production, and more. With a nod to the artistic lifestyle, Timbers Resorts hosted a reception at The San Jose Museum of Art on Thursday, September 27, for Owners, guests and friends. This unique art museum in San Jose, housed in a statuesque, landmarked former 19th century library and adjoining modern gallery, exhibits a contemporary art collection, as well as the artworks of emerging West Coast artists.

At this special evening celebrating, "The Art of Living Well," museum docents led tours through the exhibits, an artist created her interpretation of one of the properties within the Timbers Resorts portfolio, PlumpJack and CADE Wineries' prized varietals were served alongside Castello di Casole's Sangiovese blend from Tuscany.  Signature cocktails and dishes were also provided, each inspired by the distinctive properties of Timbers Resorts.  Click here to view the photo gallery from the event.

For more information on Timbers Resorts events or ownership opportunities, please contact us at 970.963.5019 or via email, [email protected].

Anthony Bourdain famously holds back "No Reservations" on his Travel Channel series, which has begun its final season of road-tripping this month. Bourdain can expect comedians to not hold back, either, when they "roast" him on Oct. 11, 2012, at Pier Sixty in NYC as part of the 2012 New York City Wine & Food Festival.

Mario Batali and Willie Geist will host On the Chopping Block: A Roast of Anthony Bourdain with comedians Gilbert Gottfried, Artie Lange, Marc Maron, Jim Norton and Sarah Silverman all onboard to poke fun at Bourdain. As-seen-on-TV chefs Guy Fieri, Ted Allen, Rachael Ray and Eric Ripert also will sit on the dais.

"Bourdain's been trashing 'celebrity chefs' for years. Let's see how the shoe feels on the other foot," Batali said.

The Bourdain roast is being produced by Lizz Winstead and Caroline Hirsch of Carolines on Broadway.

Timbers Resorts is a proud sponsor of this event, hosting the Opening Reception with silent auction packages for lavish stays at  The Orchard at The Carneros Inn, Mayacama, Dancing Bear Aspen, One Steamboat Place and The Sebastian - Vail. A four-course dinner presented by Bank of America will follow in the dining room with scintillating views of the Hudson River, raucous entertainment and a live auction including a luxurious trip to Tuscany presented by Castello di Casole and Delta Airlines.

Dinner will consist of four courses prepared by James Beard Award-Winning Chef Michael White featuring menu items from his hotspot restaurants Ai Fiori, Osteria Morini and Marea. Fans will also enjoy GODIVA Ultimate Dessert Truffles and a GODIVA chocolate after dinner gift. Watch as Bourdain’s friends and foes return the torture he’s inflicted upon them for years.

Tickets for the all-star affair are all-inclusive with proceeds directed to the Food Bank For New York City and Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry® campaign.  While they last, they can be ordered online at www.nycwff.org or by calling 866.969.2933.

Follow all the action on Twitter with hashtag #NYCWFF or @Lee_Schrager

This fall, Timbers Resorts brought Owners and friends together for a special Harvest Dinner at Del Posto in New York City. Since opening in 2005, the Manhattan establishment has become an institution for fine Italian fare and the utmost in service. When restaurateurs Joseph Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali came together with Mark Ladner, Del Posto's executive chef, they created the 24,000-square-foot palazzo of mahogany and marble. Set in a corner building below what is now the High Line park, Del Posto straddles Chelsea and the Meatpacking District.

The renowned ristorante served as the ideal setting for Timbers Resorts' intimate evening for fifty guests representing Owners from a cross-section of properties across the Timbers Collection. The Harvest Dinner took place in the Barolo Room, opening with a cocktail reception with passed appetizers. A three-course dinner followed, paired with fine wines. In all, the evening encompassed a sensational dinner complemented by inspiring conversation with friends old and new.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" exclude="thumbnail-head-4300"]

A HARVEST DINNER WITH TIMBER RESORTS

ANTIPASTO
Insalata di Verdure with Robiola, Swiss Chard & Grapefruit Citronette
Vermentino “Solosole,” Poggio al Tesoro 2011 Toscana

PRIMO
Pumpkin Cappellacci with Brown Butter & Amaretti
Pinot Noir, Abbazia di Novacello 2009 Alto-Adige

SECONDI
Bass with Soft Sunchokes, Wilted Romaine & Warm Occelli Butter
Or
Heritage Pork Trio with Ribollita alla Casella & Black Cabbage Stew
Bolgheri Rosso, Le Macchiole 2010 Toscana

DOLCE
Tiramisu
Mascarpone, Espresso-Soaked Ladyfingers & Cocoa Powder
Moscato d’Asti, Brandini 2011  Piemonte

BISCOTTI ASSORTITI

To learn about Timbers Resorts and how you can be a part of this lifestyle that celebrates family, friends, fine food and wine,  contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

Talking about timeshares and private residence clubs is a lot like talking bagels or the best slice of pizza: everybody's got an opinion.

Unfortunately, not everybody has a completely informed opinion. When it comes to considering private residence clubs (also known as fractional real estate and fractional ownership) and timeshares, for both you and your family, it's smart to have some  solid facts at your fingertips.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at the two, and let's bring the similarities and differences into focus. We'll look at three details that help most folks understand the dynamics at work.

Time: 

The ways that fractional ownership and timeshares can differ include the period that a location is yours for the occupancy.

— Fractional: When you decide on a fractional ownership property such as one of the signature destinations that comprise the Timbers Resorts luxury residences, you're investing in a fraction of the calendar year. You join other Owners and their families for what is typically one fourth, one eighth, or sometimes one twelfth of a 365-day cycle.

— Timeshare: If you become a timeshare participant, you're also signing on for a portion of the year, but your period of residence might be a matter of days (perhaps a week) rather than a number of weeks to choose at your leisure.

Space:

Another way to think about the individual features of fractional and timeshare living is to think about the actual sites that each tend to include.

— Fractional: Whether its ski-in/ski-out-out to the slopes of Snowmass and Steamboat, or a quick stroll to the cerulean surf of St. Thomas, when you step into the world of fractional luxury residences you are enjoying the crème de la crème of locations. Think Napa Valley. Think the hills of Tuscany. This is the stock and trade of fractional ownership of luxury private residences.

— Timeshare: In the realm of the timeshare, location is often important as well. Might be that having a condo near your family is the goal, or that a house on the coast where you spend part of a selling season is key. Timeshare does not have to be purely practical, but it tends not to emphasize the same amenities you'll anticipate with fractional scenarios.

Finances:

There is of course the consideration of money. Long story short, the details that you've already come to understand about fractional luxury are going to drive a different price point than a situation such as that of timeshares, one that does not necessarily include every amenity.

On the other hand, once you've decided that a private residence club is right for you, your fraction of the location can be later mortgaged, willed, placed in a trust, owned by a corporation, and so on. It can be resold by you or a licensed real estate agent. And, according to experts who've looked at private-residence options in the past, your deeded interest stands to appreciate in a way similar to the value of a second home.

Timeshares tend to be more costly to re-sell — the original marketers' costs come into the equation at a higher percentage — and they can be less attractive to investors than private residence clubs because the way that they're used (by many rather than a few) implies a certain loss of value.

In the end, everyone knows what's right for their own lifestyle. As you think about the recipe that suits you — fractional resorts and timeshares being two possible ingredients — use the preceding information that we've just considered to fine tune your destination. The point, as Timbers Resorts sees it, is to always live well. So, choose well. And enjoy!

To learn more about Timbers Resorts and how you can be a part of this lifestyle, please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

For some folks, picking the right holiday gift for a friend or family member is a snap. But what if you're buying for the snapper of the bunch?

Unless you're a photographer yourself, it can be a bit bewildering to wade into the lenses, bodies, and accessories that help fuel a picture-taking hobby or career.

Well, the good news is, photographers and gear go together like ducks and water. You can be clever about what you choose, and you needn't go looking for a full four-figure rig. Photographers appreciate options. Let's look at some of yours, and bring some good gift ideas into focus.

1. 360 Panorama app ($0.99 | Buy It)

This app gives you a point-and-match grid for photographers who want to get a multi-shot panoramic image.

2. Holga SLFT-IP4 Lens for iPhone ($23.99 | Buy It)

Featuring a clip-on case, this ingenious wheel of lenses and filters pushes the envelope of what your iPhone camera can do. From colors to close-ups, and multi-image effects as well, the Holga lens transforms your picture-taking into something more like toting a traditional bag of cool accessories.

3. Keyboard Shortcut Skins for Photoshop, Aperture, and Final Cut ($15–$40 | Buy It)

The photographer in the digital age may still retreat to the darkroom now and then, but odds are they're a digital editor. These intuitive and innovate flexible skins overlay their computer keyboard, revealing all the quickest ways to do the most common and useful image-editing tasks with just a keyclick.

4. Impossible Project Classic and Modern Polaroids ($50–$149 | Buy It)

In 2008, The Impossible Project gathered a team of 10 former Polaroid employees and saved the last Polaroid production plant on Earth. They put it back to work, inventing and producing new instant film cameras, accessories, and film-packs. For the analog fan on your list!

5. GoPro Hero 3 ($199.99–$399.99 [Harness: $39.99] | Buy It)

What if you could take your camera hands-free? GoPro makes this hi-def wearable camera that can survive almost any environment. Say you're skiing at Dancing Bear Aspen, or dipping into the waters of Cabo San Lucas at Esperanza, the Hero 3 doesn't mind the cold, wet, or most anything else the elements can throw at it. The unit is even time-lapse-photo capable, so photographers can set it up on its own, outdoors, for some spectacular nature work.

To learn more about Timbers Resorts and where you can capture a picture perfect lifestyle, please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

Denver is the gateway to any vacation in Colorado, whether you’re en route to or from One Steamboat Place, The Sebastian, The Timbers Club or Dancing Bear Aspen doesn’t mean you should just pass through. Tack a day onto your vacation and take a whirlwind tour of Denver.

Get a jump on the day with breakfast with a cup of coffee and a walk around Larimer Square. Larimer between 14th and 15th streets made up the entire town of Denver when it was founded in 1858 during the gold rush. In 1965, Larimer Square was the focus of Denver’s first historic preservation effort and it is now home to trendy shops, restaurants and nightclubs.

If shopping is your thing then you’ll also be right next to the 16th Street Mall, a 12-block-long shopping area. Still not satisfied? Well, then Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood will definitely do the trick with more than 500 stores, spas and galleries.

Denver is not commerce without culture though. Take in some of Denver’s Western heritage with a stop at the Denver Art Museum. Although you’ll find pieces by the masters, it’s the selection of Old West art that can’t be missed. This will place you right nearby the Colorado State Capitol and its gold-leafed dome. Even if you don’t take the time for the free tour, take a photo at the step marked exactly 5,280 feet above sea level. There’s a reason Denver is called the Mile High City!

Denver and Philadelphia are home to the only two U.S. mints open to the public so a peek around the Denver U.S. Mint is quite unique. Although you won’t see gold being melted into bars as they used to do when the mint opened in 1862, you will get to see how lumps of copper and nickel become shiny coins and sent into circulation.
Nighttime in Denver is best set aside for sports and beer. Denver is home to professional football, basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer teams so there is almost always a game to catch. Afterwards, head out to one of the city’s many brewpubs to take in the local beer. Wynkoop Brewing Co, Breckenridge Brewery and Great Divide Brewing Company are all popular with locals and tourists alike.

Are you a Denver local? Let us know if we missed anything in comments below.

To learn more about Timbers Resorts and our Colorado properties - and others around the world - please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

Ski jackets may have to be practical, but frumpy simply won’t do when you’re on a stylish winter holiday. When you’re whipping your way down the mountain in Colorado while staying at The Sebastian - Vail, One Steamboat Place, The Timbers Club in Snowmass or Dancing Bear Aspen, you want a jacket that will take you right from your day of skiing to après-ski cocktails and later on be a chic topper when you head out to dinner.

With one of these four stylish options, selected to suit each of Timbers Resorts’ premier Colorado properties, you won’t need a single other jacket in your suitcase.

Bogner Down Jacket Kea-D

Price: $1,299

Where to buy: Bogner

Where to wear: The Sebastian - Vail

Skiing is a serious sport in Vail so try a jacket with a technical vibe in an eye catching color like this pick from Bogner. The down-filled and waterproof jacket’s clean lines are flattering and the decorative patches just might have people wondering what ski team you’re on as you fly by.

Ralph Lauren RLK Hooded Print Jacket

Price: $1,495 now on sale for $787

Where to buy: Ralph Lauren

Where to wear: One Steamboat Place in Steamboat Springs.

Steamboat has a bit more Western flair than other ski towns so the gents should turn to this Ralph Lauren shell inspired by Southwestern textiles. Layer it up for a cold day or wear it on its own for spring skiing. The fantastic print is so unique that you’re sure to stand out in the crowd.

Moncler Grenoble Patri

Price: $2,290

Where to buy: Moncler

Where to wear: Dancing Bear Aspen

Moncler is the absolute leader in stylish skiwear, particularly for Aspen, where a little extra flash and fur is de rigeur. The Grenoble Patri has a luxurious sheen to its lightweight, technical nylon and is filled with feather down to keep you toasty but not bulky. An elastisized belt sets your waist off and a (removable) fur collar is the ultimate in ski opulence and removes the need for an unsightly neck gator.

Beretta Xtreme Ducker 2-in-1 Waterproof Jacket

Price: $499

Where to buy: Beretta USA

Where to wear: The Timbers Club in Snowmass

Stand out from the crowd and think a little outside the box for a jacket to suit Snowmass, which features several terrain parks and plenty of extreme skiing terrain. This Beretta jacket may be designed for hunting but the abstract camo print will look as cool on the slopes as it does in the fields, and the fleece lining and waterproof Gore-Tex has all the functionality you need.

If you arrive at your property still in need of a new jacket, be sure to check in with the concierge. Timbers Owners receive preferred rates on retails items at the stores on site.

To learn more about Timbers Resorts and our Colorado properties – and others around the world – please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.

For five winning students, when the credits roll on five inspiring projects in 2013, it'll be Timbers Resorts that helped to make it happen.

In its third year supporting the 5Point Film Festival's high-school outreach Dream Project, Timbers Resorts is pleased to be the title sponsor of the current program.

Let's take a moment to look at the 5Point Dream Project, where it comes from, and what it means to the young people who join it as participants.

5Point Dream Project

What do you dream about? Do your dreams keep you going, every day?

The organizers of the 5Point Film Festival, held annually in Carbondale, and the folks at Timbers Resorts think these are two important questions.

For high school students local to the 5Point festival area — roughly speaking, that'se the Roaring Fork Valley, from Aspen, Colorado to Rifle, Ohio — the chance to find out just what a dream can mean is a chance to win a scholarship that will help them pursue a life-changing opportunity. All they have to do is dream it up.

Lucien Blakemore, a junior at Colorado Rocky Mountain School, took one such opportunity with the help of 5Point, in March 2012.

With a scholarship from the Dream Project, he was off to the mountains of Chile, hiking and skiing the rugged Andes before joining a sustainable agriculture project in Peru, working specifically on recycling and waste sorting in small communities.

"Every day held new challenges, most of them physical," he told the Project. "And seeing the ease with which the Peruvian locals carried stones and trees which doubtless weighed well over 100 lbs,, the experience was a humbling one, to say the least."

In other projects: Claire Woolcott, a junior at Polaris High School, went to Canada to work with international caregivers in communities of people with special needs.

"I learned that I am stronger than I thought," she said to 5Point, "which gives me so much confidence for anything I do in the future.”

5Points asks its student applicants to submit essay materials that describe something that they'd like to accomplish, and how they mean to go about that, and to show the ways that they exemplify 5Points' five guiding principals: respect, commitment, humility, purpose, and balance.

"While we can ultimately only give five students the opportunity to go on a unique adventure," says Crosby Nordblom, festival manager and Dream Project coordinator, "we find that we are offering all applicants the opportunity to search their dreams, find a channel to chase a passion, and fully realize their potential.

"Requiring students to describe how they will embody these principles, we want them to throw themselves into a life-changing experience that will inspire them to create something meaningful, push them to be a better person, and have a positive impact on a community."

The deadline for applications is March 1. Download the forms at the 5Point website.

5Point Film Festival passes and individual tickets can be ordered via the website or at the Carbondale Rec Center's front desk leading up to and during the festival.

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Food & Wine magazine and the Food Network every winter brings together everything Timbers Resorts loves and stands for: fine food, wine and travel, all while staying in the finest luxury accommodations. This year from February 21 through February 24, the biggest stars from the food and wine worlds will descend upon Miami for four star-studded days of tastings, parties, seminars and brunches.

After taking part in the New York City Wine & Food Festival in October, Timbers Resorts has been invited to take part in its winter equivalent, affectionately known as SOBE Wine & Food (or in Twitterspeak, #SOBEWFF). And with many of our Owners and friends residing in Miami all or part of the year, there's nowhere else Timbers Resorts would rather be.

If you join in the festivities, you'll find Timbers Resorts at Wine Spectator’s Best of the Best at the Fontainebleau Miami on Friday, February 22, and at the Tribute Dinner at Loews Miami Beach Hotel on Saturday, February 23.

Best of the Best is all about perfect pairings. Leading chefs from around the country select from Wine Spectator’s top-rated wines to accompany their dishes, bringing the experience of both the food and wine to new heights.

At SOBE Wine & Food Festival’s must-attend event — a tribute dinner for Nobu Matsuhisa hosted by Martha Stewart — Timbers Resorts will be a contributor to the live auction, so don't forget your checkbook.

Chef Matsuhisa is hands down the king of stylish, inventive Japanese cuisine, with 35 red-hot restaurants worldwide. Top chefs Daniel Boulud, Thomas Buckley, Frederic Delaire, Ricky Estrellado, Matt Hoyle, Johnny Iuzzini, Yoshihiro Murata, Yuji Wakiya and Roy Yamaguchi will each prepare a course for an unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime meal.

Of course, simply attending the main event — SOBE Wine & Food Festival's Grand Tasting Village — is a fun and exciting excursion in itself. Catch demonstrations from rock star chefs including Bobby Flay, Paula Deen, Rocco DiSpirito, Rachael Ray and others, or simply taste the wares from hundreds of wineries, restaurants and even liquor companies and tourism boards.

Whatever your “taste,” SOBE Wine & Food Festival will have plenty to satisfy. But tickets to the hottest events and rooms at the most luxe hotels are going fast, so don’t waste any time in booking your trip. Bon Appetit!

To learn more about Timbers Resorts' lifestyle of fine food, wine and travel, please contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone, 888.366.6641.