During your travels this summer, consider arranging an elevated picnic experience to get immersed in the locale and create a unique memory. Here are a few suggestions to get started.
Vail
Vail brings to mind the sharp mountain peaks that surround this ski town. But when the snow has melted away for the summer, you’ll find some stunning picnic spots — or you can let Picnic Vail find them for you and provide the food and comfy seating.
“We often have guests who have been visiting Vail for decades who tell us their picnic was the most unique experience they have had in years,” said Pamela Davis, owner of Picnic Vail and the Grazing Fox, her company that provides the picnic spreads.
Davis and her team create the setup at a site with a short table, pillows, blankets, plates, silverware and food, all in classic Colorado spots like next to a bubbling mountain creek close to town or atop a mountain with views all around. “We have a few favorite locations and we find that our guests trust us to choose for them,” she said.
The picnic food is typically a robust charcuterie board — both savory and sweet are available — with add-ons for wine, champagne, flowers and even games to play. New this summer is a partnership with the Lazy J Ranch to add high alpine lake picnics and other locations that can only be reached by dog sled in winter.
Telluride
In Telluride, the Madeline Hotel & Residences offers a “Lllama Llama with Your Mama” guided hike with these friendly animals through seasonally available wilderness spots nearby. If wild strawberries and raspberries are in season, the llamas will happily gobble them up if you offer them a nibble. At the end of the hike, guests arrive to find an elegant picnic set up for them to enjoy before hiking back out. It’s a family-friendly outing, as are similar llama hikes with picnics led by Paragon Guides out of Vail. With Paragon, the llamas are carrying your signature “Red-checkered Picnic” lunch to a scenic place where you can relax and dine.
Denver
The Maven Hotel in LoDo will debut the Maven Picnic Party this summer, which guests can purchase as an add-on to their stay. Each stocked picnic basket created by the team at Denver Milk Market includes freshly made sandwiches, salads, sweet treats, a bottle of wine and other goodies. The experts at the hotel recommend that those who want to walk to a picnic spot head for nearby Commons Park or City of Cuernavaca Park for some sunshine and urban vibes.
Hotel Teatro also has a new picnic offering for guests starting this summer through The Study, its casual dining option. This picnic box includes a bottle of wine, charcuterie board, nuts and whipped mascarpone. Guests are welcome to take their fancy picnic into a favorite spot in the foothills or walk to a scenic spot nearby to enjoy this meal on a bench, maybe enjoying the historic buildings of the Auraria campus.
Washington
Beyond Colorado, there are other picnic adventures to try. In Washington state, Chef Chad White left the confines of a traditional restaurant to start Trail Feast.
“While we don’t operate out of a single fixed location, we work with private landowners and forest lands to host immersive, backcountry dining experiences,” White said. He described them as “fire-cooked, multi-course meals in wild, stunning places, from deep pine forests to desert plateaus.”
Trail Feast was founded in Spokane, but they are available across the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West. “Trail Feast isn’t your typical picnic, but it definitely taps into the elevated outdoor dining trend in a big way,” White said.
Guests who sign up with Trail Feast “can expect a refined by rugged experience,” according to White. He describes hand-crafted libations from a traveling mixologist and a multi-course meal cooked entirely over fire. For example, he recently curated a meal that included wood-grilled oysters with burnt wild onion aioli, “coal-kissed beef and bone marrow tartare with mustard green paste and toast.”
“It’s wild luxury,” he said. “Trail Feast isn’t just about food, it’s about reconnection. It’s a culinary journey with dirt under your boots and smoke in the air.”
Getting there is meant to be half the fun, with guests using GPS coordinates and two trail options (one scenic, one technical) to find the secret locations, or the guests can just tell Trail Feast where they want them to come and make the outdoor meal.
New York City
If hiking to get to your meal isn’t appealing, maybe a picnic in the park in New York City can check the box of outdoor adventure. The hotel NH Collection Madison Avenue in New York has partnered with Alidoro and Campo Grande this spring to make European-inspired lunches for guests. The picnic is delivered to the hotel room with a souvenir picnic blanket and tote bag with food items like pesto, olives, caponata, Brie and ciabatta.
Guests can then choose their location, and the hotel concierge makes recommendations to places such as nearby Bryant Park in Midtown or provides tips on how to navigate to the iconic Central Park.
“Enjoying a picnic in New York City allows visitors to slow down from the usual frantic pace of the city that never sleeps,” said Carlos Salomon, general manager of the hotel. He added that he favors Bryant Park for a picnic because there is always good people watching, and in the summer there are often events going on like concerts, yoga classes, maker’s markets and more.