Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado, USA

Where it is

The town lies high, at roughly 2,600 metres, on the banks of the Dolores River's West Fork, in a valley ringed by aspen and the jagged peaks of the San Juans, roughly halfway between Telluride and the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde.

Allow about an hour from Telluride's small airport in summer, more when snow is down; Durango is around two hours. The last nine miles are unpaved, which is part of the magic. Hire a car or ask the hotel to arrange a transfer, and take it gently on the first day: the altitude is real, and the team keeps supplemental oxygen on hand.

Cabins

Each of the 14 cabins is different. Some were built by miners in the 1800s and never left; others were found elsewhere in the San Juans, numbered, dismantled and reassembled here. Expect heated slate floors, antiques, Western textiles, wood stoves and very good beds.

The Dolores cabin stands alone by the river and suits couples. The Well House has its own small hot spring inside, so you can soak without stepping outdoors on a snowy night.

Springs, saloon and the rest

The springs are the point. Soak in the restored bathhouse, in the outdoor pool, at the original source high in the town, or by the river, in mineral water that runs from about 29°C to 41°C. Massages and yoga take place in a historic building nearby, and there is a library and a small gym.

Meals are served in the Saloon, where the bar is said to carry a carving left by Butch Cassidy; you can sit at the long communal table or ask for a table of your own. Food is seasonal and local, and meals and drinks are included. Days bring riding, fly-fishing, hiking and biking in summer, and snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and ice climbing in winter.

The moment

Lying in the source pool after dark, steam rising into a sky thick with stars, with snow banked around you and the only sound the river below. In summer, the equivalent is a drink outside the Saloon as the low sun turns the aspens to gold.

Why we chose it

There is nowhere else quite like it: real Old West history, natural hot springs and genuine comfort, without a whiff of theme park. It is intimate and sociable rather than grand, with no big spa or ski slopes on the doorstep, and that is exactly its charm.

Pair it with the Victorian glamour of Hotel Jerome in Aspen, or the arts-and-mountains spirit of Sundance in Utah, for a Rockies road trip.

When to go

Dunton is open all year, and the springs work in every season. Late September is often peak aspen colour, and it falls after the American school summer break, so the valley is at its most beautiful and peaceful at once. Winter, from around November, brings deep snow and starry soaks.

For quieter weeks, avoid the American holiday peaks of Christmas, the Presidents' Day week in February and July, and aim for early autumn, January after New Year or the shoulder weeks of early summer.

The longer stay

Allow at least three nights; the first is for acclimatising. Better still, make it part of a longer Colorado journey: Dunton offers 20 percent off both stays when you book at least two nights here plus two at its riverside tented camp or one of its Telluride properties. Add Mesa Verde, Durango's railway and a few nights in Aspen for a fortnight in the Rockies.