Affordable lodging deals and a plethora of free events entice last minute vacation planners to escape for a quick getaway to Telluride, Colorado. With recent accolades from Men’s Journal ranking The Telluride Ski Resort among the nine best mountains for spring skiing, now is the time to visit the charming mountain town. Telluride.com is offering every third night free for the rest of the ski season allowing budget conscious travelers the opportunity to enjoy the world class ski destination.

Friday, March 28th marks day one of the Telluride Ski Resort’s Mountain Town Get Down. This brand new event features 3 days of live music, spring skiing, and a Bikini Slalom. The festivities kick off with local acoustic duo Lily von Shtupp and at the Tomboy Tavern from 4-7PM. On Saturday, March 29th a full day of free live music is set to take place in the core of Mountain Village. Post-rock band Trico takes the stage from 1-2PM followed by roots reggae masters See-I, featuring members of Thievery Corporation. Closing out the second day of events is John Brown’s Body, a reggae band from Boston, bringing what they call “Future Roots Music” to the box canyon.

The Card Board Sled Derby, a fundraiser for One to One Mentoring, is also set to take place on Saturday and will featuring children racing down the Nastar hill in sleds made only of corrugated cardboard, tape and glue. Finishing off the events is the highly anticipated Bikini Slalom on Sunday, March 30th. Spectators are invited to cheer on from 12:30PM-1:30PM as participants race down the Butterfly ski run. A luau is set to take place at Gorrono Ranch immediately following the Bikini Slalom and will feature local reggae band Bredren.

Telluride’s community radio station KOTO will host their annual Pink Flamingo Street Dance on Friday, April 4th. This event takes place on Telluride’s Main Street and features live entertainment and a costume party awarding prizes to participants for their best pink attire. On April 5th, The Bear Creek Lodge is hosting an end of season barbeque and offering discounted lodging rates. The Bear Creek Lodge is one of Telluride Alpine Lodging’s premier properties featuring hotel rooms and condominiums starting at $109.

Local filmmaker, writer and actor Geoffrey Hansen will debut his new event Scrapple Fest, in honor of his cult classic film Scrapple set in Telluride. The event also takes place on April 5th and entails a pig chase, pig roast, costume party and a screening of the film. April 6th marks the closing day of the 2013/2014 ski season and is celebrated by the annual Pond Skim competition. Costume clad skiers and riders will skim across a pond of icy water in front of Gorrono Ranch to the tunes of DJ Soul Atomic.        

Never been to Telluride? The town was founded in 1858 after gold and silver were discovered, Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank here, Nikola Tesla selected the site to build the world’s first power plant here, hippies re-settled these lands in the 60’s, skiing arrived in the 70’s, real estate agents invaded in the 80’s, Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and Oliver Stone vacation here, and Tim McGraw even wrote a song about it. Check out Telluride.com and plan your trip to paradise today.