@bethsmiles and other CO people

[Deleted User]

thinking of surprising H with a long weekend away to Denver around Labor Day.  I was curious how the public transportation works there.  when we went to Boston for our HM, we took the T everywhere.  we could walk or take the T anywhere we wanted to go.  is it similar in Denver, or will we need to rent a car?

bethsmiles

Denver has the lightrail but I would say you would still need to rent a car because it really wouldn't get you anywhere you wanted to go. Our airport is in the middle of no where and track out there for the lightrail hasn't been finished yet. It's great for getting you into downtown if you are staying a little bit outside the city but unless your hotel was right next to one of the stops you would need to drive to a station, park there, and take the lightrail in. But even then it really only goes to the 16th Street mall area, if you wanted to go to say the natural history museum or the zoo it'd be better to drive a car.

[Deleted User]

I agree with @BethSmiles - the lightrail isn't really going to get you everywhere you want to go. Denver is very walkable if you are staying in the heart of downtown. Beth is right though, there are places you might want to visit that you'd need a car or cab to get to. Here are a couple fun things to do in our city (with links!). If you want more ideas or help with hotels, restaurants or anything, let me know! I work down here every day so I can give you some great recommendations.

Denver Art Museum

Denver Zoo

Denver Museum of Nature and Science (also has IMAX theater and planetarium) 

Denver Botanic Gardens (They have a cool glass sculpture exhibit around the gardens right now)

Denver Aquarium

Denver Mint

Coors Field, Colorado Rockie's Baseball Games

Elitch Gardens Adventure Park

Red Rocks Amphitheater (Great outdoor concert venue. They also do "Movies on the Rocks" which are cheap and fun. Also great hiking trails if you want an outdoor day. Have lunch at the Morrison Inn in Morrison if you spend the day down here - good mexican food and margaritas!)

Denver Performing Arts Center (Theater, Symphony, Ballet, etc.) 

Dinosaur Ridge (Outdoor hike where you can see fossils and preserved dinosaur footprints.)

Coors Brewery Tour

Stranahan's Whisky Tours

Celestial Seasonings Tours

Hammond's Candies Factory Tour

There are also all kinds of fun outdoor activities. You can rent bicycles for the day downtown, lots of hiking trails, white water rafting, tons of outdoor parks and malls/shopping centers. Great places within about an hours drive to visit for a day trip include Fort Collins, Estes Park, Idaho Springs and Colorado Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Deleted User]

Almost forgot - Denver also offers FREE DAYS to a lot of our museums and parks. Here is a link to the SCFD wesite where you can see which things are offering free days. I would suggest getting there before they open as these days are pretty popular...but it's a great way to see our city on a budget!

SCFD Free Days

[Deleted User]

thanks!!

psychbabe314

The Denver Aquarium is fun... They have several tigers for some reason! But, if you plan on staying downtown there is a super shuttle that takes you to almost every hotel in the area and a cab from DIA to Downtown is ~$60, according to my aunt when she came to visit a month and a half ago.

But, I agree with everyone else. Renting would probably be best. If you can make it into Estes, most people love visiting for a day and sometimes you get to see herds of elk just walking through the center of town.