Planning a weekend in Denver and aren’t quite sure what to do? We made a short visit a few years back when we came to town to run the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, so here is my non-extensive Visitor’s Guide to Denver, Colorado featuring a few quick picks.
What are “Quick Picks”? They are my go-to travel recommendations for places I have visited: often completely unrelated experiences that I find via internet research, reading old guide books, or stumbling across something in person and deciding on an impromptu adventure. They may be off-the-beaten-path, or obvious tourist traps that I think are surprisingly charming or worthwhile. You may not enjoy them at all, but I sure do enjoy putting these lists together.
Denver: What to Eat
1. Visit Union Station: Coming into town via the airport? I highly recommend taking the train into Union Station if you are staying downtown. Union is a great place to burn a few hours if you weren’t able to swing an early check-in or are looking to ease into town with some low-key shopping and eats.
Snooze has good enough breakfast that we ate there on both our way in on the first day and our way out on the last, but there are a bunch of other restaurants in the building that look worth a visit as well. You can also check out the shops in the Station (the Tattered Cover indie bookstore gets high marks from me as a great way to spend some time), and if the weather is nice, sit outside and people watch as this is a busy spot.
2. Wednesday’s Pie: An underground pie shop that serves as a front for a secret speakeasy restaurant and bar? Did I mention they have pie?I need one of these in every city. 
Denver: What to Do Outdoors
1. Walk down the 16th Street Mall and play an impromptu game of (probably bad) chess. You can really tell that the below photo was taken pre-pandemic, when we used to go out into the world with total trust that we could just touch things that thousands of other people had touched and not have any consequences. This child-like naivete now makes me shudder and reach for the hand sanitizer. Anyway, these chess boards might not even be there anymore, but when we visited, we got a kick out of playing a few games out in the middle of the city.
2. Visit the Denver Zoo: Not just for kids, there are few things I enjoy like walking around a zoo and saying what up to the animals. Bonus if it’s a Zoo after Dark event and you can walk around with a glass of wine while gazing at hippos. Double bonus if the zoo hired a VW Van that is also a photo booth inside and you can take pictures outside with your dream aesthetic car instead of using it for its refurbished purpose.
Denver: Day Trips
1. Red Rocks Amphitheatre:
Obviously the best case scenario is to see a concert here; this is a bucket list venue for me and countless others. However, if you aren’t lucky enough to time your visit with a concert that you want to see (or don’t really want to see but are willing to go to anyway, because hey, it’s Red Rocks), then you should definitely still head out to Red Rocks for a hike. Since there are considerable stairs, this is also a great place for a travel workout – you’ll be rewarded with beautiful views, perhaps a small lack of oxygen, and hopefully some strengthened glutes. There are also some nice trails around the venue; all are free to access and the amphitheatre opens one hour before sunrise and closes one hour after sunset.
Red Rocks is a bit of a drive from downtown Denver, but if you have a rental car it’s only about a 25 minute drive one way. We were also able to get an Uber both there and back for reasonably cheap (especially if you go in off-hours), so it’s doable without a rental as well.
2. Day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park:
I’m actually a staunch believer that you need extended time in the National Parks – they aren’t meant for a few hour trip just to snap some selfies and say you were there. This is why we often do rented van life trips to make the most of our time by camping in the Parks. My caveat here is that we were in Denver with a free day, didn’t plan to be back in the area in the near future, and were desperate to see at least a tiny bit of RMNP.
We ended up booking a group tour, which was nice since it saved us from having to drive and figure out the best trails for our short visit, but a huge bummer since our group had to stay together and so wasn’t able to make it up the full trail to the alpine lake that was our destination. I would do a day trip again, but I would drive and plan myself this time. If you have the extra days, definitely make this a multi-day stop. I can’t wait to get back to Rocky Mountain and do it right the next visit.
While my Visitor’s Guide to Denver, Colorado only includes two categories (food and the outdoors, because what else is there?), I often have a more extensive list of sights and activities for the cities and places I visit. If you enjoyed this guide even a little, check out my recommendations for how to spend a weekend in New York City here, or how to find family-friendly fun in South Dakota here.
If you did not enjoy this guide, let me know what you would put in your own Visitor’s Guide for Denver, Colorado in the comments!
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