Rebecca Engel
Denver gets treated like a place you drive through. People fly in, grab a rental car, and point it west toward the ski towns without ever finding out what’s sitting at the bottom of the hill. That’s a mistake, and the people who live there will tell you so.
These are the things to do in Denver Colorado that locals point visiting friends toward, which is a different list from the one you get downtown. Some of it is the obvious stuff done properly, and a lot of it is out in the neighborhoods where nobody hands you a map.
1. Get Up To Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Red Rocks is a concert venue wedged between two enormous sandstone slabs, about twenty minutes west of the city. It’s the single best thing in the Denver area and locals never really get over it.
A show there is the full version, and tickets sell out fast for anything good. The rest of the time the venue is open and free, and half the city treats the seating as a set of stairs to run.
Go early in the morning if you want it quiet. The park around it has trails too, which most visitors never bother with.
2. Walk Into Union Station
Union Station is a working train station that got turned into the city’s living room. The great hall has long leather couches, a bar in the middle of it, and people just sitting around reading.
You don’t need a ticket to anywhere to hang out in it. Locals meet there, work there, and drink there, which is unusual for a transit building.
The train from the airport comes straight in, so it can be the first thing you see. That’s a good way to arrive.
3. Walk The Murals In RiNo
River North, which everyone calls RiNo, is an old warehouse district covered wall to wall in murals. They get painted over every year during a street art festival, so it’s never quite the same twice.
The best stretch is along Larimer and the side streets off it. Nothing is signposted and you’re meant to just wander.
It’s a working neighborhood rather than an attraction, so there are breweries, coffee shops, and body shops mixed in among the art.
4. Eat At Denver Central Market
Denver Central Market is a food hall in RiNo with a dozen or so counters under one roof. There’s a butcher, a bakery, an ice cream counter, a raw bar, and a proper coffee shop.
It solves the problem of a group that can’t agree. Everyone gets what they want and sits at the same table.
It’s busiest at weekend brunch. A weekday afternoon is calmer and the stalls are the same.
5. Line Up At Little Man Ice Cream
Little Man is a twenty eight foot cream can sitting on a corner in the Lower Highlands, and yes, the line goes around the block on a warm evening.
The ice cream is genuinely good and the line moves faster than it looks. There’s usually live music or a film playing in the lot next to it in summer.
The walk over the pedestrian bridge from downtown takes about fifteen minutes and comes with the best skyline view in the city.
6. Spend An Afternoon On Tennyson Street
Tennyson Street runs through the Berkeley neighborhood in northwest Denver and it’s about as local as the city gets. Independent shops, a vintage cinema, taco places, and a bar on most corners.
The first Friday of the month is an art walk, when the galleries stay open late and the street fills up. It’s low key and nobody is performing for tourists.
Berkeley Lake Park sits at the end of it with a loop path and a view back at the mountains.
7. Work Your Way Down South Broadway
South Broadway, or SoBo, is the scruffier end of Denver and a lot of people’s favorite. It’s a long strip of record stores, vintage shops, dive bars, and music venues.
The antique district near the south end is worth an hour even if you buy nothing. Further north the bars get louder and the venues start filling up.
It’s the part of town that hasn’t been polished, which is exactly why locals send people there.
8. Do The Loop At Washington Park
Wash Park is the one locals actually use. There’s a two and a half mile loop around the outside, two lakes, a boathouse, and grass that fills up with people the second it’s warm.
The loop is split for walkers and cyclists and it’s busy in the good way. On a summer evening it’s half the neighborhood out at once.
It’s residential all the way around, so it’s also a nice look at the kind of houses Denver does well.
9. See The Skyline From City Park
City Park has the postcard view of Denver, and a lot of visitors never find it. From the west side of Ferril Lake the downtown towers line up with the Rocky Mountains stacked behind them.
Sunset is when it works, and in winter the snow on the peaks makes it better. It’s one of the easiest things to do in Denver Colorado and it costs nothing.
The park also holds the zoo and the science museum, so it’s easy to build a half day around.
10. Visit The Denver Botanic Gardens
The Botanic Gardens are twenty four acres in the middle of the city, split into gardens that each do something different. There’s a Japanese garden, an alpine collection, and a tropical conservatory for cold days.
Summer evenings bring outdoor concerts on the lawn, which locals book early. Winter brings a light display through the whole thing.
It’s a good rainy afternoon and an even better warm morning. Tickets are timed, so book ahead in summer.
11. See The Dinosaurs At The Nature And Science Museum
The Denver Museum of Nature and Science sits on the edge of City Park and it’s better than it needs to be. The dinosaur halls are the draw, built on fossils pulled out of Colorado ground.
There’s also a planetarium, an IMAX screen, and a room of dioramas that people get unreasonably attached to. The top floor has another skyline view.
Allow three hours minimum. Families end up staying most of a day.
12. Get Lost Inside Meow Wolf
Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station is four floors of immersive art that makes no attempt to explain itself. You walk through rooms, climb into things, and follow a story if you feel like it.
It’s loud, bright, and completely disorienting on purpose. Some people love it and some people last forty minutes.
Tickets are timed and it sells out on weekends. Go on a weekday if you can, because the crowds change the experience.
13. Catch A Game At Coors Field
Coors Field sits right downtown and it’s a genuinely good ballpark, with the mountains visible over the outfield on a clear evening. The row of purple seats marks exactly one mile above sea level.
Tickets are cheap by big league standards and the Rockies rarely sell out. The bleachers behind right field have their own bar.
Even people who don’t follow baseball end up enjoying it. The evening light on the field is the reason.
14. Put Together A Brewery Crawl
Denver has more breweries than almost any city its size, and they cluster tightly enough that you can walk between them. RiNo alone has a dozen within a few blocks.
Most are casual, dog friendly, and happy for you to bring food in from somewhere else. Flights are normal and nobody minds if you order one and leave.
The altitude does change things. Drinks hit harder at five thousand feet, which every local will warn you about and every visitor ignores once.
15. Ride The Cherry Creek Trail
The Cherry Creek Trail runs from downtown out to the southeast suburbs, sunk below street level along the water for most of it. You barely touch a road.
Rental bikes and e-bikes are easy to pick up downtown. Riding out and getting a coffee before turning back is a solid two hours.
It connects to the South Platte trail near Confluence Park, so you can make a loop out of it if you want more.
16. Take The Short Trip Out To Golden
Golden sits about twenty minutes west, right where the plains stop and the foothills start. It’s a small town with an arch over the main street and a creek running through the middle of it.
People float that creek on tubes all summer. There’s also the Coors brewery, a decent mining museum, and Lookout Mountain above town with Buffalo Bill’s grave on top.
The light rail goes most of the way, which makes it easy without a car.
17. Drive The Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway
The Mount Blue Sky byway, which older signs and maps still call Mount Evans, is the highest paved road in North America. It climbs past treeline to just under fourteen thousand feet.
The drive is genuinely alarming in places, with no guardrails and a lot of switchbacks. Mountain goats stand in the road like they own it, and above treeline the tundra looks like nowhere else in the state.
The road only opens from around Memorial Day to early September and timed reservations are required. Check before you plan a day around it, because it’s closed for most of the year.
What To Know Before Visiting Denver Colorado
The altitude is real. Denver sits at five thousand two hundred feet and it takes a day or two to adjust, so drink far more water than usual and go easy on the first night out.
The sun is stronger than it feels. People burn on cloudy days here, and the weather swings hard, so layers beat a single warm coat.
Downtown is walkable and the light rail covers the airport, Union Station, and Golden. Everything else really wants a car, and the neighborhoods worth seeing are spread out.
Spring and autumn are the best times. Summer is hot and busy, winter is bright and cold, and the mountain roads keep their own schedule regardless of what the city is doing.
Final Thoughts
The city rewards people who stay put for a couple of days instead of treating it as a stop on the way to a ski town. Pick a neighborhood, walk it, eat there, and the place starts making sense.
The best things to do in Denver Colorado are mostly outside or in a room full of people who live there. Get the skyline at sunset from City Park, and let the rest of the trip fill itself in.
