Visiting Denver in May

[Tayfromcarolina]

Greetings from Raleigh, NC

I will be visiting Denver in mid-May and was wondering what attractions are a must see? And how is the mass transit there? I will likely be staying downtown and would like to have a good idea of what to expect. I hope it will be warm there by then. Thanks.

[Front_Range_Guy]

Mid-may? It may be 90 degrees or it may be 30 degrees. There may be a tornado or there may be a blizzard. May is a weird month in Colorado. Really, it SHOULD be warm by then.

I can only offer a few suggestions of places to visit. As much time as I spend in Denver, I'm usually at a friends house or just hanging out downtown. I don't really look at it from the tourists perspective. Downtown is definitely the place to be. I would suggest The Denver Art Museum, The Denver Botanic Gardens should be up and running by then, I would imagine baseball season has started by May? (I'm not a sports fan), Catching a Rockies game at Coors Field might be fun. There is a place called The Peak Lounge on the 27th Floor of the Hyatt downtown. Drinks are pricey but the views are priceless. There's The Denver Zoo, The Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The 16th Street mall is an outdoor mall downtown... ummm... really you could spend a whole day just exploring Downtown Denver. Downtown Boulder might be worth a visit... it's not too far away. You could catch a concert at Red Rocks, The Fillmore, The Ogden, etc... You could make a whole night of drinking in LoDo. LOL. Also the mountains west of the city and Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. I'm not a transit expert, but Denver's expanding lightrail system has been garnering positive attention all over the internet. I mean I think you probably could pull off living in Downtown Denver and not owning a car if you wanted to. I know you can take the train from downtown all the way south through the tech center and into the southern exurbs. Of course there are busses too. If you're staying downtown, between trains, busses, taxi's, and the free mall shuttle, you shouldn't have to drive. That's really just scratching the surface, hopefully some other forumers who live in Denver will chime in and fill in the blanks.

RTD's website

In the mean time, you can get yourself pumped by looking at this kick-a*s photo gallery of Denver by UrbanPhotosGuy.

May I ask what's bringing you to The Mile High City?

[Tayfromcarolina]

Thanks Front_Range_Guy for the info you covered a lot.

Nothing really brings me to Denver except the "Need to Know" What's like there. I have a list of about a dozen cities in the U.S. That I feel are especially unique and it is my goal to cross them off the list by the time I'm 30. Now 23, I visited Phoenix in '04, New York in '05 (none last year as I bought my first home and was saving $) And this year I plan to visit The mile high city of Denver in May and this Fall Miami. First the U.S. and then the world.

I can't wait, seems like lots to do.

[Front_Range_Guy]

Wow, that's really cool. I think you will have a good time.

[teshadoh]

My wife & I visited Denver a couple of years ago for about the same reason, we were scouting for cities where we wanted to eventually move to. I'm not quite in Denver, but Boulder hasn't been too bad. Downtown Denver, especially Lodo is the place to go. I would also recommend visiting the adjacent neighborhoods around Washington Park & City Park. As for mass transit, unless you get on the bus as well, Denver isn't quite there to being a fully transit oriented city. RTD light rail line is mostly for commuting purposes though you might want to check out the southeast line since it is brand new.

Otherwise - there are plenty of places to explore along the front range as front range guy recommends.

[Explorer55]

Before you come to Denver, check out www.theurbanbrain.com/denver for some good tips, ideas, insights on where to eat or what to enjoy about Denver. It's not a typical tourist website, isn't meant to be one at all, but you should get a unique perspective on what it's like to live here and what to look for when you visit.

[Tayfromcarolina]

Ah just a few more weeks, and I'll be there to check out the city and the surounding areas. Can't wait. thanks all 4 the info.

[Tayfromcarolina]

I ended up visiting denver last week I had a great stay and went up into the mountains for a day. I was really shocked at how clean the city was for a city that size. Lots of outdoorsy things for me to do. I visited 16th street repeatedly while I was there and was utterly shocked at how vibrant it was even when the weather wasn't the nicest. I visited the state Capitol, The Main Library, the fantastic Art Museum, Science Museum and Planetarium. i rented a bike and went around the Cherry Creek area and rode through some really great neighborhoods and then city park. Visted the Lakewood and Golden areas as well as Colorodo Mills. I had a great time and will definitely be returning for more trips to the area. Everyone I talked too was really nice, and really helpful also. Glad I took the trip there.

[eagle]

Hello Denverites,

My wife and I are headed to Denver in Novemeber to explore the area. We're considering a possible relocation.

We'll have three days to see the Denver and Springs areas. Where do we absolutely need to go?

As much as I'd love to take a trip out to the mountains I don't want to spend much time doing that type of stuff on this trip. We know the scenery, skiing, hiking, etc is incredible. I'm interested in what it's actually like to live there.

From what I can tell online I like Golden and the Jefferson County area due to it's proximity to downtown and also the mountains.

We'd be looking for condos so any cool new condo developments would be good to see. While we love being downtown, we probably won't want to live in a downtown condo yet. Price range at this point it 150,000-220,000.

I'd also like to see some of the eclectic, "alternative" neighborhoods.

Any advice helps. Thanks.

[teshadoh]

Hello Denverites,

My wife and I are headed to Denver in Novemeber to explore the area. We're considering a possible relocation.

We'll have three days to see the Denver and Springs areas. Where do we absolutely need to go?

As much as I'd love to take a trip out to the mountains I don't want to spend much time doing that type of stuff on this trip. We know the scenery, skiing, hiking, etc is incredible. I'm interested in what it's actually like to live there.

From what I can tell online I like Golden and the Jefferson County area due to it's proximity to downtown and also the mountains.

We'd be looking for condos so any cool new condo developments would be good to see. While we love being downtown, we probably won't want to live in a downtown condo yet. Price range at this point it 150,000-220,000.

I'd also like to see some of the eclectic, "alternative" neighborhoods.

Any advice helps. Thanks.

[colin]

I really like Washington Park. Capitol Hill is also eclectic, but it's more rentals. Maybe also look into Littleton. Golden is really far out.

Also, there's a pretty nice brand of New Urbanism going up in Downtown Lakewood. Lots of condos, shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, it's only connected by bus as the light rail doesn't go out there just yet.

Live at least reasonably close to where you're going to work. You don't want to have to cross town twice a day at rush hour.

[teshadoh]

^ Belmar in Lakewood & also Stapleton are some interesting inner-ring new urbanist developments.