Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business Denver is a city where you can spend the morning in a world-class art museum, the afternoon walking among red sandstone fins in the foothills, and the evening at a brewery in a converted warehouse.
Colorado State Capitol
Denver Art Museum
Denver Union Station
Larimer Square
+5 more places
This guide covers the neighborhoods, museums, parks and outdoor sights worth your time, along with food, where to base yourself, the best seasons to visit and how to get around without a headache. Most of the central sights are close together, so you can see a lot in a few days if you plan by area.
Few American cities pair urban culture and outdoor access as easily as Denver. The downtown core is walkable, with a cluster of museums in the Golden Triangle, a restored rail station that doubles as a social hub, and historic streets that date to the gold rush era of the late 1850s.
Then there is the setting. On clear days the Front Range is visible from almost everywhere in the city, and you can be in the foothills in under forty minutes by car. Denver also has an extensive network of city parks and paved trails along Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, so it is easy to stay active even without leaving town.
The area just south of downtown holds Denver's main civic buildings and its densest cluster of museums. It is a good place to start your trip because everything is within a few blocks of Civic Center Park.
The gold-domed Capitol overlooks Civic Center Park from the east. Look for the step on the west entrance that is marked as one mile above sea level; surveys over the years moved the official mark, so you will see more than one marker.
The Colorado State Capitol has a dome covered in Colorado gold leaf and a step marked at one mile above sea level. Photo: William Henry Jackson, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
The Denver Art Museum is known for its strong collection of Indigenous arts of North America, along with Western American art, textiles and modern works.
The Hamilton Building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, is the most recognizable part of the Denver Art Museum campus. Photo: Daniel Hartwig, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Next door to the Art Museum, the Clyfford Still Museum is devoted to a single abstract expressionist painter and is a quiet, concrete-walled contrast to the busier galleries nearby.
Lower Downtown, known as LoDo, is the historic warehouse district that grew up around the railroad.
Opened in its current form in 1914 and restored in the 2010s, Union Station is both a working transit hub and a gathering place.
Denver Union Station is a restored Beaux-Arts rail terminal that serves as the hub for trains to the airport. Photo: Darkshark0159 at English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Larimer Square is a single preserved block of Larimer Street lined with Victorian buildings, independent shops and restaurants. Strings of lights crisscross the street, and in warm months parts of it close to traffic for outdoor dining.
Larimer Square preserves a block of Victorian commercial buildings on Denver's oldest street. Photo: Sdkb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Known as RiNo, this former industrial area northeast of downtown is packed with large-scale murals, galleries, breweries, food halls and design studios. Walk Larimer Street and the side alleys between roughly 25th and 38th Streets for the densest concentration of street art.
The River North Art District is known for building-sized murals on former warehouses. Photo: Alice Reynolds, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Just west of downtown near the Interstate 25 and Colfax Avenue interchange, Meow Wolf Convergence Station is a multi-story immersive art installation filled with hidden passages, surreal rooms and a loose science fiction storyline. Most visitors spend two to three hours.
Denver has a long tradition of large urban parks, and the foothills just west of the city add some of the most dramatic scenery you will find this close to a major American downtown.
The York Street gardens cover a compact but varied site with water gardens, a Japanese garden, a tropical conservatory, and plantings that show off plants suited to the dry, high-elevation climate of the West. Two hours is about right.
The Denver Botanic Gardens on York Street grow plants from high plains, alpine and desert habitats. Photo: Sarbjit Bahga, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
City Park is Denver's largest central park and home to the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The museum has dinosaur fossils, gem and mineral halls, wildlife dioramas and a planetarium.
City Park offers one of Denver's classic views of downtown with the mountains beyond. Photo: Ari Armstrong, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
About fifteen miles west of downtown near the town of Morrison, Red Rocks Amphitheatre is a concert venue built between two enormous sandstone monoliths.
Red Rocks Amphitheatre sits between giant sandstone formations in the foothills west of Denver. Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
South of downtown, Washington Park is a favorite local spot for running, picnics, lawn games and paddling. It has two lakes, formal flower gardens and a replica of Martha Washington's garden at Mount Vernon.
The boathouse on Smith Lake is a landmark of Washington Park, one of Denver's most popular green spaces. Photo: Jeffrey Beall, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Denver's signature dish is green chile, a pork-studded stew built on roasted chiles that you will find smothering burritos, served in bowls or ladled over breakfast plates. Colorado-grown Pueblo chiles are prized in late summer, when you may smell roasting drums outside markets.
Food halls are a big part of the dining scene. Denver Central Market in RiNo and Avanti Food and Drinks in LoHi are good places to sample several kitchens in one stop.
Popular dishes to try in Denver
LoDo and Union Station suit first-time visitors and anyone arriving by train from the airport. You can walk to restaurants, Coors Field and Larimer Square, and evenings are lively. Central downtown near the convention center is practical for business travelers and close to the Golden Triangle museums. RiNo appeals to travelers who want breweries, murals and a creative atmosphere, and it has a stop on the A Line.
Where to stay in Denver
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Summer, from June through August, brings warm to hot days, frequent afternoon thunderstorms, the Red Rocks concert season and the busiest crowds.
Winter in the city itself is milder than many expect. Snow falls but often melts within a day or two in the strong sun, and Denver is the main gateway to Colorado ski resorts.
Denver International Airport is about 25 miles northeast of downtown and is one of the busiest airports in the country. The RTD A Line commuter train runs between the airport and Union Station, with a stop in RiNo, and takes around 37 minutes.
Downtown is compact and easy to explore on foot. RTD buses and light rail cover the wider metro area, and bike share and scooters are widely available.
Start at the Colorado State Capitol, then spend the late morning and early afternoon in the Golden Triangle at the Denver Art Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum.
Visit the Denver Botanic Gardens in the morning, then cross to City Park for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Stay for sunset over Ferril Lake.
Drive west to Red Rocks Park in the morning to walk the amphitheater and the Trading Post Trail before the heat builds.
Slow down with a morning loop around Washington Park and brunch on Old South Gaylord Street.
Looking for a coffee shop near Union Station, a mechanic before a mountain drive or a gear store for your hike?
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