Tourists Shouldn't Go to Denver
Plus, more death in National Parks
I need to say up front that this is not an attack on Denver and I actually like Denver.
That being said, I can’t tell you how many times foreign friends have gone and found themselves feeling a little tricked. That’s because Denver is not actually at or in the mountains, and the whole reason people often come here are the Rockies. Instead, it’s in the gray-brown plains that stretch from western Kansas until the foothills of the Rockies.
It’s a bit like booking a trip to LA where most of the hotels are downtown or in West Hollywood. If you hadn’t looked closely at a map, you would arrive to find you needed to drive 30-45 minutes to actually get to the beach, as Los Angeles was established far from the coast. (There are a number of reasons offered for why that is. One is that the Spanish mission system prioritized building next to existing indigenous settlements, access to fresh water, and putting some distance between a mission and the coast. The second is that LA had no natural deepwater port and so when one was finally established in 1907, the center of business was already downtown.)
Not only is it nearly an hour and a half to Rocky Mountain National Park from downtown Denver, but the city itself is a bit of an odd one for a visitor. There’s a lot to love living here–fun neighborhoods like Cherry Creek, LoDo, or RiNo, great restaurants and bars, fantastic sports scene, and a general sense that everybody is here because they want to be in the Mountain West. So if you like checking out a city for the sake of seeing what it’s like, then spend some time in Denver.
But for a typical visitor there isn’t a ton to occupy yourself with. Sure, there are a handful of nice museums, from the Colorado History Museum to Clyfford Still Museum, but I’m hard pressed to imagine you’d find them worth an entire trip. While some of the residential neighborhoods of Denver have charming architecture, much of the city’s core is littered with the worst of the latter half of the 20th century.
Instead, for an urban Colorado experience that gives you more of that mountain feel, I’d head to Boulder or Colorado Springs. Boulder, in particular, is a favorite of mine. Right up against the Flatirons, this historic city of roughly 100,000 has a dozen hikes right from the center of town. (A top pick for me is Sanitas, which despite being a small peak is straight up and absolutely brutal. Keyhole Arch is a cute one if you’re with a variety of ages.) The city has a creek running through it you can go tubing on in early summer, the huge university gives it a lively and young energy, and since it’s the enclave of choice for rich, outdoorsy, liberals, everything is nice.
The pedestrian-only Pearl Street Mall is lively and full of shops ranging from the kooky to luxury outdoor outfitters. (It’s much nicer than Denver’s 16th Street Mall.) We always start our morning at Spruce Cafe, which has nice crumbly scones and can be found at the base of the Mapleton Hill neighborhood. It’s a spot you should wander to ogle expansive (and wildly expensive) frontier Victorian houses. (Other hits include the Avanti food hall as you can bring your food up onto the roof for great views, Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, Barchetta, and Sherpa’s Adventure. If you find yourself baked and needing a late night snack, Lolita’s is where you should pop into.)
Rocky Mountain National Park is a quicker drive than from Denver, as are cute little towns like Nederland with its hand-painted carousel and great pizza at Crosscut Pizza or Estes Park.
But Colorado is really unrivaled if you head further into the mountains, to the former mining towns of Leadville, Salida, Ouray, and Silverton. From these you can hike 14,000 foot mountains, camp in Great Sand Dunes National Park, go ice climbing, and swim in Twin Lakes. If you’re visiting Colorado for the first time, build a trip around these places and you’ll have an unforgettable one.
If you want more structure, the ski towns of Telluride, Steamboat, and Aspen will give you glitz as well as everything you could ever want or need in a mountain town. (They’re just a pain to get to.) And if you really want to lux it up, Dunton Hot Springs, a high-end hotel formed out of an abandoned mining town, is one of the best in the U.S.
But for now, I’d skip Denver 😬.
DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES
Miramar, one of the most opulent houses in Newport will be turned into a museum open to the public when its current owners, Steve Schwarzman and his wife, die. I have mixed feelings about this. It’s been wonderful to see a property that is often overlooked when people discuss the grandest Newport residences restored. Especially with a reverence to the French-inspired designs of Horace Trumbauer and the original owners, the Wideners. It’s a stark contrast to the bizarre “renovation” undertaken just a few houses down by Larry Ellison, who has shipped in boulders which now litter the front lawn of the former Astor estate, Beechwood. But with both Schwarzman and Ellison planning museum futures for these two properties, it sort of drags Newport further into an amusement park/museum future like you’d find in Europe. If most of the houses along Bellevue are museums, it doesn’t give the town a lived-in feeling or a modern sheen of elegance that having these houses alive and occupied would.
I said it last week and I’ll say it again, turbulence is something to take seriously these days. This week, a passenger was hospitalized on a Chicago-bound flight from Cancun after a turbulence-related incident.
The whole point of pieces like this “Why I’m Never Going on a Group Holiday Again” in The Times is to be provocative, so I’m not going to get outraged or worked up about its contents. That being said, there are some delicious parts–whether it be the nanny wages fight, the angst over how much a host should figure out meals, and, well, this bit on hopping on a person’s superyacht:
National Parks serve multiple purposes, from recreation to education to preservation. Part of that recreation and education is a sense that you’re engaging in rustic, adventurous activities that harken back to more primitive human experiences. And doing things outside the comfort and safety of modern life means there are risks—risks that can often make doing these activities especially fun. Plus, nature is supposed to be dangerous. That said, there’s a line somewhere between risk that makes things fun, and risk that can’t be tolerated. A lot of people die in the Grand Canyon every year. Last week, a whopping sixth person died in a month there, this time a 60-year-old on a solo multi-day backpacking trip. Most of the deaths here are due to decisions like being too aggressive with your hike or taking selfies on the edge, and so there isn’t really this push to do something because, really, what can you do with people making dumb decisions?
Over at Yosemite, though, there is an outcry after a 20-year-old girl recently slipped on the cables for Half Dome and plummeted 250 feet to her death. As this article in SFGate lays out, there’s a fight brewing about the cables that allow inexperienced climbers to scale its treacherous walls, with many arguing there is one area the administration could work to make things sensibly safer–strictly regulating its use during bad weather.
TRAVEL NEWS
Europe will stop stamping passports in November
Denver’s AirTrains broke down … again
Another month and another decline in revenue for Hawaii hotels
This region of Spain is paying digital nomads up to $16,000 to move there
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) officially joined SkyTeam today
I’m going to partially agree but also push back a bit:
Denver is not a mountain town, and people who are looking for a vacation in the mountains shouldn’t stay in Denver. I feel like this was your main point, and it’s true.
But if you are looking for a normal “city” vacation, Denver is pretty fun, especially for families. You mentioned museums, there’s good arts and culture (esp symphony and performing arts) and a lot of fun neighborhood venues. But Denver also has all the staples of a big city — beautiful city parks, a good zoo, amazing botanical gardens, a decent aquarium, teams in every sport, theme parks, etc.
It isn’t a tourist magnet, and it shouldn’t be, but that also means that it’s low key, less expensive, and not overrun with tourists. The weather is sunny and mild throughout the year, and especially stunning in October, with perfect blue skies framing vibrant fall colors.
So: not a mountain town, don’t come to Denver for the hiking. But if you live in the US and want a change of scenery that’s chill, affordable, and easy to get to, Denver is a solid choice (especially for families).
love your substack, but the comments on air turbulence? I fly quite a bit domestically and to Europe and have not noticed this. I am thinking your experience is anecdotal.