10 Things To Do In Denver Area

10 things to do in Denver area

10 things to do in Denver area

Yay! I love sharing travel recapsĀ because it means I get to go through my photos and journal entries and re-live the trip so that I can share the best parts with y’all. I loved this time in Denver!

Nate and I flew up there for a few days to visit my in-laws during the week of 4th of July. If I didn’t live in Austin…I’d definitely be in Colorado. It. Is. So. Beautiful! Every time I visit, I can’t believe everyone in the United States isn’t trying to live there! (Well….I mean, maybe everyone is trying to live there.)

We ate lots of food, drank craft beer, cooked, hiked, wandered, had all sorts of fun adventures (and one day that wasn’t so fun…haha, more on that in a moment). Here’s all the stuff we did!


10 Things To Do In Denver Area

1. Go to Little Owl Coffee

I was up at 3:30 am to catch my flight from Austin to Denver, so right when I landed I wanted COFFEE! Blue Owl Coffee is one of my favorite little shops in downtown Denver. If you take the light rail from the Denver airport, it’s just about a 3 block walk to get to your latte. Bless.

2. Buy a book at The Tattered Cover

This has become a tradition for me! I love going into independent book stores, and The Tattered Cover in Denver is one of my favorites. After coffee, we walked in and perused for a while. I ended up buying this book (which I’ve read before but wanted to add to my library). I love the Tattered Cover bookmarks that the store gives away with each purchase.

3. Booze + Brunch in downtown Denver

Remember when I went to NYC over in March and tried aaaalll the cocktail bars? Well, one of my favorites, Death & Company, just opened a second location.

Guess where?

DENVER.

Ahh! I was so happy when I found out! Our little group of 4 went to check it out. It’s in a stunning boutique hotel lobby, which is completely different feel than the dark, sultry room in NYC.

We ordered some cocktails at the bar, then went upstairs to The Garden to enjoy a beautiful brunch in the sunshine.

4. Go To Panorama Point In Boulder

If hiking isn’t your thing, just drive up to Panorama Point for some views! We drove up, stopped by for a few minutes to enjoy the views, and then went back down to Pearl Street to shop!

5. Find Kitchen Gadgets You Didn’t Know You Needed at Peppercorn in Boulder

I swear….this place is worse than Target. I can’t walk in and NOT buy something, haha! Peppercorn is a kitchen supply store on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. They have the largest cookbook selection I’ve ever seen, and a combination of fun and practical kitchen gadgets. I found these tiny letter pastry cutters to write things out in pie dough on top of a pie. I didn’t buy them, and I wish I had! (It’s always more fun to support a local shop rather than just order it on Amazon…)

6. Happy Hour at West End Tavern in Boulder

We got burnt ends, skillet cornbread, and a few IPAs and had a grand old time! There’s a sweet rooftop patio that we checked out, but it was a little hot so we ended up eating downstairs. West End Tavern would be a fun evening spot in the summer, though.

7. Enjoy Artisanal Gelato at Fior in Boulder

This small-batch gelato is made with lots of love and care, and the flavors are RIDICULOUSLY good! They’ve got fun flavors like London Fog, Cookie Butter, and Vanilla Lavender. I’m always that one person in the gelato shop who’s sampling every flavor before I pick… I just want to be sure I got the best one, you know?

8. Brews + Dinner at Avery Tap Room

Avery is one of the biggest, most recognizable breweries in Colorado, and they recently built a MASSIVE new brewery, tasting room and restaurant. The beer list is long, so I recommend going with a group and sharing a bunch of tasters before you decide on a beer to drink.

We ate dinner here, too. I loved the Das Pretzel with nacho cheese sauce, and the fried chicken. The menu is always changing, though, so I can’t necessarily say those things will be there when you visit.

9. Climb a mountain!

When Nate asked me, “what do you want to do in Colorado this year?” my one big request was that we check another 14er off my list! I’ve climbed 8 mountain peaks over 14,000 feet, and I was so ready to climb my 9th!

Nate and his parents were all troopers to do this with me (it was their first 14er.) All went well on the way up the mountain. We woke up super early and left the house at 4:30 am so we could start climbing at 6, and it was a beautiful, sunny morning. Everything went well…

…until we got to the top.

Bless Nate’s heart. He got a horrible bout of altitude sickness right after we summitted, and he felt/looked like he was going to faint all the way down the mountain. We inched along, stopped for lots of rests, and eventually made it back to the car. Ouch. Not the funnest climb for his first 14er. šŸ™

HA! How am I doing on selling this hiking idea to ya? šŸ˜‰

10. Go Brewery Hopping in Longmont

(Photo below: that’s a massive curling wand burn on my forehead…ha! I sported that look for about 5 days before it healed…)

Longmont is a small(ish) city about 40 miles north of Denver, and it’s packed with breweries! We brewery hopped on the 4th of July, and it was seriously the best day! Caitlin happened to be in Colorado on the same day, so we met up with her and her BF and her cute pup, Landon and all enjoyed beer together! Here are a few breweries I like in Longmont:

– Wibby Brewing

– 300 Suns Brewing

– St Vrain Cidery

– Bootstrap Brewing

There are lots of other ones, too, so you could definitely set a DD and then make an entire day of it!


Yay! I love Colorado!

I’m definitely not a travel blogger, but I do like to add a couple travel recaps here so I can remember all the little details. If you want to see any more of my travel recaps, click here!

These 10 ideas are just a teeny tiny snippet of all the fun things I love doing in Colorado area! Any favorite CO activities you’d add to this list?

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terra @ terragoes.com
5 years ago

Beers & good food & climbing mountains – three of my favorite things!

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