8 days Colorado?

[Anonymous]

You can combine the Colorado Springs/Garden of the Gods with a drive west towards Canon City and a half day white water rafting on the Arkansas River. We recommend Echo Canyon Rafters:
https://www.raftecho.com/

so fun. My kids loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks everyone! I will just plan on 1 night in Denver or skip it entirely.

I will definitely look into Breckenridge, Buena Vista, and Telluride....I looked into Telluride years ago and it looked great.

Thanks for suggestion to check out the playgrounds in Fort Collins- we do love finding cool playgrounds We'll see how our itinerary pans out.

Telluride is awesome and that's my favorite part of CO, but it's a looong drive from Ft. Collins. Not really feasible unless you want to spend all of your time driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks everyone! I will just plan on 1 night in Denver or skip it entirely.

I will definitely look into Breckenridge, Buena Vista, and Telluride....I looked into Telluride years ago and it looked great.

Thanks for suggestion to check out the playgrounds in Fort Collins- we do love finding cool playgrounds We'll see how our itinerary pans out.

Telluride is awesome and that's my favorite part of CO, but it's a looong drive from Ft. Collins. Not really feasible unless you want to spend all of your time driving.

This. Save Telluride for another trip. It’s at least a seven hour drive from Denver.

[Anonymous]

Winter Park could be another option for adventure type activities. I would also skip Co Springs this trip.

We did an entire separate trip for Durango//Mesa Verde/Telluride/Ouray/Black Canyon and used the Durango and Montrose airports because I don't like driving the long distance from Denver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can combine the Colorado Springs/Garden of the Gods with a drive west towards Canon City and a half day white water rafting on the Arkansas River. We recommend Echo Canyon Rafters:
https://www.raftecho.com/

so fun. My kids loved it.

Rafting the Royal Gorge is great!
When you go to Garden of the Gods, you should visit Manitou Springs. It is a cute town with great food (Adam's Mountain Cafe is one of my favorite restaurants in North America with good food and an environment that is basically an impressionist art gallery), art galleries, and an old-school arcade for kids. From Manitou, you can easily go up Pikes Peak via train or car, which inspired America the Beautiful.

[Anonymous]

With young kids I would skip Estes Park and go to Colorado Springs. Do Garden of the gods and then go to Manitou Springs. Take the cog rail up Pikes Peak. Go searching for all of the springs and taste the mineral waters that come out of the ground carbonated. They will LOVE the old fashioned penny arcades. I agree with others recommending the Broadmoor.

[Anonymous]

Used to live in Denver - lots to do but I understand most people want to explore other parts of CO.

I personally would do one night Denver, not much time in Fort Collins, more time in Colorado Springs and then a mountain town like Vail or Crested Butte/Aspen.

[Anonymous]

OP here - so many great ideas!! I need to sift through it all tonight and figure it out. We got our tickets last night. We found out last night that it might not work out to visit my husband's friend in Fort Collins so if we don't visit him, we will skip Fort Collins.

The rafting sounds fun but my husband and kids can't swim so I think we will avoid that.

[Anonymous]

Skip Garden of the Gods. It's basically a city park with some red rocks. If you've been to Utah, you're going to be disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks everyone! I will just plan on 1 night in Denver or skip it entirely.

I will definitely look into Breckenridge, Buena Vista, and Telluride....I looked into Telluride years ago and it looked great.

Thanks for suggestion to check out the playgrounds in Fort Collins- we do love finding cool playgrounds We'll see how our itinerary pans out.

. I live in Denver and agree completely! Go to other parts of Colorado and spend your time there! Denver is not a great city in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

I’m the poster above who lives in Denver. Telluride is my favorite town in Colorado. I’d personally skip Colorado Springs and Fort Collins and go to Telluride and Ouray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Used to live in Denver - lots to do but I understand most people want to explore other parts of CO.

I personally would do one night Denver, not much time in Fort Collins, more time in Colorado Springs and then a mountain town like Vail or Crested Butte/Aspen.

It's funny that people are saying that a city with 716k people has nothing to do.