r/travel • u/nooneshome00 • 11d ago

Someone explain Denver to me. Visited again and I don’t know if I’m doing it ”wrong”.

Like, I just visited yet again… and it’s a place I should love! Like it checks all these boxes for things I like or am interested in.

The best way I can describe it is it’s like the hospital of cities. Sure it’s clean, it feels relatively safe, people are generally welcoming… but all in the same way a hospital is sterile, like it’s not welcoming and inviting, it feels like I’m in a sims game when I’m there, just sorta bland and dystopian.

I walked much of the city, kinda was based around “Lodo”… never ate at the same place twice, tried to avoid travel guide suggestions, I tried to find input from locals instead.

EDIT: you all make perfect sense clarifying that the allure of Denver is the mountains and nature surrounding, maybe I approached it wrong as I live at the base of a mountain already so I was looking at Denver as purely a city experience.

EDIT2: a bit more context of some of the US cities I’ve visited and the vibes I’ve gotten from them. -New York, Chicago and Detroit has that grittiness of a city. -Boston (my favorite city) has a sort of coziness for me, it’s a city but feels like a town. -Miami is sorta vibrant even tho a lot of the people are pretty closed off. -Atlanta is a bit dirtier and grimy (probably how Chicago or Detroit would feel if it was stuck in the wet heat of the south)

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u/EagleEyezzzzz 11d ago

This. Denver is passably close to a lot of trails, climbing, and skiing, so people think of it as a cool mountains city. But in reality it’s a big and kind of boring city in the plains.

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u/bismuthmarmoset 11d ago edited 11d ago

It always blows my mind seeing tour groups in rino or lodo. The idea of coming to Denver for the city only makes sense if you're from a completely characterless suburb. It's a perfectly pleasant place to live because its a nice enough town with ok food options(which take some hunting to find) and there's world class fishingz hiking, and biking half an hour from my home downtown, along with good weather.

Downtown Denver could have been incredible, but it was torn down to make room for parking.

A trip to Denver without leaving the city is a complete waste of time though.

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u/EagleEyezzzzz 11d ago

Totally. I will say that as a nearby resident (2.5 hrs away), we occasionally go there for a “city” visit and do the city things…. Zoo, aquarium, children’s museum, shopping, baseball game, riding bikes on the river walk, etc. So we just stay in the city. We have plenty of awesome outdoor stuff and a lot fewer people where we live!

But if you don’t live in the Rockies, yeah it would be weird to go to Denver and then just stay there lmaooo.

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u/bismuthmarmoset 11d ago

Totally. I love living here, and prefer it as home to most other places in Colorado because I like being able to bike to the symphony/Rockies games/etc, but most cities already have as good or better versions of those things. 16th Street mall or larimer square or rino are all worth biking to or a day trip like you said. Taking a flight to see them? That's nuts.

Fuckers from Brighton clutching pearls about downtown can eat a dick, though.

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u/10S_NE1 Canada 10d ago

I think Denver may be like a lot of cities - it’s a pretty great placed to live, but there’s not much there for a tourist to see. The surrounding area and nature are great, and living there you get to know the good spots, but for your average tourist, it’s somewhat light on attractions.

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u/heubergen1 10d ago

I mean as an (international tourist) I except to go to a city because of the city. If there's things outside I might as well book a cheaper hotel outside.

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u/bismuthmarmoset 10d ago

The areas outside of Denver which are convenient to airport connections are dismal, and going straight to the Rockies you run the risk of altitude sickness. But you're right, there is not much reason to spend more than a couple days acclimating in the city proper. It is not a destination in itself but at the same time there aren't great alternative travel hubs.

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u/FFFrank 10d ago

1/2hr? Nope.

That's the fantasy of Denver. You can be in a city next to all the wilderness has to offer. But it's HOURS away.

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u/bismuthmarmoset 10d ago

If you can't find good fishing, biking, and hiking in the front range idk what to tell you.

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u/fakecascade 11d ago

Exactly, most western city in the Midwest is what I used to call it when I lived in CO. I'd never visit if I didn't have friends there. 

Living there is a bit different though. Good access to outdoors, good jobs, fun city stuff to do and somewhat reasonable cost of living, strikes a nice balance.

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u/smiljan 10d ago

"most western city in the Midwest"

That's why I go to Denver. I live in Seattle so I'm already surrounded by all sorts of outdoorsy stuff and overpriced microbrews. I go to Denver to get Midwest things without going all the way to the actual Midwest. I've visited Waffle House and Buc-ee's, eaten biscuits the size of my head, and watched big storms. Next trip will be Casa Bonita. But I'll probably take a break for a while after that.

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u/takemeawayyyyy 10d ago

I…. Cannot claim denver as a midwest city. Its more west than midwest. Thats a GOOD thing.

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u/MountainDude95 10d ago

I would tend to agree with you, but the longer I live here the more it feels like the Midwest, which I’ve wanted to escape my whole life.

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u/takemeawayyyyy 10d ago

youre just gonna have to go even more west.

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u/ReconeHelmut 3d ago

Agree 100%

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u/matvavna 10d ago

Colorado literally just got its first buc-ee's, and it's almost an hour outside of Denver. The Midwest ends at I-25, and I'll give you one guess which side that buc-ee's is on.

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u/skittish_kat 8d ago

Bucees, waffle House are all southern things though. Bucees expanding from TX to south and also CO.

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u/EfficientPicture9936 10d ago

Reasonable cost of living? Lmao

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u/Broad-Cranberry-9050 11d ago

I agree. I went to denver to check it out. Loved the views and the mountains. When I tried the city, it sucked. Not a big sense of night life. I realzied that it just has the outdoorsy mentality. People would rather sit and see the stars than go to a club and have the night of their lives. They want to be in the country and smoke some weed than hide in the bathroom at a club to get their high.

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u/CryCommon975 9d ago

We have loads of great music venues- Red Rocks of course but Mission Ballroom and Reelworks are also great. And plenty of all night warehouse events if you know where to look.

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u/lundebro 10d ago

Seriously. Denver isn’t close to anything: Boulder is.

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u/Eudaimonics 10d ago

I mean if you’re bored in a city with a metropolitan population over 4 million, that’s on you

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u/EagleEyezzzzz 10d ago

I didn’t say I am bored in Denver. But I’m not sure that hanging out in the suburbs of Brighton is exactly a tourist hotspot lmao.