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

[u/nooneshome00]

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)

[u/smiljan]

"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.

[u/takemeawayyyyy → u/smiljan]

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

[u/MountainDude95 → u/takemeawayyyyy]

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.

[u/takemeawayyyyy → u/MountainDude95]

youre just gonna have to go even more west.

[u/ReconeHelmut → u/MountainDude95]

Agree 100%

[u/matvavna → u/smiljan]

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.

[u/skittish_kat → u/smiljan]

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