Planning a trip to Denver

Fast Facts

American Express -- The American Express travel agency, 555 17th St. (tel. 303/383-5050), is open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm. It offers full member services and currency exchange. To report a lost card, call tel. 800/528-4800; to report lost traveler’s checks, call tel. 800/221-7282.

Area Code -- Area codes are 303 and 720, and local calls require 10-digit dialing.

Babysitters -- Front desks at major hotels can often arrange for babysitters for their guests.

Business Hours -- Generally, business offices are open weekdays from 9am to 5pm and government offices are open from 8am until 4:30 or 5pm. Stores are open 6 days a week, with many also open on Sunday; department stores usually stay open until 9pm at least 1 day a week. Discount stores and supermarkets are often open later than other stores, and some supermarkets are open 24 hours a day.

Banks are usually open weekdays from 9am to 5pm, occasionally a bit later on Friday, and sometimes on Saturday. There’s 24-hour access to automated teller machines (ATMs) at most banks, plus in many shopping centers and other outlets.

Dentists & Doctors -- Dentist and doctor referrals are available by calling tel. 800/DOCTORS (362-8677). Ask-A-Nurse Centura (tel. 303/777-6877) provides free physician referrals and answers health questions.

Drugstores -- Throughout the metropolitan area, you will find Walgreens and other chain pharmacies, as well as Safeway and King Soopers grocery stores (which also have drugstores). The Walgreens at 2000 E. Colfax Ave. (tel. 303/331-0917) is open 24 hours a day. For the locations of other Walgreens, call tel. 800/925-4733.

Emergencies -- Call tel. 911. For the Colorado Poison Center, call tel. 303/739-1123. For the Rape Crisis and Domestic Violence Hotline, call tel. 303/318-9989.

Eyeglasses -- One-hour replacements and repairs are available at LensCrafters, in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center (tel. 303/321-8331).

Hospitals -- Among Denver-area hospitals are St. Joseph Hospital, 1835 Franklin St. (tel. 303/837-7111), just east of downtown, and Children’s Hospital, 13123 E. 16th Ave. (tel. 720/777-1234).

Maps -- The flagship REI, 1416 Platte St., Denver (tel. 303/756-3100), offers USGS and recreation maps, along with some state maps and travel guides.

Newspapers & Magazines -- The Denver Post (www.denverpost.com) is Colorado’s largest daily newspaper, and Denver's only daily since the Rocky Mountain News folded in 2009. A widely read free weekly, Westword (www.westword.com) is known as much for its coverage of local politicians and celebrities and its entertainment and dining listings. National newspapers such as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal can be purchased at newsstands and at major hotels.

Photographic Needs -- For photographic supplies, equipment, 1-hour processing, and repairs, visit Wolf Camera at one of its 18 Denver locations; the downtown branch, at 1545 California St. (tel. 303/623-1155; www.wolfcamera.com), claims to be the biggest single-floor camera store in the world. Another good source for photo supplies and film processing is Mike’s Camera, 759 S. Colorado Blvd. (tel. 303/733-2121; www.mikescamera.com).

Post Office -- The main downtown post office, 951 20th St., is open Monday through Friday from 7am to 10:30pm, Saturday and Sunday from 8:30am to 10:30pm. For full 24-hour postal service, go to the General Mail Facility, 7500 E. 53rd Place. For other post office locations and hours, check with the U.S. Postal Service (tel. 800/275-8777; www.usps.com).

Safety -- Although Denver is a relatively safe city, it is not crime-free. Safety is seldom a problem on the 16th Street Mall, but even streetwise Denverites avoid late-night walks along certain sections of Colfax Avenue, just a few blocks away. If you are unsure of the safety of a particular area you wish to visit, ask your hotel concierge or desk clerk.

Taxes -- State and local sales tax in Denver is about 7.75% (it varies slightly in neighboring counties and suburbs). The hotel tax is 10.75%, bringing the total tax on accommodations to about 18.5%.

Useful Telephone Numbers -- For a weather report, time, and temperature, call tel. 303/337-2500. Statewide road condition reports are available at tel. 303/639-1111. For information on possible road construction delays in the Denver area and statewide, see www.cotrip.org.

Neighborhoods in Brief

A 25-block area surrounding Union Station, and encompassing Wynkoop Street southeast to Market Street and 20th Street southwest to Speer Boulevard, this delightful and busy historic district was until recently a somewhat seedy neighborhood of deteriorating Victorian houses and redbrick warehouses. A major restoration effort has brought it back to life. Today it is home to chic shops, art galleries, nightclubs, and restaurants. Listed as both a city and a county historic district, it boasts numerous National Historic Landmarks; skyscrapers are prohibited by law. Coors Field, the 50,000-seat home of the Rockies baseball team, opened here in 1995.

Central Business District

This extends along 16th, 17th, and 18th streets between Lawrence Street and Broadway. The ban on skyscrapers certainly does not apply here. In this area you’ll find the Brown Palace Hotel, the Westin Hotel at Tabor Center, and other upscale lodgings; numerous restaurants and bars; plus the popular 16th Street Mall.

Baker

Two miles south of downtown and centered on Broadway and 1st Avenue, Baker is the funky heart of south Denver. It is home to some great nightlife and shopping, a few excellent restaurants, and plenty of tattoo parlors and used bookstores.

Far East Center

Denver’s Asian community is concentrated along this strip of Federal Boulevard, between West Alameda and West Mississippi avenues. It burgeoned in the aftermath of the Vietnam War to accommodate throngs of Southeast Asian refugees, especially Thai and Vietnamese. Look for authentic restaurants, bakeries, groceries, gift shops, and clothing stores. The Far East Center Building at Federal and Alameda is built in Japanese pagoda style.

Five Points

The “five points” actually meet at 23rd Street and Broadway, but the cultural and commercial hub of Denver’s black community, from 23rd to 38th streets, northeast of downtown, covers a much larger area and incorporates four historic districts. Restaurants serve soul food, barbecued ribs, and Caribbean cuisine, while jazz and blues musicians and contemporary dance troupes perform in theaters and nightclubs. The Black American West Museum and Heritage Center is also in this area.

Highlands

Perched northwest of downtown from 32nd to 38th avenues between Federal and Zuni streets, the historic, increasingly chic Highlands neighborhood is the most densely populated neighborhood in the city outside of Capitol Hill. Mexican and Italian eateries brush elbows with stylish boutiques and galleries. In the neighboring West Highlands neighborhood, the eclectic retail district centered on 32nd Avenue and Lowell Boulevard is one of the most vibrant in the city.

La Alma Lincoln Park/Auraria

Latino culture, art, food, and entertainment predominate along this strip of Santa Fe Drive, between West Colfax and West 6th avenues. It’s notable for its southwestern character and architecture. This neighborhood is well worth a visit for its numerous restaurants, art galleries, and crafts shops. Denver’s annual Cinco de Mayo celebration takes place here.

RiNo

Short for “River North,” this warehouse district northeast of downtown and south of I-70 is one of the hottest addresses in Denver, thanks to the artists, tech startups, markets, and other businesses that have taken up residence in said warehouses. The brick warehouses are interspersed with contemporary new commercial and residential developments.

Uptown

Denver’s oldest residential neighborhood, from Broadway east to York Street (City Park) and 23rd Avenue south to Colfax Avenue, is best known today for two things: It’s bisected by 17th Avenue, home to many of the city’s finest restaurants, and several of its classic Victorian and Queen Anne–style homes have been converted to captivating bed-and-breakfasts.

Washington Park

A grand Victorian neighborhood centered on the lush park of its namesake, “Wash Park” is one of Denver’s trendiest and most popular neighborhoods. Bounded by Broadway east to University Boulevard, and Alameda Avenue south to Evans Avenue, it features a good deal of dining and recreational opportunities, but little in the way of lodging. It is a great place, however, for architecture and history buffs to drive or walk past the grand rows of houses.

Capitol Hill

One of Denver’s most diverse and oldest neighborhoods lies just southeast of downtown. Capitol Hill centers on the gold-domed Capitol Building, encompassing Broadway east to York, and Colfax Avenue south to 6th Avenue. The north edge is improving after years of neglect and criminal activity, and now features such attractions as the Fillmore Auditorium and a lively restaurant-and-bar scene. There are several commercial and retail districts in the area, nestled amid Victorian houses and modern lofts and apartments. Also here are the Molly Brown House Museum (see chapter 6) and several lodging options, ranging from B&Bs to luxury hotels (see “Where to Stay,” below). You’ll notice that there are no old wooden buildings here. After a disastrous fire in 1863, the government forbade the construction of wooden structures, a ban that stood until after World War II.

Cherry Creek

Home of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center and Denver Country Club, this area extends north from East 1st Avenue to East 8th Avenue, and from Downing Street east to Steele Street. You’ll find huge, ostentatious stone mansions here, especially around Circle Drive (southwest of 6th and University), where many of Denver’s wealthiest families have lived for generations.

Glendale

Denver surrounds Glendale, an incorporated city. The center of a lively entertainment district that is home to a slew of topless clubs, Glendale straddles Cherry Creek on South Colorado Boulevard south of East Alameda Avenue.

Tech Center

At the southern end of the metropolitan area is the Denver Tech Center, along I-25 between Belleview Avenue and Arapahoe Road. In this district, about a 25-minute drive from downtown, you will find the headquarters of several international and national companies, high-tech businesses, and a handful of upscale hotels heavily oriented toward business travelers.

Getting Around

By Public Transportation

The Regional Transportation District, or RTD (tel. 303/299-6000; www.rtd-denver.com), calls itself “The Ride.” It operates bus routes and a light-rail system, with free transfer tickets available. It provides good service within Denver and its suburbs and outlying communities (including Boulder, Longmont, and Evergreen), as well as free parking at more than 60 Park-n-Ride locations throughout the Denver-Boulder metropolitan area. The light-rail service is designed to get buses and cars out of congested downtown Denver; many of the bus routes from outlying areas deliver passengers to light-rail stations rather than to downtown.

The local one-way fare is $2.25, seniors and passengers with disabilities pay $1, and children age 5 and under travel free. Regional bus fares vary (for example, Denver to Boulder costs $5. Day passes are $6.75. Exact change is required for buses, and train tickets can be purchased at vending machines beneath light-rail station awnings.

Depending on the route, the departure time of the last bus or train varies from 9pm to 2am. Maps for all routes are available at any time at the RTD Civic Center Station, 16th Street and Broadway, and the Market Street Station, Market and 16th streets. RTD also provides special service to Colorado Rockies (baseball) and Denver Broncos (football) games. All RTD buses and trains are completely wheelchair accessible.

Free buses run up and down the 16th Street Mall between the Civic Center and Market Street, daily from 6am to 1am.

The light rail is also useful for exploring downtown and the greater metro area. The C Line diverts from the main north-south D Line at Colfax Avenue, and it veers west and stops at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, the Pepsi Center, and Six Flags Elitch Gardens before chugging into Union Station at 17th and Wynkoop streets in lower downtown. The D Line continues along northeast through the east side of downtown before its terminus at 30th Avenue and Downing Street. The E Line runs along I-25 from Broadway to Lincoln Avenue in the south suburbs. The F Line connects 18th and California streets downtown with Lincoln Avenue. The G Line runs from Nine Mile in Aurora at I-225 and Parker Road to Lincoln; the H Line connects Nine Mile and 18th and California. New in 2013, the W Line connects downtown Denver and Golden. Projects are underway for lines to DIA and Boulder, but they will not open until 2016.

In 2010, the city installed numerous B-Cycle kiosks (http://denver.bcycle.com), which rent bicycles for a $5 daily fee plus fees for how long you use the bike before returning it to another kiosk. Check on the website for the kiosk locations—they are often right in front of prominent attractions, making this a viable means of getting from one place to another in the city.

The open-air Platte Valley Trolley (tel. 303/458-6255; www.denvertrolley.org) operates year-round. From May to October between noon and 3:30pm Friday through Sunday, there’s a 25-minute “Riverfront Ride” ($5 adults, $2 children under 13), which operates from 15th Street at Confluence Park, south to the Denver Children’s Museum along the west bank of the Platte River.

By Taxi

The main companies are Yellow Cab (tel. 303/777-7777; www.yellowtrans.com), Union Taxi (tel. 303/922-2222; www.uniontaxidenver.net), and Metro Taxi (📞 303/333-3333; www.metrotaxidenver.com). Taxis can be hailed on the street, though it’s preferable to call for a taxi or to wait for one at a taxi stand outside a major hotel.

By Car

Because cars are not necessary downtown, visitors can save money by staying downtown while in Denver, and then renting a car to leave the area. Most major car-rental agencies have outlets in or near downtown Denver, as well as at Denver International Airport. These include Avis, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National/Alamo, and Thrifty. Per-day rentals for midsize cars typically range from $40 to $100, although discounts are often available, and weekend and multiday rates can also save money. Four-wheel-drive vehicles, trucks, and campers cost more.

Parking Downtown parking-lot rates vary from around $1 per half-hour to $20 or more per full day. Many meters now accept credit cards, but not all.

Parking

It’s tough to get lost in Denver--just remember that the mountains, nearly always visible, are to the west. Nonetheless, getting around a city of half a million people can be a challenge. One element of confusion is that Denver has both an older grid system downtown, which is oriented northeast-southwest to parallel the South Platte River, and a newer north-south grid system that surrounds the older one.

The Official Visitors Guide, available free of charge from the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, contains a good map.

Main Arteries & Streets

It’s probably easiest to get your bearings from Civic Center Park. From here, Colfax Avenue (U.S. 40) extends east and west as far as the eye can see. The same is true for Broadway, which reaches north and south.

Downtown Denver -- North of Colfax and west of Broadway is the center of downtown, where the streets follow the old grid pattern. A mile-long pedestrian mall, 16th Street, cuts northwest off Broadway just above this intersection. (The numbered streets parallel 16th to the northeast, extending to 44th; and to the southwest, as far as 5th.) Intersecting the numbered streets at right angles are Lawrence Street (which runs one-way northeast) and Larimer Street (which runs one-way southwest), 12 and 13 blocks north, respectively, of the Colfax-Broadway intersection.

I-25 skirts downtown Denver to the west, with access from Colfax or Speer Boulevard, which winds diagonally along Cherry Creek past Larimer Square.

Outside Downtown -- Outside the downtown sector, the pattern is a little less confusing. But keep in mind that the numbered avenues that parallel Colfax to the north and south (Colfax is equivalent to 15th Ave.) have nothing in common with the numbered streets of the downtown grid. In fact, any byway labeled an “avenue” runs east-west, never north-south.

Finding an Address

North-South Arteries -- The thoroughfare that divides avenues into east and west is Broadway, which runs one-way south between 19th Street and I-25. Each block east or west adds 100 to the avenue address; thus, if you wanted to find 2115 E. 17th Ave., it would be a little more than 21 blocks east of Broadway, just beyond Vine Street.

Main thoroughfares that parallel Broadway to the east include Downing Street (1200 block), York Street (2300 block; it becomes University Boulevard south of 6th), Colorado Boulevard (4000 block), Monaco Street Parkway (6500 block), and Quebec Street (7300 block). Colorado Boulevard (Colo. 2) is the busiest street in the whole state, intersecting I-25 on the south and I-70 on the north. North-south streets that parallel Broadway to the west include Santa Fe Drive (U.S. 85; 1000 block); west of I-25 are Federal Boulevard (U.S. 287 N.; 3000 block) and Sheridan Boulevard (Colo. 95; 5200 block), the boundary between Denver and Lakewood.

East-West Arteries -- Denver streets are divided into north and south at Ellsworth Avenue, about 2 miles south of Colfax. Ellsworth is a relatively minor street, but it’s a convenient dividing point because it’s just a block south of 1st Avenue. With building numbers increasing by 100 each block, that puts an address like 1710 Downing St. at the corner of East 17th Avenue. First, 6th, Colfax (1500 block), and 26th avenues, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (3200 block) are the principal east-west thoroughfares. There are no numbered avenues south of Ellsworth. Major east-west byways south of Ellsworth are Alameda (Colo. 26; 300 block), Mississippi (1100 block), Louisiana (1300 block), Evans (2100 block), Yale (2700 block), and Hampden avenues (U.S. 285; 3500 block).

Getting There

By Plane

Denver International Airport (DIA) is 23 miles northeast of downtown, usually a 35- to 45-minute drive. Covering 53 square miles (twice the size of Manhattan), DIA has one of the tallest flight-control towers in the world, at 327 feet. The airport, which has 95 gates and six full-service runways, can handle around 50 million passengers annually.

Major national airlines serving Denver include American, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, United, and US Airways. International airlines include Air Canada, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Mexicana de Aviación.

Regional and commuter airlines connecting Denver with other points in the Rockies and Southwest include Alaska Airlines and Great Lakes Airlines.

For other information, call the Denver International Airport information line (tel. 800/AIR-2-DEN [247-2336] or 303/342-2000; TDD 800/688-1333; www.flydenver.com). Other important airport phone numbers include ground transportation, tel. 303/342-4059; lost and found, tel. 303/342-4062; paging, tel. 303/342-2300; parking, tel. 303/342-7275; police, tel. 303/342-4211; and security wait times, tel. 303/342-8477.

Getting to & from the Airport -- Bus, taxi, and limousine services shuttle travelers between the airport and downtown, and most major car-rental companies have outlets at the airport. Because many major hotels are some distance from the airport, travelers should check on the availability and cost of hotel shuttle services when making reservations.

The city bus fare from the airport to downtown Denver is $11; from the airport to Boulder and suburban Park-n-Ride lots, it is about $13. The SuperShuttle (📞 800/258-3826; www.supershuttle.com) provides transportation to and from a number of hotels downtown and in the Denver Tech Center. The SuperShuttle has frequent scheduled service between the airport and downtown hotels for $22 per person each way. Taxi companies are another option, with fares generally in the $50 to $60 range, and you can often share a cab and split the fare by calling the cab company ahead of time. For instance, Yellow Cab (📞 303/777-7777; www.yellowtrans.com) will take up to five people from DIA to most downtown hotels for a flat rate of $51.

By Car

The principal highway routes into Denver are I-25 from the north (Fort Collins and Wyoming) and south (Colorado Springs and New Mexico), I-70 from the east (Burlington and Kansas) and west (Grand Junction and Utah), and I-76 from the northeast (Nebraska). If you’re driving into Denver from Boulder, take U.S. 36; from Salida and southwest, U.S. 285.

By Train

Amtrak serves Union Station, 17th and Wynkoop streets (tel. 800/USA-RAIL [872-7245] or 303/825-2583; www.amtrak.com), in the lower downtown historic district. Denver is a stop for the California Zephyr (Chicago to Emeryville, California); there is one train daily in each direction.

By Bus

Greyhound, 1055 19th St. (at Arapahoe St.; tel. 800/231-2222; www.greyhound.com), is the major bus service in Colorado, with about 60 daily arrivals and departures to communities in and out of the state.