Start from 120 curated places around Denver, CO, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Rougarou
Bayou-leaning Southern from the Yacht Club bar team, opened in a Five Points storefront with an open kitchen and a late-night counter. Acidity and pickling temper the heaviness of classic Cajun cooking, and the cocktail program rivals any bar in town.
Welton Street Cafe
Black-owned soul food and Caribbean kitchen on Welton, serving Five Points for 40-plus years before settling into a bigger space with a full bar. Smothered chicken, oxtail, jerk pork, and a regular crew of regulars who know the family.
Trails & outdoors
Mount Falcon Park
Foothills park above Morrison with three trailheads and the ruins of a 1900s castle on a saddle. The Castle Trail loop is the local benchmark for a moderate-hard half-day hike with skyline-meets-mountains views.
Lookout Mountain Nature Center and Preserve
Free interpretive center and 110-acre nature preserve atop Lookout Mountain in Golden, with the Buffalo Bill grave just up the road. Easy walking trails for kids and the climb up Lookout Mountain Road is a classic Front Range cycling test.
Things to do
Denver Art Museum
Two architecturally striking buildings — Gio Ponti's tile-clad fortress and Daniel Libeskind's titanium prow — connected by an underground passage. American Indian, pre-Columbian, and Western American collections are world-class.
Clyfford Still Museum
Single-artist museum in the Golden Triangle holding 93 percent of the abstract expressionist's lifetime output. The cast-concrete building is a short, focused visit, ideal as a counterpoint to the larger DAM next door.
Landmarks & sights
Colorado State Capitol
Gold-domed seat of state government with a free walk-up rotunda and a wraparound dome balcony that delivers the cleanest mountains-meets-skyline view downtown. The mile-high markers embedded in the west steps are the photo most visitors come for.
Denver Botanic Gardens
Twenty-three-acre walled garden in Cheesman with 42 themed beds, a steel-and-glass tropical conservatory, and a sunken summer concert amphitheater. The Japanese Garden and Mordecai Children's Garden roof reward an unhurried half day.