Start from 30 curated places around Glenwood Springs, CO, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Riviera Scratch Kitchen
Downtown Glenwood's consistent anchor restaurant — a scratch kitchen that won 20 local choice awards and uses seasonal, locally sourced ingredients for comfort classics like prime rib and beef Wellington alongside more creative seasonal dishes. The interior retains the old supper-club feel with a piano bar that still has live music on weekend evenings.
The Pullman
A chef-driven urban bistro on Restaurant Row that changes its menu seasonally and punches well above what you would expect for a mountain corridor town. It was named to Esquire's Best New Restaurants list and has maintained that ambition — the roasted bone marrow, truffled pork rinds, and natural wine list are the kind of thing you would find in a Denver Highlands neighborhood spot.
Trails & outdoors
Hanging Lake Trail
A 3-mile round-trip hike up Dead Horse Creek canyon to a National Natural Landmark — a turquoise lake perched on a limestone shelf fed by Spouting Rock waterfall. The trail gains 1,000 feet through enormous boulders and canyon walls; the final approach to the lake is the payoff. One of the most photographed spots in Colorado, which means the permit system is real and necessary.
Glenwood Canyon Recreation Trail
A 16-mile paved multi-use path through the narrow walls of Glenwood Canyon, running alongside the Colorado River and the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Built into the canyon wall during the I-70 construction in the 1990s, it is an engineering feat as well as a trail — the bridges and tunnels are part of the experience. Accessible for all fitness levels, with turnaround options anywhere along the route.
Things to do
Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park
Reached by aerial gondola from downtown, this mountaintop complex combines guided tours of the Fairy Caves (commercial cave tours here since 1897) with an amusement park at 7,100 feet — canyon swing, alpine coaster, multiple roller coasters, tower drop, and laser tag. The cave tours are the original reason the place exists and are worth doing for their own sake; the rides are the bonus that makes it a full-day option for families.
Glenwood Hot Springs Resort
The world's largest outdoor mineral hot springs pool, open daily, with two pools, waterslides, and a splash zone. The main pool is 405 feet long — long enough that it takes a moment to register the scale when you first see it. The resort also has a spa, fitness center, and hotel on-site. Swimming in a thermal pool surrounded by canyon walls with the Colorado River rushing past is a legitimately unusual experience.
Landmarks & sights
Glenwood Hot Springs Pool
The largest outdoor mineral hot springs pool in the world — two enormous pools fed by the Yampah spring that has been drawing visitors since the 1880s. The main pool is 405 feet long; the smaller therapy pool runs hotter and is quieter. It sits on the edge of downtown, walkable from the hotel strip and Restaurant Row.
Iron Mountain Hot Springs
Sixteen individual soaking pools carved into a riverside bench on the Colorado River, each running a different temperature. The setting is dramatically different from the big pool down the road — less lap-swim, more actual soaking, with the river current visible just below. Expanding in 2025-26 with additional plunge pools.