Why Denver?

Denver, Colorado is one of the only cities that we return to often and there are so many reasons why. Denver is known for it’s perfectly executed combination of urban-city-center-meets-outdoor-adventure. It’s ideally located within driving distance to tons of Colorado hot-spots, like Breckenridge, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Aspen, The Rocky Mountain National Park and more. It’s bursting with funky urban culture.

It’s incredibly easy to fly in and out of and it boasts not one but six professional sport organizations, including the Colorado Rockies (baseball), The Denver Broncos (football), The Denver Nuggets (basketball), The Colorado Avalanche (hockey) and the Colorado Rapids soccer). It’s no wonder we’ll take any opportunity we can get to make it out for a weekend in Denver!

We recently headed to Denver to see one of our favorite artists in concert for our seventh wedding anniversary and decided to make a weekend of it. We fit in as much as possible while also dragging around our then 5 month old! We were traveling with a friend who had never spent time in Denver so we managed to hit some of the more touristy attractions during our visit, as well as some of our classic favorite spots that we’ve come to know over the past few years.

If you’re looking for a weekend in Denver trip itinerary, look no further!

How We Got To Denver

One of the reasons that we love going to Denver is how simple it is to fly in and out of. Especially coming from Texas, flying to Denver is such a breeze. There are direct flights from Austin, Houston and Dallas for under 3 hours. Less time flying means more time exploring! We flew direct from Austin to Denver on Southwest and our 5 month old crashed across our laps for the entire flight.

Where Did We Stay in Denver?

Anytime we travel with kids we pretty much always opt to stay in an airbnb. Hotels can be so nice but while traveling with children having access to a kitchen and more space for them to explore is a huge plus. We stayed in an airbnb but we actually didn’t love the location or the airbnb itself so we won’t link it here.

What Did We Do in Denver?

Day one:

I’m going to share my number one travel tip but first I need to preface- this tip is not for everyone and that’s ok. I’m just all about getting the most out of our travels and so this is how we try and do that- book the early flight. I mean the eaaaaarly flight. It sucks getting to the airport at 5 am, I agree. But, getting an entire days worth of adventures in because you got out of bed at 4:30 am is worth it for us. And if we can make it happen with a 5 month old, I know you can do it too!

We booked a flight that landed at 7:50 am. Coming from Austin, it was a quick 2 hour flight and we were able to land and hit the ground running! No literally. Here’s my next tip- try your best to get to the rental car counter before everyone else on your flight does. There is nothing worse than landing in a new city and being so ready to get moving and then getting into the back of a rental car line and standing there holding your luggage for 30 minutes.

We don’t dilly dally when we are heading to pick up a rental car. You gotta pee? You’ll have to hold it.

By 8:30 am, we had our rental car keys in hand and were loading up the car.

The weekend we went had some snow in the forecast, we’ll get more to that later but because there was a chance of snow later in the weekend we decided that any hiking needed to happen the day we landed because it was 75 degrees and sunny and just absolutely perfect.

So we loaded up the rental jeep and headed straight for Boulder.

Boulder is the quintessential Colorado town, if you ask us. It’s in the valley of a mountain range, is perfectly walkable and is surrounded by all the outdoor adventure options you could dream of. It’s also home to Colorado University, which gives it a special kind of energy as a college town.

We got into Boulder around 9:15 and were starving. Luckily, Boulder has just about the cutest downtown area you could hope for and the breakfast options are plentiful. We chose a Denver classic and headed to Snooze.

Jackson ordered the sweet potato bacon smash up and it was incredible. I got the Goldilock’s porridge and it was juuuuuust right, if ya know what I mean.

After filling up on breakfast and getting a good nap in for Levi, we decided it was time to head to a hike.

There are times we seek out thrilling hikes with lots of challenges and hard to reach views but this was not one of those times. We knew we had a sleep baby on our hands and we knew we had a big weekend ahead of us so we opted to try to find a mostly easy hike that still offered great views and was a short drive from downtown so that we wouldn’t waste precious time driving.

We ended up doing the Chautauqua Trail and it was just what we were looking for. It offered great views of Boulder, enough challenge to make us feel like we worked for it but was easy enough to trek while wearing Levi without making us feel wiped. And one of the best things about it is that it was less than 5 minutes from downtown Boulder.

It was definitely a popular trail, so don’t expect lots of quiet alone time on this hike but it hit all the things we were looking for on this day! It was 1.5 miles from the parking lot, up the mountain and back down to the car and took us about 45 minutes.

View from the top of the hike of the city of Boulder

After a great hike, we decided to go ahead and head into Denver to get lunch at one of our favorite Denver spots, The Central Market. I absolutely cannot recommend this place enough. It’s like a glorified food court filled with food and drink for every craving. From buttery croissants from Izzio Bakery to fish tacos from Tammens Fish Market, you can’t go wrong.

Vero Italian in The Denver Central Market

I had been dreaming of a pizza we got a couple of years ago from Vero Italian and I headed straight to the counter to order a Bella pizza which has a glorious combination of fig, walnuts, ricotta, balsamic glaze and surely a sprinkle of magic that makes the whole thing melt in your mouth. Jackson ordered fish tacos from Tammen’s and couldn’t have been more content.

After adequately stuffing ourselves, we had some time to kill before we could get into the airbnb and decided to go checkout the Flagship REI in downtown Denver. Jackson is an outdoor gear nut and could spend entirely too long staring at camping gadgets and outdoor equipment and where better to do that than one of the biggest REI’s in the nation?

I have to admit, it was pretty awesome. It’s located in the restored 1901 Denver Tramway building and is 3 stories tall with a massive rock climbing wall in the center of the store. If you’re someone who enjoys staring at outdoor gear you may never actually purchase, it’s worth a trip to see the Denver REI.

After getting more than our fill of camping stoves and spending entirely too long staring at cycling equipment that we know nothing about, we decided to head to our Airbnb and let Levi get some much deserved rest.

We were so wiped once we got to the house we decided to stay in and take advantage of DoorDash and ordered some Korean fried chicken from The Ginger Pig.

Day Two-

We woke up day 2 a little sore and a little sleepy but ready to get after it and explore more of Denver! My sister-in-law and a friend flew in late the night before and our friend had never spent much time in Denver so we decided to spend the day hitting some Denver must-sees.

We started the morning at another favorite of ours, Olive and Finch. If you’re looking for a delicious breakfast with good coffee and a cool vibe, definitely check this place out. With multiple locations around the city, it’s easy to add this to your breakfast plans. We ordered a breakfast hash and a salmon tarttine to split. We also tried the Honey Lavender Oatmilk Shaken Espresso and I still haven’t stopped craving another one.

While we were eating, it started to rain pretty heavily so we had to shift the plans for the rest of the day indoors. We decided that it was the perfect weather to hit up a cozy book store so we headed to the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore. There are multiple locations around the city and it makes a perfect stop for book lovers, especially on a dreary day.

After buying too many books, we decided to head to another Denver must-see, the Denver Union Station. Built in 1881, it was once the largest building in the West, spanning 500 feet with a 180-foot clock tower at the center. Today, it’s filled with cute shops, a beautifully designed interior with lots of seating, shuffle boards, coffee shops, restaurants and more! Definitely worth a visit!

After playing a few games of shuffleboard, grabbing a couple cocktail at the Terminal bar and window shopping, we decided to head to lunch and check out the newish Denver Milk Market. Apparently, we have a thing for food courts.

There are lots of great options here but in my opinion, it pales in comparison to the Denver Central Market. Jackson did really like his fried chicken sandwich from Lou’s Hot and Naked Chicken pictured below.

While at lunch it started snowing pretty heavily and we got the most disappointing news that our concert had been canceled. With the snow picking up, we decided to head home and take it easy for the rest of the afternoon. We ordered dinner in again, this time we got incredible Mediterranean from Jerusalem Restaurant. Can’t recommend it enough!

Day 3:

We woke up on our last day to melting snow and sunny skies and headed straight to get breakfast at Bacon Social House. If you love bacon, you can’t miss this breakfast stop. I highly recommend the bacon flight, which is served on a tray with scissors to cut strips of bacon with. It’s also in a cool area with some other neat shops to take a look at.

After filling up on breakfast we decided that we wanted to spend some more time exploring Boulder so we made the short 30 minute drive. We hoped to get to see the Boulder Farmer’s Market but it had been canceled due to the snow. Instead, we spent a few hours roaming around downtown Boulder and window shopping to our hearts content. I’m not always a big window shopper, but there were so many great and unique shops to checkout out and Pearl street is really such a walkable adorable area that we spent the whole morning roaming around.

We got lunch at the cute and laid back Organic Sandwich Company and died over their homemade potato chips. After lunch, we headed back to Denver and grabbed some coffee at one of our favorite coffee shops, Thump.

We decided for another dinner in, headed home and ordered Illegal Petes for delivery.

Last Day

Our last day left time for breakfast and a quick stop before our afternoon flight. We couldn’t leave without checking out one of our favorites, The Denver Biscuit Company. You will leave this place very full and then you’ll compare every biscuit you eat for the rest of your life to their perfectly baked biscuits. If you love biscuits in any form- with jam, gravy or as a sandwich, you can’t miss out on this place! It’s so good that I didn’t think to take a picture of the beautifully in-tact biscuit so this is the best that I got.

After eating way too much, we decided to walk it off and headed to check out the beautiful City Park. The neighborhood it is in is a dream and the park is sprawling with open space and tall trees and more dogs than people, I think.

We left City Park and headed to the airport to head home after a fast but incredible trip to Denver. We drank lots of coffee, ate great food, played in the snow, bought too many books and saw so many of our favorite Denver stops. Denver really is a city worth visiting, in our case over and over again. We find something new that we love about it every time that we go!

Here’s Levi on our flight back to Austin, leaving this great city the exact way he came: passed out on mom and dads lap.

3 Days in Denver: Where to eat and what to do on a weekend trip