Owners of Vail, Colorado real estate are generous, people-loving folks. As soon as the keys to some choice real estate in Vail are fumbling around in their pockets, the new owners find themselves wanting to share the beauty and invigorating Colorado Rocky Mountain experience with friends and family. Year after year, Vail homes become grand central for ski trips, hunting trips, hikes to wildflower meadows, mountain biking excursions, and other exciting adventures.
One of the exciting adventures to be sure to fit in is a trip to Denver attractions. Keeping in a recreational mode but organizing the whole crew to make better time, try the walking tour. Make that a 14-point walking tour as suggested by the Frommer’s publications, starting at the Civic Center Park on West Colfax Avenue at 14th Street. Choose to brush by each point quickly (2 hours) or to spend some time shopping, eating, and probing deeper into the history and heritage (all day). Note: Museums are closed on Mondays and holidays.
An oasis from another era, Civic Center Park extends over two square blocks and features a Greek amphitheater, fountains, statues, flower gardens, and thirty species of trees. To the south, is the Colorado History Museum, an interesting staircase-like building full of stories and artifacts from the “wild west”. The Museum includes fascinating facts and artifacts about Indians, cowboys, traders, frontiersmen, gold seekers, businessmen, farmers, and ranchers with splashes of mystery and intrigue exposed.
Next door is the Denver Art Museum. Designed by Gio Ponti of Italy and Daniel Libeskind of Germany, the building alone is a work of art. Inside are more than 35,000 pieces, including famous Western and American Indian collections. During Christmas season, look to the west side of Civic Center Park for the City and County Building—all aglow with spectacular colored lights. Walk further west one block and there is the United States Mint, a building resembling the Palazzo Riccardi in Florence, modeled in the Italian Renaissance style.
Cross over Colfax and go diagonally northwest up Court Place for two blocks to the city’s newest retail hot spot called the Denver Pavilions at the south end of the 16th Street Mall. A Hard Rock Café, a huge movie theater, and a Barnes & Noble Superstore are hard to miss. Continue three more blocks up the 16th Street Mall and go southwest on California Street past the Colorado Convention Center. Turn right on 14th Street and go two blocks.
The Denver Performing Arts Complex, anchored between 14th Street and Cherry Creek, Champa Street and Arapahoe Street, covers four square blocks. The entrance is under the huge 80-foot high glass archway. Inside are seven theaters, a symphony hall in the round, a voice research laboratory, and a smoking solar fountain.
Continue two blocks to Larimer Square, the old 19th-century Victorian commercial district with awnings, hanging flower baskets, and courtyards where Buffalo Bill Cody once lived. In fact, horse-drawn carriages still serve the area. This is a good place to eat at Rioja between 14th and 15th.
Take the walkway at the east corner of Larimer and 15th through Writer Square. At 16th Street, cross to the Tabor Center and its two-block long greenhouse. On the east side is a city landmark, D&F Tower, designed after the campanile of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Now go back seven leisurely blocks through the 16th Street Mall, the finest people-watching spot in the city replete with 200 red oak trees, fountains, outdoor cafes, restored buildings and skyscrapers, and hundreds of shops.
Turn left at Tremont Place and go a block. Across the street is the Brown Palace Hotel, one of the most beautiful grande dame hotels in the country. Built in 1892, its nine-story atrium lobby features a Tiffany ceiling. It is a great place to have tea or lunch. Continue across Broadway on East 17th Avenue two blocks to Sherman Street. Turn right and go two blocks south to East Colfax Avenue and get a better look at the State Capitol. Stand on the 13th step on the west side at 5,280 feet in elevation and look out over the Mile High City.
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