36 Hours in Denver

Grab a North Carolina-style biscuit of the day (in flavors like feta-oregano or graham cracker, from about $2) at the brick-walled Rise & Shine Biscuit Kitchen and Cafe, tucked away on a north Denver side street, then walk a few blocks to Sloan’s Lake Park. Stroll the 2.6-mile loop around the park’s fist-shaped lake, Denver’s biggest, sharing the path with runners, wanderers, and the occasional bike or scooter, taking in the view of the sometimes snow-capped Rockies to the west and the city skyline to the east.

Farther north, explore eclectic shops and cafes on and around the fast-developing Tennyson Street in the Berkeley neighborhood. Pop into the locally owned Inspyre Boutique, which screams “stylish cowgirl” with fedoras in earthy tones and an extravaganza of denim, and the new-and-used outdoor-clothing-and-gear specialist Feral. Pass an hour meditatively scratching tiny ears at the Denver Cat Company ($15 entry, discounts for kids, reservations recommended), run by Denver Cat Rescue, then stop by the Historic Elitch Theater, where both Douglas Fairbanks and Grace Kelly performed before they were movie stars. Preservationists have maintained the blue, 1890s-era building, showing movies and, occasionally, plays and giving tours in the summer. Then relax at Convivio Cafe, opened in 2022, with a chocolatado ($5), an espresso drink packed with chocolate crumbles, befitting the co-owner Vivi Lemus’s Guatemalan heritage.

Stick to northwest Denver, where dinner options abound. Two Hands, an Australian brunch-and-dinner spot in a recently reborn plaza at Tennyson and 41st, serves fresh and healthy bowls, like one with salmon and quinoa ($25), as well as a macadamia-nut-pesto cavatelli ($21). Note: The lively dining room can border on loud. Not far away, Tocabe will satisfyingly stuff you with American Indian classics like fry bread filled with meat, beans, cheese and housemade salsas ($11 to $16.50). Or return to Sloan’s Lake Park for Gusto, a sleek new Italian restaurant on the first floor of a condo building, with tall windows overlooking the lake. The pizza-and-pasta-heavy menu has delightful flashes of fruit: The summer harvest salad ($14) is juicy with peaches from Palisade, the western Colorado town known as a fruit paradise, and lemon confit is the star ingredient in the Amalfi pie ($19).

Go back in time with a concert at the 97-year-old Oriental Theater, with an old-school marquee, in Berkeley (tickets from $10 to $500). It’s one of Denver’s many classic theaters, including the 1930s-era Mayan on South Broadway and the 1920s-era Gothic in suburban Englewood. Or enter a strange future at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station, a trippy, 95,000-square-foot immersive-art museum that opened southwest of downtown in 2021. It’s a mesmerizing place to spend a few hours, especially with kids, interacting with Seussian animal mutations and pastel-colored laundry machines, opening endless doors to rooms with so many LED and neon lights that adults may need to recover in the on-site bar afterward. Tickets from $50. It also contains a concert venue, the Perplexiplex. Best to Uber or Lyft; the nearby parking lots fill up quickly because of their proximity to Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos.