This past summer we took a trip to a few different places in Colorado. We scoured the DDF Colorado thread and read previous trip reports for activities and places to stay for our family. We wanted to share our trip so others can benefit. Enjoy!
Background: We were traveling with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 1 year old and spent a total of 9 days in Colorado - Colorado Springs, Vail, Dillon, and Denver.
Itinerary/TLDR:
- Garden of the Gods
- Indoor Playground
- Cheyanne Mountain Zoo
- Vail Farmer's Market
- Boating by Mt. Dillon
(thank you
@Joel for the inspiration and pictures from your trip report)
- Mt. Evans
- Denver Children's Museum
- Hammond's Candy Factory
Now for the details.
Day OneWe flew from NYC - DEN using AMEX points, getting 35% back because we chose the airline as our selected partner on AMEX Business Platinum card.
Since we really wanted a minivan or SUV, we had reserved a few cars on Priceline in advance and were hoping for an upgrade because of status. We didn't want to bank on the upgrade so were also considering doing a Pay Now on the flight so it would be cheaper. Priceline gave us a good rate for a minivan from this rental car agency Nu but then pulled it as we were confirming. Instead we used Expedia, got the same (or comparable) rate for a minivan and didn't need to Pay Now.
We took a shuttle to the rental car place, which was a good 15 minute drive from the airport, picked up our car and were on our way.
We drove straight to East Side Kosher Deli to have an early dinner and do some grocery shopping for the next few days. We planned an Instacart and Shipt order to meet us at the hotel so we just got the meats and yogurts we wouldn't have been able to get from those other services. After dinner we headed to our first stop:
Homewood Suites in Colorado Springs. (Booked with points) The hotel was dated but clean and nice and in a good neighborhood in Colorado Springs. (Down the street from a Starbucks)
Day TwoDay two dawned bright and early since we were still on Eastern time, after a hotel breakfast (cereal and pastries were Kosher) we headed to a Starbucks and started our day at the
Garden of the Gods. We chose Garden of the Gods over Red Rock so the kids could climb up the rocks, not really thinking they would actually do it. We were wrong, they absolutely loved the rock climbing pieces. We started at P1 (first parking lot) took a pretty picture and then realized we probably weren't in the right place since it was all paved paths and the rocks were really high. We climbed back into the car and drove till P7. There, we went to the trail on the right for a 5 minute hike to a huge rock formation where the kids climbed all over.
View from the rocks
![](https://i.postimg.cc/x8WrZ6Sk/20220824-104311.jpg)
Afterwards we wanted to find the place we saw in pictures of someone on the forum here (can't find exactly who right now so sorry about that) where the rocks form an O and you can see Pike's Peak in the distance. We got lost a few times trying to find the proper parking lot to hike there and ended up parking at P11 or P13. It was about a 10 minute hike and then a bit of rock climbing to the picture spot. When we were done and driving away we saw a parking lot P14 that was closer to the right trail (the trail you want for this is called Siamese Twins) and probably would've been a quicker hike. Oh well, now you know.
Siamese Twins with Pikes Peak in the background
![](https://i.postimg.cc/xTzVmVKL/20220824-121055.jpg)
We spent a good 3-4 hours there. The kids were getting cranky so we got back in the car, went to the hotel where we cooked a quick lunch on the Betty Crocker (chicken wraps) and continued our day.
Our original plan was to go to The Seven Falls at the Broadmoor. We ended up putting the wrong Broadmoor in first, drove there (about a 30 minute drive from the hotel), it was someone's house. When we got the correct place in Google Maps they said they were closed. Apparently because we went late summer they were only open during the weekend. We decided to go to
America the Beautiful Fantasy Playground.
It was not what we were expecting at all. While the park itself seemed to have interesting activities for the kids, there was absolutely no shade so all the slides and swings were hot and the only people there besides us were homeless. The bathrooms there also did not have any doors. So after 5 minutes we got back in the car and tried to quickly figure something else out. Since it was a really hot day (in the 90s) and we had spent a good chunk of time outdoors already we decided to go to an indoor playground.
Google quickly shared Monkeycos Indoor Playground in a mall. The mall was in a sleazy part of town and was really low class, however Monkeycos itself was really cute and nice. The kids had a fantastic time in there. They had a section for 0-3 with great toys and a section for older kids with slides, a ball pit, climbing things, a trampoline. It was great.
More to come...