<p>Hi! I’ll be visiting Denver end of Oct for a convention. I’m not sure I can do activities that will take me even higher altitudes but would love shopping suggestions, moderately priced restaurants and just fun activities to do around town. Best way to get around–how and where does the local transit take you? Thanks!</p>
<p>Cherry Creek is a lovely shopping area with both a mall (upscale) and many blocks of nice shops- some of which are unique. I think you can get there by bus, but the train doesn’t go there. The downtown area is nice, too, if that’s where your seminar is. Lots of nightlife and restaurants now. There are many bike/walking paths throughout Denver if you enjoy getting outside. Also parks.</p>
<p>The Denver Art Museum is wonderful, and will have an exhibit called Becoming Van Gogh beginning Oct. 21. The nearby Clyfford Still Museum has a related exhibit. I also love the Denver Botanic Gardens; however, the end of October may not be the best time to visit. If you enjoy bookstores, the Tattered Cover is an excellent independent bookstore. A favorite Mexican restaurant in Denver is Lime.</p>
<p>Downtown is quite small, well, by ‘real’ city (Chicago, NYC, etc) standards, so you can navigate easily on foot. There’s some shopping on Larimer Square, along the main, pedestrian 16th Street and Denver Pavillions. All will be within easy walking distance if you’re staying downtown. As MomofWildChild says, the premium shopping is in Cherry Creek, there’s an upscale mall (Cherry Creek Mall) and an outdoor shopping area filled with boutiques and galleries across the street at Cherry Creek North. Ask your hotel if they can shuttle you there (maybe 15 minutes from downtown) although there are buses. There are fun/unique/vintage stores along South Broadway - you can take a bus and get off at Broadway/1st Ave & walk, then catch another bus to take you farther down Broadway to Antique Row. If you like sporting goods, check out the huge, impressive REI accross the river from downtown. It’s one of the biggest ones in the country; you can eat there and try their free climbing if you get bored 
Another suggestion - rent a car with some of your convention buddies and take a quick side trip to Red Rocks. It’s a magnificent natural amphitheater, has some easy walks around it, and offers fabulous views. Maybe 25-30 minutes outside downtown, but altogether a different world. You can combine Red Rocks with a lunch in the lovely nearby foothills town of Morrison. There’s a fun Mexican restaurant there called the Morrison Inn.</p>
<p>Great suggestions! Thanks! I’m taking notes and love all the suggestions!</p>
<p>Our whole family really liked the free shuttle that runs along the 16th street pedestrian mall down to the state capitol building. The Tattered Cover, which shyparentalunit mentioned, is on 16th St and is one of the great US bookstores. I’ll second the Botanical Garden, though that might take a car.</p>
<p>If you like seeing things being made, check out Hammond’s Candies. They make hard candies by hand, and there is a short fun factory tour. The gift shop is like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. </p>
<p>For breakfast, check out Snooze (where you can order a “flight” of pancakes instead of having to decide on one flavor, oh be still my beating heart :)) and Sam’s No. 3 (right off of that 16th street mall). Sam’s won’t have as long a wait time, but the portions are beyond huge. Everything we ordered for dinner at Watercourse, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant, was delicious, but we are still yearning after their Monti Pasta.</p>
<p>Denver’s was the first Natural History Museum I’d ever seen. A great memory.</p>
<p>Is the convention and hotel downtown? The Denver Mint, the Capitol (very much like the US Capitol in DC) and the Denver Art Musuem, and the Denver Library ar all in that area. Also the 16th St pedestrian mall, with a bus to ride when you need a break from walking.</p>
<p>Word of advice about the altitude… Drink water, water and more water. Our rental car place actually passed bottles out to waiting customers while talking to us about elevation sickness and assuring us the headache would fade. I didn’t realize I had one until they mentioned it too preoccupied with airport stuff. Sons went away in a couple hours but mine took longer and then I had a lingering sensation of having had a headache… Not at all unlike a hangover. But I promise it passes and we did just fine at even higher elevations when we joined the REI backpack trip we had flown out there for.</p>
<p>Aside from that we loved Denver! I regret not getting to the “Unsinkable Molly Brown” s house she was a remarkable lady. S preferred to do the Coors Factory tour, go figure.</p>
<p>The art museum is fabulous. The current Tattered Cover store is not the original one or the longtime next location, which was amazing. But it’s still a great bookstore. Cherry Creek is better shopping than downtown, but the downtown pedestrian mall and the free trolley is nice, and there are some good restaurants.</p>
<p>We did this tour the last time we were in Denver: [VISIT</a> DENVER | Denver Inside and Out](<a href=“Search for Denver Attractions | VISIT DENVER”>Search for Denver Attractions | VISIT DENVER) It was a lot of fun! Make sure you stop in at one of the Tattered Cover Book Stores [Tattered</a> Cover Book Store](<a href=“http://www.tatteredcover.com/]Tattered”>http://www.tatteredcover.com/)</p>
<p>This link has some other off the beaten track things to do - [Off-Beat</a> Denver Tours](<a href=“http://www.denver.org/what-to-do/attractions/off-beat-denver-tours]Off-Beat”>Off Beat & Unique Tours in Denver | VISIT DENVER)</p>
<p>ByeByeSavings’s comment about drinking water is spot on. The advice I read was to start drinking a lot of water a few days prior to arriving. Don’t know if that really made a difference but none of us had any altitude sickness.</p>
<p>Our hotel will be right downtown, I think on the mall. Thanks for the advice! Places to eat?</p>
<p>We like the Dazzle Jazz club (930 Lincoln). You should be able to get there by short cab ride.
[Home</a> | Dazzle Restaurant and Lounge](<a href=“http://www.dazzlejazz.com/]Home”>http://www.dazzlejazz.com/)</p>
<p>You can go there for a meal or just for drinks/snacks. The calendar lists some evens that have cover charge. The Friday lunch is neat. Sometimes formal (very impressive!) musicians, sometimes more casual intermingling of musicians but still great. </p>
<p>Recently we had our first Sunday Brunch there… $18 with an enormous spread of breakfast and dinner foods. Another $8 gets you unlimited mimosa, bloody mary, beer, wine (or I did one for $4). Plus nice music too.</p>
<p>If you make it to the Cherry Creek area, I heartily endorse the Cherry Cricket as a lunch stop. It’s been on Food Network a couple of times, and serves the best burger I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t know if you are a brew afficionado, but their microbrewery selection is fantastic as well.</p>
<p>The Brown Palace was where we enjoyed a great 25th anniversary dinner. It’s downtown, great food and prices were OK. Best to make reservations.</p>
<p>We also ate at Elways (walking distance of the Convention Center), which also had good food, somewhat pricey. There are some GREAT French restaurants in Denver near the Capitol, but not walking distance of the Convention Center.</p>
<p>If you love books, the Tattered Cover is a wonderful, cozy bookstore. It has a nice restaurant there as well (sorry name escapes me at the moment). It has a lounge area with sofas, coffee tables, and lovely coffee table books where you can have appetizers & drinks, or even your entire meal. When we’ve eaten there, the food was always nice. It was near Cherry Creek, which is a bus, cab ride or drive from the Convention Center.</p>
<p>We love Denver–lots of good places to eat, nice people and well-maintained city. Elevation can be an issue for folks who have respiratory issues–supplemental oxygen use is commonner there than many other places because of both the altitude and the awarenss of the Denver medical community of assessing oxygen saturation and benefits of supplemental oxygen for appropriate patients.</p>
<p>Also, be prepared for just about any type of weather. You can have sun, rain, hail or/and snow, all in the same day, with temperatures changing a great deal in a relatively short time–use layers.</p>