Insight Guides Colorado

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight
• ISBN:
  9781786716941
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

The Rocky Mountain State of Colorado offers soaring peaks, world-class skiing and vibrant cities that lure travellers from all over the world to America's alpine heartland. Be inspired to visit by the new edition of Insight Guide Colorado, a comprehensive full-colour guide to the state.

Inside Insight Guide Colorado:

A fully-overhauled new edition by our expert Colorado-based author. Stunning photography that brings this fascinating country and its people to life. Highlights of the state's top attractions, including the Rocky Mountains, Denver and the San Luis Valley. Descriptive accounts cover the whole state from the Mesa Verde to the Eastern Plains. Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.

Insight Guide Colorado now includes the Walking Eye app, free to download to smartphones and tablets on purchase of the book. The app includes our independent selection of the best hotels and restaurants, plus activity, event and shopping listings.

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

'Insight Guides has spawned many imitators but is still the best of its type.' - Wanderlust Magazine

A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information

A

Accommodations

Colorado accommodations range from rustic cabins to extravagant resorts. Resorts, spas, and dude ranches are destinations in themselves. Make reservations well ahead of the high season – winter in ski areas and summer in mountain resorts. Budget travelers may find off-season discounts. Self-contained destinations will be the most expensive and, in Colorado, include ski-in and ski village resort condos and hotels, small boutique and restored grande dame hotels in historic downtowns, and national park gateway communities like Estes Park and Durango. Lavish resorts and dude ranches are in a category by themselves. Dude ranches, in particular, operate on a multi-day, all-in American Plan basis, including lodging, food, and all activities. You will find attractive, inexpensive, well-run campgrounds throughout Colorado, as well as some good hostels in places like Denver. Chain motels may be bland but they are reliable.

Admission charges

Admission is usually charged at both private and public museums and attractions and national and state parks. As a rule, entrance fees are $10 or under per person, although very popular sites, such as Rocky Mountain National Park and special traveling exhibits at nationally known museums, may charge as much as $20. Museums often offer free or reduced entrance fees certain days or evenings.

Consider buying multisite passes for attractions in Denver, if available. Local visitor centers and state welcome centers can assist you with planning and many also offer discount coupons, with excellent deals on local attractions, hotels, and dining.

National Park Passes

Most parks charge an entrance fee, usually $10–25, which allows unrestricted vehicle entry for a car and up to four passengers for one week. If you plan on visiting several national parks on your vacation, or to return within a year, you should buy America the Beautiful Annual Pass ($80). Passes are available at the entrance gate to national parks that charge admission or may be purchased online or by phone (tel: 888-ask-usgs.) If you wish to support a particular national park, buy your pass at the site, as the park will get to keep at least 80 percent of the fee. The pass offers access to all public lands managed by the National Park Service, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Reclamation.

B

Budgeting for your trip

The US remains a good buy for travelers, especially those traveling around by auto, where the main cost will be car rental, gas, lodging, and food, and you can search out bargains en route. You can save considerably if you camp, stay in budget motels, eat in hometown cafés like the locals, and purchase food direct from farm stands and farmers’ markets for picnics, easy to do in Colorado, one of the top ranching and agricultural states in the country. Boulder Farmers’ Market, for example, has an extraordinary selection of prepared foods, including wine.

Allow $80–100 a day for good-quality motels for two people; really memorable hotels and bed-and-breakfasts tend to run $125–175 per night and offer a good way to connect quickly with the local scene. .At the other end of the spectrum, you’ll find an array of attractive, well-run campgrounds throughout Colorado for $16–25 a night; hostels are often a great budget choice in Colorado (there are excellent ones in Denver and Salida) and tend to run from $30–50, depending on whether you bunk in a dorm or have a private room. Reliable budget chain motels are in the $60–80 range (look for AAA discounts and online deals at chains like Best Western and La Quinta).

You can probably squeak by with $30 per day per person for food, if you stick to basic diners, cafés, markets, farm stands, food trucks, and inexpensive restaurants, especially ethnic ones, and make breakfast your main meal, eating more lightly for lunch and dinner, and avoiding alcohol. However, if the high-elevation Rocky Mountain air doesn’t get you high, you can always tour Colorado’s many fine microbreweries, wineries, and distilleries to enjoy free and low-cost tastings of Colorado microbrew ales, wines, and even whiskey (Stranahan’s Distillery in Denver).

Meals in better restaurants cost a lot more, but if you’re determined to visit a famous high-end establishment and don’t have the cash, book for lunch instead: you’ll find many dinner menu items at much lower prices

Budget $2.50–$3 per gallon for gas costs for your rental car; most economy vehicles get over 30 miles (48km) per gallon, but if you plump for the four-wheel-drive (a good idea on Colorado’s rugged backroads at any time of year, and vital on most roads in winter), you’ll likely get only around 20 miles (32km) per gallon. Inexpensive or free trams, light rail, buses, and other public transportation are available in Denver and other cities, such as Trinidad and Grand Junction, as well as ski resort towns.

C

Camping

Most campgrounds in national and state parks and forests are now on a central reservation system (essential during peak summer season), with just a few campsites available on a first-come, first-served basis. Both www.recreation.gov and www.reserveamerica.com offer online campground reservations at public lands managed by 12 federal participating partners, including the USDA Forest Service, Army Corps of Engineers, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Archives & Records Administration. Colorado State Parks can be reserved by logging on to www.coloradostateparks.reserveamerica.com; tel: [phone]. Fees are charged for developed campsites; free dispersed camping is allowed in national forests. Permits are required for backcountry camping in parks.

Environmental ethics

Remember the old saying: “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.” The goal of low-impact/no-impact backpacking is to leave the area in the same condition as you found it, if not better. If you’re camping in the backcountry, don’t break branches, level the ground, or alter the landscape in any way. Make fires in designated places only. Otherwise, use a portable camping stove. When nature calls, answer with a trowel: dig a hole 6ins (15cm) deep and at least 200ft (60 meters) from water, campsites and trails. Take away all trash, including toilet paper. Ziplock bags and Dr. Bronner’s eco-friendly peppermint soap are a camper’s best friend.

Children

Two things about traveling with children: first, be prepared and second, don’t expect to cover too much ground – think quality not quantity. Take everything you need, along with a general first-aid kit, and wet wipes, and Ziplock baggies. Away from the Front Range and ski resort towns, Colorado is primarily a state of remote mountain towns, with limited supplies and often no nearby hospital. If you need baby formula, special foods, diapers, or medication, carry them with you.

Colorado’s Front Range communities, ski resort towns like Aspen in the Central Rockies, and Western Slope communities like Grand Junction and Durango have museums and activi...