Suggestion for my scouting trip (Denver, Westminster: apartments, rent, condominiums)

[WiW]

Next month, we plan to spend 3 weeks in the Denver/Boulder area on a scouting trip to see if it is the place we want to move to. Since it is such a huge area, I would like to get some suggestions on places (addresses or intersections) to visit to get a feel for the area.

I have spent a lot of time reading this forum & the Boulder forum to get ideas for places that will meet our needs. (We are late 40s, married, no kids. Want a townhome/condo in a friendly neighborhood that's walkable. Job/commuting is not an issue, and we will own a car. We love hiking & bicycling)

In Denver, we plan to check out Capitol Hill, Highlands and Platte Park.

We will also spend time exploring Boulder, Louisville & Longmont.

This is a massive area to cover. Can you recommend specific locations (street intersections) in these neighborhoods/towns that would give us a feel for them?

Thank you

[thealansanders]

Capitol Hill is aimed at a younger crowd. Explore the areas just east of it and south. The Cheeseman and Congress Park areas out to Cherry Creek and Washington Park.

Colfax and Columbine - Great example of the most vibrant street in the city and to your north down the Espanade that runs past East High is City Park. Take a stroll and look at the fountains or visit the Tattered Cover book store. on the south side of Colfax.

11th and High - This is the Cheeseman Park. Lots of condominiums around here and a great park, even if it does still have dead people buried in it.

3rd and Detroit - The heart of Cherry Creek North. Walk around.

Kentucky and Downing - Washington Park.

Drive Broadway south from the city for a few miles or more to get a feel for that end of town.

Find the baseball stadium and then drive Walnut northeast until it ends. Quite a few industrial condos going up along that strip.

[vegaspilgrim]

3 weeks? Wow, that's a long time for a "scouting" trip! Or was that a typo and you meant 3 days?

[80skeys]

From downtown, drive due west across the river and drive around the immediate neighborhood to get a feel for a pretty cool part of Denver to live

[Katarina Witt]

Louisville is pretty small; you can cover it pretty well in a couple hours. Start at Main and Pine, look around downtown. Then go west on Pine to the newer parts of town.

[Snikt]

I was gonna say, 3 weeks wow. My scouting trip for this area was about 8 hours that I had on the front and tail end of flying out for a job interview.

I had done a bunch of on-line research, but driving around and just general checking the area out. Looking at a few apartments, etc..

[WiW]

Thanks all for the suggestions. They are a huge help.

Yes, roughly 3 weeks in the area. It is a vacation too. We'll spend time (ie. stay nights) in Denver, Boulder, Louisville, Castle Rock and Estes Park. We want to make sure that we like the area - that's the aim of this trip, and to find a 2 or 3 neighborhoods that we like. The earliest that we plan to put our house on the market is next spring - so we have time. We will also rent for a while after we move.

thealansanders: your tips are exactly what I was looking for. It will save us a lot of aimless driving & walking around though we plan to do that too.

80KsKeys - What's that area called? Is it Sloan Lake or the southern end of Highlands? If I take Speer across the river will I be in the neighborhood you mention? Tx.

Katiana, our friends in Louisville are going to show us around their town and Longmont. They don't know much about Denver or the other areas.

[WiW]

I would like to check out the Highlands and the Sloan park areas.

Any recommendations for a specific intersection or stretch of street that is most representative of the areas?

[WiW]

We just returned from our trip and I wanted to share my findings with you and thank you all again, for the suggestions.

In Denver, we liked three areas - Cherry Creek, Washington Park and West Highlands. We found the towns to the North of Denver, like Broomsfield & Westminster to be too suburban for our tastes and needs. The same with the one town we looked at to the South - Littleton. Capitol Hill and LoDo seemed too busy for our tastes.

The three Denver areas allow us to walk/bike to stores, seem to have a good community spirit, and are close to the activities of downtown Denver. Cherry Creek has condos/townhomes in our budget range. In Washington Park & West Highlands, we would probably give up the idea of a condo/townhome and buy a renovated single family house. We did see a few condo/townhomes in the Highlands, but the houses there appealed to us more. Obviously, Washington Park is more gentrified than West Highlands, and hence more expensive.

I loved the weather. DW was fine with it. We like the proximity to the mountains and outdoor activities in general. The library, museum, opportunities for entertainment & activities, food - all great. People were wonderful every place we visited. We did a lot of walking around and took every opportunity to talk to strangers, and picked the brains of our friends in the area.

Thanks again for all the information.

Now for the hard part. We need to let this all settle in and then make up our minds.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

WiW, thanks for giving us the feedback from your trip. Most people who come on this forum ask questions but never follow up to let everyone know how the trip went.

Looks like you've chosen some great areas. Good luck with your decision.