Nice neighborhoods in Wheat Ridge, Lakewood or Arvada? (Denver, Boulder: house, established neighborhood)

[tarapaca]

My husband and I are planning to relocate to the Denver area this summer and would really appreciate some guidance about potential neighborhoods. We're late 40s, with kids in college, so school districts aren't an issue. We don't need to be close to bars, but access to a good range of restaurants and a decent coffee shop would be nice. We like quiet, established neighborhoods, with back yards large enough for some gardening. We also like cycling, so easy access to trails is ideal. We'd like to keep it under 350K but can go higher for the right place. Ideally we'd like an older house that hasn't been updated yet - definitely no flips with newly-installed granite counters in the kitchen, I hate those!

Based on the above criteria, do the suburbs I've listed sound like reasonable choices? Or are there others that we should consider? If so, I'd love to hear about them. Commuting isn't an issue, we're self employed. Would probably fly out of DIA twice a month, and have meetings in Boulder with the same frequency. Anything up to an hours drive to those places would be fine.

[2bindenver]

consider adding Superior, Broomfield - maybe Anthem in Broomfield or Erie.