What to See in Boulder, United States: Free Audio Guide

Boulder, Colorado, brings together university culture, historic architecture, museums and the distinctive setting of the Colorado Chautauqua. For things to do in Boulder, explore the city’s cultural landmarks and campus attractions, from the Chautauqua Auditorium to Fiske Planetarium and the Museum of Boulder. Neywo also offers a free audio guide for Boulder with 10 narrated places.

What to see in Boulder

Chautauqua Auditorium

The Chautauqua Auditorium is one of Boulder’s most significant historic buildings. This wooden venue has hosted performances and gatherings since the first summer of the Colorado Chautauqua in 1898. Its programme has included lectures, musical performances, early motion pictures and modern films.

The building remains remarkably close to its original form, including its wooden interior. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Museum of Boulder

The Museum of Boulder preserves and shares the stories of the city and its people. It is operated by the Boulder Historical Society and holds more than 45,000 historical artefacts.

The museum also works with the Carnegie Library for Local History to help preserve more than 900,000 historic photographs and documents. Its current home is the former Masonic Lodge at Broadway and Pine, which was transformed through a substantial community-backed renovation.

University of Colorado Museum of Natural History

The University of Colorado Museum of Natural History houses the largest natural history collection in the Rocky Mountain region. Its more than five million artefacts and specimens cover anthropology, botany, entomology, paleontology and zoology.

The collection began in 1902, when Judge Junius Henderson became the university’s first curator. Today, it is housed in the building named after him, offering a broad look at natural history from ancient fossils to plant specimens.

Macky Auditorium

Macky Auditorium is a concert hall on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. It is one of the cultural landmarks included in Neywo’s walks through Boulder, linking the city’s university setting with its museums and historic buildings.

Carnegie Library for Local History

Boulder’s Carnegie Library has served the community since 1906. It was one of the many public libraries funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie across the United States and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Today, it operates as the Carnegie Library for Local History, a specialised branch of the Boulder Public Library system. Its intimate archive includes photographs, documents and other material relating to Boulder’s past.

First Baptist Church of Boulder

Also known as Pine Street Church, the First Baptist Church of Boulder is a notable example of Late Gothic Revival architecture. Built between 1925 and 1926, the brick church has an L-shaped plan and a three-storey square tower at the inner corner.

The tower contains the main entrance, marked by a pointed arch and heavy wooden doors. Its upper section features a detailed concrete belfry with a crenellated parapet, quatrefoils, corner piers and lancet openings with tracery. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

Fiske Planetarium

Fiske Planetarium has been a gateway to the cosmos on the University of Colorado Boulder campus since 1975. Its geodesic dome measures 65 feet across, making it the largest planetarium dome between Chicago and Los Angeles. The theatre seats 200 guests.

Its hybrid projection system combines a Megastar IIA optical projector with the 8k Digital Sky 2 system, creating a highly detailed image across the dome. Fiske presents fulldome films, live astronomy talks and music-backed laser shows, as well as public events connected with major NASA and astronomical happenings.

University of Colorado Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is the flagship campus of the University of Colorado system. Founded in 1876, it is a public research university with a strong scientific legacy.

Four Nobel Prize winners in physics and one in chemistry have been members of its faculty. The university’s physics department collaborates with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, while its aerospace engineering programme works with NASA. On game days, the campus also becomes the centre of support for the Colorado Buffaloes.

CU Art Museum

The CU Art Museum is located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. It adds an art-focused stop to the university’s collection of cultural attractions, alongside the natural history museum and Fiske Planetarium.

Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art

The Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art is no longer open. The museum closed permanently in 2017 after presenting a collection of American western art built over five decades. Its gift shop remained open for several years, closing in 2024 when the company moved its production facilities to Mead, Colorado.

Explore Boulder with a self-guided walking tour

A Boulder self-guided walking tour is a practical way to connect the city’s cultural landmarks without joining a group. Neywo offers two walking tours:

• Boulder from the Flatirons to Pine Street: 4.09 km, 94 minutes and six narrated stops, including Chautauqua Auditorium, the Museum of Boulder, the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Macky Auditorium, Carnegie Library and First Baptist Church of Boulder.
• Boulder under the stars: the campus and its planetarium: 4.44 km, 88 minutes and five narrated stops, including the Museum of Boulder, the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Macky Auditorium, Fiske Planetarium and the University of Colorado Boulder.

The walks focus on Boulder’s historic buildings, university campus and museums. They are a useful complement to exploring the wider Colorado region, with nearby destinations including Denver, Golden and Colorado Springs.

Download the Neywo audio guide for Boulder

Download Neywo to explore Boulder with two walking tours and 10 narrated places. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages, so you can discover Boulder’s museums, university landmarks and historic buildings while walking independently.