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

Looking for things to do in Denver? Colorado’s capital brings together museums, historic buildings, civic landmarks, sports venues, gardens and distinctive neighbourhoods. It is also a practical base for discovering more of Colorado, with Neywo’s free Denver audio guide offering 119 narrated places.

What to See in Denver

Colorado State Capitol and Civic Center

Denver’s Civic Center is one of the city’s key sightseeing areas. The Colorado State Capitol stands among major public spaces and cultural institutions, including Civic Center Park and the Denver City and County Building. The area is included in Neywo’s “A Mile High: Capitol and Civic Center” walk, which connects 11 narrated stops over 3.17 km.

Nearby, the Denver Art Museum offers a broad introduction to art from around the world. Its collection contains more than 70,000 works and is particularly known for Indigenous Arts of North America and Western American art. The museum began in 1893 as the Denver Artists’ Club. Its campus includes the Martin Building, designed by Gio Ponti and opened in 1971, and the Frederic C. Hamilton Building, designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2006.

The Clyfford Still Museum focuses on the work of abstract expressionist Clyfford Still. Its collection includes 3,125 works, representing 93 percent of the artist’s lifetime output, as well as his complete archives. Nine galleries, archive displays, an art studio and visible conservation areas make the museum a focused stop in Denver’s cultural district.

Denver’s art museums

The Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art presents paintings, sculpture and decorative objects in intimate, room-like displays. Its three main collections cover international decorative art, regional art with a strong emphasis on Colorado artists, and the work of Vance Kirkland. The museum holds more than 3,500 decorative art pieces and 400 paintings and sculptures.

The American Museum of Western Art – The Anschutz Collection traces American Western art across nearly two centuries. Founded in 2010, it is the permanent home of The Anschutz Collection, which began as a private collection and now surveys Western art from the early nineteenth century to the present.

For a different kind of museum experience, the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls And Toys brings together more than 20,000 objects dating from 1680 onward. The private nonprofit museum was founded in 1981 and moved to its current location in Lakewood in 2020.

History Colorado Center and the Denver Firefighters Museum

The History Colorado Center explores the history of the state. It opened at 1200 Broadway in Denver on April 28, 2012, and is one of the stops on Neywo’s Capitol and Civic Center walk.

The Denver Firefighters Museum occupies the former Fire Station No. 1, built in 1909 by architect Glen W. Huntington. The Denver Landmark has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. Inside, four galleries explore firefighting tools, protective equipment, communication systems, fire apparatus and the development of fire suppression methods. The museum preserves more than 30,000 artefacts, photographs and manuscripts.

Historic chapels and religious buildings

Denver’s religious buildings reflect several layers of the city’s history. Emmanuel Shearith Israel Chapel, also known as Emmanuel Gallery, was built in 1876 on the Auraria Campus and is Denver’s oldest surviving church building. It began as an Episcopal church, became a Jewish synagogue in 1903 and now serves as an art gallery.

Capitol Hill offers another concentration of historic architecture. The neighbourhood includes the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Temple Emanuel, the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness and several churches included in Neywo’s “Gilded Age Capitol Hill: Mansions and Cathedrals” walk. The 4.32-km route has 11 narrated stops.

Molly Brown’s Denver

Avoca Lodge, also known as the Molly Brown Summer House, was the summer retreat of Margaret Brown and her husband, James Joseph Brown. Located near Bear Creek in southwest Denver, the property has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since January 26, 1990.

The Molly Brown House is also one of the stops on Neywo’s Capitol Hill walk, alongside the Peabody-Whitehead Mansion, Crawford Hill Mansion and the Colorado Governor’s Mansion. Together, these buildings show the grand residential character associated with Denver’s late nineteenth-century development.

LoDo, Union Station and Larimer Square

Lower Downtown, or LoDo, brings together railway history, older commercial buildings and major city attractions. Union Station is one of the stops on Neywo’s “LoDo: Rails, Baseball and Old Larimer Street” walk, which covers 3.69 km and includes nine narrated places.

Larimer Square is another central landmark, known for its historic buildings and connection with Denver’s older commercial district. The route also includes Confluence Park, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Sakura Square and Coors Field.

Denver’s museums for families and science

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science explores anthropology, geology, health science, paleontology, space science and zoology. Established in 1900, it occupies a 716,000-square-foot building containing more than one million objects, including natural history and anthropological materials. Its programmes include exhibitions, films at the Infinity Theater, lectures, classes and special activities.

The Children’s Museum of Denver at Marsico Campus is designed for children from newborns through age eight and their caregivers. Its nine-acre downtown campus includes a 46,902-square-foot building with 20 exhibits. The museum emphasises active participation, including the WillitWorks prototyping area, where children and adults can help create and test exhibits.

Denver Botanic Gardens and City Park

Denver Botanic Gardens occupies 23 acres in the Cheesman Park neighbourhood. Its themed plant displays, conservatory, paths and sunken amphitheatre create a varied outdoor visit.

Dryland Mesa began in 1986 as the world’s first Xeriscape Demonstration Garden and presents drought-tolerant plants from the arid West and Mediterranean regions. Shofu-en, the Japanese Garden, was designed by Koichi Kawana in collaboration with Kai Kwahara. The Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory, built from concrete and Plexiglas panes, received landmark status in 1973.

City Park offers a different setting, with lakes, the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Neywo’s “City Park: Lakes, Zoo and Museums” walk covers 1.72 km and has four stops. There is also a 1.3-km bike route through the same area.

Sports and transportation

Ball Arena is one of Denver’s main indoor sports venues. Formerly known as the Pepsi Center, it opened in 1999 and is home to the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Mammoth. Its atrium contains a suspended sculpture showing athletes in hockey and basketball poses, while the central scoreboard has two large centre screens and two smaller end screens.

The Colorado Sports Hall of Fame is located at Gate Number One on the west side of Empower Field at Mile High. It celebrates people whose achievements, leadership and dedication have shaped sport in Colorado. The museum became a physical institution in August 2001, when the stadium that houses it opened.

The Forney Transportation Museum presents around 800 exhibits under the slogan “Anything on Wheels.” Its collection includes buggies, motorcycles, steam locomotives, aircraft, carriages, rail equipment, fire apparatus and public transport. Notable objects include Union Pacific Big Boy Steam Locomotive Number 4005, Amelia Earhart’s 1923 Kissel Gold Bug, a Forney Locomotive, a 1923 Hispano-Suiza and an 1888 Denver Cable Car.

Explore Denver with Neywo’s free audio guide

Neywo offers a Denver self-guided walking tour experience with six walking tours, one bus route and one bike route. Across the city, the app includes 119 narrated places, with narration available in 11 languages.

The walks range from the 2.38-km, 76-minute route through downtown stages, skyscrapers and the Big Blue Bear to the 4.32-km, 116-minute Capitol Hill route. Other options include the 3.17-km, 99-minute Civic Center walk, the 3.69-km, 93-minute LoDo walk, the 1.72-km, 43-minute City Park walk and the 3.29-km, 71-minute Cheesman Park and Botanic Gardens walk.

The bus route covers 7.4 km in 32 minutes and has 11 narrated stops. The bike route covers 1.3 km in six minutes and has four stops. Neywo tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Download the app and explore Denver independently, from the museums of Civic Center to the gardens, historic neighbourhoods and sports venues of the Mile High City.