Denver Vacation

One more thing, if you want to get some exercise and some beautiful views of the city, Denver City Park is for you.

And if you want to see the mountain range on a clear day go to Cranmer Park. Right behind the park, to the east, are some beautiful homes. The best part of the park is a map of all the mountains on the concrete behind the sun dial that you can match-up with the landscape so you know what you are looking at.

I've lived in Denver for 9 years... Here are a few of my recs:
-I agree. Rioja is great. If you're downtown, also check out Z Cuisine, as mentioned above, or Osterio Marco for a cheaper but delicious option on the same block.
-Fruition is pricey but amazing.
-Root Down is great, both for dinner or happy hour. Great atmosphere and food. Try the carrot gnocchi, if they have it.
-Lola is also great for brunch, dinner, or happy hour. Has a great patio that overlooks the city. Is Latin but not Mexican. Great stuff.
-For breakfast/brunch, I like DJ's Berkeley Cafe -- the best eggs benedict around and great atmosphere. It's my happy place in town. I think Snooze is over-rated. It's a very hipster place to go (I think) with long wait times. That said, folks love it.
-For a fun beer bar, check out Falling Rock on Blake (right by the Cook St School of Cooking, actually). It has a million beers on tap and beer folks love it. While you're there, go to the 1Up next door that's a fun arcade bar.

And, of course, make sure you head up to the mountains! March is the snowiest month so you can get in some great skiing, boarding, snowshoeing, etc.... I'd go to Breckenridge if it's your first time up.

If you are interested in a little road trip, Garden of the Gods is remarkable. About an hour's drive south of Denver.
Add on a drive up Pikes Peak which is in the Colorado Springs neighborhood of Garden of the Gods. Pikes Peak also has a cog you can take up which we found to be incredibly boring. Driving is much more fun and interested. http://pikespeak.us.com/Activities/drive-to-the-summit.html

Rioja is excellent. and we enjoyed a fabulous meal in the dining room at the Brown Palace Hotel. You might also like to look into dining or a cooking class at the Cook Street School of Cooking. We had a great dinner there, as well.

my husband is super excited about all the craft beers denver has to offer! i know we will probably spend a fair chunk of time enjoying those. he also bought me tickets to see my favorite bands playing at the Ogden Theatre (ALO - they are out of california and Galatic out of NOLA).

he is a big meat and potatoes (typical midwesterner) but he is willing to try new things. he loves duck, seafood galore and good steak. i love every type of food no questions asked.

any good happy hour spots?

I'll second the suggestion on Frasca over in Boulder. Really great Friuli style cooking.

i keep reading articles about this breakfast joint "snooze". anyone heard of it? is it worth all the hype?

make sure to try the food trucks downtown, unless they close up for the winter, but i doubt it since they are used to cold and snow.

If you like French food, I would refer you to my absolute favorite restaurant in Denver: Z Cuisine. It's a bistro style restaurant, casual, but with a ton of character. Next door the restaurant owns an absinthe bar. http://zcuisineonline.com/

I live in Boulder, and if you have a car Boulder has a nice downtown pedestrian shopping are with lots of character and boutiques- Pearl Street. It runs east/west and there are a lot of good restaurants like Frasca (pretty famous Italian cuisine based on Friuli). Boulder is a casual town, with lots of farm to table dining (The Kitchen on pearl is also good).

The Denver Art Museum is nice, and if you're a book lover the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver is a fun place to go.

The Cafe Westword is a Denver publication you might find helpful when picking restaurants and stuff.
http://blogs.westword.com/cafesociety/

Maybe if you share the kind of activities and food you enjoy I can help you more? You're going to have a great time out here!

Luciles is really good (http://www.luciles.com/) Creole food. They have multiple locations, I've been to the ones in Boulder & Longmont but I believe there is one in Denver proper. Really good breakfast. And Sushi Den is also great, as I mentioned before. They have a sister restaurant in Fukuoka and they fly in their fish every day. I'm sure someone else can give you some more suggestions - I haven't been there in over a year so I'm a little rusty.

If you like skiing then head on up to the mountains. The resorts will still be open in March!

we're from good old Columbus, OHIO! columbus has pretty diverse food selection...we're open to trying anything new!

Where are you from? When I go to Denver I love to eat at Sushi Den but I live in New Mexico and we don't have a lot of good sushi around here. If you live in a big city, I wouldn't recommend it then because you have plenty of good sushi available to you all the time. Also what time of year are you going? Summer or winter?