aquarium with restaurant (Landry's) · $$$ · since 1999
Downtown Aquarium
A million gallons of fish, a couple of tigers, and dinner beside a tank
It opened in June 1999 as Colorado's Ocean Journey, a $93 million nonprofit that went bankrupt within three years; Landry's bought it in 2003 and runs it as the Downtown Aquarium, part exhibit hall and part restaurant. The exhibits follow two rivers to the sea (Colorado and Indonesia) through more than a million gallons of tanks, plus a stingray touch pool, otters, a 4-D theater and, oddly, Sumatran tigers. The Aquarium Restaurant seats you around a 150,000-gallon tank. Adult admission runs about $28 to $30, which reviewers call high for a one-hour visit; Denver CityPASS knocks it down. It sits at I-25 and 23rd across the Platte, on the summer Denver Trolley line.
Why go. A dependable indoor two hours with kids when it is snowing or 98 degrees.
Buy tickets online or with CityPASS, go on a weekday morning, and skip the restaurant unless the tank view is the point; the food is average and priced for tourists.
A short walk from Downtown Aquarium
Fishback Landing Park
Small riverfront lawn on the Platte with benches and trail access
Platte Street & the bridge · 818 Water St
Centennial Gardens
A five-acre French formal garden that almost nobody visits
LoDo · 1101 Little Raven St
Denver Trolley
$A 25-minute open-air 'Breezer' ride along the Platte, run by volunteers
LoDo · 1406 Platte St
ParkConfluence Park
Where Cherry Creek meets the Platte, and where Denver started
LoDo · 2250 15th St
Cherry Creek Trail at Confluence
The below-grade bike path out of downtown, starting at the river
LoDo · Trailhead at Confluence Park
REI Denver Flagship
$$$Ninety thousand square feet of gear in the old tramway powerhouse on the river
LoDo · 1416 Platte St