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Find: Hotels, Camping,
Golf, Photos, Maps, Activities, Real Estate
& Visitor Information for
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Nestled
below the impressive summit of 14,000 ft. Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs is
home to the US Air Force Academy. The city boasts numerous
attractions for visitors to enjoy -- including white water rafting, Royal
Gorge, the historic district of Manitou Springs, and the Pike National
Forest. Garden of the Gods, pictured here, is a favorite with locals and
 visitors alike. We
recommend you spend at least 2-3 days when visiting the Colorado Springs
area in order to take it all in. Colorado Springs,
Colorado’s second-biggest city, is just an hour’s drive down I-25 from
Denver, but it has a character all its own.
In contrast to the rough-and-tumble mining towns in the state’s early
history, Colorado Springs was first envisioned as a genteel resort
community. The region’s dry, pleasant climate and impressive natural
surroundings (including thermal waters in adjacent Manitou Springs) drew
people to the area for rest, relaxation and recuperation from illness. The
ritzy reputation never really took hold, but over 130 years later, the
city remains true to its beginnings - its more than six million annual
visitors make tourism the metropolis’s third-largest industry.
Among the most popular
attractions are Pikes Peak, a 14,000-foot mountain that towers in the city’s
background; and the Royal Gorge Bridge, the
highest suspension bridge in the world.
Travelers on the lookout
for leisure will find plenty of other ways to fill their days: Colorado
Springs offers 17 golf
courses, an elaborate system of city parks, and a multitude of
rafting and biking opportunities. And, with 13,000 hotel rooms, the city
provides a diversity of accommodation options, from roadside budget hotels
to the historic five-star Broadmoor resort. Visitors booking hotels
in Colorado Springs should be sure to plan ahead in summer: May
graduation at many area colleges marks the beginning of a busy season that
doesn’t end until Labor Day.
The Pikes Peak region is
clearly a major tourist draw, but for its approximately half a million
residents and countless business establishments, it is also home. Indeed,
the number of organizations headquartered in Colorado Springs gives the
phrase “home town” a whole new meaning. The U.S. Olympic Training
Center (plus USA Volleyball, USA Basketball and the U.S. Figure Skating
Association and museum), NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command),
and the million-dollar nonprofit Focus on the Family are just a few of the
groups calling “The Springs” home.
But, the city’s most
famous manmade landmark is undoubtedly the U.S. Air Force Academy, which
alone pulls in more than a million visitors per year. This popular
attraction, along with other area military enterprises, also has a
profound influence on Colorado Springs’s economy and culture. In fact,
by some estimates, nearly a third of the city’s population consists of
active or retired military personnel.
A conservative ideology, modest downtown landscape, and lack of such
facilities as a civic center can give this medium-sized city a small-town
feel. That feel, however, is tempered somewhat by the smattering of Indian
and Thai restaurants, Irish brewpubs, Native American art galleries and
high tech companies around town.
The spacious city is
oriented along I-25, with the Air Force Academy on the north end of town,
the Broadmoor and Cheyenne Mountain on the south, and Academy Blvd.
wrapping around to connect the two. Most other visitor attractions are
located somewhere between.
Tourist amenities such as
bars, restaurants and hotels can be found clustered together in a few
areas - downtown, North Academy Blvd., and the historic districts of Old
Colorado City and Manitou Springs. But, as in most Colorado towns,
visitors here should rent a car to best take advantage of the area’s
geographically-dispersed offerings.
Visit
Colorado Vacation Homepage
This page last updated:
05/15/06
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