Just got back from Denver this week as a matter of fact and here are a few tips.
Stayed at a "chain" motel a couple of days and it had BED BUGS which I am extremely allergic too. Then moved over to the Lexington Inn in Aurora. Very cheap like $75 total, I got a discount for my CDL. Very clean rooms, seemed really safe and family oriented and decent continental breakfast, but. No smoking rooms.
Used Payless for auto rental near the Airport, very reasonable like $135 total for 3 days included a tank of gas. Hyundai Accent, decent little car. AAA customer service and fast check in/out with airport shuttle service also very fast and convenient.
Must see.
Forney Museum. If you like antique cars, trains and bikes, it's well worth the $10 bucks. Beautiful old steam engines and antique train cars. Many beautiful and rare old cars, mostly family style not just Stangs and hot rods, mostly meticulously restored or even original family type cars. Model Ts all the way to 50s and 60s. And a beautiful collection of antique (early 1900's) Indian bikes and older Hondas that reminded of back when I was a kid riding. Lots of other unique items as well. Highly recommend doing the tour and take your time. I spent about 2 hours in there.
I'm a zoo guy so the Zoo was also very nice. I think it was only like $20 so also very reasonable. I didn't get a chance, but would have loved to visit Vail again since its been more than a decade. Probably completely different.
There is a ton of stuff to do in Denver. Rush hour traffic is a bear though, but the people are extremely nice. Customer service everywhere is awesome. The airport is huge. Like covers 53 square miles and inside it's similar to a mall.
Dispensaries are everywhere. I found that the "top shelf" wasn't any more potent than my own, but the variety is amazing and I think the flavors and taste were actually better than my own.
Tried some Watermelon flavored canna punch and it was very good for a day high. About 1/4 bottle didn't put me anywhere near over the top and it's perfect for going to the zoo or whatever. I did smell weed while at the zoo a couple of times but, there are children everywhere so I personally would not smoke around them like that. Edibles are everywhere and all the weed prices were extremely reasonable for the quality. Even $20 a gram top shelf is worth every penny. I did pick up a gram of rolled lower shelf, some kind of OG(Nightmare 5.7% I think) and the taste was superb and made for a perfect day high. Picked up some Mob Boss(20%) and it was a good relaxing evening and bed time high. My buds are tighter and stickier but I give both a solid 8 for the price and quality. My Amnesia is more powerful though. Near devastating, though I would compare the OG and boss more like my lemon skunk.
Not sure about transporting out of state. I am sure it happens all the time, guess just hope your not the one that gets caught. I don't need to, so not an issue for me. Best of luck to you.
The one thing I noticed and was pleasantly surprised is that, weed doesn't seem to be on the forefront of the locals minds. It's not like the world revolves around weed in Denver. The locals are just going about every day life like everywhere else and weed is acceptable. To most seems like it's just weed. That's the way I feel about it too. It is nice to have all of the choices.
Anyway, so much to do in Denver it's an amazing city to visit, dont really know if I would want to live there, kinda big for me. But, the ever ongoing construction and huge plants seems like it would be a good place to settle down and has a a lot of long term career opportunities. Aurora seemed like a cool suberb. The massacre that happened in the theatre was probably just isolated to that one crazy guy.
Anyway, unless your allergic to fun you should a great vaca there.
