11 Days In Colorado Springs – Here’s What We Did

After finishing up in Arizona, Shae, Truffles and I made our way to our next state on our 50 state road trip – Colorado. Our first stop was in Colorado Springs where we stayed for 11 nights.

This wasn’t our first time visiting Colorado Springs. We stayed in Pueblo, CO early on during the pandemic in 2020 and did a few outdoor activities in and around Colorado Springs, plus we’d stopped there overnight many years ago when driving from Virginia to California.

Here’s a roundup of what we did in Colorado Springs, from where we stayed to the activities we did and where we ate and drank.

Where We Stayed

We stayed all 11 nights at the Hyatt House Colorado Springs. It was great value when using points as it was only 5,000 World of Hyatt points per night, but a lack of hot water for our entire stay, internet that didn’t work and the worst hotel TV we’ve had in four years of living in hotels meant it wasn’t as good a stay as we’d been hoping. Here’s our full review.

What We Did

The Broadmoor Seven Falls

The Broadmoor Seven Falls is a set of seven waterfalls in one. You have to pay to visit, but it’s worth the investment as we had a great time. The landscape is beautiful, there’s a good challenge with two sets of lengthy stairs (one to the top of the falls and the other set to view the falls from a distance) and it’s pet-friendly which meant our dog Truffles got to join us for the trip. See this post for more about The Broadmoor Seven Falls.

Garden Of The Gods

We didn’t go to Garden of the Gods during this latest visit, but we went there last year while staying in nearby Pueblo, so I wanted to include that here in case you plan a trip to Colorado Springs in the future. It’s a simply beautiful place with lots of hiking trails, outstanding natural beauty and all kinds of rock formations. Here’s more about Garden of the Gods.

Paint Mines Interpretive Park

Paint Mines Interpretive Park was another place we visited in 2020. It’s about 45 minutes outside of Colorado Springs and features all kinds of colored rock formations – check out this post I wrote about it at the time.

Helicopter Flight

This was the other activity we did in Colorado Springs last year. It was both of our first times flying in a helicopter, so it was both exciting and a little nervy, but well worth it.

Shae had booked it for my 40th birthday after her original plans for my birthday had fallen through due to COVID. It was a tremendous experience as it took us around the Colorado Springs area and towards Pike Peak. The views were incredible and is something I’d highly recommend doing – here’s more about our experience.

Pulpit Rock Park

Only a couple of miles away from our hotel was Pulpit Rock Park, so we went for a 2.5 mile walk/hike there one afternoon. It had some nice views, but there’s very little shade, so be aware of that if heading there on a hot day.

Money Museum (American Numismatic Association)

Colorado Springs is home to the American Numismatic Association Money Museum which is, as the name suggests, a museum all about money. It tells the history of money and how it’s evolved over centuries and millennia, from coins to metal sheets to stones to shells to beaver pelts to notes and more.

Manitou Cliff Dwellings

Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a huge tourist draw, but Shae and I both found the experience underwhelming. I guess we’d been treated with all the cliff dwellings and Ancestral Puebloan homes we’d seen in New Mexico earlier this year, but even if we hadn’t seen them I’m not convinced we’d have enjoyed Manitou Cliff Dwellings.

It felt overly commercialized and isn’t something we’d recommend visiting over other places in the Colorado Springs area, although it was nice that it was pet-friendly.

Manitou Springs

Although we didn’t enjoy Manitou Cliff Dwellings, we did love Manitou Springs. This is a cute little town to the west of Colorado Springs which we’d first visited about a decade ago on our way through Colorado.

With boutique stores and active springs you can drink from, it’s somewhere that’s definitely worth checking out.

Old Colorado City

While in Pueblo last year, someone saw our website on the back of our car and got in contact to give us some suggestions of things to do while in Colorado. One of those suggestions was to visit Old Colorado City, a quaint area between downtown Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs with more boutique stores and nice restaurants and bars.

My favorite store was The British Pantry and Tea Room as they had all kinds of British food and drink. I’m from the UK and Shae also lived there for five years when we first got married, so it was nice to be able to pick up some candy.

Where We Ate & Drank

Cerberus Brewing Company

After visiting The Broadmoor Seven Falls, Shae and I stopped for a quick drink at Cerberus Brewing Company. I ordered their Stygian porter which was very good. They had a pet-friendly patio which was one of the reasons we chose it (we had Truffles with us) and our server was very friendly, so I’d recommend it if you’re looking for a brewery in Colorado Springs.

Edelweiss Restaurant

While having a drink at Cerberus, we got chatting to a group at an adjacent table, a couple of whom worked at Edelweiss Restaurant. They recommended we eat there, so we took their recommendation and headed there for dinner one night.

We were glad we followed their suggestion because it was a fantastic meal, if for no other reason than I got to have a boot of beer (which I sadly couldn’t finish). Here’s a review of our meal.

Panera Bread

OK, so it’s a chain rather than something local to Colorado Springs, but I figured I’d give them an honorable mention seeing as Shae had to spend a couple of days there teaching online seeing as the internet didn’t work at our hotel.

The Sweet Elephant Wine Bar

Shae had a girl’s night out with a friend who also happened to be in Colorado Springs while we were there. One of the places they visited was The Sweet Elephant Wine Bar in Old Colorado City.

She enjoyed her experience there so much that she took me there the day we visited Old Colorado City. Both Maddie and Justin who worked there were very nice and they had plenty of different types of wine to taste.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory

Old Colorado City is also home to the first Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory franchise, so we stopped by there to grab some candy, all of which were very good.

What We Missed

There’s no doubt a ton of things to do in Colorado Springs that we missed out on, but one that we wish we did was going to the top of Pikes Peak – a 14,115 ft mountain.

We knew that you could go on a very lengthy and strenuous hike up there, but hadn’t realized until after we left Colorado Springs that there’s a road to the top so that you can drive up. We’re therefore hoping to make our way up there at some point while we’re still in Denver.