What is the Denver self-guided walking tour?
The Denver self-guided walking tour is a walk through the city with a storyteller in your pocket: the World City Trail app plots the route, and at each stop its audio narration explains what you are looking at. Allow about 2 hours overall, of which 69 minutes are spent walking 4.5 km between 10 stops. Lower Downtown, the civic centre and the streets around the Capitol all fall on the way.
On the 16th Street Mall you learn why the granite paving recalls a rattlesnake's skin and Navajo blankets. Larimer Square became Denver's first designated historic district in 1971. At the Colorado State Capitol the 13th step marks exactly one mile above sea level, and fears for the Molly Brown House Museum led to the founding of Historic Denver.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 69 min · 4.5 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, Spanish
Along the route
Narration at every stop
Each stop has a chapter of its own, with history, local legends and a few facts that surprise even residents, read aloud or shown as text.
Directions on screen
Google Maps links the stops one after another: 4.5 km and roughly 69 minutes of walking in total.
Your own timetable
No meeting point, no departure time, no group to keep up with. Leave the route for a coffee or a museum and return to it whenever you are ready.
Local tips included
Suggestions for cafés, restaurants and shops near the stops come with the walk, and the app lets you change where you start and the order you go in.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of people. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Walk when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who will enjoy this walk
New to Denver
In a few hours the main sights of the centre fall into place, each with its story attached.
Not a fan of tour groups
Nobody to follow and nobody to wait for: you linger where you are interested and move on where you are not.
Short on time
About 2 hours covers the centre and leaves the rest of the day free.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Groups of up to 5 work best; larger groups split up, one ticket per person.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
From the ballpark to the cathedral
10 stops · about 69 min walking · start: Coors Field · finish: Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception
The walk begins at Coors Field, two blocks from Union Station, which is the second stop. Larimer Square and the 16th Street Mall follow, then the Denver Performing Arts Complex and Civic Center Park. From the Denver Art Museum you continue to the Colorado State Capitol and the Molly Brown House Museum, and the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception ends the route. In the app you can open with a different stop, and no stop requires a ticket.
Open the route map ↗
1Coors FieldStart
Coors Field opened in 1995 in Lower Downtown, two blocks from Union Station, and has been the home ballpark of the Colorado Rockies ever since. Designed by HOK Sport, now Populous, the ballpark holds about 50,000 spectators.
2Union Station
Denver's Union Station began as a railway depot in 1881, and its central building, completed in 1914 in the Beaux-Arts style, rose after a fire in 1894. The historic station reopened in 2014 after a renovation, and a 112-room hotel now occupies its upper floors.
3Larimer Square
Larimer Square is described as Denver's oldest surviving commercial district, with most of its buildings dating from the 1870s to the 1890s. Restoration began in 1965, and in 1971 it became the city's first officially designated historic district.
416th Street Mall
This downtown promenade of about 1.3 km opened in 1982 and was designed by Ieoh Ming Pei with the urban design firm OLIN. Its granite paving forms a diamond pattern that draws on the skin of the western diamondback rattlesnake and on Navajo blankets.
5Denver Performing Arts Complex
The Denver Performing Arts Complex houses ten performance spaces with more than 10,000 seats under an 80-foot glass roof. In the sculpture park to its west stands Jonathan Borofsky's The Dancers, two tall, partly abstract figures in mid-dance, installed in 2003.
6Civic Center Park
Civic Center Park opened in 1919 as the centrepiece of Denver's City Beautiful plan, first proposed by Robert Speer in 1904. Its Greek amphitheatre, formal gardens and east-west axis link the Colorado State Capitol with the City and County Building, which was finished in 1932.
7Denver Art Museum
The museum's 1971 building was designed by the Italian architect Gio Ponti with the local firm James Sudler Associates. The museum is known for its American Indian art, and the Hamilton Building by Studio Daniel Libeskind, opened in 2006, stands beside it.
8Colorado State Capitol
The Colorado State Capitol, designed by Elijah Myers, opened in 1894 with a granite exterior and a rose onyx interior. Its gold-leaf dome was gilded in 1908, and a marker on the 13th step of the staircase shows the point of exactly one mile above sea level.
9Molly Brown House Museum
The Molly Brown House Museum at 1340 Pennsylvania Street was designed by William Lang in 1889 in Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque styles. The Brown family bought it in 1894, and it has been a museum since 1971, after demolition concerns led to the founding of Historic Denver.
10Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate ConceptionFinish
The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was designed in French Gothic style by Leon Coquard of Detroit, and its two spires, each 221 feet tall, frame the main façade. Its 75 stained-glass windows were made in Munich, and Pope John Paul II raised the church to a minor basilica in 1979.
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