Colorado Springs Lodging in a Nutshell |
Cara Pulick, Contributing Writer |
 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 Garden of the Gods, a dramatic collection of red sandstone formations; Pikes Peak, a 14,000-foot mountain that towers in the city’s background; and about an hour from town, 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 lodging 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.
The Springs’s 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.
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