All stories about "Denver"

The powers that be at Denver International Airport don't want you doing anything naughty on their Internet, so they've placed restrictions on the airport's free Wi-Fi network that resemble "software filters employed by the repressive regimes of Sudan and Kuwait." You'd think Denver fliers would be happy to have free net access, since in most other airports Wi-Fi costs money, but DIA's definition of bad behavior is broad enough to include checking sports scores, enjoying Dominick Dunne's latest dispatch from the inner sanctums of WASPdom, and browsing through Perez Hilton's crappy pop music picks. The airport's web filter blocks access to many mainstream sites that it deems "provocative," including Sports Illustrated, Vanity Fair, and PerezHilton.com. The stores in the airport sell some of the very magazines whose sites are blocked -- along with porno mags, so it's safe to say the digital censorship in Denver probably stems from the airport bigwigs' desire to have you buy your reading material from them rather than any genuine concern over salacious online content. [via]

• Café Circa: New restaurant featuring island-inspired fare and live performances opens downtown.
• Cuerno: New midtown restaurant by the owners of neighboring Beleza serves food and drink with a Spanish flair.

Restaurant Week is coming up in New York starting January 21, and already the internets are abuzz with guides of where to go, press releases with special menus fill my inbox, and friends are asking where to make reservations. However, after being excited and then inevitably disappointed year after year, I've learned my lesson about this clusterfuck. The premise of the whole thing, for those of you who haven't been paying attention these last 16 years, is that during the week normally expensive restaurants in the city serve a set menu for $24.07 for lunch and $35 for dinner, giving regular diners the chance to try out all the places they normally can't afford. The success of the New York scheme/promotion/culinary shitshow (originally only held during the summer, a sluggish time for a restaurant) inspired similar events in Brooklyn, DC, Boston, Denver, Montreal, and San Francisco. It generates a pile of cash for the over 200 participating restaurants, gives the industry something to crow about, and gooses the local economy. And in theory, it brings in diners who will return again to pay full price. For the most part though, it's the customers who get screwed by Restaurant Week(s), and here's why.

On January 2, Paris, one of the world's smoking capitals (besides Moscow and Havana of course), implemented a smoking ban that includes all cafes, restaurants, clubs, and bars. The ban caused quite an uproar with the skinny, tobacco-lovin' cafe set, but it looks like this whole nonsmoking movement has reached a tipping point as cities from Dublin to Berlin to Atlantic City to Flagstaff have forced their smokers to take it outside. Every city that passes a ban encounters the usual opposition from a) smokers who don't want to be forced into the cold for a cig, b) libertarians who are sick and tired of nanny states interfering in their personal lives, and c) bar and club owners who fear decreased smoking = decreased business. The proponents (who tend to win these battles) argue that smokers hurt the general public by producing secondhand smoke and stinking up everyone's hair and clothes.

Forbes, the only outfit that enjoys lists more than we do, just came up with America's Most Lustful Cities, based on condom and contraceptive purchase data. The more accurate name would be "Cities with the Most One Night Stands" or "Safe Sex Capitals" but let's not get into semantics. Either way, the surprise winner is Denver with 189% more condom sales than expected for the population. [Forbes]

For obvious reasons, Denver attracts hordes of tourists, skiers, and snowboarders throughout the entire winter season. However, the Rocky Mountain destination still offers those gorgeous views in the warmer months and has plenty of options for great eating, drinking, hiking, and whitewater rafting. Rand McNally's "Hip Trip" column recently posted their guide to the winter city in the heat of the summer, and we've mapped out the best picks on their list.

We last rounded up grassroots Google Mapping courtesy of the then-new My Maps back at the end of April, when citizen efforts were still pretty thin on the ground. Since then, we've launched our own map-crazed format, and others have followed suit. User-generated maps have exploded, increasing dramatically in both quality and quantity. As always, the best resources for checking out what's new are Google Maps Mania and Ongopongo. Full roundup after the jump, from Bushwick ghosts to the Prague subway to the mysterious alphabet of Brooke Shields.

If you haven't already, go play with the new Street View feature on Google Maps. It's a pretty damned amazing use of panoramic photography to give a real sense of street-level city perspective. Coverage so far includes a respectable selection of streets in New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, and Denver.

Big News: Google Maps Street View [Google Maps Mania]

-- Chris Mohney

In the recent T Style mag from the New York Times, we get a nice little roundup of designer and stylish Denver locales. Apparently more and more fashion-forward boutiques, modern hotels, and high-end furniture shops are popping up all over, with more promised in the next few years. Once the exclusive home of hairy mountain men and crunchy hippie chicks, the city now caters to a growing population of fashionistas and aspiring hipsters. After the jump, our annotation of the NYT's recommendations for Denver designer coolitude.

Getting sufficiently intoxicated? Sometimes pricey. Getting sufficiently intoxicated at the Coors Brewery tour under the effects of high altitude? Priceless, literally, requiring only a short jaunt to the Denver city limits to the townburb of Golden. Coors may be best known for its fourth-top-selling beer, Coors Light, nicknamed the "Silver Bullet," but they also brew Blue Moon, Killian's, and Zima. Yes, Zima, the drink of choice among many 16-year-olds when I was growing up. The 45-minute factory tour is free and includes small samples of beers currently brewing. The tour conveniently ends in the hospitality lounge, where one can have two full-sized draft beers of choice. However, they definitely weren't keeping track when I was there, and the non-beer drinker in the group was happy to donate to our thirsty cause. Mix in some Colorado Rockies oxygen sickness, and you'll quickly lose your famed "high tolerance" and splurge on gift-shop beer glasses without a thought. Drink up!

Coors Brewery [Official site]

-- Alicia Kachmar

The extremely Yelp-like Tupalo is too new to have much content, with users and user reviews extremely thin on the ground for the handful of cities it covers so far. Assembled by four wacky pals (two of which come from Rockstar Games), Tupalo rolls in user reviews of restaurants, shops, hotels, bars, etc. with social toys like messaging and friending and all that folderol. However, it does have two advantages over Yelp as currently presented -- Tupalo covers international cities, and its maps are much more prominent. The map implementation is in fact among the best I've seen on any guide site; it's smooth, simple, intuitive, quick, and even aesthetically pleasing. The Tupalo maps will need extensive content infill (not to mention more tagging) to be truly useful, but it's a promising start.

Tupalo [Official site]

-- Chris Mohney

"On the Radar" is kind of like To Do but for recurring events at nebulous times that we think you should keep ever present in your mind.
If there's one thing better than watching Bring It On or Debbie Does Dallas it's seeing cheerleading live. And if there's one thing that is better than watching tightly choreographed routines performed by nubile women (or if they're under 18 not nubile at all but rather adorable in a Little Miss Sunshine way) it is watching them wipe out. Nowhere is the site of a human pyramid of collapsing, or tweens freefalling through the foetid air of a gymnasium more common than at Worldwide Spirit Association Cheerleading Competitions. The competitions take place throughout the country and throughout the year. Entrance is free for spectators and only $85 for participants so if any of you have the need to express the latent cheerleader among you (or if any of you are 18 year old cheerleaders yourselves) there is really no excuse not to go. Next competition is in Denver on March 18th.

Worldwide Spirit Association

[Photo: indiekid77/Flickr]

Previously: Nat Geo Traveler Classes, City Grid Capture the Flag, No Clownin' Around at the Clown Inn in Denver

Travel during the holidays this season was an exercise in madness across the globe, as usual. Pity the poor folk who were trapped in Denver during last week's snowstorm--unfortunately, God's wrath struck the city after the filming of The Real World: Denver ended--because no one deserves to be stuck at the airport for days at a time. Take heart, though, as things could be a lot worse. You could be flying to Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. It makes any problems in Denver or Atlanta seem like child's play:

On his return to Sheremetyevo, to reach his departure gate the visitor must negotiate a bewildering series of queues, starting with one to get into the building: if he is unassertive, he will still be standing in one of them when his plane takes off. There is nowhere to sit. Forlorn African students camp out in the upstairs corridors. The attendants in the overpriced food kiosks are proof incarnate that the profit motive is not yet universal--though stewardesses on Russian carriers offer unofficial upgrades on reasonable terms. For a small consideration, they sometimes oblige smokers on long-haul flights by turning off the smoke alarms in the toilets.

Kama Sutra and Feral Cats [Economist]
Denver Travelers, Mail on the Move [LAT]
Aerial Chaos in Brazil

[Alexander Basek]

Each week we deploy our elite cadre of headline sniffing apparatchiks who report back to us on what the other media is doing. We then compile a dossier, the dossier you're (be)holding right now. It has all you need to know about the others. And, unlike their fleshly papers, it will exist forevermore upon this delightful internet ether.

Bangkok
Food Markets [NYT]

Bergen
Instant Weekend [The Times]

Brooklyn
Isaac Misrahi's Faves [T+L]

College Station
36 Hours In East Bumblefuck [NYT]

Dallas
Texas State Fair Guide [Houston Chronicle]

Denver
Invasion on the Starchitects [NYT]

Dijon
More Than Just Mustard (Yes, Now There Are Bad Puns Too] [Wash Po]

London
Top 5 Restos [Guardian]

Omaha
Apparently, Not the Middle of Nowhere [Chicago Tribune]

Shanghai
Vivienne Tam's Picks [T+L]

Soweto
Things To Do [Virtual Tourist]

Quebec City
A NGT Guide to The Quebecian Galaxy [NatGeo Traveler]

Previously on Roundup Roundup: #37, #36, #35, #34, #33, #32

Every Wednesday Travelzoo swoops into my mailbox with 20 insane travel deals. A mixed blessing. Tuesday night, I'm relaxed, blissfuly ignorant, sipping on whisky, discussing the latest Jan Svenkmayer flick. Come Wednesday and I'm frantically trying to book these ridick deals before the offer expires which is always a couple of hours after I found out about them. So run don't walk, stampede don't run, take out your machete and hack your way to book these deals before they, like Joey Lieberman's political future, evaporate.

2-Day Sale from $7.77 Fuck you very much Spirit Airlines for dangling this baby in front of us like a dingleberry from a fast retreating jackrabbit. Book by midnight tonight (Aug. 23) for fares like $7.77 (One-way) from Atlanta to Las Vegas. Don't worry, the way back is $7.77 too. Travel between Sept. 1 and Dec. 15th.

$49-$119 -Denver from 20+ Cities, 2-Day Sale: Another little window of opportunity, Frontier Airlines is offering fares from $79 Houston to Denver (one-way) and $109 New York to Denver. Book by Aug 24th, travel by November 15.

Get the Fuck Out of Town: United Airlines' "Where To?" Weekend Sale is for this weekend only. Instead of a set list of destinations, United throws you a search engine. Travelzoo's tireless researchers estimate fares are about 50% off. Sample? San Diego-Portland, OR $125.

$119 - Celebrity-Favorite Hollywood Hotel, 60% OFF : No, it's not hotel rehab. It's Hollywood's Hotel Roosevelt, a pretty stellar art-deco boutique hotel. The only catch is you'll have to stay during the week but, as any cool cat knows, Tuesdays are the new Fridays anyway.

Top 20 [Travelzoo]
Spirit Airline's 777 Sale [Travelzoo]
$49-$119 -Denver from 20+ Cities, 2-Day Sale [Travelzoo]
Get the Fuck Out of Town [Travelzoo]
$119 - Celebrity-Favorite Hollywood Hotel, 60% OFF [Travelzoo]

Denver got a kid-glove treatment this weekend in the going-to section. Ted Loos had nothing bad to say about the skinniest city in America. Denver, like all smallish towns experiencing a cultural renaissance, has its fair share of signifiers of urban renewal. These were chronicled by Loos and compiled into an easily skimmable highlight reel by yours truly.

Token Celebritecht Project: Daniel Libeskind's new addition to the Denver Art Museum "clad in shimmering titanium, seems to explode into peaks."

Token Design Mashup Hotel: The Oxford Hotel's rooms come in Wild West flavor (complete with antiques and claw-footed bathtubs) and Art Deco flavor (1920's posters and, anachronistically, plasma tv's). Rooms start at $179.

Obligatory Bistro Eschewing Capital Letters: duo, a restaurant opened by husbenwife Keith Arnold & Stephanie Bonin last year, focuses on "local organic ingredients" and has what former editor of Wine Spectator Loos deems, a "well-chosen wine list."

Obligatory Nightclub Substituting a "Y" Where An "I" Should Be: Mynt Mojito Lounge boasts a "hip interior, complete with a big black banquette." A hotspot of the LoDo scene, you might just come across the cast of Real World Denver, those attractive simulacra of humanity.

Obligatory "Idea Lab" where the McSweeney's-loving Denverati Go To Sneer At Abovementioned Nightclub: The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar "has been offering quirky debates, iconoclastic exhibitions and live performances. " Recent events have included "Art Fitness Training" and a "Tag-Team Lectures Series on Unrelated Topics."

Going To Denver [NYT]
Denver Art Museum
The Oxford Hotel
Mynt
duo Restaurant
Belmar Lab

[Photo: md boine/Flickr]

Previously: Clown's Inn Denver, America V. United Fare War, City Grid: Capture the Flag, National Geographic Traveler Classes, Gay Confabs Come To Chicago, Denver

The Great Clowns Inn in West Denver isn't exactly where you'd take your kid for her birthday. Though the inside is crammed with clown memorabilia and painted a jolly red-and-white twotone, I wouldn't advise showing up in your pulcinella get up. When reached at her Denver home, Skiddles the Clown told Gridskipper, "I'm pretty close with the clown community in Denver and no one I know goes there. No professional clowns," she pauses, "maybe hobby clowns, though." As if anticipating the long hours overnight shifts (or rampant alchoholism) these hobby clowns put in, the bar has two (or technically 4) happy hours: 7-9 am and 4-6 pm. Budweisers on tap for 2 dolalrs, a pool table's in the corner but there aren't any helium tanks or unicycles in sight.

The Great Clowns Inn
3800 W Alameda Ave
Denver, CO 80219

(303) 936-6352

Clowns Inn [Denver Post]

Previously: City Grid: Capture The Flag, Gay Confabs Come To Chicago, Denver, The World's Ugliest Building, National Geo Traveler Classes

The Roundup Roundup collects recent "roundup" articles or general material about cities and city travel worldwide.

Amsterdam
Walking Among the Shadows of Rembrandt's Life in Amsterdam [NYT]

Denver
The best of Denver [MSNBC]

Dublin
Microbreweries in the Land of Guinness [NYT]

Flights
Frequent Traveler: Looking for that 'one-stop' site [IHT]
The Heavy Bag Slims Down [NYT]
Finding the right time to lock in airfares takes strategy -- and luck [LAT]
Drunks are flying partners from hell [Telegraph]

Montreal
European Eats Without the Lag [WP]

$499 4-Night Paris Air+Hotel: This cheapo package send you to Paree on one of several unappealing dates from November through February. Hard to beat the price, but I heartily recommend you upgrade the hotel as always (and bring a sweater or three). Price is based on New York departure; other cities available for more cash.

$109 Boston to Denver: Seats on this American Airlines sale are available August through April 2007, but availability will likely choke off quickly. The fare works on various midweek days, so hunt around on AA's website to find it.

$599 4-Night Ireland Pub Tour: I'm not sure what kind of traveler needs help finding and making use of a pub, but if that's you, so be it. Aer Lingus will schlep you around Dublin and Galway on a pub crawl rudely interrupted with occasional sightseeing and meals. Price is based on a New York or Boston departure, with other cities available for price bumps. Departure dates work November through February.

$138 NYC to Chicago: Last is another American Airlines sale, this time a $69 one-way deal between Chicago and New York. Travel works on various dates through November 8.

$499 -- Paris: 4 Nights & Air [Travelzoo]
$109 -- Denver to/from Boston (Roundtrip!) [Travelzoo]
$599 -- Ireland "Pub Tour" Package w/Air [Travelzoo]
$69 -- Between Chicago & New York (each way) [Travelzoo]
Top 20 [Travelzoo]

Discount me? Discount you! Airfare Watchdog has unearthed an escalation of hostilities between American Airlines and United Airlines, with each slashing fares out of the other's hub cities. This means cheap fares out of Dallas, St. Louis, Denver, Washington DC, and San Francisco. Prices have dropped by more than $100 in some cases, and travel's good through April 2007. Check it.

Huge AA/UA Fare War travel through April 20007 [Airfare Watchdog]

The latest mass nerdgasm game is a big-azz session of capture the flag in downtown Denver. Unfortunately, "forms of violent touching" are expressly forbidden, so no "tagging" opponents with, say, axe handles. The game is May 6 and requires naught more than the presence of your cell-phone equipped corpus.

Denver-Wide Capture the Flag Event! May 6. 6pm [Metblog Denver]
Denver Capture the Flag! May 6, 2006 [Big & Sharp]

Previously: National Geo Traveler Classes, Roundup Roundup #4, Gay Confabs Come to Chicago, Denver, Marathon Vacations, Paris for Cheapskates

$129 Miami's Mayfair Hotel: It's not beachy, but the Mayfair Hotel in Coconut Grove still ain't a bad place to holiday in Miami. Decor is upscale without quite breaking the luxury barrier, and it's more urbane than tropical. The $129 rate is good for weekend nights through July 1 ($109 weeknights).

$169 Denver to Mexico City: On the heels of other Mexico fares, this last-minute cheapie only runs this one route, and only April 24-27. But it's perfect for that long weekend trip to educate your introvert son in the mechanics of Mexican whoredom. Book by April 21.

$199 NYC to L.A.: As long as you're not put off by potential rat contact, American Airlines is offering moderately good deals on cross-country flights with this sale. The noted NYC-LA example flies outta Newark; many other options abound. Fares are only good for the last weekend of April -- depart April 28 or 29, returning May 1 or 2. Book by April 21.

$799 3-City 5-Night Greece Air+Hotel: This week's package o' madness gets you a round trip flight to Athens, plus three nights' hotel there; then you move on for a night in Delphi and another in Kalambaka. Transfers and tours are included, as is daily brekkie. Travel works on various dates November 2006 through February 2007. The $799 price is based on New York departure, with other cities and departure dates available for a price bump. Expect about $150 in taxes and fees.

$109 -- Miami 4-Diamond All-Suite Hotel w/Breakfast [Travelzoo]
$169 -- Mexico City from Denver (R/T), Last-Minute [Travelzoo]
Domestic Getaways For Next Weekend [American Airlines]
$799 -- Greece 3-City Package w/Air (over $700 OFF!) [Travelzoo]
Top 20 [Travelzoo]

Gauchos ho! Typically I wouldn't mention travel-writing classes in this space, as I'm against education. Plus, why would I want to enable a generation of potential competitors, ideally suited to replace me? It's in my best interests to keep you all uneducated, untrained, and in my thrall. Failing that, you could do lot worse than dropping a chunk of change on National Geographic Traveler's classes. Trading off their successful travel photography seminars (reg'lar and digital), they now offer one focused on travel writing. The all-day sessions ain't cheap at $195 a pop, but hey, lunch is included. Upcoming sessions of the travel photography class are scheduled for Seattle (February 19) and Toronto (March 12); digital photography, in New York (March 5), Boston (April 23), Chicago (May 21), and Los Angeles (June 25); and travel writing, in Washington DC (February 12), Santa Fe (March 26), San Francisco (April 9), New York (May 7), and Denver (June 4). If this is your cup of tea, you're better off investing with these folks than, say, the Learning Annex.

Traveler Seminars [National Geographic Traveler]

Previously: Sick Pics, The Carnival Alternative, ‘Ronto Road Rage, Gridskipper Photo Contest: Week 5 Weekend, The Real Boot Blog

$399 3-Night London Air+Hotel: I almost don't want to recommend this package, since the hotel involved -- the Royal National, off Russell Square -- is pretty crappy, even for an econo-deal. That's one of the Royal's hospital-chic rooms at left. But it's got a decent location, and otherwise this British Airways package has good dates -- book by December 30 for travel January 10 through March 31, 2006. And yes, the price goes up if you depart from gateway cities besides New York. Likely about $150 additional in taxes and fees.

$79 Round Trip Dallas to Vegas: The Dallas-Vegas route is just one of several multi-carrier cheapies offered in this deal. Other departure cities to Vegas include Oklahoma City and St. Louis (same price), Denver and Tulsa ($99), and Minneapolis ($199). You must book by today (December 15), and each route only has a few specific valid dates, but worth it if you're coincidentally planning a Vegas jaunt.

$139 Round Trip NYC to Atlanta: Not bad for a quick step down to Hotlanta, and it's the most exciting of American's weekly last-minute specials. Book by Friday, December 16, for travel this weekend only.

$399 -- London: 3 Nights & Air [Travelzoo]
$79-$119 -- Last-Minute to Las Vegas from 6 Cities (R/T) [Travelzoo]
Domestic Getaways For This Weekend [American Airlines]
Top 20 [Travelzoo]

The Roundup Roundup collects recent "roundup" articles or general material about cities and city travel worldwide.

Berlin
Go West, Young Clubgoers [NYT]

Bilbao
The regeneration game [Telegraph]

Dallas
Going To: Dallas [NYT]

Deals
51 Ways to Cut Vacation Costs [National Geographic Traveler]

Delhi
A newer Delhi [Telegraph]

Food
The Runway Gourmet [WSJ] - Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle.

Lisbon
Now Playing in Lisbon: The Late, Late Show [NYT]

Miami
Insiders Miami [National Geographic Traveler]

Paris
Best Of Paris [Travel + Leisure]

Philadelphia
Next Great City: Philly, Really [National Geographic Traveler]

Rio de Janeiro
Go: Rio De Janeiro [Queerty]

Rome
Rome exposed [Times]

Salt Lake City
Born Again [Travel + Leisure]

Shop
A shopper's passage to the real India [Telegraph] - Delhi, Jaipur.

Ending today's deals roundup, Airfare Watchdog has a couple unadvertised juicy 'uns brought on by behind-the-scenes fare wars. Both represent pretty huge savings.

First is an alien time-space warp trimming hundreds off round-trip airfares on United Airlines to Honolulu from Detroit and Minneapolis ($282) and Chicago and Denver ($301). Various restrictions apply, so dig around a bit.

The other deal is a very nice though restricted American Airlines "Domestic Getaway" from New York's La Guardia to Miami for $169 round trip. This weekend only, buckos, so book now if you want to beach-bask. Departs Saturday, October 1, and returns Monday, October 3. Perversely, Miami residents can book $138 round-trip tickets to New York for an day of the week until December 15.

Airfare Watchdog [Official site]

If Denver, Colorado, looks a little bit better dressed than usual this weekend, there's good reason--The Gays are coming to town.

Out & Equal in the Workplace is "taking workplace equality to new heights" this weekend in, fittingly, the "Mile High" City. Staying at the Adams Mark, it is a straight shot down 16th Street to Boystown, where Washingtonian visitors will feel right at home at JRs.

And Toby won't have to worry that anything the thin air may inspire him to do will end up in The Blade... The Gay Journalists are meeting this week in Chicago. Boi From Troy.

Denver Gay Scene [Westlife]
Homo Journos Convene in the Heartland [Chicagoist]

Previously: Aerial Acrobats, Long Shadows in Windy City, Damp Dirndls at Twisted Bavarian, Gay by Night in Sao Paulo, The Hot Niche: Gay Travel

In our continuing investigation of the world�s most embarrassing architectural mistakes, a new installment.

We already mentioned London�s Swiss Re Tower, and now we�re taking a few pointers from Forbes magazine, who created their own list of the ugliest buildings in the world.

So what did Forbes dredge up: A few obvious ones (Seattle�s Experience Music Project, Cleveland�s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, San Francisco�s Museum of Modern Art), some old favorites (London�s Barbican Centre, New York�s Two Columbus Circle, Washington D.C.�s Canadian Embassy) and some that were new to us (Yale�s School of Design and Architecture, Denver�s Public Library).

The World�s Ugliest Buildings [Forbes Magazine, flash sideshow]