Things to do in Boulder
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Ruebens Burger Bistro
An owner-operated temple to the all-natural, hormone-free, gourmet burger, all christened with cycling-themed names. The Mountain Biker comes with avocado, arugula and swiss cheese, while the Paris Roubaix is topped with whole roasted green chilis and swiss and cream cheeses. Ruebens also offers intriguing dishes like a build-your-own mac and cheese, and moules frites.
It's a good bet the owner shaves his legs.
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Dushanbe Teahouse
No visit to Boulder is complete without a meal at this incredible Tajik work of art, a gift from Boulder's sister city (Dushanbe, Tajikistan) that boasts incredible craftsmanship and meticulous painting. The fare ranges from Amazonian and Mediterranean to, of course, Tajik. Outside is a lovely, shaded patio. It's an intimate place to grab cocktails or dinner on a warm summer day.
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Med
A Boulder classic, this friendly, festive joint brings all the many flavors of the Mediterranean under one roof (and patio). Think wood-fired pizza, gyros and terrific tapas from gambas to bacon wrapped dates to bruschetta. There's a full bar and some fantastic deserts. Terrific happy-hour deals and a fun crowd most nights.
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University of Colorado at Boulder
It is possible for prospective students and curious visitors to tour one of the finest public universities in America, and one of the best schools overall. It's a beautiful campus set above downtown, on what is known as the Hill. Free tours begin with a one-hour informational session followed by a 90-minute walking tour.
As you stroll, remember you are moving in the footsteps of notable alumni such as astronaut Scott Carpenter (one of 17 astronauts with CU diplomas), Apple's Steve Wozniak, Sidney Altman (one of six Nobel Laureates), Robert Redford (didn't graduate), South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (smoked a ton of dope, did graduate), actor Jonah Hill (stop…
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Boulder County Farmers' Market
A massive spring and summer sprawl of colorful, mostly organic local food. Here you can find flowers and herbs, as well as brain sized mushrooms, delicate squash blossoms, crusty pretzels, vegan dips, grass-fed beef, raw granola and yogurt. The market stretches from Arapahoe to Canyon along Central Park and around the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, which offers free admission on market days.
Prepared food booths offer gyros and tamales. Live music is as standard as the family picnics in the park along Boulder Creek.
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Bitter Bar
In places like NYC, LA and San Francisco, prohibition-era cocktails have gone from back alley whispers of the impossibly hip to mainstream in a few short years. Boulder now has their version, and who cares if it's set in modern pan-Asian environs. These cocktails, and the rums, whiskeys, tequilas and gins used to alchemize, are the best sips in town.
It also offers monthly classes at $35 per person, which buys you the knowhow to mix two drinks that would make a Mad Man weep. You'll leave with three recipes and a gift from the barkeeps. Check the website for dates.
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Salt
One of downtown's newest and most happening spots also serves damn fine farm to table cuisine. We're talking small plates like crispy pork belly BLT, heirloom tomato salad and local beet carpaccio. Entrees include fresh fettucine and slow-roasted leg of lamb, and several fresh seafood options. Cocktails are creative and personalized.
The house always feels good, whether you dine downstairs in the basement pub or in the bright brick-wall dining room with a glimpse of the open and rocking kitchen.
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Frasca
Frasca has been considered Boulder's finest restaurant since it opened. The service is top shelf and the rotating menu features the freshest farm-to-table ingredients available. Reservations must be made days or even weeks in advance.
The menu includes dishes like braised pork shoulder canneloni, house made gnocchi and grilled quail served with local peppers, leeks and wilted pea shoots. This restaurant is as fancy and as snooty as Boulder gets.
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Boulder Cafe
Score a sidewalk table and check out the Pearl St Mall street performers while waiting for your buffalo burger. The perennially popular Boulder Cafe is one of those 'all things to all people' kitchens, which means anything from shrimp enchiladas to penne pasta or skillets of trout and teriyaki steak to a damn fine raw bar can be yours.
From 3pm to 6:30pm, all appetizers and drinks are half-price. That's the time to go raw.
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Sundown Saloon
Only come here if you can stomach outhouse chic bathrooms, throwback tunes, an impossible-to-distinguish odor upon descent into the basement, pick-up shouting (it's straight impossible to hear in late night), vicious competition on the shuffle board or pool tables (free 'til 10pm) and waking up hungover from the cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon ($6 pitchers).
Every town needs an 'end up bar,' and you will end up here.
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Mateo
A casual new dining hall with minimalist panache, an upscale but not fancy-pants, crowd, and a damn fine kitchen specialising in French comfort cuisine. Think braised lamb shoulder served over pasta, pork belly over organic rice, and moules (mussels) frites. Cheeses are artisanal, ingredients mostly local and the wine is quite fine. Half-priced moule frites ($6) on Mondays.
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Dagabi Cucina
Hidden away in a North Boulder minimall off Broadway is this brickhouse of a Mediterranean joint with Italian and Spanish roots, and a popular tapas menu at happy hour (5pm to 6:30pm). That's when you can devour olives, bruschetta, grilled asparagus, steamed clams, and pancetta wrapped shrimp on small plates for just $3 to $6 each. Or there's always paella Mondays ($12).
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Pearl Street Pub
Sorrows are drowned with multiple pints at the scarred wooden bar upstairs, where the vibe is shabby chic meets Old West. Downstairs, 20-something locals pound shots by the pool tables, soaking up the beer-drenched atmosphere at this town's favorite trendy dive. Come for Friday-night happy hour, when there is often live music at the packed upstairs bar.
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Sink
- Boulder, USA
- Restaurants › Pub
Waiters bob and weave under the low-slung, graffiti scrawled ceiling of the Sink, a Hill classic that's been around since 1923. Colorful characters cover the dimly lit, cavernous space – a scene almost worth a visit itself. Almost. Once you've washed back the legendary Sink burger with a slug of a local microbrew, you'll be glad you stuck around.
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Boulder Creek Bike Path
The most utilized commuter bike path in town, this fabulously smooth and mostly straight creekside concrete path follows Boulder Creek from Foothill Parkway all the way to the spilt of Boulder Canyon and Four Mile Canyon Rd west of downtown – a total distance of over 5 miles one-way. The path also feeds urban bike lanes that lead all over town.
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North Boulder Recreation Center
- Boulder, USA
- Activities › Gym
If you need a workout and the weather isn't cooperating, book some some gym time here. The weight room and indoor hoops court are more than adequate, and the 25m lap pool is fabulous. Or perhaps you'd prefer a game of raquet ball or a yoga class? They have it all for a simple 24hr day-use fee. Bring your own towel or rent one for $1.
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Rio Grande Cafe
Always packed, this Tex-Mex institution consistently delivers potent margaritas, sumptuous beef fajitas and an addictive queso dip. Loud and chaotic but remaining family friendly, it has a buzzing bar scene top-side with awesome Flatiron views from the rooftop deck. Happy Hour (3pm to 6pm) deals include $2 tacos and $3 drafts.
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Spruce Confections
Boulder's go-to bakehouse, where the favorites are the Ol' B Cookie (chocolate, oats, cinnamon and coconut) and the Black Bottom Cupcake (a chocolate cupcake with cheesecake in the middle). Pair either with the Spruce Juice, possibly the world's greatest iced vanilla latte. They have sinful scones and filling salads too.
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Yoga Pod
- Boulder, USA
- Activities › Yoga
One of the hippest, if most-oddly located, studios in Boulder. But don't let the 29th St Mall location throw you off. There's plenty of free parking, the place isn't corporate and the instruction is first rate. When the Fourmile Canyon Fire hit Boulder, they offered free yoga to those displaced by the Fourmile Fire.
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Six Permissions
West of the Pearl St Mall, this tiny apothecary offers Chinese herbs and organic facials, and has an attached acupuncture clinic. In addition it offers a range of deep tissue, lymphatic, Swedish and sport massages. Your Zen wishes will be fulfilled here. Massage is available by appointment only.
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Zolo Southwestern Grill
Zolo has been delighting residents with award-winning Southwestern fare and easy parking (it has its own lot) for 15 years now. The menu is a Colorado take on classic Mexican. Perennial favorites include fundido (warm goat Oaxaca cheese fondue with red pepper jam, roasted garlic, flour tortillas), chicken enchiladas and the tortilla-crusted ahi tuna. Whatever you do, don't skip the tequila. There are more than 150 choices, which can be served neat or blended into what many argue are Boulder's best margaritas. Look for Zolo about 11 blocks southeast of the Pearl St Mall, tucked into a quiet shopping center.
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Chautauqua Park
This historic landmark park is not just the gateway to Boulder's most magnificent slab of open space (we're talking about the Flatirons) it also has a wide, lush lawn that attracts picnicking families, sunbathers, frisbee folk, and – gasp – even studious students from CU down the road. It also gets copious hikers, climbers and trail runners.
This was once an important site for the inspired rural educational organization, the Chautauqua movement. These days, it's a park, a lodge and an auditorium where world-class musicians perform each summer.
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Tube Boulder Creek
Boulder's favorite summer ritual is to pick up an inner tube at this tubing and rafting center and float down Boulder Creek from the whitewater park at Eben G Fine Park to 30th St. Speak to the staff about safety.
The park's high water and sculpted ledges can get rocking in early season, and you may even get flipped. But the creek mellows below 9th St, and can get low in late summer leaving a much more placid whitewater park as the only navigable stretch.
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Naropa University
Founded by Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who escaped Tibet and climbed over the Himalayas into India as a young man. In 1970, at just 30, he began presenting teachings in the US and founded the Naropa Institute (which became Naropa University) in 1974. It offers a contemplative education in psychology, environmental studies, music, performing arts and more.
Naropa is also home to the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, co-founded by his fellow Beat Allen Ginsberg, and poet Anne Waldman.
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Central Park
Spanning from the northern edge of downtown to the Contemporary Art Museum at 13th Street, and encompassing the public library, a twice-weekly seasonal farmers market, and a large swatch of the Boulder Creek bike trail, it's hard to avoid this park. And really, why would you want to? It's a nice spot for a picnic and a nap.
Here is a long blade of lush lawn, ample shade and sun and a ramp leading to the Boulder Creek trail and the creek itself.
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