Best First Stop for Visitors 2015 | Tourist Information Center | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best First Stop for Visitors

Tourist Information Center

Last year, Visit Denver closed up its old visitors' center on the 16th Street Mall while it outfitted a spanking-new Tourist Information Center just off the mall, one outfitted with B-cycle bikes hanging overhead, a big screen filled with images of Colorado, old-school brochures, and touch-screens to tell you about the latest attractions. But the real draw is the shop in back, which offers all-Colorado products, including T-shirts that are actually made in this state (thank you, Coloradical) and miniature versions of the Big Blue Bear. This is one-stop shopping — for both info and souvenirs.

Best Trip Back in Time

Four Mile Historic Park

A day at Four Mile Historic Park is sort of like a day of time-traveling — except there's no DeLorean required, and you don't have to leave this urban oasis smack in the middle of Glendale in order to be transported back to the 1800s. The park is open year-round, and visitors can explore Denver's oldest standing structure, a former stage stop, as well as other authentic cabins and barns, a covered wagon, a tepee and a chicken coop. There's also an orchard and gorgeous swale beyond a peaceful meadow, often the site of special festivals on the holidays.

Best History Lesson on Wheels

Banjo Billy's Bus Tours

History tours of Boulder and Denver, brewery tours all over, nighttime ghost tours: Banjo Billy delivers the goods with funk and flair. Patrons can pick their seats on the hicksterish bus (try the recliner, the couch or, uh, the saddle); they also get to vote on just how much they want to hear about various attractions along the route. The knowledgeable guides breeze through the ninety-minute tour with field-tested patter, and it's all over before anybody can quiz you on your expanded knowledge of local culture and trivia. 0x000A

Best Look Back at Denver's Past

The Denver Eye

Like an unofficial historian of local commercial lore, Tom Lundin offers a daily dose of Denver in pictures via The Denver Eye. Photographs of Googie-style signs, mid-century-modern motor hotels and Victorian-era theaters share space with vintage restaurant menus and now-defunct department-store advertisements as the page pieces together the Mile High City's past. Though the project started out as a full-fledged website, Lundin moved The Denver Eye to Facebook so that folks could pore over photos and share their own stories inspired by his massive collection of images from Denver's past century-plus.

facebook.com/thedenvereye

Best Denver Podcast

Welcome to Denver

Hosted by Nebraska native and Colorado transplant Cory Helie, Welcome to Denver dishes up in-depth conversations centered on what makes this city so great. Like an unofficial guide to the Mile High City, Helie invites comedians, musicians, filmmakers, artists and writers to talk about their favorite spots to find live music, comedy, food, weed, beer, sports and more. The podcast's mix of Helie's neo-Coloradan view and the voices of tried-and-true native spirits creates a perfect blend of information and conversation about all things Denver.

Readers' choice: Whiskey and Cigarettes

Best National Podcast Based in Denver

The Eddie, Jason and Chris Show

Former KBPI DJ Eddie Barella and high-school buds Jason Newcomer and Chris Barr take to the airwaves every Monday night to interview newsmakers, local and national artists, and the occasional mother of a fangirl in this music-centric podcast. The weekly live Internet radio show is broadcast on Idobi Radio, the most-listened-to alternative-music stream in the world, according to Triton Digital's 2014 stats. Since the podcast debuted in 2011, the trio has interviewed dozens of bands and artists — including Mark Hoppus, Matt & Kim, Laura Jane Grace and Weezer — and its audience has grown to 50,000 listeners per episode. As a bonus, the hosts often make on-air prank calls; one time, they dialed an angry Jay Leno's home number. Catch this threesome broadcasting from assorted Denver bars and venues, or tune in to idobi.com at 6 p.m. Mondays to catch the show live.

Best Neighborhood Blog

We Are North Denver

This city is changing — and as it grows, the We Are North Denver blog wants to make sure the pre-boom history of north Denver isn't lost forever. Community leader, spoken-word artist and activist Bobby LeFebre, wife Claudia Hernandez-Ponce and friend Carlos Mireles keep their fingers on the pulse of their 'hood, reporting goings-on and creating an online space where all voices can be heard. We Are North Denver offers a rich mix of news, history and commentary from residents interested in retaining the city's spirit and culture in the face of exploding development.

Best Neighborhood Group

Servicios de la Raza

Servicios de la Raza has come a long way since it began as a small group of individuals providing mental-health services for Denver's Chicano/Latino community more than four decades ago. Over the years, it has become a critical resource, offering substance-abuse programs, youth-education services, domestic-violence survivor support, food and health assistance, job training and more. As Denver has grown, Servicios has grown with it — and has continued to help the ever-expanding global-immigrant, low-income and Spanish-speaking populations feel at home in the Mile High City.

Best New App

NerdNest

Thanks to the Internet, fangirls have ample content to consume. Sometimes, though, there's a downside to having too much information — especially when it's scattered. That's why University of Denver senior Raine Giorgio launched NerdNest (mynerdnest.com), the first-ever social-media sharing device and one-stop shop for fangirls (and fanboys, too). The free, gender-neutral site, released this winter, is the best place for fans to make their own nests — mini-blogs, essentially, where they can aggregate content in a safe environment.

Best Sports Team — College

Colorado State University Rams football

Not since the halcyon days of coach Sonny Lubick have the CSU Rams been so much fun to watch. During an NCAA era when small-conference schools are supposedly irrelevant, the squad was impossible to ignore, thanks to signature performances like a hard-fought road win over Boston College. Major credit is owed to quarterback Garrett Grayson, who went from being a virtual unknown to a hot NFL prospect over the course of a few short months. But the team as a whole was the football equivalent of the Little Engine That Could, and even though its bowl defeat to Utah was disappointing, it couldn't ruin the gridiron memories that preceded it.

Readers' choice: University of Denver Pioneers Hockey

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