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Explore Denver nightlife and have after work fun this summer!

Whelp, we’re past the summer solstice and past the longest day of summer: everything is downhill from here. Downhill in the most rad, skiing/sledding/mountain biking way possible!

There are tons of options for weeknight activities in Denver during summer. Summer is one of the best times to be in Colorado because there is no humidity, no mosquitos and it’s very rare that our thermostats have to exercise their third digits (people even complain here when it gets above 90 degrees F).

Here at the Pedal Hopper Denver, we decided to put together a list of our favorite weeknight activities in Denver so you can take full advantage of the beautiful weather and long days we will enjoy here for the rest of the summer!

 Thursday Jazz Jam – Dazzle

1512 Curtis St, Denver, CO. Price: free: Denver used to be a jazz hub in the Mountain West, and there is a resurgence in the jazz scene that has been happening over the last decade or so thanks to the organizers of the Five Points Jazz Festival and the Jazz in the Park events in City Park every summer. Formerly known as the “Harlem of the West,” Denver hosted some amazing talent like Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald back in the day.

There is equally good, if lesser-known, talent gracing the streets of Denver these days, really enhancing the Denver nightlife. Dazzle is a great place to find it, especially at their free weekly jazz jam every Thursday night, the perfect place for after work fun! Make sure to say hi to  host Jean Luc Davis on the bass!

Pedal Hopper Denver

2265 Lawrence St, Denver, CO. Price: varies depending on private or public tour options. The Pedal Hopper is fun. Like, super, super fun, and the best part is you get to either bring your best friends along for this ride or take part in a public option where you reserve a seat on a public bike and get to meet a ton of new friends. Pedal Hopper’s experienced tour guides will steer while you and all of your friends pedal in between the coolest bars, pubs and clubs that Denver nightlife has to offer.

Best of all for those looking for the best weeknight activities in Denver, you save money booking a Pedal Hopper tour on weekdays as opposed to weekends when the streets get a little bit busier and the prices get a little bit higher. We know you’ll join for some after work fun with us at the Pedal Hopper!

Film on the Rocks Series

Red Rocks Amphitheater, 18300 W Alameda Pkwy, Morrison, CO. Price: $16-$32. Just outside of Denver, CO lies Red Rocks Amphitheater, a city-owned concert venue that hosts some of the biggest acts in the music business every summer. This amazing setting that has been frequented by humans for thousands of years has another trick up its sleeve: hosting movie nights on Monday nights throughout the summer! For a low price you can go to see some of your favorite classic movies as well as some more recent blockbusters, a great weeknight activity in Denver!

For the rest of the summer of 2019, you can see Top Gun (7/1), the Mighty Ducks (8/5) and the mountain climbing documentary Free Solo (8/19). There are live bands and live comedians performing every night before the movie as well, so your whole family can have after work fun, as this kid-friendly event. This author will for sure be at the Mighty Ducks in August: quack quack!!

Georgetown Loop Railroad & Mining Park

825 Railroad Ave, Silver Plume, CO. Price: $20.50 and up. You can get a Wild West experience at the Georgetown Loop Railroad, west of Denver on Interstate 70 by about 50 miles. This family-friendly weeknight activity in Denver comes in different packages; you can just take the family on the train or you can add in museum visits to immerse yourself in the history of the mining communities that helped to build our great state of Colorado. The round-trip railroad excursion takes you past some beautiful vistas, and its best enjoyed during the week in my opinion because it is less crowded. Have some after work fun up there choo-chooing around with all the other train enthusiasts!

Bar Hopping in Boulder, CO.

Price: how much can you drink? If you want to get out of the big city and take a break from Denver nightlife, you could make your way to the home of the University of Colorado in Boulder. Located about 30 minutes west and north of Denver, Boulder is a nice little town that features hundreds of bars, clubs, restaurants with reasonable prices and cheap drinks that appeal to the college scene.

There are tons of options there, but we recommend going to the Pearl Street Mall which is a pedestrian mall, meaning you don’t have to worry about getting run over by a taxi cab like what happens to so many poor residents in Denver. Best of all, on summer weekdays most of the college kids are away on summer vacation so the traffic isn’t too bad and you will be able to find a stool at the bar.

You can’t go wrong with summertime in Colorado, especially when you could experience Denver nightlife. The temperature stays cool, the mountains beckon you to come raft and fish their waters and bike their trails, and the city has a lot of options for having a blast, even during the week! We hope you can find something on this list to occupy your time during those long summer weeknights activities in Denver, and we hope even more that you come to hang out with us at the Pedal Hopper!

Our favorite part about Denver is that it truly is a four-season city. There is a misconception about our winters, which are really not that cold and don’t compare at all to the snowy, frigid weather up in the mountains above the Mile High City (the Two-Mile High Cities, if you will). Spring and Fall are mellow, temperate, and beautiful just like in most cities. But Summers in Denver really take the cake: extended daylight gives you more time to explore the city and, while it can get a bit hot during the day, it’s a dry heat that is easily escapable in the shade and the evenings cool down nicely to encourage patio parties and lawn darts. We hope you utilize this list of our favorite summer activities in Denver to enjoy the season to the fullest!

Lavender Festival

The Lavender Festival at Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield Farms is a family-friendly festival that is well worth the $7 entry fee. The setting is amazing, especially in late July when the 2019 festival is slated to take place as all of the over 2,000 lavender plants are in bloom. This aromatic flora makes a perfect backdrop to a stage featuring local bands and a wide variety of food, art, and vendors selling lavender-themed and –derived artisanal products. Get out to the Lavender Festival and embrace the purple!

*Image courtesy of Denver Botanic Gardens*

Pedal Hopper Denver

Summer days drift away, but those summer nights are something to remember! And there are no better memories than those made on a pedal pub with the best pilots in the business like those over at Pedal Hopper Denver. The bike bar combines all the best things about summertime in Denver: it’s an outdoor activity so you can enjoy that fine Colorado summer weather, participants get some exercise (the bikes are pedal-powered) and the staff at Pedal Hopper Denver can take you to the coolest brewery and distillery patios in our fair city. Get in touch with Pedal Hopper to schedule your private tour or jump onto one of their public tour offerings!

Film on The Rocks

Red Rocks Amphitheater is a world-class, world-famous venue located just a short 30-minute drive from downtown Denver. In addition to tasty concert offerings featuring nationally-touring acts, Red Rocks also has an amazing summer series showing fan favorite movies on stage at this legendary venue. Movies start at dusk, but be sure to show up a little early to see local live bands and comedians warm up the stage. Check the Film on the Rocks website to see a list of movies to be shown to find an epic Denver summer activity for you and your friends!

*Image courtesy of 303magazine.com*

Colorado Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat racing dates back over 2,000 years to ancient China and Taiwan. Come up to date with the modern Asian American community in Denver and witness Dragon Boat racers, performers and vendors descend on Sloan’s Lake in the heart of the Mile High City. The festival is celebrating its 19^th year in this Year of the Pig according to the Chinese Zodiac calendar, and its staying power is evident in the sheer number of people who attend this event annually to sample amazing Asian cuisine, shop in the Asian Marketplace, and check out traditional and contemporary Asian artists and musicians.

*Image courtesy of villagerpublishing.com*

Colorado Rockies at Coors Field

Oh, baseball. The most American of all games. The perfect excuse to binge on nachos, cracker jacks, hot dogs, and beer without anyone, even your in-laws, batting an eye. And as far as Denver summer events go, catching a Rockies game at Coors Field is a great bet for the whole family. Depending on where you sit, you can get views of the Denver skyline or the tower Rocky Mountains to the West, and the stadium is conveniently located in the heart of downtown Denver and therefore quite close to amazing restaurants, bars, and shopping. Get your America on and take advantage of this summer activity that’s suitable for everyone in the family!

*Image courtesy of pbs.org*

Summer in Denver is not to be missed. There are tons of summer events and festivals that you can take advantage of in this ever-growing city and we hope that this list gets you started planning your next batch of Denver summer activities!

Whelp, your best friend is getting married.  He asks you to be his best man and you accept, dreaming about the almost-center-stage publicity of the whole affair and the prospect of being a part of the biggest day of his life. You’re so excited, in fact, that you forget that there is kind of a lot of responsibility for the best man before, during, and after the ceremony. The other groomsmen and the husband-to-be start asking about bachelor party plans; they’re all ready to party down for the last hurrah before entry into married life. No need to panic, best man; here at Pedal Hopper Denver, we’ve got some great ideas for a bachelor party for the record books. Whether you are a Denver native or have chosen Denver for your destination bachelor party, here are some suggestions to help you plan the Best Bachelor Party in Denver!

Stranahan’s Whiskey Distillery Tour

Nothing says “man party” and “this may be my last whiskey-binge with my bros” like visiting a whiskey distillery in the heart of Denver’s Baker neighborhood. Stranahan’s produces excellent, American single-malt whiskeys that have a distinct taste unlike other classics like bourbon or scotch and instead combining the peaty and sweet elements of them all for a product that is uniquely Colorado. These tours cater to the groom who is a true whiskey connoisseur. Pro tip: try and get the VIP tour. While the normal tour is still awesome (and free), the 2-hour VIP tour really lets you dive into the distillery process and taste some otherwise unavailable fine Colorado whiskeys.

*Image courtesy of Stranahan’s Whiskey Distillery*

Pedal Hopper Denver Downtown Pub Crawl Tour

This might be the most fun bachelor party activity you can find in the Mile High City. These mobile, pedal-powered bicycle bars can fit up to 16 people on a raucous romp below the skyscrapers in downtown Denver, visiting all of our favorite haunts and enjoying Pedal Hopper specials on drinks. Pedal Hopper tours are for bachelors that aren’t afraid to work for their fun, as you will be pedaling, and the faster you pedal the more bars you can check out on this bar crawl. Contact us at pedalhopper.com for pricing and to get your tour booked for your groom-to-be!

Rockpile at Coors Field

Coors Field is an iconic baseball stadium located in the heart of downtown Denver. We recommend the Rock Pile for a few reasons. First of all, the seats are cheap which leaves a lot of leftover financial room to buy beer for the whole crew. Also, from the Rockpile you’ve got stunning views of the skyline in Denver and the mountains to the west. You can get seats for as low as $15 a pop, and day baseball games mean there’s a lot of night left to keep the bachelor party going until the break of dawn!

*Image courtesy of rateyourseats.com*

Buds and Beer Tour

Our friends over at My 420 Tours have an awesome Buds and Beer tour available to showcase some of Colorado’s finest and best-known products: craft beer and ganja. You and your entire bachelor party will get picked up in a 420-friendly party bus and be allowed to toke away while getting ferried around to some amazing Colorado breweries and tasting rooms. This bachelor party event is for those bachelors that love cold brew and heady buds, but if you’ve got people coming from low elevation make sure they take caution; it’s easy to overdo it with both beer and grass when you’re not used to the altitude!

*Image courtesy of My 420 Tours*

Red Rocks

Red Rocks is a local destination for hiking and concerts that everyone coming out for a bachelor party has to check out. Located just about 30 minutes west of Denver, this venue is worth checking out no matter what but take a look at their schedule to see if there’s a concert the future groom would like because this is a mind-blowing outdoor amphitheater with a great sound system that can make any genre of music pop. During the day, this venue is great for a bachelor who likes to get outdoors and hike through some amazing scenery and nighttime brings the party crowd from Denver for all kinds of concerts. It’s free to park and enter the venue during the day, but at night you’ll have to have tickets to get in.

*Image courtesy of thedenverchannel.com*

Denver is a great destination for anyone planning a destination bachelor party or for throwing an epic local party to send your boy off to the ranks of the married. Hopefully, these suggestions can help you get started planning the pre-wedding event of a lifetime!

Downtown Denver has enjoyed a resurgence and revitalization since the city pulled out all the stops to welcome the Colorado Rockies major league baseball team to town in 1995. There are the best bars and clubs in Denver surrounding Coors Field that you should definitely get more familiar with whether you’re a Colorado native, a new Denver resident, or visiting Denver with your friends and family. If you’re joining us on a private or public bike bar tour, Pedal Hopper Denver’s Downtown Tour is our most popular party bike route and we wanted to point out a few boozy options you and your party will have along the way.

*Image courtesy of Retro Room Lounge and Salon*

Retro Room Lounge and Salon

Do you like vodka? Us too. Would you like to get your hair done before a night out on the town? Well, there might not be time for that while on your Pedal Hopper bike bar tour but you should definitely make it back here for modern stylings. Vodka, though! At the Retro Room Lounge and Salon, they can help keep your Pedal Hopper Denver pedal-powered party bumping with their amazing selection of the best house-infused vodkas and whiskeys in Denver, which pair nicely with a curated beer list. We have a great working relationship with this funky little Larimer Street staple so make sure to let the bartenders know you’re there with the Pedal Hopper!  

*Image courtesy of The 1up – LoDo*

The 1up – LoDo

Classic arcade games, pinball, skeeball, and giant Jenga make The 1up – LoDo a must-stop on any Pedal Hopper Denver Downtown beer bike tour. If you like to have fun, that is. Just imagine: you’re with all of your friends rotating in and out of an NBA Jam Tournament Edition 4-player cage fight, hydrating with reasonably priced beer and tasty craft cocktails. Not a basketball video game fan? Don’t worry, they have games you’re sure to remember from your childhood like Mortal Kombat, Punchout, Contra, Paperboy and so many others (oh god, I hope we didn’t just date ourselves too much here at the Pedal Hopper…). This place, like many of the stops on our Downtown party bike pub crawl, can get a bit crowded on the weekends so make sure you plan for that when choosing your Pedal Hopper Denver route.

*Image courtesy of The Matchbox*

The Matchbox

We at the Pedal Hopper remember back around 2009 when The Matchbox was one of the only bars on Larimer Street and served Coors drafts for $0.75 during Colorado Rockies games. While the bar has gained notoriety since then, it still holds tight to its dive bar roots with some of the cheapest beer available in Denver and a breathtaking outdoor patio complete with a bocce ball court. The Matchbox is located in an eclectic old building with exposed brick and a rotating art display featuring local artists. It has a bit of a grungy feel (in a good way, at least in our opinion) so keep that in mind if you and your party are not the grungy dive bar types. The Matchbox tends to get crowded at night but with their huge patio and Colorado’s sunny summer weather, this is one of the best day-drinking spot’s in Denver!

*Image courtesy of Mile High Spirits Distillery*

Mile High Spirits Distillery

The spirits here are high. Like super, duper, Denver high. We love everything about Mile High Spirits; from their liquor to their upbeat and friendly staff to the amazing space they occupy in downtown Denver which triples as a distillery, tasting room (read: bar), and an epic venue with a state-of-the-art stage and sound system. They have one of the largest selections of infused booze in Denver and they can fulfill an order for a classic cocktail or share some of their contemporary creations with you.

Pedal Hopper Denver’s Downtown party bike tour is perfect for pre- or post-game partying or for experiencing the artsy, industrial side of downtown Denver, specifically the RiNo Art District. We have longlasting relationships with the four clubs listed above as well as dozens of others in the downtown, River North (RiNo), and Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhoods. So what are you waiting for? Book your Pedal Hopper Denver bike bar tour while your desired date and time is still available!

The office can be a dull, dry place. It’s easy to get so focused on your responsibilities at hand and the seemingly endless slew of deadlines that you put your work blinders on and ignore your coworker’s indifference to the bottom line. But having a functioning, communicative and coherent team has immeasurable benefits for positive workplace culture and environment, leading to a happier and more productive team. Here, you can find some great suggestions for getting out of the office and engaging in some fun corporate team building activities in some uniquely suave locales around the Denver, Colorado area.

Room 5280 – Nothing exemplifies team-building and corporate bonding like being trapped in a house full of clues and needing to work together to get out. Room 5280 in Baker, Colorado provides a real-life adventure game complete with puzzles and hidden objects showing you the way out! This team outing is memorable and will get your employees or coworkers to listen to one another and work together to beat the game within 60 minutes. This corporate team building activity will promote the continued respect of each other’s ideas and suggestions once they get back to the office. If you escape, you and your team will even emerge with a victorious team photo!

Price:  check escaperoom5280.com for booking infoAbove: Room 5280 on a snowy Denver day. *Photo courtesy of Room 5280.

AMF Monaco Lanes – More beer and peanuts than Moscow Mule’s and edamame, AMF Monaco Lanes is a reassuring counterweight to new-age alleys like Lucky Strike or “concept” bowling alleys like Punch Bowl Social. This place is a classic, Big Lebowski bowling alley and will remind you and your coworkers of The Dude at every turn. Always a great equalizer since nobody is particularly good at it (outside of some Midwest towns where it reigns king), bowling is a perfect event for corporate outings and team building events because there’s typically a bountiful amount of drinking, standing around and awkward silences waiting to be filled. This lack of conversation and addition of alcohol results in conversation, team building and a general feeling of camaraderie about how nobody can crack 125 on the scoreboard, but it’s bowling so it’s not really about winning anyway.

Price: contact amf.com for booking info Above: A little teaser of AMF Monaco Lanes flawless and incredibly shiny bowling lanes. *Photo courtesy of AMF Monaco Lanes.

Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project – This new and exciting “beer project” in the Santa Fe Arts district is worth checking out for corporate events or team get-togethers. Sojourner Beers has amazing house brewed beers, a spacious seating area both inside and on their awesome patio and also invites food trucks to their parking garage regularly to provide an astonishing array of eats (sample: this week there will be appearances by both Ethiopian and tapas/sandwiches food trucks). Head brewer and co-owner Andrew Moore is dedicated to the craft of beer, and loves to share his creations with the public. Corporate clients will especially find the spaciousness appealing along with the general vibe of craftsmen like Andrew drinking their own beer in their own tap house with their own customers.

Price: $5 for a pint, less for happy hourAbove: Denver locals enjoying thirst quenching internationally influenced craft beers. *Photo courtesy of Intrepid Sojourner Beer Project.

Pedal Hopper Denver – The Pedal Hopper Denver screams fun for corporate and team building events. There’s nothing like pedal-powering a 25-foot-long mobile bicycle bar through the streets of Denver with your coworkers and relying on pedal power from the maintenance guy and the CEO alike. There are currently two typical pub-crawl routes through some of the coolest and hippest neighborhoods in town. With predetermined stops at local bars, breweries, distilleries and pubs there is sure to be some degree of social lubrication by way of alcohol, providing the perfect opportunity for all members of your team or entire corporation to hang together in a casual, fun and unique environment. The Pedal Hopper Denver’s bicycle bars feel like a patio table, perfect for stimulating conversations, incubating ideas and creating long-lasting relationships beyond the office. The Pedal Hopper Denver seats 10-16 patrons per bike but can provide multiple bikes if you have a larger corporate event or team outing!

Price: around $20 per person   

 Above: A team of local Denverites taking a break from the office and pedaling their way to success.

A happy, cohesive team results in increased productivity and a tight-knit, interpersonal work environment. What better way to bring your team together than some good old-fashioned drinking and group games with Denver’s finest? Use these suggestions to get out of the office, get out into the real world and show your team what fun team building really looks like!