TRAVEL TIPS
Car Travel
Rental-car companies include Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, Thrifty, and National. All have airport and downtown representatives.
Reaching Denver by car is fairly easy, except during rush hour. Interstate highways 70 and 25 intersect near downtown; an entrance to I–70 is just outside the airport.
When you're looking for an address within Denver, make sure you know whether it's a street or avenue. Speer Boulevard runs alongside Cherry Creek from northwest to southeast through downtown; numbered streets run parallel to Speer and most are one-way. Colfax Avenue (U.S. 287) runs east–west through downtown; numbered avenues run parallel to Colfax. Broadway runs north–south. Other main thoroughfares include Colorado Boulevard (north–south) and Alameda Avenue (east–west). Try to avoid driving in the area during rush hour, when traffic gets heavy. Interstates 25 and 225 are particularly slow during those times; although the Transportation Expansion Project (T-REX) added extra lanes, a light-rail system along the highways, bicycle lanes, and other improvements, expansion in the metro area outpaced the project.
Parking
Finding an open meter has become increasingly difficult in downtown Denver, especially during peak times such as Rockies games and weekend nights. Additionally, most meters have two-hour limits until 10 pm, and at 25¢ for 10 minutes in some downtown areas, parking in Denver is currently more expensive than in New York City or Chicago (although the city has made it easier to pay by switching most meters to accept debit/credit cards as well as change). However, there's no shortage of pay lots for $5 to $25 per day.
Car Services
Hailed solely via smartphone app, car services in the metro area give taxis a ride for their money, particularly because the ride can be considerably cheaper and arrive faster. The downside, though, is that at peak times, Uber and Lyft prices soar to "surge pricing." Expect to pay about $1.13–$2.14 base and 17¢–20¢ a minute and $1.41–$1.57 per mile at non-peak times and up to four times as much during surge pricing.
Car Service Companies
Lyft. www.lyft.com.
Uber. www.uber.com.
