We had such a fantastic time playing with all the creatures. Our guides were extremely informative…read moreand fun to be around. Thank you!! would recommend to anyone

my daughter was planning a party here and when she called back in June they said they were updating…read moretheir website. Their prices over tripled to what it was going to cost. So much for a budget friendly birthday party. Shame on you for getting greedy!!

This was a trip. Lots of cool trains to look at, that's about it. The train set up in the basement…read moredidn't work, there is a coin slot to make it run and yet, it didn't. The employees were aware but that didn't stop them from preventing you from putting money in it. We had a very unfriendly encounter when purchasing tickets and I'm not really sure why. We purchased our tickets and then the employee walked away. The two people in front of us were given a full explanation of the museum, what was open and a map. We were seemly left in the dark. I'm sure this place is cool for someone. At least we were able to pass some time before our actual scheduled event. Any more than $10 a person though, I wouldn't visit.

Railroad museum about 20 minutes west of Denver featuring numerous steam engines, locomotives,…read morerolling stock and cabooses. Most are local road names and feature both standard and narrow gauges. While some pieces have been restored, most are probably similar to when they arrived. Need to knows: This museum is outdoors so subject to weather. Most walking is done on gravel. It is fairly level but maybe a 20 foot elevation difference from end to end. Elevation is at approximately 5600 feet so allow time for relaxing (benches available). There are signs warning of rattlesnakes so walk with caution. Check website for daily activities.

Absolutely love this park!! The train is so much fun, there is shade everywhere to have a picnic,…read moreand great for kids of all ages to play in the creek. I've been coming here since I was a kid and now I bring my own kids here! Highly recommend for a fun summertime activity for the whole family.

I feel a bit silly for having just recently discovered this park, but what an awesome find. How did…read moreI not realize this was here sooner? So there's an awesome petting zoo and train that you can pay to enjoy but the rest of the park is just as incredible. There's a shallow creek that runs the length of the park. It's honestly one of the best places for kids to just free play safely in the summer. Lots of great trees for parents to chill under while the kids enjoy the water. It's a perfect picnic spot for sure. Go make a day of it! There's also a traditional playground near the petting zoo and train station. My kids said the water is cold but on a hot day, it's the perfect activity. There are restrooms as well. There's some covered seating with picnic tables but it's just easier to bring a nice blanket and find a tree to camp under (or bring some outdoor chairs). We did the petting zoo recently too. It's $3 per person for the petting zoo for anyone over the age of 2. Same price for the train. You can do one and not the other. Tickets can be purchased on site or online. They give you one token per ticket for each activity. So you can only go through the petting zoo once and take the train once on a paid ticket. The petting zoo has cows, pigs, a duck, goats, alpacas, chickens, etc. It's fairly small, but a good way to expose city kids to sweet tempered farm animals. My kids loved the train! It does a nice big loop around the park. And the best part is the tunnel you go through at the end. The train is also beautiful - pretty green, shiny train. I would say the only down side is parking. I've ended up parking at the Pirates Cove area both times I've gone. There's simply not enough spots. Go early in the morning if you want to enjoy otherwise you might be completely out of luck.

Tiny Town. A town that is tiny!…read more I'm so glad I read the reviews first so I knew what to expect. My daughter and I arrived around 11am and we decided to have a little picnic in the back of the car, which seemed easier than trying to carry stuff through TT until we reached the picnic tables. The scenery is so pretty here, which made our little trunk picnic even more special! My daughter is 5 and was probably JUST young enough to enjoy it. We rode the train first--a short but cute ride--and then made our way through the town. She loved checking out all of the buildings, as well as seeing how they were decorated inside. So many dolls and scenes! The playground is sparse and outdated, but of course we had to spend a little time there. Our only negative experience was with the woman working the register in the gift shop. We were buying something, and my daughter picked up a little trinket that you're supposed to turn over + watch the bubbles move. Instead of just asking her to put it down (again: it's for playing with! And it was right in front of her face!) she ripped it out of her hands. While this doesn't classify as touching someone else's kid, it was close enough for me. Overall, a 4-star experience! I'm glad we took the time to go.

Since I grew up here in Colorado, I have many fond memories of checking out Tiny Town whenever we…read morehad out-of-town guests, but I hadn't been in roughly 25 years and decided it was now time to take my little ones. My daughter is three years old, and that is the demographic this place is best geared for. She was amazed by the tiny houses, and the train ride was a blast. I'm glad I was able to show her a spot from my childhood.

Such a wonderful place for children! I love the variety of different exhibits as well as the…read moreavailability of outdoor activities. My 2 year old especially loves the ball area and the food area. The story time was done by a music student who sang the books and had a wonderful voice. It was definitely not your average story time. I would recommend brining or wearing a bathing suit for the water exhibit if your kid gets really into it or for the water area outside. Lots of parking available for free on site. We did the membership for $170 for year for the family which seems like a great deal if you go more than a few times.

High 3 stars because my son ultimately did have fun & the museum has a lot of clever exhibits in a…read moremodern, pleasing to the eye campus. There are two glaring things though that make me hesitate to ever want to make a second trip. One is the cafe. I'm not expecting the bougie majesty like you get at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but this is in Denver. I'd consider us a pretty cosmopoliton city & this being THE Children's Museum for CO (since it's in our capitol), it should have a proper quick service option. Cold food options, fine, but a microwave for hot options? So disappointing. I noticed a lot of space dedicated to private parties, etc. Can we not junk that in favor of a real sit down spot? The worst thing though was the behavior of the older children that make the museum unusable in certain areas. Seemed to specficially be the kids on field trips. My nearly 2 year old loves a ball so you can imagine his delight in discovering the "Kinetics!" area. Despite there being what seems like a ton of balls, a bunch of unruly older children have managed to hoard them to where even adults can't wrangle one measly ball for their kid to hold. Once my poor son managed to acquire one, he ran off to a quiet corner & refused to let me show him how the exhibit worked with the tubes, etc. because he was too concerned about the ball being taken from him. Well, he was right to be concerned as these selfish older children came over & tried to take the ball from him despite them hoarding the entire room's balls insisting that they need that one too. My husband's head nearly exploded. The Bloom room is really the only safe haven for any kid let alone the young ones but my son will age out soon and then what? He's 99 percentile so even though he's one, he's already the size of a four year old but he still gets run over in rooms that are supposed to be for "all ages." Once my son ages out of the Bloom room there really is no incentive for us to come back here as the experience is way too violent, overstimulating, & a bully's playground. Similar instances happened in the Bubble room & the Market as well with different gangs of field trippers. We came on what felt like a very average day crowd wise (Thurs 9-11:30AM) so I can't imagine how awful it would be on a busier day. Really a shame that poorly parented/chaperoned kids have to ruin the experience of so many other children as I've seen multiple other reviews complain about the same thing. I should have take them more seriously.

I am disappointed in Colorado Heliops. My son started their…read moreflight school 1.5 years ago. The Rocky Mountain Regional Airport is very busy and my son was having a hard time feeling confident to speak to the air traffic controllers. I asked if a flight instructor could arrange for my son to go with him into the airport's control tower to see how hectic their job was in comparison to my son talking into the headset. They said they had no arrangement for that. Unfortunately, my son took a break from his training. I pulled my $1900 out of his account when they told me it would not secure his place he went from 6th on their list to a 150th.

I spent over $40,000 and 2 years of my life at this school. The instructors told me to leave after…read moreI got frustrated about not making progress here. They told me that I do not have the skillset to become a pilot and that I should not fly. However, instead of falling on my face, I immediately finished my private helicopter rating in the third busiest class D airspace in the USA. I was finishing college in Denver, and did not want to switch schools and move cities. So, as HeliOps is the only rotorcraft flight school within 6 hours of Denver, I had to fly or drive 6+ hours to and from flight schools to finish my helicopter ratings. I have now finished all my ratings needed to be hired in the industry and have received a total of 4 job offers even before completion of my commercial rating. The instructors at HeliOps are manipulative and do not seek to create qualified, competent pilots for the industry. They say that you are the only one not making progress here (even though almost all students who have stayed at HeliOps to complete their ratings have up to 100 extra hours over minimums, or left and excelled at other schools). Another phrase they like is that students at this school end up with higher hours because they hold them to a higher standard than other schools do. However, students end up with higher hours because there is enough time left between when a student learns a skill (for example, an autorotation) and the next time they fly, so that their skills perish and they have to learn the skill again. Once that skill has been re-learned, it has now been 3+ weeks since the other maneuvers have been practiced and they have to learn those skills again. There are so many skills to be learned in order to pass a checkride that training can take almost an unlimited amount of time if a school is not focused on getting students past a checkride. I have used the same examiner for my instrument rating that HeliOps uses for all their students. They lie about the difficulty of the checkride, what items will be on it, and what the examiner will be looking for in order to justify the fact that they make many students repeat lessons tirelessly. The instructors of HeliOps have told me and many other students to see an aviation therapist/psychologist. If you go here, remember this review when they tell you to see one. To add insult to injury, a previous male Schweizer 300 instructor has been SEXUALLY HARASSING ME through Facebook Messenger. This HeliOps instructor has asked me to allow him to do sexual things to my friends and I, and when I did not comply with his request, he told me to go F*** myself. I write this review with the hope that at least one person will be kept from the pain and financial drain that I have been a victim of through attending flight training at HeliOps. Do not go to this school.

Overall, I would say the place is really great for kids. It's a little small but you can definitely…read morespend a few hours here depending on how quick your kid loses interest. Was very shocked to find tigers that are like most people reviewed. A lot of really cool fish. The restaurant was overall a good experience. It's really cool that you get to look at fish while you're eating. Service was OK but I think it was just really busy. Food was decent but overpriced.

Went here with my boyfriend for a date night on a Sunday. Parking was $7.99. The aquarium itself…read morewas neat, but it's pretty small. We walked through everything in about 30 minutes. They did have a tiger, which was definitely unexpected and cool to see. We also got a caricature done, which ended up being one of the best parts of the visit. A colored face-only drawing for two people was $30. It was listed as a 10-minute drawing, but it took closer to 30 minutes. The artist was really nice, though, and recommended we eat at the restaurant. we stopped at the gift shop and got some cute plushies before. Unfortunately, that's where the experience went downhill. We had a reservation and were seated around 6:20. We got Liz as our server. she was very sweet and one of the calmer servers on a busy night. otherwise service was very slow. We ordered the Herb-Roasted Salmon and the Coconut Shrimp. After waiting about 45 minutes, the manager came over to tell us they were out of the coconut shrimp and recommended the Shrimp Platter instead, so we went with that. The salmon tasted overly fishy, and the asparagus was undercooked, although the mashed potatoes were actually really good. As for the Shrimp Platter, the fried shrimp was mostly breading, the bacon-wrapped shrimp was just kind of strange, and the grilled shrimp was the only part we really enjoyed. The fries were good, but the beans and green beans weren't. It also took quite a while to get our check, and dinner ended up costing around $80. Overall, I'd skip the restaurant. The aquarium is worth checking out once, especially if you have young kids, but I probably wouldn't come back for another date night.

What an absolutely beautiful station. I was impressed with the outside and then when I went inside…read morethe building I was taken aback. It wasn't what I as expected at all. There were arched windows, beautiful lighting, and everything was just so bright due to the two. Inside there was a variety of places to eat. There were restaurants, a bar, and a coffee shop from what I had seen. I came early in the morning, so only the coffee shop was open. At the Union Station, you can catch a ride on the Amtrak or catch Denver's bus or rail. I thought the system was very nice and orderly.

Denver Union Station is a very large, very grand structure designed to help human beings move from…read moreone spot on the Earth to another. I did not ride a train here. I simply walked inside, stared at the ceiling, drank coffee, and conducted myself like a person who had accidentally discovered that a transportation building can be a tourist attraction. The central room is called the Great Hall, and it is appropriately named. It features sixty-foot arched ceilings, giant chandeliers, and Beaux-Arts masonry that suggests important historical figures in dramatic clothing ought to be striding through the doors. The original station opened in 1881, burned down in 1894 because wooden structures are vulnerable to fire, and was rebuilt in 1914. A century later, after a long period of quiet decline, it was reimagined as a combination of train terminal, boutique hotel called The Crawford, cocktail venue known as the Terminal Bar, and general indoor living room for the public. It should be noted that it is not meant to stand in as a bedroom, however, as my friend was sternly warned about napping there by a camera guided security officer. If you look closely, the building contains small physical clues about the past. There are display cases showing forgotten items recovered from the original wooden waiting benches, vintage railroad artifacts, and framed architectural blueprints from 1914. These objects serve as physical proof that millions of long-gone citizens once sat in this exact space holding tickets to towns that have since changed beyond recognition or disappeared entirely. I stood with a hot beverage and watched the endless parade of organisms. There were hurried commuters, confused tourists, hotel guests with rolling suitcases, and individuals who had entered for no apparent reason other than that the room was warm and visually pleasing. Outside, Wynkoop Plaza connects the granite building to the Lower Downtown neighborhood with splash fountains and outdoor benches. You can buy a cocktail, eat an expensive meal, or sit on a plush couch and contemplate the sheer volume of human lives that have intersected under this roof over the past one hundred and forty years. I cannot report on whether the Amtrak trains operate according to their printed schedules. Based on my personal experience, I would doubt it, but that is hardly the fault of the station. I have no opinion regarding the cushioning of the waiting room chairs. I did not inspect the platform boarding platforms. I came strictly to observe a magnificent survivor made of stone and iron, and the station performed its duty. Sometimes the most satisfying place to arrive is the building originally constructed to send you somewhere else.