Info for Ducks/Buffs game in Oct

You’ll enjoy this trip (except for the game part, we buffs can always hope.) But Boulder’s a beautiful place and for the most part we are friendly – promise.

Is there anything particular you want in a hotel, or just proximity to the stadium?
A couple of notes:
not only is Boulder a small town, but you can walk to the stadium from lots of points, including the downtown area, which is called Pearl Street Mall. Assuming you are young and healthy, about 20 minutes to a half an hour.

The main highway coming into Boulder is called “highway 36” and runs SE to Northwest— and just as the CU campus comes into view, the highway makes a right angle turn, and is called “28th street” for the rest of the way through town, and pretty much runs due north.

There are hotels right on 28th street there (as BuffFiend87 said.) These aren’t the 5-star hotels (we actually have one of those downtown if you want to drop some coin – look up the St. Julien or the historic Boulderado for the upper end stays ), but they are nice little independent places with a bed, shower and importantly walking distance to the stadium.
A few:
Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites 800 28th Street,
Boulder Inn (which is a Best Western) 770 28th Street,
America’s Best Value Inn Boulder Hotel‎ 970 28th Street,
Millennium Harvest House 1345 28th Street Boulder, CO 80303 (This is usually full of CU boosters and alumni, just a heads up.)
mapquest any of those and you’ll see how close you are…

If you don’t want to rent a car, you can actually catch the “AB” bus from the Denver Airport straight to downtown Boulder for about $14 – nice clean commuter bus, best deal around. Go to RTD-Denver.com for info.

There are the usual college places to eat (sub shops and pizza delivery) on 28th street, but not a lot of restaurants right next to the hotels mentioned, if you are trying to stay near campus. You need to head north on 28th street to increase your food options.

Three areas to look for food:
Continue down 28th street, past Arapahoe Road (less than a mile) … the 28th Street Shopping and Dining District - with restaurants on both sides of street for as far as you can see, broken up by retail stores. Everything from Chipotle, to fine dining . Some folks call this the “crossroads” area, a nod to the Old Crossroads Mall, which was torn down and replaced with chain stores and places to eat.

The Hill, which is the southwest corner of CU campus, has a lot of places to grab a bite to eat, including the famous “Sink” with original artwork on the walls. Robert Redford waited tables there when he went to CU.

Downtown area – Pearl Street - you can walk from one end to the other and see everything from Tai food, to organic vegan fare, to Chicago-style pizza, to sushi, to Lazy Dog Grill with traditional bar and grill food. You might see Colorado coaches and players at the Lazy Dog (radio shows sometime broadcast from there), on the east end of the mall, or at the other end – west – Pasta Jay’s italian – both are Boulder favorites, although more for the atmosphere than the food awesomeness.

If you are in Boulder on Friday night before the game, you ought to know about one of the coolest traditions: the Pearl Street Stampede. The CU band and football team walk the mall and interact with fans before the football team is whisked off to their hotel. Parade starts 7-ish, at the Lazy Dog, and finishes 45 minutes later in front of the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper building (across from Pasta Jay’s.) Slice of small town America, it is. Who doesn’t love a parade?

All the advice above is great. I won’t expand much more.

Let’s hope the students will be a little more welcoming than they have been to visitors in the past. Remember that Buffs are generally nice fans. We are stoked to be in the PAC 12 and we welcome all visitors to visit Boulder and enjoy the games!!!

All of this will be very helpful to my friends and I. Don’t worry about defending those 5%‘s who show their ass. Every fan base has them and if the people we will encounter are anything like you guys I am sure everyone will have a good time(which is what we are really after). When Oregon’s schedule came out my friends and I who try and make a yearly pilgrimage to a Duck’s game immediately saw this game and without even talking to each other had chosen to go visit Boulder(we have heard awesome things about the city).

I am, without question, a die hard Duck fan but the Buffs are definitely the other Pac 12(man that still sounds a little weird to me) that I will root for during the season.

Once again thanks for your help. As my user name implies I live in NC so if any of you guys/gals ever need any info about my fair state don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

http://www.ralphiereport.com/2010/2/16/1313570/cu-buffs-vs-uga-dawgs-october-02