Chris and I are hoping to make our trip to Colorado a yearly tradition as it has been two years in a row that we visited and stayed at one of our favorite hotels + saw a show Red Rocks Amphitheater, and it’s safe to say we fell in love with it all. With that, we thought it was only fitting to create a “Vegan in Colorado” guide to round up our favorite spots in the area to help you plan your trip if you ever visit 🙂
St. Julien Hotel | Boulder, CO
We partnered up with the St. Julien Hotel (see last year’s post here), and not only worked on a photography project with them, but were also fortunate enough to stay and review the hotel.
The hotel is located in a prime spot of Boulder. It is walking distance from Pearl Street (aka Downtown Boulder where it’s poppin’), and Chris and I found ourselves there almost every day on our trip. On weekend nights the hotel has live music and dancing, and you can also check out a ton of street performers, live music, and events happening at different restaurants on Pearl St. just a short walk away.
The hotel also shares free bikes with their guests to get around, so our mornings consisted of visiting local coffee shops then heading to the Boulder Canyons for an easy ride. Maybe not so easy if you aren’t used to biking as I’m not, but for Chris it was a breeze 😛
Not only were we pleased with their overly accommodating staff and wide array of vegan options in their restaurant, we were stoked to find that they had vegan snack options in our room, complementary cruelty-free and vegan toiletries AND vegan treats as a part of their turn down service. And I should add that this wasn’t particular to our room, it is for every single room 🙂 
The hotel has a view of the iconic Flatirons which were planning to hike but unfortunately we weren’t able to, but we hear that the Flatirons are one of the must visit spots. There is a free shuttle provided by the city to these mountains as well for a stress free outing, and you can find all of the deets here.
Very Vegan Package | All Vegan Spa Treatment
Boulder embraces a conscious and vegan-friendly lifestyle, and the hotel caters to just that with this spa package. Chris and I were able to treat ourselves and get at taste of this package which included a vegan body scrub, a full-body massage with a custom essential oil blend and a scalp massage. After the treatment, it also included two vegan cocktails and a $50 daily food and beverage credit, which we used at Jill’s Restaurant at their vegan lunch buffet (below).
Jill’s Restaurant | Vegan Fridays
The restaurant within the St. Julien Hotel not only offers rad vegan options on its menu, but they also have Vegan Fridays — which is an all vegan lunch buffet that is only $15 (+ a free glass of rosé, heeey)! It is always a must visit for us when we are in Boulder, and it is one of a kind! Don’t you wish they had these all over the U.S.?! I guess it makes it that much more special when we visit.
We also want to share that the town of Boulder is VERY vegan friendly, and we were nothing but pleased (and stuffed:P) by all of the spots we hit up. Here is a list of our must try spots in Boulder that we visited, in no particular order!
- Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant– great for a date night or a special night out. It was actually way more affordable than we had expected, but make sure you plan your visit right as they don’t take reservations and can get super busy! We had to attempt to go twice to actually score a seat.
- Whole Foods Boulder- Beyond Burger Station– the infamous Beyond Meat Beyond Burger was launched in the Boulder, CO Whole Foods on Pearl Street. With this, they opened a whole Beyond Burger station where you can order up all vegan burgers, milkshakes and fries!
- Zeel– this restaurant has a fun, upbeat vibe, some bombbb kombucha and some good clean vegan food to help satisfy any palate! We have gone for brunch. lunch AND dinner, and it’s safe to say its a great spot to visit when in Boulder.
- Wonder Press– perfect for grab and go juices and smoothies, perfect whilst traveling as I know it is sometimes difficult to keep your nutrition in check!
Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, CO
When in Boulder, we always make time to visit this open-air venue. Whether it be for a show, a workout (I saw online they have some group workouts and events) or even just to walk through, I recommend it! The venue is built into the side of a rock, and it is the only one of it’s kind. The views are breathtaking, the acoustics are on point, and the whole vibe of the place always makes it such just a great time.
There is a shuttle that travels from Illegal Pete’s on Pearl St. in Boulder to the venue, and I would highly recommend you consider that as opposed to renting a car, from what I saw it is only $35 round trip! Chris and I found this out after we had already rented a car, but we are definitely going to do that next year to save some cash.
Denver, CO
Denver, COSince Denver is less than an hour away from Boulder and is filled with some amazing spots to grub on vegan food, why not visit, right? Here is a list of our favorites, in no particular order!
- WaterCourse Foods– Their seitan in their vegan cuban sandwich looks and tastes so real it is kind of freaky-but in a good way! We also loved their macro plate. We have been here a few times, and we can tell that they put so much love and effort into all of their dishes, so this is definitely a top pick!
- City O’ City– We can both confidently say that their savory waffle is one of our favorite dishes, ever. We dream of it while we are away, and it is something we look forward to every year when we visit Colorado.
- Root Down– there is one located in DIA in case you need food before your flight, we recommend the tofu bento box, but just know the fortune cookie isn’t vegan!
- WongWayVeg– you MUST try their Crabby Patty, the name alone sold us but the flavor had us in heaven.
- Ba-NOM-a-NOM– a unique made to order banana ice cream truck that is perfect for a guilt-free treat!
I hope this guide helps you on your future trip to Colorado, and please let us know in the comments below if you use our guide OR suggest we check out other spots to add onto it.
Chris and I have put together various Travel Guides for all of the places we have visited, so make sure to check them out to see if we can help you on your next trip!
Disclaimer: I was provided with a stay and meals the St. Julien Hotel & Jill’s Restaurant to review on my blog, but all of the opinions shared are my own. I would not feature this experience on my page to share with you all unless I loved it! Thank you for supporting Sweet Simple Vegan!
Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions- I I’ll definitely use your guide next time I’m in Colorado. I stayed in Breckinridge back in March and dined at the wonderful Piante Pizzeria. They had just opened and they were only open Thursday-Sunday and my trip was Monday-Friday, so unfortunately I was only able to eat there once or I would have eaten there very day! The entire menu is vegan and the non-vegans that I went with loved their food. I can’t recommend it enough-I’m drooling just thinking about it….ha ha! 🙂
Ahhh I can’t wait to visit there next, thanks for sharing! 🙂
Colorado is one of my favorite states and Boulder is one of my favorite cities. I haven’t heard of the St. Julien, but I just bookmarked it. It sounds incredible! Thanks for the great information.
Yes I agree, one of my favorite places ever! I hope you can check it out, it’s such a beautiful hotel!
I’ve never been to Boulder, but now I know where to stay and eat! I’ll have to plan a CO trip one of these days.
YES I 100% support that, it is such a beautiful state and Boulder is truly a great city.
I’m reading this while waiting for my dinner to be done and I am drooling excessively. OMG it all looks so amazing! I know where I’m going for info if I ever get to boulder!
Yay, so happy that we could help! Hopefully you can make it out sooner than later 🙂
Well that looks like a fabulous getaway!
What a fun trip! Isn’t Red Rocks so cool?!
I think I am actually obsessed with it! Haha