Getting to and around LoDo

LoDo is about a mile across and almost perfectly flat, so the honest answer to "how do I get around" is: on foot. Everything below is about getting here and getting home.

From the airport

Take the A Line. It leaves from the airport's Westin terminal every fifteen minutes most of the day, costs a regional fare, and pulls into the open-air train hall behind Union Station in about 37 minutes. Walk through the Great Hall and out the front doors onto Wynkoop Street and you are in the middle of everything. A cab or rideshare from DIA runs forty-five minutes to an hour and several times the price; the train is genuinely the better option unless you have a lot of luggage and a lot of people.

Union Station is the hub

Everything meets here. Under the train hall is a 22-gate bus concourse (regional buses, the mountain routes, Bustang to the ski towns and Colorado Springs). At the west end is the light rail plaza. Amtrak's California Zephyr stops here once a day in each direction on its way between Chicago and the Bay Area, and the ride west through the canyons to Glenwood Springs is one of the great train days in the country.

The free shuttle

The 16th Street FreeRide runs the length of 16th Street from Union Station to Civic Center every few minutes, free, from early morning to about 1am. It came back at full length in October 2025 after the three-year rebuild of the street. Use it with luggage or when it is nine degrees; otherwise the walk is fifteen minutes and more interesting.

Light rail

Two stations matter for the ring: Ball Arena / Elitch Gardens on the E and W lines is the arena's own stop, and Auraria West and Colfax at Auraria serve the campus. Empower Field at Mile High has its own W Line stop for Broncos games. From Union Station, the E and W lines leave from the plaza at the west end.

The bridges

From the end of 16th Street behind the station, three pedestrian bridges make one straight line to the river and beyond: the Millennium Bridge (the white mast) over the tracks to Commons Park, the Platte River Bridge over the water, and the Highland Bridge over I-25 to Platte Street and Highland. The whole walk from Union Station to My Brother's Bar or Little Man Ice Cream takes twelve to fifteen minutes and is the single best walk in the neighborhood. All three have elevators.

Speer Boulevard is the other edge. To reach Ball Arena, Auraria or Meow Wolf on foot, cross Speer at 14th, Wewatta or Auraria Parkway; the walk from Union Station to the arena doors is fifteen to twenty minutes. A dedicated pedestrian bridge over Speer, the Wynkoop Crossing, was approved by City Council in July 2026 and is expected around 2029.

Bikes and scooters

The Cherry Creek Trail and the South Platte River Trail both begin at Confluence Park and are the fastest way out of downtown on two wheels with no traffic lights. Denver's bike share is run by Lyft; e-scooters from Lime and others are everywhere and legal on streets and bike lanes, not sidewalks. REI at Confluence Park rents bikes.

Parking, honestly

If you must drive: garages under Dairy Block (enter on Wewatta), at Union Station (Wewatta), Writer Square (Lawrence at 15th, validated by Comedy Works), the Arts Complex garage (14th and Arapahoe), and REI (validated with a purchase). Street meters run late in LoDo. On Rockies and Ball Arena nights, lot prices near the venues climb to $40–60 and the traffic out afterward is the worst part of the evening; park a mile away and walk, or take the train. On Broncos Sundays, do not drive to LoDo at all; the whole neighborhood is the pregame.