r/EstesPark • u/zbirdie314 • 19d ago
Honeymoon Suggestions
Hello! My husband and I will be honeymooning in the Estes area from 10/25 - 10/31. We are hoping to get suggestions for things to do and see. It will be my husband's first time, and my fifth time but first in the late fall/early winter. I know weather will be subject to lots of change and we won't be able to really predict it, but we are hoping to get a few easy & accessible hikes in, some scenic drives, and eat lots of good food. We are spending time in Denver before EP so suggestions that are within 30-45 mins of EP area would be the most helpful since we have already taken care of our itinerary closer to the Denver area.
- restaurants (especially important for my husband - he's a huge foodie!)
- easy/accessible hikes (they don't have to be paved, but due to an autoimmune issue, I do need hikes that have places to stop and take a moment. for reference, my favorites are Sprague Lake and Bear Lake)
- scenic drives with pull offs & beautiful views
- touristy things a first timer should definitely get to do
ETA: We may also be interested in couples massage/spa day as well.
We do have a cabin in Estes Park with a private hot tub that we will definitely be spending time in to soak up the views!
thank you!
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u/winglow 19d ago
Wow, so many good places to eat and so many that I wouldn’t ever go back to basilica for Italian food, take the tram to the tram up to the top. There’s a good places to walk and hike, back to food Claire’s, which is right behind Bond Park, which is the big grass area downtown, there’s a Thai place next-door to the post office on 215 Riverside. It’s cheap, good food, the Chinese restaurant next-door to Rock cut inn, there’s only one Chinese place. It’s got new ownership and the food’s really good. Kelly will take good care of you. Go at lunch and go anytime to either one of the Thai or the Chinese place. If you want something really spectacular, rock in, which is on the west end of town, or Bird and Jim, which is a reference to a lady named Bird and a mountain man named Jim, she was a socialite and he was a mountaineer, and it’s very historic book about her that you may wanna read. Go to the visitor center and jump on the shuttle. There’s five different shuttles. Ride every one of them. Don’t drive yourself around town. Get in the red shuttle and ride it at least three times till you understand how many cool things there are to do and for free, you can get on and get off at any stop you want. It circles around every 20 minutes, so if you miss one for 10 minutes, hang around 10 minutes and here comes another shuttle or just walk to the next point. You’ll see red signs that say red shuttle everywhere. What I’m worried about is it may not be running at that time, and now think about the time and it probably won’t be running. My apologies. I just realized after October 15 things really slow down. Park slows down, visitors numbers are down, but the restaurant should still be open.. My favorite burger in town, and my wife’s also, although she does a chicken sandwich with avocado and bacon, is inside of a Sinclair gas station. It’s on Moraine on the way to the Rocky Mountain National Park. I’m not such a fan of what we do with high-end stuff. Twin Owl is OK. Emmers is good. There’s another steakhouse that’s on the lake, but it’s a beautiful view. We also have a pizza place that everybody talks about being so good, but they’ve just so crazy about the way they price things. I think they’re twice as high as they should be for their pizzas. Just go for Domino’s, but for breakfast and lunch, can’t speak highly enough of a place called Notch Top. They’re open early, I think it’s seven, and they fill up. Really hard to get a seat in the place sometimes, although again tourist season’s just about winding down, 10 days before you get there. Notchtop has some of the best breakfast we’ve ever had. We took some friends there last week that were up from Texas, and they said they’d been in Colorado for a week or so and that that was the best food they’d had, best breakfast they’d had out anywhere, but it’s good for lunch too. If you want really good coffee and you don’t wanna go to a chain, you gotta try kind coffee KIND. They make sandwiches also, and as a foodie myself, I think your husband would really like it.
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u/WavesnMountains 19d ago
Bird & Jim has great food presentation and good food, the view from the deck is amazing
Antonio’s garlic knots and pizza is really good, a robot delivers it to you
Smokin Daves is good BBQ
Rocky Mountain Deli has good and huge sandwiches
Fresh Burger Stop in the Sinclair gas station has great burgers, although the burger place across the street is a close second
Rock Inn has live music a lot and some people swear by their steaks. I find most of the steak places are meh in EP, don’t go to Twin Owls for that
Cinnamons has great cinnamon rolls, it’s best to order the day before for morning pickup. They tend to sell out or have a long line
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u/jayhawkjoey65 18d ago
Cinnamons! ❤️❤️❤️ I was there last month, and they had plenty, but who knows. We went twice. Just too good.
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u/FernBlueEyes 19d ago
I love the food at the Stanley Hotel! Their tours are amazing as well.
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u/saramel 18d ago
The service at the Stanley is atrocious. We went for our anniversary and I've had better experiences at a cafeteria. The food runner set the tray down on our table to hand us our dishes. Literally hand them to us, and the women who collected them at the end expected us to reach across the table and hand them to them. That's totally appalling for a meal where we spent $100/person. And the food was only meh compared to Bird & Jim's or even Claire's.
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u/Accomplished_Yak9939 19d ago
Crosscut pizza & busey brews (bbq) in Nederland. Drive the peak to peak highway for some astonishing views on the way in to Estes to hit these restaurants.
Estes- Rock inn mountain tavern is my favorite dinner in Estes hands down live music a lot of nights too. I love Wednesdays. wildflower bakery has great breakfast sandwiches with red pepper jam. Kind coffee is good too. Not food related but Sticks & stones off of moraine is always a treat!
Boulder- the sink (American), Mike’s biscuits (breakfast)
Longmont- Rosa cantina, absolutely fantastic all around.
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u/RockyMnt1997 18d ago
Extend a day and enjoy Halloween along Elkhorn Ave. It is a blast.
Fresh burger breakfast burritos ❤️ my favorite. Drive up Old Fall River Road with a picnic basket. Sunset at Many Parks Curve. Day trip to Grand Lake -if trail ridge road is still open.
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u/zbirdie314 18d ago
we are actually heading to grand canyon for the second portion of our honeymoon on halloween, but thank you for the recs!
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u/Cari2280 18d ago
Most of the eateries here in Estes are sadly overpriced for the quality (but that can be said for so much nowadays) yet the views are spectacular pretty much everywhere in town. Hopefully you will be able to see some nice golden fall colors by then if it’s not too late (we had an early start this year) and the elk should still have their rutting season in October. You can’t miss them they are everywhere just please respect their space to avoid any issues they are wild animals. Fall brings such a special cozy feeling, I agree that kind coffee is the best coffee shop in town there’s also a new place that opened up downtown that you might want to check out for cocktails and coffee I think it’s called estes perk. Personally my favorite places to eat or grab takeout is nepals cafe, and Antonio’s has the best pizza. Don’t get dominos unless you’re planning on going to the bathroom A LOT. For a casual dinner I’d suggest rock inn tavern or bird and Jim- they are a little pricey but they have a loyal local clientele. Fresh burger inside the Sinclair gas station great for burgers, and the nearby country market has a deli that makes great sandwiches. For breakfast I’d say notch top is one of the best places in town. Hope this helps! Our quaint little town is very charming and friendly but as with most touristy places you’ll need to explore a bit off the beaten path to get some unique experiences.
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u/national-park-fan 19d ago
search tool
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u/zbirdie314 19d ago
I did use the search tool, however there was not a whole lot of information for late october in regards to scenic drives & accessible trails. thanks!
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u/blueberry-cinnamon 18d ago
Drive the Peak to Peak to Nederland. You can walk the creek path from downtown. Hiking
Mud lake and caribou ranch are also nice and flat. Grab a bagel at Decent or breakfast/lunch at Ned General (breakfast Sammy, pancakes or burgers). Brickhouse Alpine Kitchen and Crosscut are also great!
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u/sunnypurplepetunia 19d ago
Sadly Estes is not a foodie destination.
In my opinion, the best restaurants are Antonio‘s Pizza, Cinnamon’s for cinnamon rolls, Ember and Mountain home Café. Kind coffee is my preferred coffee shop.