so.....

in Sept, we will be heading out there for "Family Weekend" at teh Academy.

Never been there before, so any Springs advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

We kinda want to stay near the Academy, but want to have food/bars/fun availble for after the AF festivities.

Where are the good areas to find this?  Gotta rent a room for a few nights, so want to check out the town a bit.  

Not sure if staying for the foosball game or not

Should we stay downtown?  if so, is the "commute" to the academy an easy one?

and of course...the places to avoid

any help would be great!

thx!

In general, and because most of your activities seem to be centered around USAFA, I'd highly suggest Northgate area directly across I-25.

Forgot to mention, there are many good places to eat  but you can go ahead and skip bourbon brothers. They claim to be a smokehouse but anything I’ve ever eaten there had no smoke flavor whatsoever.

daughter is thinking of moving there.   Any place that are the "place to be"--good neighborhoods, rentals /appts.
and any areas for her to avoid living at?

Stay north of Woodmen road. There are some exceptions south of it but that’ll keep her out of ghettos. Meridian Ranch was seemingly nice but the ghetto leaked out and got two kids killed.

Garden of the Gods is world famous and free. The incline is also pretty famous but very intense and might not be your thing unless you are fit/ in shape.

The cog railway I've never done but it's really cool. It's a fun way to see pikes peak.  Or you can drive it.  But you need to reserve a parking pass if you drive to pikes peak. Cog railway requires reservations too.

I don't mean to be a contrary, but the advice to stay above woodman is silly.  There are a ton of great places to live and visit all over the springs.  You'll know right away which areas are less than great and tbh, none of them are terrible.  Nothing like Denver.  There's a few homeless encampments near the river bed, and near some homeless outreach centers.

Another general area to check out is Tejon street in downtown Colorado Springs.  Lots of interesting pubs/ restaurants.  One of our favorites is Jack Quinns Irish pub.  Great food and atmosphere,  live music in the evenings, still family friendly.

There's some cool places in old Colorado city as well.  Thunder and buttons was recommended to me but I've still never been.

Living somewhere and having lunch/dinner somewhere are two different things completely.

Still wrong. I guess every thing south of woodman is the ghetto? Gtfo man.

Go back and read everything I wrote.

so hotels are quite high at that time---guessing because of the 1000 families and football game that will be going on...

did see some airbnb's around....some very close to downtown.  

any reason to avoid downtown area as a plce to stay?

Air B&Bs down there should be nice, especially if they’re in Old North End.

Also, check hotels along Powers Boulevard from Woodman down to Constitution.

Airbnb a place in monument, Palmer lake, or woodmoor. If you want a hotel Interquest area. Lots of eating choices on the Northside.

Also in the Northgate area is Scheels, in my opinion one of, if not the best outdoors / recreational / guns-hunting stores in the country.  Yes it's a big-box store but employee-owned and you can tell by talking to any employee.  Friendly, helpful and knowledgable.  Address is 1226 Interquest Parkway Colorado Springs, CO 80921.

If you have time and like to see some beautiful ranches on the front range, take the drive up State Hwy 105 from Palmer Lake to Sedalia.  Usually a herd of elk will be hanging in one or more of the pastures.

Downtown has density of bars/restaurants, so if you want to park and walk it's good for that.  Up north near AFA has more family friendly things to do, a gokart place, an indoor skydiving place, a wolf lodge, etc.
Manitou might be interesting for you, and the drive works out because Manitou to AFA via RT24 to I25 is 15 minutes, same as staying downtown.