Destination: Denver

DENVER • The kids are out of school, and you’re thinking about that big family vacation.

You don’t have to pull a Griswold and drag the fam (and dog) cross country to Walley World.

An easier, and possibly more fun, option is taking a quick getaway to Denver.

Our northern neighbor boasts world-class attractions, with dozens of ways to get wet, dizzy, silly and pleasantly exhausted.

Just try not to get distracted if you see Christie Brinkley in a red Ferrari.

THE BIGGIES

Elitch Gardens

2000 Elitch Circle, Denver, 1-303-595-4386; elitchgardens.com

It was Elitch Gardens, then Six Flags Elitch Gardens, and now it’s just Elitch Gardens again. But it’s as exciting as any Six Flags in the country, offering an amazing mix of scare-your-socks-off coasters and other thrill rides (eek, Tower of Doom flashback!) as well as a decent-sized water park with a new toilet bowl-like ride. It also has a fun foam-ball shooting room, old-fashioned carrousel and water-spewing pirate ship for the tinier tykes. If you’re looking to go more than once, you’ll save money by getting a season pass. 

Elitch’s celebrates its 120th season this year so look for plenty of special events.

Admission: $24.99-$40.99; free for kids 3 and younger.

Water World

1800 W. 89th Ave., Federal Heights, 1-303-427-7873; waterworldcolorado.com

Billed as America’s biggest water park, Water World will make you forget all about that horrible Kevin Costner movie. As much as we love Elitch’s, Water World scores even higher with our GO! Roadtrip crew. That’s partly because of the more laid-back vibe. There’s free parking. You can bring your own cooler for lunch. Pick a spot on the grass, throw down a blanket and just chill all day while the kids splash around. Water World also has giant water attractions that marry Disney-style animatronics (think giant T-Rex) with water slide thrills, and it has three separate water playground areas for the younger kids. 

Admission: $5.99-$34.99; free for kids under 40 inches.

Lakeside Amusement Park

4601 Sheridan Blvd., Denver, 1-303-477-1621; lakesideamusementpark.com

We’re talking old-school amusement park. Lakeside, which is actually built around a lake, is what Elitch’s used to be before it moved downtown and got all fancy. You’ll find a fairly scary metal coaster (The Chipmunk), plenty of kiddie rides, bumper boats and a bunch of those old spin rides (Tilt-A-Whirl, the Scrambler, the Spider, Round-Up, the Matterhorn) that kept us screaming when we were 13.

 Admission: $2.50 without rides, $13.75-$19.75 for unlimited rides.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science

2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver, 1-303-370-6000; dmns.org

Even though the “Night at the Museum” movies have ramped up interest in old dioramas, much of this science museum is still, sadly, stuck in a previous century with static nature or cultural displays behind glass windows. Fortunately, the touring “Body World” exhibit, which shows real eviscerated bodies preserved in plastic and displayed in various athletic poses, proves fascinating to kids and adults. And the interactive “Space Odyssey” exhibit, with the recreation of the Martian surface, is pretty cool.

Admission: $6-$25.50

The Denver Zoo

Steele St., Denver, 1-303-376-4800;
denverzoo.org

As the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo continues to step up its game — particularly when it comes to giraffe, primate and moose exhibits — you may think it’s a waste of time to drive farther for the Denver Zoo. Wrong. Three exhibit areas there blow the heck out of anything we have: Predator Ridge, where you can see unmatched, up-close view of lions; Tropical Discovery, an indoor rainforest featuring the world’s largest indoor Komodo dragon habitat; and the sea lion lagoon, where you can see daily shows. Coming attraction: Asian Tropics, an elephant and rhino area that promises to be the most significant new zoo renovation in the state, is set to open in 2012.

Admission: $7-$11; children 3 and younger free.

THE BITE

Casa Bonita

6715 W. Colfax Ave., Lakewood, 1-303-232-5115; casabonitadenver.com

It’s as if a 10-year-old with a staff and unlimited funds devised and put together the ultimate kid’s restaurant: “OK, I know we want cliff divers, and maybe we can have some kind of fight between a cowboy and a gorilla, where one of them falls off the cliff. Oh, and we should have a giant video game room, and puppet shows and magic shows, and I want the dining rooms to be in caves. And I want tacos.”

A Westword blog probably described Casa Bonita best, saying “It’s like Disney had sex with Tijuana and left the goofy-looking bastard to fend for itself in a random strip mall on Colfax.”

If you have kids and you haven’t taken them to Casa Bonita, shame on you. The Mexican food has enough sodium to kill every slug in the Western Hemisphere. But the sopapillas are fresh and the atmosphere is priceless.

The restaurant was featured in “South Park,” and even that irreverent cartoon couldn’t make Casa Bonita any more outrageous than it is in real life.

THE BED

Hotel Monaco Denver

1717 Champa St., 1-303-296-1717; monaco-denver.com

It doesn’t have a pool. You want a nice pool, go to the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. But other than that, Hotel Monaco, the most stylish lodgings in Denver, serves as an idyllic home away from home. First, it doesn’t just allow pets, it pampers them. We’re talking pet-oriented welcome baskets, dog-sitting, in-room food and water bowls, pet beds. Don’t have a pet? No problem. You can borrow a goldfish that will be delivered to your room.  Have a daughter who’s into the American Girl thing? The hotel’s “American Girl Getaway” package gets her a visit to the on-premises Renaissance Aveda Spa to get a ’do just like her American Girl doll. And, get this, the doll gets her own bed. (This promotion ties into the opening of an American Girl store at Park Meadows Mall.)

Getting the family packed up in time for check-out can be stressful, and Monaco has a nifty solution: “Sunday Sleep-Ins.” Throughout 2010, get a 2 p.m. Sunday check-out (assuming the place isn’t slammed on Sunday).

But probably the best thing about the hotel is its sense of style — a whimsical harlequin deco theme carried to every curtain and just about every piece of furniture. Kids and adults feel that they’re someplace special without feeling they’re someplace stuffy.

Rates: $164-$443