9 Best Things to Do Near Colorado Springs That Locals Actually Love

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Colorado Springs sits at the foot of a 14,000-foot mountain with a certified creative downtown, ancient rock formations, and more sky than you know what to do with. The problem isn't finding something to do — it's cutting through the tourist traps to find experiences worth your afternoon. These nine deliver. From sunrise flights to ancient birds of prey, consider this your shortcut.

Up in the Air: Views You Can't Get on Foot

1. Colorado Springs Sunrise Balloon Ride

Credit: Colorado Springs Sunrise Balloon Ride

You leave the ground before the city wakes up. The silence up there is the part nobody warns you about — no engine noise, just wind and the slow panorama of Pikes Peak filling the horizon while Colorado Springs shrinks below. The three-hour experience includes the flight itself plus a celebratory toast on landing, which feels earned in a way that champagne usually doesn't. This is the one you book for an anniversary, a milestone, or a Tuesday when you need to reset your sense of scale.

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2. Breathtaking Colorado Springs Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Flight

Credit: Viator

Alpenglow is the pink-orange light that hits the Rockies in the minutes after sunrise, and from inside a hot air balloon it's the kind of thing that makes you audibly exhale. This flight runs along the Rocky Mountain Front Range, where on a clear morning you can see from the Spanish Peaks to Longs Peak — roughly a hundred miles of mountain horizon. Each hour-long flight follows the wind, which means no two routes are identical. The 3.5-hour experience includes the full inflation, flight, and landing. Bring layers. The air up there runs cold even in summer.

Ground Level, Still Extraordinary

3. Classic 3-Hour Food Tour in Colorado Springs

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The smell hits you first — brisket smoke curling out of a door you'd never notice on your own. That's the whole point. This classic walking tour covers four or five downtown spots, enough food for a full lunch, and winds through a Certified Creative District with over 300 works of public art you've probably walked past without knowing it. You start inside the lobby of the historic Antlers Hotel — built by the city's founder in 1873 — and three hours later you know this town differently.

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4. Colorado Springs - Guided Walking Ghost / History Tour

Credit: Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs has a darker past than the mountain scenery lets on, and this walking tour leans into it. Part ghost story, part history lesson, and deliberately participative — you're encouraged to ask questions, push back, and get genuinely curious. Your guide takes you to corners of downtown most visitors never find, weaving between buildings with stories attached to them. The tone stays fun without going cheap. About ninety minutes, no prior ghost enthusiasm required, and genuinely good for people who thought they hated history tours.

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5. Colorado Springs: Garden of the Gods Luxury Jeep Tours

Credit: Viator

Garden of the Gods looks unreal in photographs and somehow more unreal in person — 300-foot sandstone formations the color of a sunset, carved by millions of years of erosion into shapes that don't have good names yet. The guided Jeep tour gets you the geology, the folklore, and the angles a solo hike misses. Two hours, unhurried, with a driver who can answer the question you'll definitely ask: how does this exist in the middle of a city? The short answer involves ancient seabeds. The long answer is better in person.

For the People Who Need a Little More Adrenaline

6. Colorado Springs Pikes Peak Luxury Jeep Tours

Credit: Colorado Springs Pikes Peak Luxury Jeep Tours

The summit road to Pikes Peak is genuinely white-knuckle to drive yourself — no guardrails, thin air at 14,115 feet, and the constant temptation to look away from the road. Let someone else handle it. This luxury Jeep tour puts you in leather seating with a guide who knows the best pull-offs and actually explains what you're looking at. Water and snacks included, National Park entrance fee covered. Three to four hours, and when you get back to town, the streets feel strangely flat.

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7. Signature Fins Course Scenic Zipline Tour

Credit: Signature Fins Course Scenic Zipline Tour

The first zip line at Seven Falls Canyon drops away beneath you so fast your stomach doesn't catch up for a full second. The Fins Course runs about three hours through steep drops, jagged cliffs, and a pair of custom suspension bridges — and it ends with a controlled 180-foot rappel to the canyon floor, which is its own kind of terrifying in the best possible way. Unique rock formations here exist nowhere else in Colorado. Meet at the reservations booth across from the Golden Bee, closed-toed shoes required, and yes, it's worth the weight limit disclaimer.

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8. Colorado Springs Hands-On Falconry Class and Demonstration

Credit: Colorado Springs Hands

The falcon lands on your gloved fist and you feel the grip of its talons through the leather. That's the moment that stays with you. At a small-group session near the Broadmoor's Golden Bee, a licensed falconer walks you through hawks, owls, and falcons — their history, their instincts, the difference between a red-tail and a peregrine. These birds engage entirely on their own terms, which makes it feel less like a show and more like a privilege. Ninety minutes. Leave with a story nobody else at dinner has.

We update this list every season — a few of these experiences book out weeks in advance once summer hits, so earlier is smarter. New for 2026: keep an eye on expanded evening tour options coming to the Garden of the Gods corridor. Which of these have you actually done? Drop it in the comments — especially if you've got a tip we missed.