Colorado Trip 2025: The Planning and the Prep

We recently took a 2 week trip to Colorado. Let me tell you, this was a bucket list trip for me. When we were thinking of this trip, a few of my husbands co-workers who had lived there said to go in September or October. It's a great time for wildlife and colors. SCORE! Two of my favorite things. 

We chose to fly out on September 24th and fly home on October 7th. Now, I'm thinking planning a trip to Colorado is a bit of a crapshoot in that you don't know what the weather will truly be like, especially in the mid/late fall, and wildlife? They really aren't running on your schedule. We knew it could be hit or miss, but that was what we chose. 

One thing I like to do when planning a trip somewhere is join local FB pages, research everything from weather to the obvious...places we want to visit. From that research and talking to friends who live or have lived there, we knew weather was unpredictable and we should be prepared. 

I thought I'd break our trip down into a few posts so you aren't overwhelmed with so much at one time. Let's start with planning and prep. We are NOT fly by the seat of our pants kind of people. 

Our favorite planning app is RoadTrippers. It is well worth the subscription. This was our itinerary for the trip. We didn't necessarily do it all but it helped us determine our route and potential stops along the way.

PLANNING:

*Once you determine where you want to go, check to see the best season/time for you to visit, based on your interests (especially if you will be forking out $$). While Colorado is known for it's ski towns (Vail, Breckenridge, Telluride, etc), we are not skiiers and we don't do a lot of snow activities (though I think snow shoeing would be fun), so winter doesn't make much sense for us (even though I think it would be beautiful). We do love fall however, so late September/early October is when we chose to go. 

*If it is a popular area, DO NOT wait too long to book flights and lodging. We didn't do this as soon as we should have and it was tough finding budget friendly lodging that we would want to stay at. Thankfully it worked out. More on that on individual posts.

*Use Road Trippers. I mentioned this above and it's a great tool. Also join local FB pages. With that said, don't let it overwhelm you. When I asked for thoughts on what to do and see, I got A LOT of opinions (even ones I hadn't asked for...ie..why would you stay in that town..lol). 

*Search ahead for things you might want to do and see in the areas you will be in. Don't set it in stone, but it's great to have an idea. This trip was 14 days and we were planning to see a lot of the state. We crammed a lot in, so having an outline of what we'd like to see in the areas we were staying was key. I even looked up potential coffee shops and restaurants. This way we weren't spending precious time searching. Sometimes we'd look in the evenings when we were back in our room.

PACKING: 

*Make a list of what needs to be packed. Check it off as you go.

I'm not one that goes out and buys a whole new wardrobe for trips, but sometimes visiting particular places does require something I might not have. In the case of this trip, I think I only bought a pair of pants and sunglasses to put over my prescription glasses. 

*Check the allowed dimensions and weight for the airline you are traveling on...they are NOT all equal.

We couldn't just get away with carry ons, so we each took one bag to check and one to carry on, along with a personal backpack each. We flew Alaska there and Frontier home. I tucked my purse in my suitcase and just carried my wallet in my backpack. We did end up checking our carryons (for free). Tip...wait til you get to the gate and they ask for volunteers to check their bags. They'll check them for free. 

*Avoid the urge to overpack.

I felt like for this trip we packed well. We pretty much wore everything we brought, so we didn't feel like we had over packed. When packing let your outfits multi-task. I brought 2 pairs of leggings and then planned shirts/sweatshirts around those. I did bring one pair of jeans and a pair of hiking type pants. I wore one pair of shoes on the plane and then packed a workout pair and a hiking pair. I packed one pair of boots. For outerwear I packed a vest, a rain jacket, and one jacket that would be warmer, though it wasn't a super heavy one. I really like the 32 degree heat vests and jackets that I find at Costco. They are perfect for me (who is always hot). 

I did pack my DSLR camera and my laptop, both of which make for a heavy backpack. I also packed a few small books, but otherwise read books on the kindle app on my phone. I so badly wanted to rent a large lens, but decided against it. Kind of wish I had but I didn't really want to lug it around the airport. Next time I will. 

We also always pack a few snacks to have on the plane. Nuts, apples, jerky, simple and not overly heavy. 

OTHER TIPS:

*Don't wait til the last minute to make sure you have everything ready. Set things out the day before, double check flight times, do you have your passport, ID's, medical info, etc.  I whittle down my wallet to only what I really need to bring.

*If you are trying to vacay on a budget, create a spreadsheet and input your receipts to keep track. We had budget a certain amount for food/entertainment. We weren't slaves to it, but wanted to stay on track. We save for our vacations (have a separate bank account for vacations that we regularly put money in). Whenever we'd get a receipt I'd put it in my purse and then when I had time I'd input it into the spreadsheet that would add them up so we knew what we had spent. We did pretty good staying on budget. 

*One way to stay on budget (if you're traveling solo or maybe just with a spouse), is to determine ahead how often you will eat out and if preparing your own food is an option. Also, sharing meals. We decided that we would eat one main meal a day (usually dinner). We purchased some fruit and a few other small snacks. We did stop in the mornings for coffee (for me) and maybe a smoothie or tea for my hubby, so a few times we grabbed a muffin, etc. 

I'm sure I'll think of more tips throughout the upcoming posts. Stay tuned. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin