Last Call
Denver from Tampa: The Cold for People Who Hate Cold
A December long weekend in Denver from Tampa: dry air, snow gone by lunch, a demon horse at the airport, green chile on everything.
By Last Call, SoGoJet Fare Desk ·
Written with AI from SoGoJet's fare data, and reviewed by SoGoJet before publishing. Every fare is dated and comes from our own fare checks.
Landing at DEN
Denver International Airport sits so far out on the plains that the ride into town counts as sightseeing. You land under a white peaked roof built to look like snowcapped mountains. The real mountains are off to the west, a rumor on the horizon. The roof gets to you first.
This is the cold for people who hate cold. It is dry and bright, and on most December days it backs off by lunch. The humidity you live in will not follow you. It will be waiting at the gate when you get back, like a dog.
The trip is Fri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7, three nights, out of Tampa (TPA). The flight is nonstop and the outbound runs 4 hr 9 min, long enough to finish a paperback you did not want. SoGoJet found $359 round trip from Tampa to Denver for those dates, checked Nov 9.
Leave the airport by road and you pass a large blue mustang with glowing red eyes. Locals call it Blucifer. Nobody has come up with a better name.
Getting In, and the Air
The A Line commuter train runs from the airport to Union Station downtown. Taxis and rideshares meet arrivals too. Take the train anyway. The windows are bigger, and out here the sky is most of the view.
The real adjustment is not the snow. It is the air, thin and dry, and your lips notice before you do. Locals tell visitors to drink water and go easy on alcohol at the start, the way we tell people to shuffle their feet in the Gulf for stingrays.
It is not a suggestion. The drink you order at home hits harder up here.
It can snow in early December. The sun usually wins, so a storm on Friday can be a puddle by Saturday afternoon. The best season is early fall. You are going anyway.
Day 1: Union Station and LoDo
Start at Union Station, the restored rail hall that downtown uses as a living room. People sit there with laptops and coffee and no train to catch. It is the most crowded waiting room in the city, and almost nobody is waiting.
Walk out into LoDo, Lower Downtown, brick warehouses that now sell everything except what they were built to store. Larimer Square is the historic block, and it knows it. Coors Field sits at the edge of the neighborhood in its off-season. A ballpark in December is a very large fence.
Dinner is green chile. It comes smothered over burritos, then over whatever else holds still long enough. Back home we put hot sauce on things. Here it is a civic philosophy.
Day 2: Red Rocks and the Capitol Step
Drive west in the morning to Red Rocks Park in Morrison. When there is no show, the amphitheater is open to walk, and locals use it as a staircase: they climb the rows and stand in the middle of all that empty stone. It is a concert venue with the concert removed. Somehow that is better.
From up there the Front Range is close enough to look like scenery instead of weather. If it has snowed, the snow sits on red rock in a way a Tampa resident has only seen on a holiday card.
Afternoon goes to the Denver Art Museum near Civic Center Park. Then walk over to the Colorado State Capitol, where a step is engraved to mark the city's elevation. Everybody takes the same photo standing on it. You will too.
Day 3: Murals, a Bear, the Parks
RiNo, the River North Art District, is more warehouses, this time covered in murals. Denver has a lot of warehouses and has decided to stop apologizing for them. Get coffee and walk. The walls do most of the work.
Downtown, a big blue bear stands with its face pressed to the glass of the Colorado Convention Center. It is a sculpture of a bear looking at a building. That is the whole thing. It works.
When visitors take over downtown, locals go to Washington Park to run the loop or walk dogs who have their own opinions about the cold. Cheesman Park, east of the Capitol, is the same arrangement with more lawn. People jog there in shorts on days you would call winter. The sun is out. They are not wrong.
Evening belongs to Colfax Avenue, the long commercial street that crosses the city and stopped being surprised by anything a while ago.
Day 4: The Train Back
Have the last green chile at breakfast, because nobody is serving it at the gate in Tampa. On a clear morning the mountains show up west of downtown, the one time all weekend they hold still for a picture.
Then the A Line back out across the plains. Out by the road, Blucifer is still on duty. Nothing about him has softened.
The gate area at DEN is a fleece catalog. Everyone is dehydrated. Everyone is telling a stranger they could live here, and the stranger, who does, says nothing.
You land at TPA, the air folds over you like a wet towel, and your lips stop hurting for the first time since Friday.
The fare board
Real fares we checked for this story, round trip, economy, one adult. Fares change; each shows the day we checked it.
- Tampa (TPA) to DenverFri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7 · Nonstop, 4 hr 9 min outchecked Nov 9Tampa (TPA) to Denver: $359 round trip, Fri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7, checked Nov 9
- Los Angeles (LAX) to DenverFri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7 · Nonstop, 2 hr 26 min outchecked Nov 9Los Angeles (LAX) to Denver: $199 round trip, Fri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7, checked Nov 9
- Dallas (DFW) to DenverFri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7 · Nonstop, 2 hr 8 min outchecked Nov 9Dallas (DFW) to Denver: $239 round trip, Fri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7, checked Nov 9
- Minneapolis (MSP) to DenverFri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7 · Nonstop, 2 hr 21 min outchecked Nov 9Minneapolis (MSP) to Denver: $307 round trip, Fri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7, checked Nov 9
- Chicago (ORD) to DenverFri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7 · Nonstop, 2 hr 50 min outchecked Nov 9Chicago (ORD) to Denver: $305 round trip, Fri, Dec 4 to Mon, Dec 7, checked Nov 9
About these fares
Every fare here is one fare SoGoJet checked, for the travel dates shown, with the day we checked it: either a live search for those exact dates or a fare from our fare cache. Unless a row says otherwise, it is the airline fare with taxes, sold through a partner, before any SoGoJet fee. Nonstop and flight time describe the offer we found. Fares change; "Check from your airport" shows the latest fare we have. All days are UTC. Data as of Nov 9, 2026.