I live on the west side, right up against the mountains, and Old Colorado City is where I go for a couple of quiet hours — little shops, arts and crafts, a chocolate shop, good food mixed in. It’s not a mall and it’s not downtown. It’s a few blocks of sidewalks on West Colorado Avenue, and that’s exactly why it works.
Parking is the part people worry about, and it’s really not a problem. I usually park right behind the shops — there’s a lot back there, paid but reasonable, or you can grab a spot on the street and feed the meter. Either way you’re a short walk from the storefronts.
My favorite stop on the walk is La Baguette, right on the shop stretch at 2417 W Colorado — quiet, quaint, never a huge line, and a good excuse to make a morning of it. Weekends there’s often a farmers market right across the street, so I’ll hit the market first and finish at La Baguette. If you want a beer after, Cerberus Brewing sits nearby on Colorado Avenue at 7th, right between downtown and the historic shop stretch.
Give it a couple of hours, park behind the shops, and just walk — that’s the whole trick to shopping in Old Colorado City.
How I’d spend a couple of hours
I don’t keep a named directory of every storefront, and I won’t fake one. The move is the walk itself. You window-shop, you go in when something looks like you, and you keep moving.
Old Colorado City is a historic west-side district on West Colorado Avenue. The commercial core sits on the National Register (History Colorado lists the Old Colorado City Historic Commercial District along Colorado Avenue from 24th Street). I’m not writing a history lecture. I’m writing how shopping here actually works if you live here.
Things to do in Old Colorado City, for me, are that walk plus food. Not a festival checklist. Not a gallery crawl I haven’t done.
The weekend market is the larger one in town compared with Pine Creek, which is more of a neighborhood market. Official 2026 schedule: every Saturday, June 6 through October 17, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Bancroft Park, 2408 West Colorado Avenue. I go for the combo, not to inventory every stall.
What this is not
This is a shopping walk. It is not a ranked restaurant dump, and it is not a claim that I have toured every gallery on the block.
If you want a fuller day after the shops, Manitou is a short hop west. The Penny Arcade is the thing I actually do out there a couple of times a year.
Related guides
- The Best Bakeries in Colorado Springs (La Baguette in OCC)
- Penny Arcade, Manitou Springs
