What's So Great About Fort Collins? - Best Boomer Towns - Best 21 U.S. Places for Retirement

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What’s So Great About Fort Collins?

Written by Mike Malvey, from Fort Collins, Colorado on Jan 30, 2009

What is all the fuss about Fort Collins? Over the past several years, Fort Collins has been recognized as the Best Place to Live (and a 2nd place finish), One of the Best Places to Raise Your Kids, Gold Level Bicycle Friendly Community, 3rd place for Best Place for Business & Career, 9th place for Best Place to Invest in Real Estate and one of the Top 10 College Towns for Grown-ups. Those are all great awards to achieve but what really makes it a great place?

Could it be that Fort Collins receives over 300 days of sunshine each year? Maybe it’s the 44 parks with more than 800 acres or the 3 city-owned golf courses. For the hiking and biking enthusiasts there are 280 miles of bike lanes, 25 miles of off-road trails and 25 miles of paved multi-use trails that are maintained year round. Let’s not forget about all the rock climbing routes around Horsetooth Reservoir and inside Lory State Park.

Those are all great activities but this is Colorado so how about the winter activities? There is great snowshoeing within one hour at Cameron Pass and Estes Park with many miles of terrain to explore. Do you enjoy skiing or snowboarding at World Class Resorts? Within a 2 ½ hour drive, you can enjoy the best skiing in the country at Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge, Winter Park, A-Basin, and Keystone. If you would like to mingle with the rich and famous, Aspen is an exhilarating 4 hour commute over mountain passes and offers four ski mountains easily accessible on their local bus routes.

As a 13-year resident of Fort Collins, I’ve heard many reasons why people chose Colorado, and specifically Fort Collins. The most common reply is that they came for the winters, but it was the summers that kept them here. So, not only does Fort Collins offer an overabundance of outdoor activities, but it also has some well known local events.

Here is a sample of some of the more popular annual events for 2009.

March 14: Saint Patrick’s Day Parade
May 2 & 3: Cinco de Mayo Celebration
June 27 & 28: The 20th Annual Colorado Brewer’s Festival
July 4: Fourth of July Celebration Downtown
July 9, 16, 23, 30: Thursday Night Music & More
August 6 & 13: Thursday Night Music & More
August 15 & 16: New West Fest
September 26: Oktoberfest Celebration
October TBD: Community Homecoming Parade
October 30: Tiny Tot Halloween
November 6: Lighting of Downtown Ceremony
November 21-December 24: Santa’s Workshop
December 31: First Night Fort Collins

While many publications tout Fort Collins as the number one this or the top ten that, we just call it home.

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