I lived in CO Springs for 4 years. Here is what I can tell you from when I lived there. The downtown area is great, cobblestone roads, restaurants, bars & shopping (smaller shops, bookstores, etc..) There is a really good ice cream place called Josh & John's. It is a small "downtown" - safe to walk around in at all hours. They do not have any panhandling laws, so you will see random homeless people or people selling jewerly and things on the streets. I was never bothered with anything but change from them. A couple hotels as options in the downtown area would be the Clarion on Bijou Street and the Hilton-Antlers off of Cascade.
I loved my days off there, Garden of the Gods is this beautiful park of all sorts of red rock formations, you can walk, hike and climb the area (drive too).
Manitou Springs - right outside of town is a quaint little town with many shops and restaurants. It is beautiful, located in the base of the Pikes Peak.
You can take a tram up to Pike's Peak (weather permitting) and get out at the top to walk around and take pictures. Up the pass on 24 to Woodland Park is a great drive - it's on the backside of Pikes Peak mountain.
About a hour away in Lake George (same highway to Woodland Park) there is this beautiful river canyon called Eleven mile canyon, you can hike, bike, walk, climb and drive your car through this beautiful scenery.
Another hour away place is called the Royal Gorge - it is suspension bridge over two towers of mountains. They also have white water rafting near by at all class levels. I went a couple times a year and it was a blast!
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me. I loved living there, but I came home for family. HAVE FUN - it's beautiful and people are really kind (it's a big melting pot state)!