Inexpensive Things to Do in Santa Fe or Denver?

In Santa Fe there is a place called Museum Hill...totally worth checking out, they have an awesome childrens museum. If you go to santa fe, avoid the weekend of the 20-21st. It is Indian Market which is the tourist weekend and prices on everything go thru the roof! If you like senic drives, take the Enchanted Circle. Its very cool.
I would also suggest not staying downtown, stay on the southside, many of the hotels have free shuttles downtown and it will cost you half as much.
I dont know how far Durango, CO is from your area but there is a lot of stuff that is family friendly there and it is much cooler than 110 there for sure!

We just got back from Denver... there is a really cool place called "Dinosaur Ridge" .... If you take the guided bus tour, it is $4 each, and takes about 30 minutes, I guess? There are also a couple of places at their store/headquarters where the kids can "dig" in the sand for "fossils" ...

http://www.dinoridge.org/

Hammond Candy company offers free tours, and they show you how they make their candy. You don't have to buy anything, but try getting out of there without buying some! They do have an "oops" store where stuff is really cheap, though, so that helps.

http://hammondscandies.com/factory-tours-parties

Those are the two things we did there just last week.

The Denver Mint also gives free tours....

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_tours/?action=startreservation

Hope those help!

two of my favorite places! Denver has a lot of parks - Red Rocks is great fun - you can hike on the trails but there is also the ampitheater where they hold concerts - the kids will like playing there and you get really pretty views of the city. There are malls all over the city - one on the South End (Park Meadows) which has an outside open shops area and a fun little rock fountain in the middle - there is another one up north (by Boulder) which also has great indoor/outdoor space. Children's museum downtown as well as a couple amusement parks - probably not super cheap but still something to do.

santa fe is pretty adult oriented but we stay there every year and just walk around - take little hikes - go to the children's museum - the town has lots of fun artsy stuff to look at - my kids always have fun.

good luck!

We were in Santa Fe last year with my kids, ages 8,5,and 1.5. They all LOVED LOVED LOVED the Santa Fe children's museum. ( http://www.santafechildrensmuseum.org/ ) We spent an entire afternoon there, and no one wanted to leave when the time came, and they wanted to go back. I highly recommend it. It's $9/person, $5 on Sundays. Definitely worth it in my opinion. It's also not too big, so you can let the older 2 wander pretty much on their own if it's not too crowded and still keep an eye on them while watching your little one.

We live in Denver and have family in Santa Fe. We love our city parks here and find them unique and clean. Our own Garland Park (mapquest it) on the SE side of Denver has some cool different types of birds that migrate through and two good safe play structures just off the walking path. Stapleton Northfield is off of I-70 and has a Bass Pro which is fun for kids to wander around and several restaurants that are kid friendly. There is also a zero entry fountain spot on their mainstreet that the kids can play in. South and east of town off Hampden (mapquest it) is the Plains Conservation Center and on Saturday mornings families can go on wagon rides and feed the farm animals as well as go for walks and see the animals of the plains like Pronghorn antelope and rabbits and hawks. They also have a drop in class on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings where kids learn about specific animals of the prairie. The botanic gardens, zoo, and science museum here are all good but none of them have a reciprocal agreement with sister facilities so it will cost you a decent amount to get in. I think everywhere I have gone I have seen better aquariums and I know I have gotten a better value for the dollar so I would skip that. Hammonds (as another mom suggested) is fun for sure. In Santa Fe the childrens museum is awesome and very well laid out. I would have paid double what I did to go there, its just that good. The zoo and botanic gardens (I forget if the aquarium is separate or part of the zoo) in Albuqu... is well worth seeing too and gives kids a chance to run around