Fort Collins Travel and Things to Do Guide

Welcome to Cvent's Meeting and Event Planning Guide to Fort Collins – a city guide for meeting planners. Bursting with world-class outdoor recreation, cultural attractions, a historic downtown and vibrant nightlife, Fort Collins has been coined the Napa Valley of beer. The town produces 70 percent of Colorado's craft beer and 7 percent of the country's craft beer, thanks to its 12 award-winning craft breweries, including New Belgium Brewery (as well as an Anheuser Busch production facility). Fort Collins is also home to Colorado State University and features a variety of unique venues perfect for group gatherings and events, as well as a beautiful historic downtown and thrilling after-meeting options for both those seeking adventure and those in search of serenity. Situated at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Fort Collins is just 60 miles from Denver and 130 miles from Colorado Springs, making it an ideal base for exploring southern Wyoming, Rocky Mountain National Park and Pawnee National Grasslands. Meeting delegates traveling to Fort Collins can fly into Denver International Airport, which is located about an hour outside of Fort Collins. One of the world's greenest airports, Denver International is the fifth busiest airport in the U.S. and accommodates nonstop service to more than 170 destinations worldwide. A number of airport shuttles, including Green Ride Colorado and SuperShuttle Airport Shuttle, offer several daily trips between the airport and Fort Collins. Once in Fort Collins, meeting participants can hop aboard Transfort buses, which run along 18 routes throughout downtown Fort Collins, the Colorado State University campus and the surrounding area. Transfort also connects to Denver's transit system via transfer. Set to be unveiled in May 2014, Transfort's MAX bus rapid transit line will operate along the five-mile Mason Corridor, providing service from Cherry Street in downtown Fort Collins to south of Harmony Road, with service to Colorado State University. A Carnegie Class-I research institute and university with nearly 29,000 students, Colorado State University serves as the city's largest employer, as well as a venue for holding group events. There are no dedicated convention centers in Fort Collins, but CSU offers a number of versatile meeting and conference venues within its square-mile campus. Groups can meet in the university's more than 100 classrooms, over 23,000 square feet of state-of-the-art hall space and residence hall meeting facilities for 10 to 500 people. The Lory Student Center, which will soon unveil 40,000 new square feet of meeting space, accommodates up to 1,200 people in its current ballroom, meeting rooms and conference rooms, as well as its 500-person theater. Groups can also gather in the university's 6,000-person Moby Arena, newly renovated Durrell Center and University House on Remington, which features indoor and outdoor event space. Groups meeting in the summer have access to 5,000 on-campus beds, and residential conference packages include a meal plan in one of four dining centers. Aside from the several event spaces at Colorado State University, Fort Collins is home to a number of cultural venues, museums and other attractions that double as fantastic unique venues for group events. One of Colorado's largest and most diverse cultural centers, the Lincoln Center offers eight rental facilities, including its 1,180-seat performance hall, 220-seat theater, two ballrooms, rooftop deck, gallery space and terrace, among other options. The 380-seat Candlelight Dinner Playhouse showcases live, year-round entertainment and gourmet table service dining and offers group rentals in its seven-tiered auditorium, lobby and private balcony. The nonprofit Center for Fine Art Photography promotes established and emerging photographers through its solo artist and juried international fine-art photography exhibitions. Groups can gather amid the center's 3,000 square feet of rental space, spanning three separate but contiguous rooms, a food preparation area and a courtyard. When it comes to museums, the Fort Collins Museum of Art, housed in a historic Second Renaissance Revival structure in downtown Fort Collins houses the 400-square-foot Gallery 101 and 1,800-square-foot Main Floor for event rentals. The interactive, engaging Fort Collins Museum of Discovery marries science and history in its exhibits, as well as features a number of event spaces, a few of which including its 550-person Main Exhibition Gallery, 250-person Big Back Yard, 200-person Lobby and Griffin Piano Lounge, and its 360-degree, 79-person OtterBox Digital Dome Theater.