Travel Gossip joined Colorado Tourism Office and United Airlines on a Women in Travel Leadership fam trip, taking in Denver, Breckenridge and Idaho Springs, with a mix of city experiences, mountain scenery, food, heritage and outdoor adventure.
Travel Gossip’s Katherine Starkey joined the group, which combined destination highlights with visits to women-led businesses and meetings with women working across tourism, hospitality and aviation.
In Denver, the group took a city tour, explored the colourful RiNo Art District, caught a Rockies game at Coors Field, dined at women-owned Rioja and stayed at The Crawford Hotel, named after preservationist Dana Crawford, whose work helped transform Denver Union Station and revitalise parts of the city.
One of the standout experiences of the trip was a behind-the-scenes visit to the United Flight Training Center, where Katherine took the controls in a flight simulator and learned more about pilot training. The group also met a young United intern studying commercial aviation and training to become a pilot. United has been recognised in the 2026 Forbes and Statista America’s Best Employers for Women ranking, which is based on more than four million employer evaluations from more than 146,000 women working in the US.
From Denver, the group headed into the Rockies to Breckenridge, where they enjoyed an evening of excellent Italian food and wine at award-winning restaurant Radicato. The next morning, a historical walking tour revealed how the former mining town developed into the lively mountain destination it is today. With its colourful Main Street, welcoming atmosphere and dramatic alpine setting, Breckenridge is popular with skiers and snowboarders in winter, and hikers and mountain bikers in the warmer months. The group visited Isak Heartstone, Breckenridge’s famous troll statue, at the start of the Aspen Alley trail.
The itinerary also included Mighty Argo in Idaho Springs, where Mary Jane Loevlie shared her plans for the historic mining attraction, including its newly opened gondola and outdoor adventure development with miles of biking and hiking trails.
The trip finished back in the Denver area with a visit to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, giving the group the chance to see one of Colorado’s most recognisable venues before an overnight flight back to London Heathrow in United Polaris.
Alongside the destination experiences, the Women in Travel element gave the group plenty of opportunity to connect, share stories and enjoy more than a few laughs along the way.
From Denver’s characterful neighbourhoods and food scene to mountain towns, heritage attractions and outdoor adventure, the itinerary showed how easily contrasting Colorado experiences can be combined in one trip. To learn more about Colorado, visit colorado.com
