Willow Park - Aurora, CO Area Guide

The history of Aurora extends back to the 1880s, when the town of Fletcher was established east of Denver. When its founder fled town in 1907, leaving residents with a massive water debt, locals changed the name to Aurora.

In 1918, the Fitzsimons Army Hospital opened in the area, and it created a military presence, later strengthened by the opening of Lowry Air Force Base, eventually replaced by Buckley AFB. Consisting of housing developments featuring repetitive architecture, Aurora housed 325,000 people as of the 2010 census, making it the third largest city in Colorado. Although a large city on paper, the town, including Willow Park neighborhood, maintains a suburban feel thanks to its sprawling car-based design.

The Willow Parks art scene focuses around museums in Denver such as the Denver Art Museum, but Aurora also puts on its own cultural events, such as plays at the Aurora Fox Theater.

Restaurants exist throughout Willow Park, but you can find the largest selection of eateries along Mississippi Avenue or Chambers Road.

Locals like to start the day at the French Press. There, you can order egg Benedict topped with everything from lox to crab to veggies. The diverse pancake menu features cakes stuffed with innovative pairings such as zucchinis and pistachios, or raspberries and oatmeal. The coffee brewed drip style or served in a French press truly draws people to this cafe.

For lunch or dinner, Mexican food lovers stop at Taqueria Los Gordos. This taqueria serves its famous tacos on a platter hosting a range of ingredients, and that allows you to stuff your tacos how you like them. Ingredients include standards such as beef, chicken and fish as well as novelty fillings such as fried tripe or goat.

For nightlife, locals love their sports bars. At pubs such as Pitchers Sports Restaurant, locals watch Broncos games, NASCAR races and other sporting events, or they play bingo, sing karaoke or join poker tournaments. For clubbing, you need to head to Denver or Lodo to hit clubs such as the Church or Charlie's Denver. The Church, a renovated 1865 church, features multiple rooms, each blasting a different type of music from electronica to goth to industrial, and Charlie's Denver plays country music.

In Willow Park, you can easily find free parking spots, and you can access Denver by jumping onto Interstate 225, which links to I-25 from the south and I-70 from the north, both roads that take you into downtown Denver.

RTD buses connect the area to downtown Denver via several different routes, each scheduled to take about an hour and a half to reach the city. Locals also drive or take buses to Nine Mile Station. From there, light rail trains run into the city every 30 minutes.

Bike trails and bike lanes run through Willow Park, and you can ride Cheery Creek or Colorado Front Range Trails into Denver. Locals typically do not walk, but if you choose accommodation near a commercial area, the area proves walkable enough to make going out on foot a viable option. If you need a ride, call a cab or an Uber driver, as you won't have much luck trying to hail a cab on the spot.

A handful of small neighborhood parks exist in the Willow Park area, including Horseshoe Park. This park hosts playground equipment including slides and swings, and it also has a tire challenge for kids who want to test their dexterity. Additionally, the park has two baseball fields and sand for kids to play in.

If you need a place for your pup to run, check out Cherry Creek State Park. A haven of untamed wildness around a dammed reservoir, the park includes a swim beach, playground and hiking trails as well as an off-leash area for dogs. The park charges a daily admission fee for every car entering, or you can buy an annual parks pass for free admission all year long to this park and other state parks in Colorado.

Living in Willow Park costs less than living in other parts of the Denver area, and most of that difference lies in housing costs. In the metro Denver area, renters pay an average of $1,061 per month for a one-bedroom apartment, but in Willow Park, similar accommodation rents for just $761 per month on average.

Taking public transit into the city costs no more than $3; rush hour tickets bear a $3 price tag, but during the rest of the day, fares cost less. A pint of beer in a Willow Creek pub starts at $2, and you can even save on gas as well, as local gas stations price their gas at 8 percent less than the national average.

Town Center at Aurora, a shopping mall on Alameda, provides the largest shopping experience in the Willow Park area. The mall features 150 shops and a free indoor play area for kids.

Outside of the chain shops at the mall, locals have access to a handful of independent shops. Rather than upscale inventory, the shops in this area focus on value. At Book Niche, Kid to Kid and the Unique Thrift Store, shoppers try to find deals on used items, and the occasional diamond-in-the-rough find gives locals the chance to pick up an antique book, an expensive piece of kid's clothing or a fun piece of furniture for far less than its true value.

For boutiques and upscale shopping, locals take the nine-mile trip to the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. There, over a quarter of the shops are independently owned and not found anywhere else in the world. Shop for fashion-forward clothing at places like Inspyre Boutique, which prices all of its items under $100, or Mariel, which focuses on formal wear.

For groceries, locals love big chains such as King Soopers, Albertsons, and Safeway. During the summer, head to Nick's Garden Center & Farm Market, a gardening shop that hosts farmers markets in its parking lot.