Street cred: Why everyone's talking about this US city right now

Denver has long been the gateway to somewhere cooler; like Aspen. No-one comes to Colorado to go to Denver, it just has a convenient airport. I've been dodging Denver since my first Colorado snow trip in 2004. But of late people have been bugging me to stop in. "Everywhere looks really hipster in Denver now," they tell me. "But without any of the hipsters."

The first thing I notice about Denver is how accessible its art scene is; as in, it's spray-painted all over its buildings. "In Denver," local art guide Jana Novak tells me, "there's a fine line between art and crime. Denver was one of the first cities to really recognise graffiti as art." Denver, these days, is the street art capital of the US.

I'm staying in the heart of Denver's hippest art neighbourhood, RiNo (or River North, if you're square). Last year Lonely Planet named it one of the 10 neighbourhoods to visit in the US. Novak is introducing me to the 'hood on her two-hour Graffiti Tour. She tells me to meet her at the big mural at the corner of Broadway and Arapahoe streets. Trouble is, in RiNo, there are more than 200 murals, and they're all big.

We meet, and she shows me her favourite art, through streets where the shells of old warehouses and factories remain, colonised by art studios and brewpubs, bars and restaurants. "Graffiti," she explains, "is much harder and more technical than other studio art. Imagine how skilful you have to be to create art on sidewalks, or the sides of buildings, often really quickly and then it might be gone by the next day. You have to make your statement now. How cool is that?" I walk down an alleyway (Art Alley), completely ensconced by America's most ragged emotions: iridescent splashes of colour, American flags dismantled, proud black faces, gloved fists, messages of hope and despair post-COVID-19, post Trump.

"This place (RiNo) used to be industrial," Novak says. "People painted like this because they were generally African-American and poor and they couldn't get into galleries. It's getting more commercial now."

According to Lonely Planet, "Even as the Mile High city expands, RiNo still clings to its punk-rock roots." Someone tells me when people ask what you do round here, they mean on the weekend for kicks, not for a living. I meander through its hip food markets, its urban wineries and boutiques, past barber shops and furniture makers and food trucks, stopping to peruse the menus of foreign restaurants, until my room's ready.

The Ramble Hotel is Denver's hippest hotel - its lobby houses Death & Co, the first outpost of the eponymous New York institution. There are chandeliers and velvet couches in the lobby, and an entire side of the hotel's exterior is covered in graffiti and politically motivated murals. There are more than 250 local art pieces spread inside, too, including in my room.

In the evening, RiNo cranks up a gear as locals unwind (the median age of locals is 33). I start a crawl of bars - kicking off with a craft beer brewery, then a wine bar, saving cocktail bars till after dinner. Dinner's 100 metres from my hotel at Il Posto, which epitomises RiNo: it serves award-winning Italian food in a dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows looking over downtown with an eye-catching Bocci chandelier floating above my table. The food's impeccable, but it's comfort food... how Denver is that? Death & Co is a hell of a spot for a night-cap, and hotel guests get to jump the queue.

Next day I go further afield; Denver's not much bigger than Adelaide, so it's cheap and easy to get around. Much of the city's walkable but I like the Uber chats. "There are 75 cranes operating in the city right now," one driver tells me. "Denver is going insane."

There are arty/boho neighbourhoods all across the city. I stop for breakfast in one - LoHi (or Lower Highland), with its Victorian-era buildings and its chic independent stores and galleries of local artists. Some of the most innovative restaurants in Colorado are here. I eat Denver's favourite breakfast (burritos) at The Bindery, with its exposed industrial ceilings and all-day happy hour (Bloody Mary, anyone?). I bypass Denver's world-famous Art Museum (it's just been refurbished at a cost of $220 million) - one of the best art museums between Chicago and San Francisco, home to some incredible American Indian art - just because I prefer on this trip to have my art served up the RiNo way.

Meow Wolf is more my kind of thing. In 2012, Colorado became the first state (with Washington) in the US to legalise cannabis. Meow Wolf will make you feel like you've had some. It's five stories of immersive, psychedelic, mind-altering art set among secret caves, doors and mazes with guides in hooded cloaks, and psychics offering live readings, which according to The New York Times, trade "on the dark side of American popular culture, in cults and conspiracies." It's confronting in an odd, paranoid sort of way; but I can't leave either.

The rest of my stay is spent between the reliably chic streets of RiNo and boho neighbourhoods such as the Golden Triangle Creative District and Westwood Creative District where street art reigns, only this time with a Mexican-American flavour, and locals hang out in chic food halls with climbing walls next to food trucks and bars.

I barely enter an art museum or gallery in three days, but I "do" art from dusk to dawn, just by being here. I'm not necessarily more intelligent or interesting now; but I know when I touch down in Sydney next morning, its buildings look boring by comparison, like someone took all the fun out.

Read more on Explore:

Getting there: Fly to LA with Delta Air Lines then direct to Denver. See delta.com

Staying there: The Ramble is one of Denver's best boutique hotels, in the heart of RiNo. Rooms from $US394 ($590). See theramblehotel.com

Where to eat: Check out the best of Denver's chic food markets (denvercentralmarket.com; avantifandb.com), eat great Italian in RiNo at Il Posto (ilpostodenver.com), enjoy gourmet Latin American at the hotel (supermegabien.com), and check out The Bindery in LoHi for brunch (thebinderydenver.com).

What to do: Take the two-hour graffiti tour of RiNo (denvergraffititour.com), blow your mind at Meow Wolf (meowwolf.com) and check out the best American Indian art at Denver Art Museum (denverartmuseum.org).

Explore more: denver.org

Craig Tansley travelled courtesy of Colorado Tourism Office and Visit Denver.