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Paul McAuley took a trip to a US city known for its altitude, passion for the natural world, and mad passion for sports, finding a lot of difference with the UK and a lot of things to love

Off the plane. Bam. Clouds. Not the miserable grey blanket you roll your eyes at every time you leave home back in the UK, but the kind that looks like they’ve been lifted straight out of Toy Story.

They’re so close you feel like you could reach out and squeeze them – heck, even taste them if you’re that way inclined. It’s a pretty spectacular way to be welcomed to the Mile High City, and the first clue that Denver operates on a slightly different level. Both physically and metaphorically.

Perched 5,280ft above sea level, it’s home to as much altitude as it is attitude, a feeling that only gets stronger the more time you spend in the state capital. I flew from London Heathrow to Denver with British Airways to discover what the city and surrounding region had to offer, experiencing the best of Colorado on an ultimate city break with a Rocky Mountains twist.

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Nature

In many cities, nature is something you have to seek out. In Denver, it’s constantly sitting in the background, waiting for you to notice it. I ticked off a few parks – notably Civic Center and Confluence – on a breezy 12km run that felt fitting to finish at Target, and that sums up Denver in a nutshell.

You can spend the morning surrounded by nature and, an hour later, you’re wandering around one of America’s biggest shops buying something you absolutely don’t need. In my case, Kourtney Kardashian’s Lemme. I quickly noticed how active everyone is. And who can blame them? For most of the trip, the weather was amazing.

Shorts, socks and sandals were the uniform, right up until a lightning storm rolled in on Saturday night and delayed the women’s soccer match between Denver Summit FC and Seattle Reign FC. Even the altitude becomes part of the experience.

I knew Denver is the Mile High City before I arrived, but I found it out properly when I went up Mount Blue Sky for the morning. The higher I climbed, the more ridiculous the landscape became. Wildlife appears, the air feels cleaner and, once again, you’re back within touching distance of those clouds. I didn’t spot Frank the Tank – reportedly the biggest moose on record – but I did see marmots, famous to me for shouting “Allan” in the viral video.

The night before we visited, Lily Allen headlined the amphitheatre, performing West End Girl in its entirety. Yet you’d never have guessed. There wasn’t a whiff of the night before. No evidence of thousands of people drinking and dancing until late.

Instead, just hours after the concert, people were running, doing yoga, lifting weights and generally behaving as though exercising among enormous red rocks was the most normal thing in the world. Here, outdoors is a lifestyle, not an activity.

Nightlife

For all of Denver’s obsession with fresh air, mountain views and early-morning exercise, the city doesn’t shut down too early. Denver just has a different relationship with going out than in the UK. I was told people can start clubbing at 6pm and be home by 1am, meaning the morning is saved.

That sounds horrifying to anyone accustomed to a UK night out. But somehow, Denver makes it work. Even hotel bars are busy, with people actually going there simply for drinks. Imagine asking your mate to meet you in the Premier Inn bar before heading into town.

Culture

Parts of Denver feel like they’re in the middle of a rapid transformation. Old buildings sit alongside polished new restaurants, expensive smash burgers and bars with endless taps, while colourful street murals cover walls that feel like they’re constantly being reinvented.

Take the River North Art District for example. The vibrant neighbourhour prides itself on being “where art is made” and certainly lives up to its nickname – you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to Instagram backdrops. Here you will find Denver Central Market, where I ordered a chicken Caesar salad bagel from Call Your Mother before sitting outside to bask in the heat. Around us, people wandered past in Doc Martens and oversized T-shirts.

Denver has a strong sense of itself – “a blueberry sitting proudly in a bowl of raspberries” as one of our tour guides put it. It was my first time in America, and I’ll hold my hands up and admit my perception wasn’t the greatest. I’d spent far more time associating America with Donald Trump and the endless political noise around the country than thinking about the hundreds of miles of landscapes, cities and completely different ways of life that exist beyond it.

Denver was a reminder that America is a lot bigger, stranger and more varied than the version you can sometimes from a viral TikTok clip.

Sport

Denver doesn’t have the Liverpool and Everton divide. There is one NFL team in the city and you stick with them through the good and the bad and, in the case of the Broncos’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, a lot of penalties. The Broncos fanbase is something else, with a waiting list stretching around 20 years for season tickets. So when game day finally came around, the sense of occasion was hard to miss.

A white horse, fireworks, 28 cheerleaders, a remix of Take Me Home, Country Roads and a devilish attempt to get inside the opposition’s head all came into play before the first plays even graced the freshly painted grass.

It was clear the experience was as much about what happened off the field as on it, with 76,472 fans at the centre of everything. The noise was ridiculous. At one point, it was so loud the game had to stop for a jokingly named “fan assistant” timeout.

And this isn’t simply a football ground, either. Much of the stadium is owned by the Walton family behind Walmart, but its identity stretches far beyond the Broncos.

It has hosted everyone from Taylor Swift and The Weeknd to AC/DC, as well as monster trucks and countless other major events. Even if American football isn’t your thing, it’s the sort of place where you can understand why people want to experience it.

Growing up in the UK, drinking is hugely intertwined with sport. In Denver, drinking feels more like an addition to the experience. At Broncos games, designated drivers can enter a lottery, with one lucky fan winning a $150 gift card for agreeing to stay sober.

I couldn’t help wondering what Linda Bolejack bought with her winnings. It’s a tiny detail, but it says a lot about the cultural differences you notice when you stop and look.

So why go?

It’s not one single thing that makes Denver memorable. It’s the collision of all of them: the mountains rising behind skyscrapers, the NFL stadium surrounded by fans, the bars filling up earlier than you’d expect, and the sense that adventure is never particularly far away.

For a few days, it becomes surprisingly easy to slip into that rhythm and forget it isn’t your everyday life.

Book it

More information at visitdenver.com

Touchdown Trips offers a nine-night, four-game American football trip, including Denver Broncos vs Seattle Seahawks at Empower Field at Mile High, from £4,895pp. The package includes flights, transfers, game tickets and three all-inclusive tailgates.

Denver is home to seven major league sports teams: the Colorado Rockies (baseball), Colorado Rapids (men’s soccer), Colorado Mammoth (lacrosse), Colorado Avalanche (hockey), Denver Broncos (football), Denver Nuggets (basketball) and new Denver Summit FC (women’s soccer). British Airways and United Airlines fly direct daily from London Heathrow to Denver. Rooms at Limelight Denver start from £150 per night, excluding taxes and fees, based on two sharing a Deluxe King room.

It’s never good when NFL coaches on struggling teams have to publicly reaffirm their faith in members of their staff before the calendar turns to October — and that’s what Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh did on Monday.

Speaking to reporters in the wake of a 24-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Harbaugh was asked if he would consider taking some control away from offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel if the offense doesn’t improve.

“No, we trust Mike. We believe in Mike,” Harbaugh said.

It would be odd for Harbaugh to publicly admit to anything else at this point, especially because he’s not in a good position to do much else to salvage the season. Harbaugh has never called plays at the NFL level and must hope McDaniel and Justin Herbert can fix the NFL’s No. 21-ranked offense (309 yards per game) if the Chargers have any chance of becoming the eighth team in NFL history to reach the postseason after an 0-3 start.

“We’re searching for every possible way to give ourselves an advantage,” Harbaugh said. “Every possible way to not beat ourselves.”

Although Harbaugh doesn’t see himself intervening on McDaniel’s turf, he does want to see improvement from Herbert. The quarterback struggled against the Bills, failing to capitalize on five takeaways from the Chargers’ defense. He passed for 226 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but four trips to the red zone — two of which were assisted by favorable field position off takeaways — resulted in only three field goals and a touchdown.

“To be better,” said Harbaugh, regarding Herbert’s decision-making. “That drives Justin, that drives me, that drives his position coach, that drives Mike [McDaniel]. … I mean, drives us all.”

Herbert isn’t the only underperformer. Dropped passes from wide receiver Quentin Johnston and tight end Oronde Gadsden II were factors in the Bills becoming the first team since the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2022 season wild-card playoffs to win despite five turnovers and a minus-four turnover differential.

The team the Jaguars beat that January? The Chargers.

Drake Maye was almost the NFL’s MVP last year.

The New England Patriots quarterback finished second in the Associated Press poll of national media members, with 23 first-place votes and 361 total points. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford edged him out with 24 first-place votes and 366 overall points.

Chances are, Maye won’t be receiving any votes this year — at least not if the first three games are any indication of how the rest of the season will go. Months after helping the Patriots to a surprise Super Bowl appearance, the third-year player and two-time Pro Bowl selection is not playing close to the standard he established last year.

Maye has thrown only one touchdown pass so far this season after tossing 31 a year ago. And he has been intercepted six times already in 2026 after getting picked off only eight times total last season.

The Patriots are 1-2 at the moment, the same record they had after the first three games last season. But Maye showed promise in those games a year ago, throwing for five touchdowns and two interceptions.

During a 35-6 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, Maye was picked off twice and also fumbled two times, losing one. The lost fumble came first, when an untouched Maye lost grip of the ball while reaching back to pass late in the first quarter.

After the game, Maye told reporters that blood from center Jared Wilson’s hand had gotten on the ball and made it slippery. But, he added, “at the same time, I’ve got to hold onto the football.”

Jaguars two-way player Travis Hunter, the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner and second overall draft pick in 2025, got his first NFL interception when he picked off Maye in the end zone late in the second quarter.

Then in the third quarter, on the Patriots’ first play from scrimmage after falling behind 21-3, Maye had a pass intercepted by Jacksonville’s Jarrian Jones. Jones stepped in front of a pass intended for Kyle Williams and returned it to the New England 5-yard line.

The Jaguars scored on the next play to take a 28-3 lead, after which Patriots coach Mike Vrabel could be seen on the sideline with both hands on Maye’s shoulders in an apparent attempt to comfort his quarterback.

“My conversations with each person on that sideline, I have to do my best each and every play, whoever I’m communicating with, to try to get the best out of them,” Vrabel told reporters Monday. “So I’ll have conversations with a lot of people. I’ve got a lot of faith and confidence in everybody that’s here. That’s why they’re here.”

Maye, who completed 14 of 25 passes for 199 yards and was sacked three times, finished with a passer rating of 48.6, the second-lowest of his career.

“It’s disappointing,” Maye told reporters after the game. “I think the ball starts rolling like that, we can’t get out of our own way — can’t get out of my own way, personally. So I gotta look myself in the mirror and take it to the turning point. … I’ve got to start with myself and lead these guys and we’ve got to get back after it.”

After the 2025 season, Maye revealed that he had injured his throwing shoulder during the AFC championship game against the Denver Broncos and received an injection to help with the pain before the Patriots’ 29-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. Both he and Vrabel have said they don’t feel there have been any lingering effects from that injury.

On Sunday, Maye told reporters that his confidence hasn’t wavered despite the rough start to the season.

“This is an opportunity to band together and realize that the best football that we play is together,” he said, “and realize that’s going to start with me, protecting the football and protecting this team. Because that’s my job and I’ve been failing to do that.”