Two day visit/recon to Ft. Collins (Loveland, Center: rentals, how much)

[Aggie]

Howdy. We are considering retirement to FC. My wife will make a trip, preliminary, in early September, to "look around." She has never been there before. I've been to a couple meetings at CSU over the years and have really liked the area. She wants to look at Old Town ... no problem. But she would also like to see, drive around, some of the older neighborhoods in town ... and that's my question, where are they?, names?, location?, etc. I do have a "Senior relocation package" (that hurt!) coming from the Chamber of Commerce.

Also, any recommendations for a nice Old Town restaurant featuring "al fresco" dinning? ... steaks, Italian, fairly open to suggestions.

If her dates include Saturday, how much does a CSU home game affect moving around town? Should it just be avoided?

Thanks for any and all input/thoughts.

[luckysam]

Ft. Collins is great and I think you'll love it! The older neighborhoods in Ft. Collins are located to the North and east of Old Town. A lot of them surround campus so the further north or east you go the fewer college rentals you'll encounter. I don't know that any of the neighborhoods even have names. I guess there are some older homes west of old town as well.

There is a neighborhood that I really like near the Collindale golf course which is off of Horsetooth and S. Lemay. I don't know if you'd like it but it's worth checking out. The southeast side of town is really growing too. There's a new Super Target opening up, there's a Kohls and all kinds of other shopping and dining options on that side of town. It's also closer to Loveland which has the nice new Centerra Mall and movie theater.

Game days aren't bad in Ft. Collins since the stadium is on the very west edge of town. Traffic is busy on campus and west of campus but it's never bad. The police do a good job of funneling people in and out of the stadium on game days and I can't think of any streets that are shut down. There's really no reason to go west of campus any way since it's comprised of mostly houses.

Because I have bad taste in restaurants I'm not the best at referring you to any good ones in Ft. Collins. The one that did come to mind is Bisetti's. It's an Italian Resturant in Old Town that is very popular and good. It's a local favorite. There are several nice restaurants in Old Town though. There's one on a corner with outdoor seating that looks nice but I don't know how the food is and I cannot for the life of me remember what it's called. It's on College Ave. and it's on the Northwest corner of the intersection. Good luck!

[bproven]

See this post from a similar thread for ideas regarding neighborhoods and older areas:

//www.city-data.com/forum/4391481-post5.html

full thread is here:

//www.city-data.com/forum/fort-...residents.html

I did omit areas around City Park. I would tour that area too. You can also take the trolley if you are visiting on a weekend. The stops are at the intersection of Mountain Ave and Howes in downtown OR at City Park itself just north of the lake.

[Aggie]

luckysam & bproven ... Howdy and thanks for the info. The wife is really looking forward to seeing the area ... I hope to make it up in the spring. Thanks again.