Your Hassle-Free Guide to Leaving Texas and Making Colorado Your Home

You’re moving from Texas to Colorado! To help take some of the stress out of relocating, we’ve compiled a whole bunch of useful information about Colorado living covering everything from matching the best city to your personality, to choosing a mover, to finding temporary housing and selecting the right schools.

Which City Matches your Texas style?

The Front Range (Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins) offers a wide variety of communities ranging from funky urban to extensive rural spreads. Below are some similarities I’ve noted which may help you narrow down your choices.

First, be aware that no city in Colorado is as big as Dallas, Houston or Austin. However, Denver has pretty much everything you’ll want in a big city, only on a smaller scale.

If you’re coming from Austin, consider Denver or Boulder. Both are similar in political and cultural environment to the Texas capital; Denver is the state capital and the University of Denver is located there; Boulder is home to the University of Colorado and has all the amenities associated with a big college town. Denver and Boulder residents both spend a lot of time outdoors biking, running, walking and going up into the nearby mountains for skiing and hiking.

Dallas expats will find the political climate of Colorado Springs similar to that back home, although the Springs is much smaller (population 400,000). Colorado Springs was rated the No. 1 Best Big City in "Best Places to Live" by Money magazine in 2006 and was ranked No. 1 in Outside Magazine's 2009 list of America's Best Cities.

And if you're drivin' up here to Denver, here's a sampl'n of times and distances: