After spending a few days in Dickinson and then a week in Fargo, we rounded out our time in North Dakota by spending five nights in Bismarck.
It wasn’t the most productive of times there in terms of actually exploring the city as we both ended up having to spend much of that time working. We did get to enjoy a couple of things outside our hotel room though, so here’s a quick roundup about what we did in Bismarck.
Where We Stayed In Bismarck, ND
We stayed all five nights at the Residence Inn Bismarck North. Residence Inn is one of Marriott’s extended stay brands, with all rooms being a suite with a full kitchen.
We booked our stay using Marriott Bonvoy points. Marriott’s loyalty program has a feature that deducts the cost of the cheapest night of every five nights you stay when booking with points. That meant we only had to redeem a total of 92,500 points for the stay, or an average of 18,500 points per night – not bad seeing as we were able to book straight into a one bedroom suite rather than a studio suite. For comparison, the cash rate was $163.16 including tax.
Residence Inn hotels offer complimentary breakfast for all guests. This particular property had a good spread as there were always numerous hot options in the mornings – scrambled eggs, breakfast meat, biscuits and gravy, etc. – as well as cereals, bagels, bread, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, etc.
Seeing as Residence Inn is an extended stay brand, it has lots of useful amenities. There’s a laundry room with several washing machines and dryers, an indoor swimming pool and whirlpool, fitness room, sports court, outdoor grill and more.
It was a nice, comfortable stay, so I’d be more than happy staying there again if we ever needed to return to Bismarck.
What We Did In Bismarck
Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center
About 40 minutes north of Bismarck in Washburn, ND is the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center.
There are several Lewis & Clark Interpretive Centers across the western half of the country, with this one having more of a focus on the time they spent at nearby Fort Mandan.
There were lots of interesting exhibits, with it being a particularly good museum for those who learn best through interactivity as there were many buttons to press, items to touch and pick up, clothing to put on, etc.
Fort Mandan State Historic Site
After checking out the interpretive center, we drove the short distance to Fort Mandan State Historic Site. The original Fort Mandan is where Lewis & Clark spent the winter of 1804/05, although it’s now thought to be buried underwater due to the way that the Missouri River has changed course over the years.
Although the original fort is no more, Fort Mandan State Historic Site features a recreated fort to get a sense of what it looked like back in the day.
In addition to the fort outside, there’s an additional museum/interpretive center inside that has more information about what life would’ve been like for Lewis & Clark at the fort.
North Dakota State Capitol
We have a passport book where we get stamps from each State Capitol building, although we’ve missed a few along the way for one reason or another. Bismarck is the state capital of North Dakota, so we swung by their State Capitol building on our way out of Bismarck and down to Wyoming.
North Dakota’s State Capitol isn’t the most stunning of State Capitol buildings compared to nearly every other state’s around the country as it just looks like a regular office building.
Where We Ate & Drank In Bismarck
Laughing Sun Brewing Co
Seeing as we had a kitchen at the Residence Inn, I don’t think we ate out in Bismarck. We did go for a quick drink at Laughing Sun Brewing Co one afternoon though.
Shae got a cider and I tried four of their beers on a beer flight. All four beers were pretty good, with the Lignite imperial stout being my favorite.
n.b If you like axe throwing, that’s offered at Laughing Sun too, albeit in a different section. Probably best to do that before you’ve had too many beers 😉
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