After eight days in Idaho Falls, we moved on to Boise for a total of nine days.
Shae and I knew that we’d be having to spend our first few days in the city working, so it didn’t matter as much to us where we stayed initially. As a result, we booked a four night stay at a hotel by the airport before moving downtown for the rest of our stay.
Boise ended up being a much cooler city than we were anticipating. It’s very walkable downtown, with a lot of fun breweries, restaurants, bars and more, a situation likely assisted by the fact that it’s a college town with a campus downtown.
Here’s everything that we got up to in Boise.
Where We Stayed In Boise
Holiday Inn Boise Airport
As I mentioned above, we spent the first four days at a hotel by the airport – the Holiday Inn Boise Airport – seeing as we were focused on working rather than exploring the city.
The Holiday Inn was the ideal choice because it was good value when booked with IHG One Rewards points, especially because we get every 4th night free on award stays thanks to having an IHG Premier credit card. They also had a one bedroom suite you can book into using points which was particularly appealing.
Unfortunately it didn’t turn out to be a proper one bedroom suite as there was no door between the bedroom and living room and only a frosted glass barrier for some of the barrier. That meant it wasn’t ideal for me working in the living room at night while Shae was sleeping, but it was nice having a more spacious room than you’d normally get at a Holiday Inn.
The view from our room was much better than your average airport hotel too.
The Holiday Inn Boise Airport was a comfortable place to stay for four days, with amenities including an indoor swimming pool, whirlpool, fitness center, guest self-laundry facilities, a business center, a bookshelf with books for guests to take and read and more.
Residence Inn Boise Downtown
For our final five days in Idaho’s state capital we moved downtown to stay at the Residence Inn Boise Downtown. This was so that we could be within walking distance of everything downtown, with Boise being so walkable.
We picked the Residence Inn as we had several Marriott free night certificates to use. Those were good for nights costing up to 35,000 points, with the ability to top up each one with up to 15,000 points per night. These certificates were received when renewing our Marriott credit cards that each have a ~$100 annual fee. The hotel would’ve cost $230-$310 per night, so we got very good value out of them.
One of the reasons we like staying at Marriott’s Residence Inn brand is because every room is a suite that has a full kitchen which includes a full-sized fridge-freezer, stove top, microwave, dishwasher, etc.
The hotel is in a great location downtown, with it being only a short walk down to the Boise River, a 10 minute walk to the Idaho State Capitol and lots of breweries, restaurants and bars within a half-mile radius.
In terms of amenities, the Residence Inn Boise Downtown has an indoor swimming pool, a surprisingly spacious whirlpool, a fitness room, guest self-laundry facilities and a lovely outdoor rooftop area.
What We Did In Boise
Boise River Greenbelt
Boise has a 25 mile long paved path running along the river called the Boise River Greenbelt. We didn’t walk the entire length of it, but we did take a couple of nice walks along the river in both directions.
Camels Back Trail
Whenever we visit a new city on the road trip, I always scroll around on Google Maps to see if anything happens to catch my eye. When looking at a map of Boise, I noticed that on the northern side of the city there was the Camels Back Trail. When researching this a little more online, it looked like it provided excellent views of the city from above, so Shae, Truffles and I headed up there one afternoon.
Sure enough, the trail provided excellent views of the city. The trail is within Hulls Gulch/Camel’s Back Reserve and there are all kinds of other side trails that you can take around the reserve to explore even more and lengthen your hike.
The Peregrine Fund’s World Center For Birds of Prey
(Shae’s account below)
In what feels like the middle of nowhere, but which in fact is only 20 minutes south of downtown, is The Peregrine Fund’s World Center For Birds of Prey. On a beautiful day, we made our way up to this conservation center. It’s a gorgeous site up in the nearby hills outside of Boise. There are several exhibits of rescued birds of prey, exhibits to educate about birds of prey, an important California Condor breeding program and a few live talks each day.
While all of the birds were fun to watch, the highlights for me were the California Condors who were eating when we came by their enclosure, the Harpy eagle, and the live talk with Tulio – one of the educational bird ambassadors for the center.
Tulio is still learning, so he was on a lengthy leash that allowed him to fly back and forth, while other birds of prey ambassadors are able to fly freely during presentations. It was interesting to learn that he has a very specific diet to meet his nutritional requirements since his diet in nature – other tropical birds – are not available for him at the center.
The California Condors were much bigger than I was expecting. They breed them to be released back into the wild to support the dwindling California Condor population.
The Harpy eagle was so cool to look at with its huge talons. One thing we learned while at the center is that the beak shape, eye positioning and talon size are indicators of what birds of prey eat. Harpy eagles with their massive talons eat larger prey than the peregrine falcon.
It was definitely worth the price and experience if you find yourself in Boise.
Idaho State Capitol
Boise is the capital of Idaho, so we stopped by the State Capitol Building quickly to check it out and get a stamp in our State Capitol book.
Idaho State Museum
(Shae’s account below)
On one of our final days, I took myself to the Idaho State Museum which was right down the street from our hotel in downtown Boise. It was a very well done museum, although a little more guidance on which directions to take through the exhibits would be useful.
You start by learning about the water that nourishes the state and provides recreational activities for residents and visitors. The museum is then broken down into three separate areas looking at the different geographical regions of Idaho. This included the history of each area and important stories from the regions including how they’re used today. Learning about the Big Burn of 1910 was incredibly interesting with the audio-visual display you could watch to learn more about it.
One of the best facts you can learn about at the Museum of Idaho is about the beavers that were parachuted into a remote area in the 1940s using leftover WWII parachutes. Getting a t-shirt to commemorate that story was necessary! You can get the beaver shirts here if you need one of your own!
Freak Alley Gallery
(Account by Shae)
Stephen had found out that Boise has a graffiti art gallery called “Freak Alley Gallery.” It was an interesting mix of art styles and content. There were quite a few people out enjoying the alley too, getting pictures, posing with art, and interacting with the art on display.
There were a few pieces that I really enjoyed, with the mirrored art of Dr. King and the painting of a Twinkie and cockroach surviving the apocalypse being my favorites.
Where We Ate & Drank In Boise
Meriwether Cider House
Next to the Freak Alley Gallery is Meriwether Cider House, a cidery with lots of tasty ciders on their menu.
I ended up getting a couple of flights to try as many of their ciders as possible. They were all good, but my favorite was easily the Caramel Apple Pop – so delicious!
Meriwether Cider is pet-friendly on their patio outside, so Truffles got to join us for drinks. It was a little chilly that day though, so she required some snuggling.
Les Bois Wines
Close to Freak Alley Gallery and Meriwether Cider House is Les Bois Wines, a nice wine bar in downtown Boise run by the friendly and welcoming Benjamin.
Every week they have a different theme for their wine tastings, with the theme the week we visited being something like “wines you’ll love but can’t pronounce.” They were right – we probably couldn’t have pronounced the wine names, but we did sure love them!
Les Bois Wines was another drinking establishment that had a pet-friendly patio, but be aware that it only seats a maximum of four people if you’re planning on visiting as a larger group with a pup.
Mother Earth Brew Co.
In addition to cideries and wineries, downtown Boise has an abundance of breweries. One of the ones we checked out was Mother Earth Brew Co. which was just a five minute walk from our hotel.
Similar to Meriwether Cider, I was interested in trying as many of their drinks as possible, so I got a couple of flights – one of lighter beers and one of darker ones. My favorite two were both darker – Imperial Brown and Quit Stalin, the latter of which was a bourbon barrel aged imperial stout.
While Meriwether and Les Bois Wines had only been pet-friendly on their patio, Mother Earth Brew Co is pet-friendly both inside and out on their patio.
Boise Brewing
Even closer to our hotel was Boise Brewing, another downtown brewery which also has some great beers and friendly service.
As with all the other places we went for a drink, Boise Brewing is pet-friendly, although only on their patio out front.
Boise Fry Company
We ate out a few times in Boise, but most of those times were from chains like Del Taco, Panda Express and MOD Pizza as those were so close and convenient to our hotels. On our final night though we had dinner at Boise Fry Company on the recommendation of a friend.
With this being Idaho – a state famed for its potatoes – Boise Fry Company lets you pick which type of potato your fries are made from. Shae and I ended up decided to share a large fry and I think we picked gold potatoes based on a recommendation of the employee there.
Boise Fry Company has a couple of different ways you can jazz up your fries and burgers. They have more than a dozen salts with flavors ranging from horseradish to salt & vinegar to cinnamon ginger to salsa verde and much more. They also have nine different sauces including spicy ketchup, fry sauce, garlic aioli, sweet mustard and even blueberry ketchup.
In addition to the fries, we both ordered a burger. You can get your burger prepared in different ways; Shae got hers as The Original which comes with spring mix, tomato, red onion gastrique and garlic aioli. You can also pick what kind of patty you get too – beef, funguy, turkey, vegan or bison. Shae picked bison as it’s not often we see that on the menu at a burger joint.
For my burger I went with a regular beef patty, but chose The Heat option for my toppings – lettuce, blueberry compote, habaneros and spicy ketchup. I was curious what it would be like having blueberry compote on my burger, but it was surprisingly delicious and helped balance out some of the heat from the habanero peppers.
Things We Missed In Boise
There were quite a few things we had on our list of potential places to visit in and around Boise that we didn’t have a chance to make it to. Here’s what we missed out on based on other people’s recommendations and our own research:
- Bruneau Dunes State Park
- Idaho Potato Hotel
- Biscuit & Hogs
- Old Idaho Penitentiary Site
- Together Treasure Valley Dog Island
- 10 Barrel Brewing Boise
Eric says
Boise Fry Company was one of the highlights of my trip to Boise. The choices for fries were…intimidating. But it was terrific. Glad to hear you guys enjoyed.
There’s an awful lot of bison burger options out there in the Rockies, especially the northern half.
stephen says
Yep, we visited Boise Fry Company on our last night and so we didn’t want to make a mistake with picking the wrong potato and salt(s) either!
We’ll be in Alaska, North Dakota, Montana & Wyoming later this year, so hopefully we’ll get a chance for more bison burgers 🙂
Eric says
Make sure to get some reindeer sausage in Alaska. If you stop in Gillette, Wyoming, Pokey’s has a great bison burger. There’s plenty of other places around Montana and Wyoming that have them, but that’s one I remember excelling. It’s been a little while since I’ve been to ND, my only real recommendation there is to make sure you hit up Theodore Roosevelt NP.
You can also find bison steaks at a decent number of places in the area, especially near Yellowstone. I had a really good bison ribeye in Cooke City, Montana, last year.
stephen says
Thanks for all those suggestions! We’ll likely stay in Gillette for at least one night when visiting Devil’s Tower, so we’ll have to get a bison burger that night. We’ll definitely be up for trying reindeer sausage too.