Local Fun
Opportunities for fresh-air fun and team building abound at Bogus Basin ski resort, where groups can enjoy alpine night-skiing, Nordic skiing, snowboarding, tubing and snowshoeing 15 miles from Boise. A new 4,000-foot-long mountain coaster speeds riders downhill at 25 mph in the offseason. Though wintry Bogus is deep with snow, Boise’s annual mean temperature is a not-all-that-chilly 51.5 degrees.
“People have a lot of misconceptions about our city,” said Kopp. “Our winters are not cold like Chicago’s. Our biggest challenge is getting planners to come and see Boise as a meetings destination. Once we get them here, they say, ‘Wow! Who knew?’ ‘This is really nice,’ ‘I could live here.’ And actually, you can get here from there.”
Downtown Boise’s arts and cultural scene thrives with a philharmonic, an opera, a ballet, an annual Shakespeare Festival, the Boise Art Museum, the Idaho Historical Museum and an architectural, historic district, and Sunday-brunch food walking tours. By the Greenbelt path, the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial was the first in the U.S.
“Everything about Boise makes it a perfect meetings destination,” said Rice. “It’s the community dynamics, the Boise Centre and hotel property expansions — just the overall vibrancy.”
Boise, Idaho
Location: Southwest Idaho
Access: Boise Airport, Interstate 84
Major Meeting Spaces: Boise Centre, Grove Hotel, Courtyard by Marriott Boise Downtown, Hotel 43, Residence Inn Boise Downtown City Center, Inn at 500, Hyatt Place Boise Downtown, Hampton Inn and Suites Boise Downtown, Red Lion Downtown, Riverside Hotel, Safari Inn
Hotel Rooms: 6,000 sleeping rooms
Offsite Venues: Jack’s Urban Meeting Place, Basque Block, Old Idaho Penitentiary, Stueckly Sky Center, Warhawk Air Museum
Contact Info:
Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau
800-635-5240
www.boise.org
