Courtesy Rapid City CVB

The Badlands, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer, Teddy Roosevelt. In the Dakotas, two states stacked one atop the other in the northcentral United States, America’s past is always present. Blessed with a convenient location and a reasonable cost of living, the Dakotas allow meeting goers to have an authentic adventure without an enormous expense.

Convention attendees in Rapid City, S.D., can easily extend their stay a few days and venture to Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial and other nearby sites. In North Dakota’s capital, Bismarck, a trolley can take meeting goers to Fort Abraham Lincoln to dine on steaks cooked on a pitchfork and see a cavalry charge, or they can board a motorcoach for a trip to Medora, a town that was dear to President Teddy Roosevelt.

In South Dakota’s southeast corner, Sioux Falls’ population of 160,000 makes it the state’s largest city. Its thriving downtown is anchored by a city park that preserves the falls of the Big Sioux River, a reminder, that in the Dakotas, rural landscape still trumps city life.

For more on the Dakotas:

Discovering the Dakotas
Sioux Falls makes a splash
Lodge at Deadwood will bring meetings to town
Bismarck beats big guys
Rapid City touts varied venues