Boise at a Glance
Location: Southwest Idaho
Access: Boise Airport, Interstate 84 (10 minutes from downtown Boise)
Hotel Rooms: 1,600
Contact Info:
Visit Boise
208-472-5206
visitboise.com
Boise Centre
Built: 1990, expanded in 2017
Exhibit Space: 86,000 square feet
Other Meeting Spaces: 31 meeting rooms
Meeting Hotels
The Grove Hotel
Guest Rooms: 250
Meeting Space: 14,000 square feet
The Riverside Hotel
Guest Rooms: 303
Meeting Space: 21,000 square feet
Hotel Renegade
Guest Rooms: 122
Meeting Space: 5,100 square feet
Who’s Meeting in Boise
Solution Tree
Attendees: 600
Council of Autism Service Providers
Attendees: 250
Cambridge Investment Research
Attendees: 90
Boise, Idaho, is a metropolitan hub flanked by mountains, fusing urban delights with the accessibility of nature. Contributing to the city’s vibrant energy, Boise State University lies on the banks of the Boise River. Given this proximity to nature, attendees can enjoy a thriving culinary and cultural scene in town and choose from kayaking, biking and hiking in warmer months or skiing when the snow flies.
Destination Highlights
Boise’s downtown vibe exudes local flavor with abundant entertainment and nightlife options. The city’s culinary scene supports more than 100 restaurants and bars in a six-block area. More than 95 percent of downtown businesses are locally owned and operated, such as The Warehouse Food Hall, which features trivia nights, mixology events and live music. Winery and brewery hopping are popular around town.
One of downtown’s main features is Basque Block, which highlights immigrants from northern Spain and southwestern France who settled in the American West. The Basque Museum and Cultural Center, the only museum of its kind in the nation, showcases the area’s Basque heritage. The Basque Center stages traditional dance and music while establishments serve tapas, paella and Spanish wines.
“Visitors are surprised with how compact, safe and walkable our downtown is, even at night,” said Carrie Westergard, executive director of Visit Boise. “We have an overnight crew that regularly cleans our downtown and maintains the streetscape and flowerpots.”
Boise State University’s 2,000-seat Velma V. Morrison Center for the Performing Arts hosts Broadway shows, concerts and more. ExtraMile Arena is home to BSU basketball, wrestling, women’s gymnastics, community events and concerts. It has played host to many NCAA men and women’s basketball tournaments.
Opened in 1897, Julia Davis Park contains Zoo Boise, the Idaho State Museum, Boise Art Museum, Idaho Black History Museum and the Discovery Center of Idaho. Groups can also rent pavilions, play horseshoes and bocce ball or enjoy seasonal paddle boats. The Boise River Greenbelt, a paved pathway bisecting the city and paralleling the river, makes an ideal place to walk or bike.
Major Meeting Spaces
Boise’s premier meeting space, Boise Centre, hosts groups from 10 to 1,600 attendees in 86,000 square feet of exhibit space and a ballroom seating up to 800 guests. Of the 31 flexible meeting spaces, many offer views of the Boise foothills and city skyline. Expansive in-house catering focuses on sustainable, scratch-made fare.
“We have 13 hotels totaling more than 1,600 rooms within walking distance to Boise Centre,” Westergard said. “Even though we have four seasons, we have more than 250 days of sunshine each year, so walking is pleasant year-round.”
The 250-room Grove Hotel connects Idaho Central Arena and lies adjacent to Boise Centre. In addition to in-house catering and 14,000 square feet of meeting space, this property touts a newly remodeled 6,800-square-foot grand ballroom. Renovated, boutique-style rooms, the lauded Trillium restaurant and Grove Fitness Club and Spa, with an indoor pool, round out amenities.
Nestled on 14 acres, The Riverside Hotel parallels the Boise River Greenbelt, as well as local breweries, wineries, restaurants and parks. This 303-room property offers 21,000 square feet of meeting space and in-house catering. Guests enjoy indoor and outdoor saltwater pools, a generous fitness suite and daily live music at three venues on property.
Luxurious and modern, Hotel Renegade’s AAA Four Diamond rating is well-deserved. The 122-room hotel offers 5,100 square feet of modern meeting space accompanied by chef-inspired menus. Amenities include a recently opened rooftop bar showcasing views of the Boise foothills and Owyhee Mountains, an on-site supper club, handcrafted coffee, and a dry bar.
Distinctive Venues
Barber Park Education and Event Center sits adjacent to the river about six miles from downtown. Stone and wood architecture harmonize with outdoor receptions, and indoor meetings can take place around a stone fireplace. Because the park serves as the boat put-in for the Boise River, summer meetings can be capped off with a float back downtown.
Idaho Botanical Garden provides beautiful outdoor settings for meetings, receptions and tented dinners. The garden’s Outlaw Field Summer Music Series hosts performers such as The Black Keys, Alison Krauss and Chicago.
“The gardens are a nice surprise close to downtown,” Westergard said. “With wide-open spaces and shaded locations, it’s perfect for receptions and dinners.”
The Basque Block can be closed off to accommodate several hundred attendees. Authentic dinners or receptions served by the Basque Market include large paellas, sometimes for 800 people or more. Wednesdays and Fridays year-round, groups can watch paella being prepared on the patio while noshing on tapas and sipping wine or frozen white sangria.
Across the river, the four-level BSU Stueckle Sky Center provides three banquet spaces. Each showcases fabulous views of the Boise bench, foothills and downtown skyline. The Double R Ranch Room overlooks Albertsons Stadium’s famous blue turf football field.
Interactive JUMP, located on the campus of the J.R. Simplot headquarters, offers problem-solving challenges for team building. Among its diversions is a spiral slide that zooms guests down five stories.
After the Meeting
Seasonal whitewater trips with Cascade Raft and Kayak facilitate team building and bonding. “Ridge to Rivers” hiking and biking trails, five minutes from downtown, include Camel’s Back and Table Rock trails, easily manageable by hikers of all ability levels. Boise Bicycle Tours showcases the city’s urban and rugged sides. At Bogus Basin, 16 miles from downtown, attendees can hike, navigate a ropes course, ride the chairlift or whisk down the slopes on a mountain coaster in the summer or ski come winter.
Back in town, Preservation Idaho’s walking tours take groups through downtown’s history and architecture, including its evolution from a gold-rush boomtown. Tours highlight Boise’s historic Basque, German, Jewish and Chinese communities. Those with an artistic flare might head to Boise Art Glass and watch expert glassblowers at work. Custom events feature the chance to make a take-home souvenir, such as a glow-in-the-dark pumpkin or hummingbird feeder.
“Treefort Music Hall is a new concert venue that hosts an annual music festival in March,” Westergard said. “Their rooftop lounge has great inside and outside spaces for receptions of up to 150 guests.”
Foodies will revel in Season and Taste cooking school’s timed culinary challenge. Tapas Bite Night, based on the popular TV series “Chopped,” provides a basket of mystery ingredients that attendees turn into something delicious. Or groups can join Indulge Boise’s culinary and cultural tours highlighting what Food & Wine magazine deemed one of the “Next Great Food Cities” in America.
