Our Missoula hotel near the University of Montana is just minutes from world-class outdoor activities. There’s also always something happening downtown Missoula. The River City Roots Festival in late August brings premier painters, sculptors and photographers from around the nation to celebrate with day-long live musical performances in what has been acknowledged as Montana’s premier tourist event. There are literally hundreds of events every year in downtown Missoula, featuring live music, dramatic theater and juried art exhibits as well as free offering in fitness, healthy living, or pretty much whatever else makes you happy. Many of these events are held riverside at Caras Park which is adjacent to our hotel.
Locals and visitors alike enjoy the weekly Farmer’s Markets all summer long, right next door to the Holiday Inn Missoula Downtown at Caras Park. There are Farmers’ Markets on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as two Peoples’ Markets on Saturdays. Stroll through them and you will find fresh produce, sweet treats, and hand made as well as fair trade goods. It’s a must-do for any summer visitor to Missoula!
In the winter, it’s only 20 minutes to Montana Snowbowl, one of the best kept secrets in the world of snowboarding and skiing. It’s a resort largely dedicated to glade skiing and powder demons, but there’s enough cruisers to make anyone happy. It’s also a resort that thrives on sponsoring events that bring everyone up for the fun in a friendly small-town atmosphere.
Missoula, of course, was home to the Norman Mclean’s great novel, and the subsequent 1992 movie starring Brad Pitt, “A River Runs Through It,” but once you are here it actually more difficult to pick what river to fish. The Blackfoot was featured by McLean, but the Bitterroot and Clark Fork rivers are also here, as well as Rock Creek, which is the stuff of local legends.
So don’t hesitate to stop in winter, spring, summer or fall, there’s always something happening in Missoula, Montana.