Things to do in Boise

Nature · Along the river, downtown to Lucky Peak

Some 25 miles of riverside path threading the whole city, linking parks, the university and the downtown core.

Local tip: This is the commute, not just the walk — a lot of Boise cycles to work on it year-round. Start at Ann Morrison Park and head east; the stretch through the Boise State campus and out to Barber Park is the good half.

Nature · The foothills, immediately north of downtown

Nearly 200 miles of connected foothill trails starting where the streets stop, with the whole valley laid out below.

Local tip: Camel's Back and Hulls Gulch are walkable from the North End with no car at all. Go up here on a winter inversion day — fifteen minutes of climbing usually puts you above the murk into sunshine.

Culture · Grove Street, downtown

A single block holding the Basque Museum, the 1864 Cyrus Jacobs house, a boarding house, a market and a handball court — the heart of one of the largest Basque communities outside Europe.

Local tip: Go for the museum and stay for the food. Order the beef tongue at Leku Ona if it is on, and check whether Jaialdi — the festival held roughly every five years — falls in the summer you arrive.

Landmark · Downtown, Jefferson Street

The only state capitol in the United States heated by geothermal water, drawn from an aquifer 900 feet below the city.

Local tip: Free, open to the public on weekdays, and the geothermal system is the interesting part — the same aquifer heats several hundred downtown buildings, which is a district-heating scheme nowhere else in the country matches.

Nature · 16 miles north, up Bogus Basin Road

A non-profit community ski area 45 minutes from downtown, running night skiing on weekdays and a mountain coaster and bike trails in summer.

Local tip: Because it is a non-profit, season passes are strikingly cheap and go on sale in spring for the following winter. Buy then; the walk-up price is a different world.

Neighborhood · 13th Street, north of downtown

A four-block village of pre-war storefronts inside Boise's oldest residential neighbourhood, with the foothills trailheads at the top of the street.

Local tip: Most visitors do downtown and miss this entirely. Sit outside at the Hyde Park bars on a summer evening, then walk straight up 8th Street into Camel's Back and the trail network — that combination is the whole argument for Boise in about an hour.