Boise News

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Web Site Touts Boise as Great Weekend Getaway for “the Good Life”

By Jennifer Gelband, 9-06-06

So if you don’t read TheStreet.com frequently to get your financial fix, you should start today. But not for financial info necessarily. The editors at the industry news, markets coverage and personal finance web site have added a special series for September: a weekend travel feature of getaways “designed to help you find the good life.” And guess who wins this week in their first installment? Boise, of course.

TheStreet writer Russell Vines apparently loves Boise. In part because it is easy to navigate and in part because Boise is cheap (compared with New York City, TheStreet’s headquarters home), and that’s what the financial web site likes most. Or does it?

“Thanks to its unparalleled scenic beauty, millions of acres of national parks and world-class ski resorts, it is rapidly becoming known as a high-end adventure-travel destination,” Vines writes.

Vines praises Boise for being the most cosmopolitan city in Idaho (sorry, rest of Idaho), a college town and a corporate haven. “The wild west is tamer in Boise, and the city is making a concerted effort to present more sophisticated choices to go along with its rustic setting.”

And Vines goes gaga over Boise’s unique Basque culture, which truly is a cool ethnic aspect of the city. The Basques are the descendents of northern Spanish sheepherders and Boise is home to the largest per capita Basque population outside of the Basque Country, and it shows with presence of the Basque Block on Grove Street downtown and the plethora of Basque restaurants, groceries and the museum. “Take the time to sit at the [Basque Center's] bar and sip kalimotxo -- red wine mixed with Coca-Cola -- and listen to beret-topped locals speaking Euskera, the Basque language.”

Well, Vines must have visited during a showy Basque festival, because it isn’t entirely commonplace to see people wearing berets in Boise, especially in the 100-plus degree heat. But he’s pretty right on when he describes the rest of his Basque cultural education in Boise. And if I do say so myself, Boise is a pretty great place to visit, and to live.

Read the whole article at TheStreet.com, and see what towns pop up next as offering the good life.

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