Spokane or Great Falls

[urban1]

Need your help.

Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend... 2 nights in Great Falls or 3 nights in Spokane.

Purpose is just to get away and do a bit of shopping. I know Spokane has more stores but is it worth the extra drive and time on the road?

Please give specifics... as what you like to do in each town and any advice of where to stay or shop or what to do would be appreciated. Im sure a lot of Albertans on hehre would love to hear any advice anyone can offer.

[arsenal]

Spokane has A LOT more to do and is an all round nicer looking city Great Falls.
And if you drive down through Highway 3, it isn't that much longer than the drive to GF.

As far as specifics.. I was in both places around May long. And only spent a night in GF. But unless you are into casino's or something, GF isn't that great of city.
Downtown Spokane is very nice as well.
That's about all I have. You will like Spokane a lot more. As for places to stay.. If you stay on the East side, there is an outlet mall about 10 minutes away on the interstate.

[Antithesis]

Spokane is BY FAR the better destination for ... well ... anything. It is certainly worth the extra two hours.

[icarus]

Neither! You should go to Coeur d'Alene, ID. It's a great city. Sandpoint, ID is great as well and set beautifully on Lake Pend Oreille.

[droopydrew19]

Originally Posted by icarus

Neither! You should go to Coeur d'Alene, ID. It's a great city. Sandpoint, ID is great as well and set beautifully on Lake Pend Oreille.

Agree 100%... was just there a couple weeks ago.

[urban1]

I dont doubt its a nice place (Ive seen the triatholon held there on TV and the scenery looks nice) but it has a population of less than 40,000 so thats a pretty small town and leads me to believe the shopping wouldnt be as good as Spokane. Great Falls has almost 60,000 people. And even with great falls, searching on hotels.ca, it seems great falls is full of motels and no real hotels.

Originally Posted by icarus

Neither! You should go to Coeur d'Alene, ID. It's a great city. Sandpoint, ID is great as well and set beautifully on Lake Pend Oreille.

[The Goon]

Stay in Coeur D'alene, shop in Spokane. They're only a 35-minute drive away from each other. Coeur D'alene is just beautiful.

[Reaper]

Having just been to Great Falls, I'm going to have to recommend Spokane. Great Falls has this "backwater-desperation-please shop here" feel to it and the shopping ain't that great."

[ken0042]

For me this would be quite simple; there's no "Jack in the Box" in Montana.

[Ironhorse]

There's also a whole complex of Factory Outlet stores just East of Spokane, near the Idaho border.

[Burninator]

Can't really help you with the shopping information. But I personally thought Spokane was a dump. Coeur D'alene was a much nicer city. Enjoyed my time there.

[The Goon]

Also remember that in Spokane, just tell them that you are an Alberta resident, and they won't charge you the state sales tax on your purchases. On the other hand, Montana has no state sales tax.

[urban1]

Any details on this? Ive tried googling it but i come up with a bunch of crappy results with no name stores.

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

There's also a whole complex of Factory Outlet stores just East of Spokane, near the Idaho border.

[burn_baby_burn]

I have been to Great Falls plenty of times and only driven through Spokane. With our dollar the bargins are great. But Great Falls is really a small town compared to Calgary. So the selection of stores is pretty limited. The Schells Sports store at the mall is awsome. It has everything and is huge. Other than that, the mall sucks, except for Victoria secret (which will only interest your wife or girlfriend).

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by urban1

Any details on this? Ive tried googling it but i come up with a bunch of crappy results with no name stores.

Upon further inspection, it appears to be located in Idaho (Post Falls), and closer to Coeur D'Alene than Spokane.

[Sylvanfan]

Yeah, I'd say Spokane as well. Really you can stay in either Sandpoint or Coeur D'Alene and make a day trip to Spokane to do all your shopping. My family used to go to Spokane once a year and Kallispell once a year. I used to caddy at the golf tournament my dad was playing in so that come next month I'd have money to spend in Spokane because it had far better stores! You might also be able to catch a dub game when you're there. Spokane has a pretty nice dub facility.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

The Schells Sports store at the mall is awsome. It has everything and is huge.

The did not have one single hockey item when I was there. I was disappointed to say the least.

[Locke]

I went to Sandpoint for a week this past summer, I dragged my boat down and everything, Lake Pond D'Orreille was beautiful. And big.

[icarus]

Originally Posted by fotze

We used to vacation in Sandpoint every summer when I was a kid.

Me too! I miss the place very much, it has been so long since I've been back. Mmmm Panhandler's Pies...

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Upon further inspection, it appears to be located in Idaho (Post Falls), and closer to Coeur D'Alene than Spokane.

Exactly. My parents used to shop relentlessly here each time we went down there, much to my dismay. Rarely would we ever go to Spokane to shop; there were stores galore at this factory outlet. It was this place that I was thinking of when I suggested Coeur d'Alene for shopping.

[Byrns]

I'm thinking about heading down to Spokane for Black Friday deals. If I take the highway 3 route, does anyone know if that border is 24 hours or not?