{"id":515,"date":"2016-06-16T21:54:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T21:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/montana-101\/"},"modified":"2022-04-21T01:22:07","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T01:22:07","slug":"montana-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/montana-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana 101"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Generally when Australians talk about visiting America, it\u2019s a trip to one of a handful of places, or a collection of said places; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Aspen, Miami, New York. The slightly more adventurous might include a stop in New Orleans, Washington DC, Boston, Nashville or Austin. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s because people aren\u2019t interested in exploring the vastly undiscovered remainder of the country, it\u2019s because we\u2019re drawn to these big cities to visit family and friends, or to attend a festival or event. As someone who has been to America half a dozen times, and included New York in all of those trips, I\u2019ll be the first to admit my concept of real America was clouded to say the least. Thankfully, last month, that changed when I joined a group of <a href=\"https:\/\/viewfinder.expedia.com\/authors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Expedia Viewfinders<\/a> for an epic taste of Americana in \u201cBig Sky Country\u201d, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/Montana.d228.Destination-Travel-Guides?brandcid=blog.montana101.author.versatilegent_150616\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Montana<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Montana is the fourth largest state (by size) in the USA, it\u2019s also the third least densely populated state after Alaska and Wyoming. A road trip across the 150,000 square mile state would take roughly 12 hours, but you could easily spend two weeks exploring the magnificent landscapes and picture perfect towns.<\/p>\n<h2>Downtown Missoula<\/h2>\n<p>Our trip kicked off in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/Missoula.d180035.Destination-Travel-Guides?brandcid=blog.montana101.author.versatilegent_150616\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Missoula<\/a>, located roughly a two hours drive west of the state\u2019s capital Helena. Downtown Missoula is small enough to walk around in a day and boasts a handful of excellent dining and drinking options. Those craving the all American, retro diner experience cannot miss Uptown Diner, while coffee lovers flock to Break Espresso or Black Coffee Roasting Company. On Saturdays the community comes together for the Missoula Farmers Market which is a wonderful way to try the fresh produce, chat with friendly locals and soak up the small town vibe. Across from the market Scotty\u2019s Table serves up substantial plates for lunch, providing the perfect foundation for a trip to Kettle House Brewery or Montgomery Distillery. Plonk Wine Bar and Restaurant is a Montana institution with locations in Missoula and Bozeman, and after a fabulous dinner there, paired with equally excellent wines, it\u2019s not hard to see why. After dinner locals head to Top Hat Lounge for live music, or to a handful of classic dive bars like The Rhino and Stockman\u2019s to welcome the next day.<\/p>\n<p>The people of Montana are obsessed with the outdoors. It\u2019s not just a way of life, but a major tourist attraction, bringing billions of tourist dollars to the state each year. It\u2019s not uncommon to chat to folk who\u2019ve visited and never left, drawn in by world class fly fishing, hiking, rafting, RVing and even Rodeo. Even just around Missoula there are a host of activities for the keen outdoorsman (and lady) \u2013\u00a0day hikes around Mt Sentinel are a popular choice, or there\u2019s the Clark Fork River, where you can try rafting with Montana River Guides, tubing and even surfing, for those game enough to try Brennan\u2019s Wave off Caras Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Generally when Australians talk about visiting America, it\u2019s a trip to one of a handful of places, or a collection of said places; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Aspen, Miami, New York. The slightly more adventurous might include a stop in New Orleans, Washington DC, Boston, Nashville or Austin. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s because&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/montana-101\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Montana 101<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,2,15],"tags":[229],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-destination","category-experiences","category-usa-canada","tag-america","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Montana 101 | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/montana-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Montana 101 | Expedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Generally when Australians talk about visiting America, it\u2019s a trip to one of a handful of places, or a collection of said places; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Aspen, Miami, New York. The slightly more adventurous might include a stop in New Orleans, Washington DC, Boston, Nashville or Austin. 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