I would suggest Sandpoint, Idaho if you are going to take the northern scenic route to Kalispell. Getting to Sandpoint will get you past the traffic of the Spokane - Coeur d' Alene - Sandpoint corridor allowing for an easy drive on Aug 31, traffic particularly between Coeur 'd Alene and Sandpoint can be slow. Nortmally about a 2 - 2.5 hour drive from the Spokane airport to Sandpoint, you should make reservations in Sandpoint ASAP. If you take the southern Interstate 90 route you may want to consider Missoula, Montana, about a 4 hour drive and you lose a hour due to time zone change from Pacific to Mountain Time (northern Idaho is on Pacific Time, Montana is on Mountain Time).

Thank you for your suggestions.

Tere

Howdy - Just reading CDA posts (we live in CDA) and saw this one. If you do go the I-90 route, you'll actually get off I-90 BEFORE you get to Missoula. You'll exit at St. Regis, then head through Plains. I think it ends up being Hwy 135 to Hwy 28 to Hwy 93. We do this drive every winter to Whitefish. It's only about 3 1/2 hours from CDA and fun driving. (i.e. not lots of traffic, nice relaxing drive).

So, I would say stay in Coeur d'Alene or even in Kellogg, ID if hotels are scarce in CDA and then drive just a little over 3 hours from CDA/Kellogg to Kalispell. OR, it's a very doable drive from Spokane and only adds another 30 minutes or so.

I have NOT done the North route through Sandpoint, but I'm sure that's pretty too. I think staying in Sandpoint would be more expensive and possibly more difficult to find vacancies though.