Idaho, United States: Towns to Explore on Foot

The best things to do in Idaho include exploring its layered history, contrasting landscapes and distinctive cities, from Boise to Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene. Known as the Gem State, Idaho combines mountain ranges, forests, the Snake River Plain and a long human story that began thousands of years before statehood. Neywo offers free audio guides for four cities in Idaho, with 58 narrated places in total.

What to see and do in Idaho

Idaho is a large and varied state, so its character changes considerably from one area to another. These are some of the places and themes that help explain it.

Explore Boise, Idaho’s capital

Boise is Idaho’s state capital and largest city. It is also the main Idaho destination covered by Neywo, with 55 narrated places. Its highlights include the Old Idaho State Penitentiary, the Boise Art Museum, the Discovery Center of Idaho and the Idaho Black History Museum.

The city is a useful starting point for understanding present-day Idaho. The state’s population and agricultural activity are concentrated largely around the Snake River Plain, and Boise is at the centre of that modern story.

Discover Idaho’s ancient human history

Idaho’s human history reaches back more than fifteen thousand years. Evidence from Cooper’s Ferry suggests that people lived in the area at that time, while excavations at Wilson Butte Cave near Twin Falls uncovered arrowheads and other traces of human activity. The finds at both sites rank among the oldest dated artifacts in North America.

Cooper’s Ferry also challenged the idea that the first people to reach North America arrived only by land. These discoveries place Idaho within a much older continental story than its relatively recent statehood might suggest.

For thousands of years before European colonization, Native peoples lived throughout what is now Idaho. The Nez Percé were predominant in the north, while Northern and Western Shoshone peoples were predominant in the south. The Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai, Paiute, Bannock and Salish were also historically present.

Understand Idaho’s path to statehood

In the early nineteenth century, Idaho formed part of the disputed Oregon Country. The Oregon Treaty later made the area officially part of a United States territory. Idaho subsequently spent periods within Oregon Territory and Washington Territory before a separate Idaho Territory was organized.

Idaho entered the Union in 1890, but its history began much earlier, with Native communities inhabiting its landscapes for millennia.

Visit the Idaho Panhandle and Sandpoint

The Idaho Panhandle is a relatively isolated northern part of the state, closely connected with eastern Washington. Unlike most of Idaho, it shares Washington’s Pacific Time Zone. Its position in the north gives it a distinct identity within the state’s wider mix of mountains, forests and plains.

Sandpoint is one of the Idaho towns covered by Neywo. The town has one narrated place in the app: the Panida Theater. For travellers researching Sandpoint, it offers a focused introduction to one of the communities in Idaho’s northern Panhandle.

See Coeur d’Alene’s historic churches

Coeur d’Alene has two narrated places on Neywo: the First United Methodist Church (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) and St. Thomas Catholic Church. These sites provide a glimpse of the city’s built and religious heritage.

The city belongs to the northern part of Idaho, where the state’s landscape and cultural connections differ from those of the Snake River Plain farther south.

Discover Wallace

Wallace is also included among Neywo’s Idaho destinations. The app currently lists no narrated places there, but the town remains one of the cities represented on the Idaho destination page.

Travel across mountains, forests and plains

Idaho belongs to both the Pacific Northwest and the Mountain West. Several stretches of the Rocky Mountains define the state, while the Snake River Plain contains much of its population and agricultural land. In the southeast, Idaho extends into part of the Great Basin.

The state’s climate is just as varied. The Pacific Ocean lies about 330 miles from Idaho’s western border, and its maritime influence is felt particularly in winter through cloud cover, humidity and precipitation. Idaho also has the highest proportion of land held by the United States Forest Service of any state, at about 38 percent.

Together, these features make Idaho feel less like a single landscape than several different regions gathered within one state.

Learn about Idaho’s economy and energy

Potatoes are Idaho’s most familiar calling card, and the state produces around one third of the nation’s potato crop. Agriculture is important alongside manufacturing, mining, forestry, science and technology, and tourism.

Idaho also has a significant connection to energy and research. The Idaho National Laboratory is located in the state, and renewable sources supply 75 percent of the electricity generated within Idaho. Hydroelectric plants provide most of the state’s utility-scale generating capacity, with wind, solar and geothermal energy also contributing.

Follow Idaho’s route to the Pacific

Although Idaho is landlocked, it has an unexpected connection to the Pacific Ocean. The Port of Lewiston is the farthest inland Pacific port on the West Coast. Dams and locks on the Snake and Columbia rivers allow barges to travel from Lewiston to Portland, where goods can be transferred to ocean-going vessels.

The route highlights how Idaho’s rivers, farms, industries and railroads connect its inland landscapes with a much wider commercial world.

Explore Idaho with Neywo’s free audio guide

Neywo has free audio guides for four cities in Idaho, with 58 narrated places in total and two walking tours. Narration is available in 11 languages. The app tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule.

It is a practical way to explore Boise, Sandpoint, Coeur d’Alene and Wallace while keeping the wider history of the state in view. Download Neywo and discover Idaho one narrated place at a time. You can also continue planning your trip with the wider United States destination guide.