So, you need a vacation. Who doesn’t? The trick is finding a place that has everything you want without all the crowds. The whole point of taking a vacation in the first place is to get away from it all, right?
You may not be able to point out where Sun Valley, Idaho, is on the map — but that’s exactly the reason you might want to check it out. Sun Valley has all the rugged outdoorsy stuff that you’d expect, like world-class skiing, gravel and mountain biking, rafting, and fly fishing, but there’s a whole other side to it. It’s also a bona-fide hotbed of restaurants, art galleries, outdoor music festivals, and other unique cultural events. With nonstop flights from six major cities including Los Angeles and Chicago, it’s easier to get there than you think. Once you arrive and feel your shoulders drop as you breathe in that fresh mountain air, here’s what to put on your itinerary.
Soak up the kickass culture
Fun fact: Sun Valley is the country’s first destination ski resort and a historic mountain town in its own right — but it’s also one of the best small towns for art. Sun Valley has over a dozen galleries and many of them are stuffed within a few short blocks, so hitting them all is a snap. The Sun Valley Gallery Association (SVGA) also hosts six free gallery walks a year and that’s a great time to see what’s new on the circuit.
If live music, theater, and dance are your jam, Sun Valley won’t disappoint there either. Take your pick from a lineup of performance venues, including the new Argyros Performing Arts Center. This modern, high-tech facility hosts everything from international music and live theater to big-draw local events such as the Sun Valley Film Festival. Book lovers can catch a reading or lecture at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Past authors have included the likes of Salman Rushdie and David Sedaris and many of the events are held outdoors.
If you want to enjoy an outdoor music festival but the whole Burning Man desert-dust-in-your-eyes vibe doesn’t really appeal to you, you can catch everything from the classically inspired Sun Valley Music Festival to country bands and shows by artists that you might not expect to play a small venue at the Sun Valley Pavilion.
Hop on the wellness train
Sun Valley is a haven if you’ve been crushing it on your laptop lately and need to reconnect to your roots. Yoga studios, organic food, and juice shops are as plentiful as pizza joints in New York City, but if you want a deeper dive, spots like Sun Valley Salon and Zenergy Spa will set you right. You can spend the entire day sampling the CBD massages, cupping treatments, and craniosacral therapy sessions.
For the past 25 years, the annual Wellness Festival has also been a magnet for wellness experts from all over the world. The lectures and hands-on workshops really live up to the hoopla.
If your idea of wellness is a leisurely stroll in a beautiful garden, Sun Valley also has you covered. Check out the Sawtooth Botanical Garden and feel your stress melt away as you meander through the Garden of Infinite Compassion, featuring a Tibetan prayer wheel blessed by the Dalai Lama himself.
Bring your appetite
As if you need any more reason to catch the next flight to Sun Valley — the town’s food scene is seriously spot-on. Whether you're looking for a farm-fresh brekkie, some après-spa sushi, or post-concert vegan tapas, Sun Valley has an eatery to fuel your ambitions. You can always just order a football-sized Idaho potato somewhere and call it a night, too.
For the night owls and bar flies, grab a cocktail in the same town where Ernest Hemingway used to knock them back in his day. Wine lovers can hit up the annual Sun Valley Wine Auction and spend a few days partaking in vintner tastings and wine walks.
Sun Valley is packed with so many cool things to do and the kicker is that it still falls under most people’s radar. If you decide to check it out, bring your laptop because you just might want to extend your vacay and set up shop for the entire summer, because isn’t experiencing new places the whole point of this hybrid remote work world we’re living in?
Topics Outdoors
