A Guide to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

If you're looking for a family friendly weekend getaway, that's easy on the wallet, Lava Hot Springs, Idaho should be on your short list.

If you go.......

Accommodations:

If you plan to stay overnight - DO NOT expect 5 star accommodations. Every place on the Main Street of town is of the cheap motel variety. This is not to say the hotels are bad.

We stayed at two different hotels during a recent weekend visit, and at each place, we encountered friendly staffs, and decent rooms for decent rates. Many of the motels also claim whirlpool spa tubs that will pump mineral water from their famous springs right into your room.

Really , no matter where you stay, you can practically walk anywhere in town. Not only is it that non populated, everything is that close together. It makes parking a breeze too.

Restaurants:

The three that stand out because they're right along the main street are Johnny's, which is a typical diner. Not bad food- the menu is just your typical diner variety, and the atmosphere is a bit more welcoming then the Chuckwagon Cafe, which is right across the street.

The third one, and honestly the one to go to if you're celebrating a special occasion is the Riverside Restaurant. Situated on the bottom floor of the Riverside Inn, don't let the linen tablecloths intimidate you. There is nothing on the menu you haven't heard of. The prices are a bit high end, but the food and the high end service make it worth it.

No matter where you eat, be aware, usually every place in town shuts down by nine o'clock at night.

What To Do:

Lava Hot Springs is undoubtedly famous for its hot springs, and no visit to this town is complete without a soak in their hot tubs. Tubs run three degrees - hot, hotter, and burning, and you can tell by the crowd which is which. Check www.lavahotsprings.com for rates.

The better buy is to buy the pass that gets you in to both the hot tubs and the water park with speed slides. The speed slides make a visit there absolutely worth it. There is a yellow slide that drops then plateaus, then drops and plateaus, until you hit the bottom. Then there is a white slide where you go almost straight for a few feet until you hit a drop off where you plunge down at a speed that is guaranteed to get your adrenaline going.

There is also a tubing attraction where you can tube down the river. Unfortunately the weekend my husband and I were in town, the attraction was not open. The guy in charge said they didn't want to have to go to McCammon to get people. We have it on good authority though that this is also an attraction worth checking out.

A lot of people who have visited Lava have comments on the shopping. We didn't get to check it out in depth, but it appears that are some cute trading posts in the area that sell souvenirs, and a shop in the center of everything that sells Powerball tickets. There is also an arcade in the mix, and a shop called Sweet Stuff, that sells ice cream and homemade fudge.

If you're looking for nightlife, there are two lounges. Skip the Wagon Wheel lounge, which appears to be a lounge that's more for locals only. They have Hot Pockets as part of their bar menu.

Instead, head over to the Blue Moon Bar and Grill which not only has live music on weekends, but one of the best burgers I've had in awhile, and more of the same friendly service we seemed to encounter everywhere in town. One of the entertaining features of this place are the dollar bills with things that people have written on them - they're everywhere!