Whitefish, MT : Getting to Whitefish.gif)
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| The
Train Depot in Whitefish, Montana |
Whitefish, MT, is located at the far northern end of the
Flathead Valley in Northwest Montana. Whitefish lies 15 miles
north of Kalispell, on Highway 93. Columbia Falls, a smaller
town to the east, lies just 7 miles away. Big Mountain ski
area if found just to the north of town while Whitefish
Lake (and the city beach that is on it) lies less than a mile
away from the downtown.
Getting
to Whitefish is painfully simple if you like to travel
by train. Whitefish is the busiest train depot in
Montana. Conveniently, the train depot lies about 1 block
from downtown. Best of all, most of the hotels
and resorts have free pickup of guests from the train station – making
it a snap to arrive in town without a car. Travel by the
train is also significantly less expensive than by air.
An
airport, Glacier Park International Airport, is
located nearby too – just about 14 miles away. It’s
a nice airport, although it primarily serves Kalispell. However,
flying in and out of the airport is expensive, to say the
least. Direct flights are only available from Salt Lake City,
Minneapolis and Seattle. Every time I check into flights
back home to Wisconsin, I’m usually floored by the
price. This explains why, of course, that I end up on the
train instead of a plane on my annual trips back to Wisconsin.
Just remember my golden rule of train travel – two
nights on the train is one night too many (unless you can
afford a sleeping compartment).
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| The
Cultural Arts Center in Whitefish, MT |
There
are no interstate highways up in this part of Montana,
for better or worse. As such, getting into the Flathead
Valley
(where Whitefish is) is an exercise in patient driving
on twisty mountain roads (most are in good condition, though),
sometimes in surprisingly heavy traffic – especially
on Highway 93 to the south. Highway 2 offers a better and
less crowded way of getting into the Flathead Valley if you
will be coming from the west (from Libby) or the east (East
Glacier/Havre/Great Falls area).
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