The Best Places to Drink and Stay in Missoula

Eight suites, twenty-four guests at a time, and a thousand acres of Clark Fork riverfront along the edge of Lolo National Forest: RiverView Ranch keeps the headcount low on purpose. This Forbes Five Star all-inclusive ranch outside Missoula covers everything from airport transfers to meals to fly-fishing, with horses, snowmobiles, and hiking trails filling the gaps. The kind of place where the wilderness is the amenity and solitude is the whole point.

Eleven modern wood cabins sit in the pine forest of Montana's Blackfoot River Valley, adults only, all-inclusive, and about as far from a Hampton Inn as geography allows. The Social Haus turns out multicourse dinners despite being deep in Big Sky Country woods, and the all-in rate covers meals, drinks, and transfers from Missoula. A Forbes Four Star resort where champagne and crisp mountain air arrive together.

Antler chandeliers and rough-hewn timber done with enough restraint that it stops short of kitschy, which is harder than it sounds. Alpine Falls Ranch is a mountain-lodge resort on the western edge of Montana, where the Rockies do the decorating and the hotel has the good sense to stay out of the way. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys. Guests who came for the landscape tend to linger longer than planned.