boxo

Sun Country is starting seasonal Minneapolis service to my home airport of Monterey, CA on August 8th and I am planning to book the inaugural. Via the Empire Builder, this would be a perfect way to tick off N Dakota on my 'states visited' list. Flights are scheduled Thursdays and Sundays, so if I do this, I'd have one week to see St Paul and do the N Dakota side trip, with first and last nights at a MSP airport hotel.

Fargo and Grand Forks are the larger cities with more going on culturally and hotel options-wise. I don't mind one horse towns at all, but the hotels are quite far from the stations, way out at the highways. Though, the further west I go, the easier the return times - ie, easier to board at midnight than 3 am.

I don't drive anymore, so renting a car is not an option.

WWYD?

saxman66

Most of the towns in North Dakota would involve a car ride to get to a hotel, unfortunately. But most of them have taxi or Uber service. Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, and Williston definitely will have taxis. I did recently see a video of someone walking to a hotel in Rugby, ND from the Amtrak station. I think it was a long walk though. Rugby is the geographic center of North America though, so you can go see that. Fargo's station is right downtown, but unsure of what hotels are there. Grand Forks, you can so tour the UND campus and walk downtown. The station is about a mile outside of town though. I believe there is a hotel right at the Devils Lake station though. Don't quote me on that. Williston is just an oil town. Never been to Stanley.

zdcatc12

I would bring up Google Maps and display all of the Amtrak stations in ND, zoom in to each one and then display the hotels on the same map view and see which one has the closest motel.

serpens

If you get as far as Williston, and especially if your return train is late, you might get to see some oil flares. I went through the area during shorter days and the sight was somewhat surreal. See https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr8/sites/...-optimized.jpg for an idea of what I'm talking about.

It wasn't clear from the original post. Do you want to spend a night in North Dakota or just travel through? If passing through lets you tick North Dakota off your list, then you could also stay in Wolf Point or Glasgow. (I have no recommendation for lodging in either of those towns, nor for anything in North Dakota.)

I believe the most convenient hotel would be the Radisson Blu in Fargo. Fargo would also have, in my opinion, the worst times for getting off and on the train. I guess my weak recommendation would be to go to Williston, where there is a Hampton Inn. If the return train is on time, it will still be light as you travel through the oil field.

MSPeconomist

There's a Hyatt House in Minot, in a suburban area. Minot has a sort of airplane museum (in a different suburb) and a historical park with a museum and a historic church (close to downtown). Downtown has a historic district with some restaurants, bars, small shops, and IIRC another museum. In the suburbs, you see a lot of very quickly constructed low rise apartment buildings, often by putting mobile homes together, supposedly for oil patch workers.

Williston has a newish Four Points by Sheraton on the edge of town. The train station is right in the center of town. When I was last there, maybe a year ago, instead of a boom town, there seemed to be a lot of homeless people. Even during the oil shale boom, some folks from North Dakota don't consider it to be very safe.

For Fargo, many of the chain hotels are in West Fargo (suburb along the interstate), including a Four Points by Sheraton and an element (legacy Starwood, now Bonvoy).

However, there's a gorgeous independent restored historic hotel downtown in either Fargo or Grand Forks. I forget the name and details, but I saw a nice article about it with pictures when the place opened within the last few years.

Devil's Lake is a summer resort town. Rugby seems to have a small historic district. Don't expect interesting restaurant choices.

Personally, I'm fascinated by some of the dramatic scenery in North Dakota as well as seeing the effects of the shale oil boom and bust. The drive beyond Grand Forks through Devil's Lake, Minot and over to Williston and then south is great.

serpens

Hey, that's where I first earned Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond. Then Hyatt changed the program. Sigh.

Might that be the Hotel Donaldson (Fargo)? I've never been there, but it pops up in the area's local news from time to time. Certainly it's walkable from the train station, depending on weather and luggage and fitness of the traveler. But the train times in Fargo are awful.

By the way, you can check past arrival times for the westbound train at https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/ar...t_mins=&dfon=1. That page can be customized for other time frames and stations and for the eastbound train by changing the train number from 7 to 8. For that matter, https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/ar...onnections.php can tell you how often a train misses a connection with a different train, for example, if train 7 is la late enough to miss train 8 at Williston.

boxo

Oof, that's a huge draw, but I Google Street Viewed the area - the obelisk marker is south of town and looks pretty bleak in a fitness center's parking lot, LOL! Thank you for mentioning it whether for this time or for the future.

serpens I feel like I've seen oil flares before... where and when though?

MSPeconomist Could you be thinking of the Jasper Hotel in Fargo? It looks great, as walkable to the station as the Radisson Blu, but pricey with needing to book two nights due to train times. https://jasperfargo.com/