Missoula, Montana is far from lacking in the “things to do” department. There are beautiful mountains surrounding the city with ample hiking trails, plenty of rivers and lakes around to satisfy your need to fish, kayak, or float, and an array of local businesses waiting to help you shop, drink, and have a good time. While the outdoor activities in Missoula are absolutely killer and usually free, sometimes you want to hang out with friends inside for a night of fun, or the unpredictable Montana weather is forcing you to.
I’ve compiled a list of 10 of my favorite (completely biased) indoor activities to do in Missoula for (BONUS) $10 or less.
1. Bowling!
Head on down to Westside lanes and knock down some pins any day of the week! While you’re there, you can also play pool, hang out in their arcade, hit up their casino, or go to their karaoke nights listed below.
Price: $3.89 to $4.89 per person/game dependent on day of the week and time of day + shoe rental at $2.69 per pair
Here is a bonus: Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday after 9pm they have Dollar Bowling where each game (per person) is only $1!
Another bonus: If you’re an early bird, you can stop in on Sunday mornings from 9am-11am and bowl 2 games for FREE with the only cost being your shoe rental.
Check out their website at http://missoulabowling.com/
2. Karaoke
Get a group together and belt your heart out at any of the karaoke nights in town. Pro tip: The bartenders are more than willing to help you out with a little liquid courage before you make your debut as the next Beyoncé.
Price: Free
Options:
- Karoake at the VFW – Mondays at 9pm
- Kraptastic Karaoke at the Badlander – Wednesdays at 9pm
- Karaoke at the Bowl Dog Lounge at Westside Lanes – Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the 2nd and last Saturday of each month at 9pm
Check out their websites at:
https://www.facebook.com/thebadlandermissoula/
3. Trivia!
Missoula is packed full of trivia nights. Not only are these free, you can usually win some awesome prizes ranging from shots for your table, t-shirts, or $50 bar tabs for winning teams. And hey, since it’s free, it’s a great opportunity to spend $10 on some delicious bar food and drinks.
Price: Did I mention it’s free?
Options:
- Pub Trivia – Tuesdays at 8pm at Thomas Meagher Bar
- Trivia – Tuesdays at 8pm at the VFW
- Trivia – Wednesdays at 7pm at the Silver Slipper
- Brains on Broadways – Wednesdays at 7pm at the Broadway Sports bar, Grill, and Casino
- Trivial Beersuit – Wednesdays at 8pm at the Press Box
- Trivial Beersuit – Thursdays at 8pm at the Darkhorse
- Trivia – Thursdays at 7pm at Brooks and Browns Bar and Grill
4. Dancing!
Get your dancing shoes and get groovy with the group dance nights at the Dark Horse and Sunrise Saloon. Seriously, it’s fun.
Price: Free to $5
Options:
- Salsa 406 dancing at the Dark Horse – 3rd Saturday of each month at 8:30pm
Price: Free
Check out https://www.facebook.com/Dark-Horse-Bar-Missoula-178709825494516/?rf=130915486981358 for more info!
2. Swing Dancing at the Sunrise Saloon – Wednesdays (Beginners), Thursday (Intermediate) at 7pm
Price: $5 per person
The style of dance is subject to change. Check out the http://sunrisesaloonandcasino.com/ event calendar for details on specific dates.
5. Board Games!
There’s nothing better than grabbing some friends, tortilla chips, and 18lbs of nacho cheese for a good ole fashioned game night. Don’t have the game you want to play? You’re in luck! You can rent board games from the HUGE selection at Retrofix Gaming (around 60 to 80!!) for the low price of 10% of the retail value of the game. A ton of these games are under $10 and will keep you entertained for quite some time. Just don’t get any cheese on them.
Price: 10% of the retail value of the game
Check out their website at http://www.retrofixgames.com/missoula/
6. Sporting Events!
More specifically The Missoula Jr Bruins Hockey games (remember this list is completely biased). These range from September to February and take place at Glacier Ice Rink on various weekends starting at 7:30pm. The rink sells hot chocolate and beer to keep you warm, and has some pretty great entertainment in between periods.
Price: $10 adult tickets
Check out the specific schedule at http://www.missoulajrbruins.com/
7. Ice Skating!
I’m sure all of that hockey talk made you want to go Ice Skating! Don’t own skates? It isn’t winter? Well no problem! Glacier Ice Rink has skate rentals as well as an indoor and outdoor rink ready for any type of weather. Check out their open skate schedule at http://www.glaciericerink.com for specific dates and times to transform yourself into Michelle Kwan.
Price: Adults entry $6 + Skate Rental $3 = $9
8. Paint Pottery!
The Zootown Arts Community Center has a “paint your own pottery” studio that is a great activity for any number of people and any age range of people. Prices of pottery range from $5-$30 (plenty of options for $10 or under) depending on what you choose to paint, and that is the only cost of the activity. The ZACC provides glazes, supplies, and even takes care of firing your artwork once it is painted so you get your masterpiece back in around a week. Bonus for the ladies – stop in on the 4th Thursday of each month for Ladies Night and get 20% off of your pottery!
Price: $5 to $30
For more information on the “paint your own pottery” studio or the ZACC in general, visit http://zootownarts.org/pottery
9. Oula!
Check out the dance workout schedule at https://www.oulafitness.com/studios/missoula/ and head to the Oula Studio for an hour long class for only $5! Oula is a super fun and welcoming community, and the classes will leave you feeling amazing. There is also the option to do a double-header (2 classes back-to-back) for $7 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Oh, and Sundays the classes are donation based only starting at 3pm.
Price: $5 per drop-in class
10. Music!
I’m talking about concerts and open mic nights. Now, Missoula, Montana has SO many of these I simply cannot list all of them in this short (but amazing) list, otherwise you would be scrolling for hours. Check out the wonderful http://www.missoulaevents.net/ website to see the hundreds of music events happening in Missoula yearly. Now, not all of these are free or less than $10, but there are definitely options under $10. Plus, with all the money you’re saving by using this list, go ahead and splurge on the $20 ticket to see a great band!
Price: Free or as much as you’d like to spend
Written by Shelby Young
This is great info! Thank you for sharing! I’m coming to Missoula in a few months and will be sure to check out some of these great ideas!
Your blog post is pretty great! It was a great idea to do the 10 things under $10, always good to see different things to do around Missoula. I did not necessarily like that a couple of the suggestions (pottery and music) having prices about $10, but overall the entire post flowed well, the gifs were great visuals to add to it, and the different suggestions were all good ways to spend an evening of fun.
Loved the title! I honestly didn’t even realize there was some of this stuff to do in Missoula for $10 or less and I’ve lived here my entire life. It’s a great article for groups of friends looking for something to do or even cute/cheesy date night ideas. The gifs were a great addition and helped things flow. You can tell a lot of thought went into this article, but it seemed like you were starting to run out of things to do by the end. Overall it was a really fun post and I liked learning about new things to do for $10 or less in Missoula.
This was really a great blog! It was extremely well written and fun to read! I honestly had no idea many of those events existed. The title was also a great choice because I was very interested in reading your blog which of course, is exactly what you want. The only recommendation that I have is to do maybe 5 or 7 suggestions rather than ten. I feel like there were around 5 really great events or activities and then five that felt like they were hard to come up with. Either way, I feel like this is a perfect blog for the college-aged segment in Missoula! This information was very helpful.
Great blog! I really like the topic and it’s really grab my eye ball to finish reading it! I even don’t know what I can do if I have just $10 in my pocket. Now I have some choice and even a lot of fun. Also, the active pictures in the blog is really funny and really good for the blog. In Missoula, there are few entertainment at night but sometimes people need a place to hangout and chat. Those places are all very nice and budget friendly. Thanks for the useful information!
I loved this post! Like many of the other commenters, I had no idea how much you can do in Missoula for such affordable prices. I loved that you gave a variety of options and included links too. Even though I really enjoyed the visuals you chose for this post, I think it could have been a little bit more effective if you used images of those actual Missoula locations! But other than that I thought this was a great read. Fantastic job!