Due to strong tourism, hotel prices in Rapid City tend to be relatively high in the summer. Reserved blocks of rooms have been made at two area hotels at reduced rates, and for those wishing to reduce costs significantly further, lodging in air-conditioned dorm rooms is available on campus. If you would like to share a hotel or dorm room with a roommate to reduce costs, please fill out the Roommate Board form. Both hotel blocks run from Sunday through Friday nights and may be reserved by referring to the "SDSMT - LRT Workshop" block. Both have additional 9% sales tax + $2 occupancy tax.
Hotel blocks:
Holiday Inn Express & Suites I-90 (use website or call 1-605-355-9090): 25 rooms, deadline May 22. Each room has two queen beds for $160/night for single/double occupancy. Free breakfast comes with the room. Cancellations must be made 5 days in advance to avoid fee. They do not provide free airport transportation, but we plan to have vans available to shuttle people between the airport and the Holiday Inn at the beginning and end of the workshop.
Best Western Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center (call 1-605-343-8550): 40 traditional 2-Queen rooms and 10 Executive King rooms, for $149/night for 1-4 person occupancy, deadline May 12. Cancellations allowed until 4pm the day before check-in. Full breakfast at guest's cost. Complimentary airport shuttle (via Rapid Shuttle): travelers check-in at the kiosk/desk located near baggage claim at Rapid City Regional and specify Best Western Ramkota as destination.
We plan to run a bus each morning and evening between the hotels and campus. Lyft is available in Rapid City. Participants should be able to avoid having to rent cars if desired. See this pdf for maps of campus, hotels, and restaurant locations.
For those wishing to reduce costs, lodging in air-conditioned dorm rooms is available on campus, with costs $40/ night for a double-room or $90-$100/night for a 4-person suite. An additional $20 fee covers linens for the full stay. Parking is free and plentiful on campus. However, we plan to have vans available to shuttle people between the airport and the dorms at the beginning and end of the workshop (fill out this form), so participants should be able to avoid having to rent cars if desired.
See more details in this DormBrochure2022.pdf or on this link. Reservation form is here. One person per room should fill out the reservation form (including roommate names if known/applicable) and will be invoiced. The participant list or Roommate Board can be used to help identify possible roommates. To add roommate names after the initial form is submitted, or if you have questions, you may contact Stephanie Lindsley (Stephanie.Lindsley@sdsmt.edu 605-394-6774). The original block of 31 doubles and 9 quads had deadline of May 1, but as of May 27 there are still a few rooms available. These rooms may sell out at any time, but the hard deadline on reservations if rooms are still available is June 10.
Due to the large number of tourists, Rapid City has better restaurants than one would expect for a city of its population. Plentiful quality dining options are downtown, within 1.2 miles of campus, including Enigma, Murphy’s Pub, Thirsty’s, Kathmandu Bistro, Delmonico Grill, Firehouse Brewing Company, Tally’s Silver Spoon, Que Pasa Cantina, The Wine Cellar Restaurant, the Independent Alehouse, Sumo, and more. On Thursday night, Rapid City downtown will be hosting a free concert (Johnny Cochrane, country music) with Happy Hour running from 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm and the entertainment from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm (see https://www.rapidcitysummernights.com/).
Near the hotels, the choices for restaurants are not as strong as downtown, but there are still good options, including Minerva's Restaurant & Bar, Fusion Sushi & Grill, Mongolian Grill, Pacific Rim Cafe, and Outback Steakhouse. Nearby Rushmore Crossing (about 1.5 miles from the two hotels) includes MacKenzie River Pizza, Grill, & Pub; Fuji Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar, Longhorn Steakhouse, Old Chicago Pizza, and more.
