Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint

There is a small window of sunshine in Sandpoint - mostly in August, you never can guess the rest of the time, lot's of gray days! It has become way overcrowded with tourists and is no longer the small town to relax and enjoy in. Beaches are way overcrowded and you can imagine not very sanitary water especially with all the people in there.Restaurants are crowded & cost alot with not so great food.Forget getting anywhere quick in traffic during the summer as the one way system into town from the long bridge gets backed up. I heard you don't want to move there as they have been getting tons of snow in the winter and even the plows can't keep up with all the snow. If you like to shovel snow all winter, you would be OK or pay someone else to move the snow. There are not very many decent paying job opportunities here either and the school systems are poor. Don't expect great road conditions here either as all the state money goes to southern Idaho. There are alot of better vacation destinations to visit in the US than Sandpoint, Idaho.

Lake Pend Orielle is the best part or Sandpoint along with the surrounding mountain scenery. You could sit for days just ooohing and ahhhing at the eye candy!

Traffic density in the area has increased a thousand fold since 1978, I spent over two hours driving to the local Safeway to pick up a few things. In that two hours I traveled eleven miles, and that was on a tuesday! Getting anywhere on summer weekends is impossible. The once pristine lake has turned into a refuse site. Bottles, ciggerett butts and various assorted human cast offs wash ashore on every beach. Boating anywhere on the lake has become dangerous at best and finding a site to do some day camping on a remote beach requires waiting in line to get to an open spot on a beach. Next year I think I will just sell my boat. Indeed growth will come to the lake area, and with that growth will come all the problems that plague other towns that have encountered uncontrolled growth. Perhaps its time to move away?

I have nothing to say bad about Sandpoint in general. But there are way too many people coming here. Please find another spot. Its no longer easy to enjoy yourself here. The traffic is horrible in the summer. There was a car accident two weeks ago and we were stuck at a stand still for over 2 hours on a Friday. For a small town this is not normal. If something happens here the whole town shuts down. Lets just say Sandpoint is in no way prepared for such rapid growth and so many tourists. We can only take so much. I would suggest just going somewhere less crowed for your summer vacation or to relocate. There are no 5 star resorts here and Sandpoint does not cater to the rich. So if your looking to get waited on and pampured not going to happen here. When you come to a small town small town is what you get. Also, be prepared to freeze your botty off in the winter and to get stuck in the snow. We get a lot of it. So basicly if you looking to relocate to a resort community or just vaction Sandpoint advertising itself as this but really its not.

I love lake Pend Oreille! It is just beautifull no matter what the weather and is perfectlly surrounded by the many communities. This giving one great access the the lake. I see two negative things about lake Pend Oreille that effects not only tourisum that is needed to provide for the surrouding areas but the people who live around lake Pend Oreille. One is the lack of fish in the lake and the cleanliness for children and others to swim in. Both need major attention, I believe if it becomes a focas things will continue to grow around the lake.