I live in Boise, so ask away with any questions you have. I moved here from California during the mass COVID exodus of 2020, but I love it here. If you like the outdoors, this is the perfect place. I'm literally outside every day finding things to do, whether at the Boise river or up in the mountains. I consider it the perfect launching point for day trips, and longer. So many beautiful places in this state and surrounding states. I'm actually a couple hours away at a state park in my trailer right now, and once it warms up more I'll be out in the mountains in it pretty much every week.
For the city itself, it's literally the cleanest and safest city of its size I've ever been. Also helps that it's very gun friendly, which adds to the safety dramatically compared to California.
Only negative is the food. Solid "mercan" food, but horrible "ethnic" options. Forget Mexican, bbq, Chinese, and Japanese. It's just not happening. But other than that, it's a great place to live, and IMO one of the better options to raise kids.
And if politics matter to you, Boise is blue or purple, but the surrounding areas and most of the state are very solidly red. People here take their rights and freedoms VERY seriously, and don't take threats to that lightly. Makes Texas look like California by comparison.
One interesting observation I've noticed, which doesn't apply to many other places, is that the transplants are often very conservative or libertarian and seem to want to embrace the culture instead of changing it. This is a rarity from my experiences where Californians in particular go places to make them like where they came from, and bring with them what they run from. I've found that a lot of the progressive attitudes of cities do apply here in some level, but it is almost exclusively pushed by kids of locals. This applies everywhere, of course, but it's interesting that politically Boise is evened out by transplants, not pushed left. It's actually a relatively reasonable balance.
