Hi Guys & Girls
I need advise on visiting Yellowstone Park. Me & the missus want to go in April/May, and would appreciate suggestions and on where to stay. We want a well equipped private lodge/cabin ;), but also access to fairly good facilities. We don't have kids, so we'd prefer to avoid the family enviroment, but thats not essential. We'd also like tourguide help, car hire and possibly horseriding. We're not hard core hikers, but I'd like to be able to do one day walks as well.
Looking on Google Earth, I'm erring towards staying in the southern part of Yellowstone because of the landscape, maybe near Yellowstone Lake.
As we've never done this before, we'd also appreciate advise on holiday companies to approach, or flight companies, inland transport, general stuff etc....
I know it's a bit sad, but I have wanted to Yellowstone since see Star Trek 5.
Many Thanks.
Xanterra are the people who look after accommodation bookings WITHIN Yellowstone National Park. Further information here:-
http://www.travelyellowstone.com/
I did start planning a trip to Yellowstone (and Grand Teton NP) for last year but it lost out to New Mexico. April/May is going to be an ideal time to go (maybe more May than April) and you won't be overly bothered by the huge crowds that gather during peak period July & August. I know the advice I was given was to book early if you want to stay in the park, but we were looking at August (due to Wife work) but it might not be a bad idea to get things booked up quickly. As things were either booked up or just outrageously expensive we were looking outside the park for accommodation. The likes of West Yellowstone, Cody (to the east of the park) and Gardiner (to the north) were the areas we were looking at but even then budget accommodation was expensive ($200+ for a Super 8 in one area). You shouldn't have this problem hopefully.
When I was looking at flight prices I did notice that flights into the smaller airports nearby (Jackson Hole in the Grand Teton for example) were very expensive from major US cities. Therefore we proposed to fly into a major hub and then drive. Distances are pretty huge though, so you have to weigh up the savings over driving to flying to the park itself but of course you will need a car to get around the parks anyway. A good example might be to fly into Denver and drive from there through Rocky Mountain NP, north to Grand Tetons and then onto Yellowstone. Salt Lake City isn't a great distance either so that could be another option but I don't think there are direct flights, whereas Denver is served by BA. I would also encourage some time in Denver itself if you decide on this option, it really is a fantastic city.
I'm sure you can find information on the park itself including hikes etc via google, but it might be worth picking up either a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide book solely on Yellowstone & Grand Teton NP. I have one and the depth of information is outstanding.
I do hope this helps a bit. As we didn't go through with the trip in the end I can only help with what we discovered when planning initially but it should give you a start. Please let me know how your planning goes, because I'm sure that in the next few years we will be doing the trip ourselves.
http://www.travelyellowstone.com/
I did start planning a trip to Yellowstone (and Grand Teton NP) for last year but it lost out to New Mexico. April/May is going to be an ideal time to go (maybe more May than April) and you won't be overly bothered by the huge crowds that gather during peak period July & August. I know the advice I was given was to book early if you want to stay in the park, but we were looking at August (due to Wife work) but it might not be a bad idea to get things booked up quickly. As things were either booked up or just outrageously expensive we were looking outside the park for accommodation. The likes of West Yellowstone, Cody (to the east of the park) and Gardiner (to the north) were the areas we were looking at but even then budget accommodation was expensive ($200+ for a Super 8 in one area). You shouldn't have this problem hopefully.
When I was looking at flight prices I did notice that flights into the smaller airports nearby (Jackson Hole in the Grand Teton for example) were very expensive from major US cities. Therefore we proposed to fly into a major hub and then drive. Distances are pretty huge though, so you have to weigh up the savings over driving to flying to the park itself but of course you will need a car to get around the parks anyway. A good example might be to fly into Denver and drive from there through Rocky Mountain NP, north to Grand Tetons and then onto Yellowstone. Salt Lake City isn't a great distance either so that could be another option but I don't think there are direct flights, whereas Denver is served by BA. I would also encourage some time in Denver itself if you decide on this option, it really is a fantastic city.
I'm sure you can find information on the park itself including hikes etc via google, but it might be worth picking up either a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide book solely on Yellowstone & Grand Teton NP. I have one and the depth of information is outstanding.
I do hope this helps a bit. As we didn't go through with the trip in the end I can only help with what we discovered when planning initially but it should give you a start. Please let me know how your planning goes, because I'm sure that in the next few years we will be doing the trip ourselves.
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