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hey everyone it's madeline and in
today's video we're sharing five places
to stay
when visiting yellowstone national park
and if you stick around until the end
we're going to discuss where we stayed
on our trip if you stayed in one of
these places on the list
be sure to let us know in the comments
below because we love hearing from you
the first place on the list for
yellowstone national park lodging
is the hotels located inside the park
there are a number of hotels that are
located inside yellowstone national park
and these include the historic old
faithful lodge
and lake yellowstone hotel
remember yellowstone national park is
huge
so staying in the park is a big
advantage
that said these hotels are expensive
like
five dollar sign expensive and they book
up months in advance
number two campgrounds inside the park
if you have an rv well that's a game
changer
and there are plenty of campgrounds for
you
ten camping here is a bit primitive but
the different villages within the park
offer general stores which allow you to
grab supplies shower
and even a quick bite to eat if you've
never camped before
or coming from far away it might be best
to bite the bullet and grab a hotel room
the third spot we'd consider looking for
lodging is gardner montana
gardner is located just outside the
north entrance of the park
gardner is a neat town set on the
yellowstone river
with some fun spots to eat and a number
of chain hotels
if you're staying in gardner just
remember that during the high visitors
season
the entrance to the park could see a
long line to get in
so you may have to plan for an early day
to get into the park
or risk getting stuck in line
also if you plan well you might be able
to nab an overnight rental
on airbnb the fourth spot to consider
staying when visiting yellowstone
national park
is in west yellowstone west yellowstone
is located just outside
you guessed it the west entrance of the
park
a bit smaller than gardner it offers
similar amenities with chain hotels and
fun places to eat
one final place to consider staying if
you're visiting yellowstone national
park
is in jackson hole or grand teton
national park
it's a bit of a drive to get to
yellowstone at least an hour
but if you're visiting the tetons as
well it might be worth not having to
change where you're staying
there is a lot to take in when visiting
yellowstone so we wouldn't recommend
doing the park in one day
but if you have a specific spot in mind
such as old faithful
or the grand canyon of yellowstone this
option could work
as i mentioned at the start of the video
we would discuss where we stayed on our
trip to yellowstone
so first off where did you consider
staying
well i think we really looked at two
main things the first thing we looked at
doing
was actually camping because we enjoy
camping
um we're okay at it we're not we're kind
of like midwest
campers we have a tent yeah
we have a tent and some supplies um
which leads into why we ultimately
didn't camp
because we camp in the midwest so
we were a little intimidated by camping
yellowstone and all the rules for bears
and we just didn't think that it would
be as
relaxing as we were maybe hoping it
would be and it also gets cold at night
yes even um even in the summer it does
get chillier at night and we knew we
would not be
prepared for that in our little tiny pup
tent
yeah i think that when you think of june
you're like hoping for some sunny
weather
and not thinking i'm gonna be sleeping
in 40 degree weather tonight
so that happens so for ultimately that's
the reason why we didn't camp
um we had to take all our camping gear
across the country
and we had some cold nights and we just
weren't quite ready for
that experience especially the first
time we were now it wasn't my first time
in yellowstone and i'd gone as a kid
it was madeline's first time it was
really our first time as adults
so we didn't want to complicate
enjoying the park with doing all the
things that come with camping
the other thing that we considered was
staying
outside of the park in one of the two
towns which is west yellowstone
and gardiner and when i started looking
at hotels
and the different amenities that the
towns offered
gardner really presented itself as a
great opportunity because
it's very close to mammoth hot springs
which is an area
park where there's a lot going on it's
about an hour
drive to lamar valley similar to
old faithful and also the mammoth hot
springs area is a pretty neat little
area as well
so um even though it's outside the park
and it's a drive
everywhere in yellowstone is a drive
it's huge
it's a driving park very much though it
is and you can
you can obviously get out and walk
around um being very aware
but uh yeah you drive a lot in that park
so we knew we're gonna have to drive no
matter what we did
and gardner which is a little bit bigger
than west yellowstone is ultimately
where we ended up staying
if we were going back what would we
recommend
so i think that if we're gonna spend
about two nights there
which probably to get a good feel for
the park you probably need at least
two nights about three days i think we'd
either stay in gardner again
or bite the bullet and stay at one of
the
lodges within the park so one of the
advantages the time we went
was it was a little less crowded and the
park can get very very crowded and
there's really only one main
loop road and so if you get high traffic
on that
loop road or high traffic getting into
the park
you can really be stuck in traffic jams
and we didn't experience
that and so i think that
even though it's a high price to pay to
stay in the park at one of their lodges
you have to kind of think about it as
like the price of admission
you can't think about it as i'm paying
300 or 400 dollars
for a hotel when i could spend a hundred
or 150 outside the park you kind of have
to think about it as
you know you're buying a ticket to a
sporting event or a concert or
theme park and that's just what it cost
you know they kind of got you at airport
prices
and like keep in mind that's an hour
hour and a half of driving that you
don't have to do and so
we've we've never really been like let's
stay inside the park
lodge people before but i can see that
in yellowstone it is a definite plus
to be inside the park because even
staying in gardner
we had a a bit of a drive to get to
where we wanted to be in the park now
it's close to things it's close to the
park entrance
but you're still going to drive a while
and if you have to wait in line in the
morning
it just that could complicate things so
giving
giving um so starting your day inside
the park
is a huge huge advantage and each of the
different park villages so the old
faithful lodge where
that is has a village around it canyon
lodge
like yellowstone there are general
stores there are places to eat
and so you know there are things to do
but
i remind myself um the best meal of your
life probably shouldn't be in
yellowstone national park
so well you can get a nice meal there
um you know food is fuel when you're
there
yeah i mean uh a fancy gourmet dinner is
not what you're going to yellowstone
national park for you're going there for
the wildlife and the views
and just to be one with nature
yeah and that said in gardner there were
some fun bars some fun little places to
eat
it's it sits on the yellowstone river
it's kind of got a really cool setting
yeah we enjoyed pizza and a beer
after a long day of exploring the
beautiful park so
i loved it so you can still get a little
bit of that
inside the park that's the one advantage
of those towns is there's a little bit
more to do
but i think if you're going to
yellowstone if you're making the trek
from wherever you're coming from
it's worth biting the bullet planning
ahead and
staying in the park because it's going
to logistically
save you a lot of time and let you enjoy
the park a lot more
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