So you want all the details, or maybe you want to go yourself?
Here is what you may want to know.
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Location:
Glacier National Park Montana
One of the Top 10 national parks in the US. Established in 1910 and called the Switzerland of America it encompasses much of the Northern Rockies along the US and Canada border. Its always listed in the Top 5 National Parks for hiking, but if you don’t want to leave your car, there is still plenty to see and do.
1. Park Location, US Map2. 3 Major Park Areas. Going to the Sun Road (Yellow), Many Glaicer (Blue), Two Medicine (Orange)
3. Lodge Locations
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Cost:
Who wants to hear about a trip if it's to expensive to go yourself? I've always hated travel shows that show you an incredible location and never mention the price, or the price mentioned doesn't include taxes or fees which can be up to 25% in some areas. Or worst of all is when you check the price for yourself you find that prices are ridiculous and only for the super rich.
The cost for this trip was mostly lodging. The prices of the rooms in the National Parks are set at the beginning of each year and there are no discounts. There are different room types, but some rooms are definitely better than others so YMMV. You could also get lodging outside of the park, but you would have long drives into and out of the park each day.
| Item | List Price |
| Plane (per person) | $797 |
| Hotels (9 nights, Various rooms) | $2040 |
| Rental Car | $562 |
| Gas | $80 |
| Park Fees | $30 |
| Total | $3509 |
Plane:
$609
+$68 fee for Economy Pluse Seats ( 1 leg each direction, or 2 of 4 segments upgraded)
+$120 Bag fee for 2 bags roud trip
$797
Hotels:
Many Glacier, Refurb Lake $210
Many Glacier, Refurb Stand $207
Swiftcurrent Motor Inn $145
St Marys Lodge, Great Bear $342
St Marys Lodge, West Motel King $236
Glacier Park Lodge, 1 Dbl $225
Glacier Park Lodge, 1 Dbl $225
Glacier Park Lodge, 1 Dbl $225
Glacier Park Lodge, 1 Dbl $225
$2040
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Hotels:
There are 7-9 major lodges throughout the park but they fill up fast. Since I was going last minute the only option was to go after Labor Day and bounce hotels and room every night. Check out of your room in the morning, and then check into a different room every evening. It was a pain, but far less a pain than a long drive. I would say it was worth it.
Note: when I was setting up the trip, the park reservation system was managed by Glacier Inc, and the search system was sorely broken. A search for “any open room” would say there were open rooms in a particular hotel, but when you searched by the hotel, it would show no open rooms. Suspicious that there were zero rooms, I did a searches for each of the 12-15 different room types at each hotel, and viola, I found rooms that were free. If you were to plan earlier say Jan, you might have a much easier time.
The Many Glacier Hotel is simply unbeatable. Yes, the rooms are small, but the lodge is wonderful. The common rooms are huge with great soaring timbers. Great places to sit and have a drink and watch the sun go down. If your lucky you might also catch one of the most incredible sunrises ever where the entire mountain turns golden.
Swiftcurrent Motor Lodge. Avoid. Worst rooms in the Park. If it’s your only choice, it is clean, and in a good location, so its better than nothing. Otherwise, there is no phone in the room, only a payphone outside the main office. Did I mention the total lack of cell coverage? The room is the real deal breaker, brown, on brown, on ….. brown. With classic 70’s dark brown wood furniture and an olive drab chair. Even as a guy I thought this place was simply ugly. It would not have mattered as much if there was a nice common room in the front office, but no luck, its just an oversized room with the front desk. They do have internet, but no view, and no bar, so there is really not much reason to hang around.
St Mary’s Great Bear Room. AKA, “The Palace”. You like really nice hotel rooms? Stay here. Modern room decorated with style. The common room, Lobby, and Bar are all inter joined and make a nice place to spend a few hours, but really if you have a room this nice, you can be anti social one night.
St Mary’s West Motel Room. AKA, “Value Room”. Rather nice. The people over at Swiftcurrent need to visit so they can learn that you don’t have to be ugly if you are a value room. While very small, I did think the room was rather cute with good décor. And you can always walk across the street to the main lobby.
Glacier Park Lodge. The room and hotel are good, but not great. They have lots of potential but for a host of really small items they just don’t rise to the level of the Many Glacier Hotel. Very similar in style is has the soaring 40’ wooden column holding the ceiling and there is nothing wrong with the main common room. The room décor was lacking. I got the impression that the rooms were furnished by spreadsheet from a big box store. Each room got 1 bed, 1 night stand with lamp, one desk, one chair, and one picture. Kinda like a motel 6. The problem is that some of the rooms are large, or odd sized. My room in particular was a corner room and so was twice the normal size which only meant it seemed only have furnished with have the floor bare, and only 1 picture. Something about the main dining hall was off, but I can’t but my finger on it. They had a lounge and a dining hall, and the lounge was always packed and the dining hall almost empty. My guess is the main dining hall just seemed kind of sterile and needed something. Since you could get the same food in either I’m unsure what the issue was.
Hotel Pictures1-2 Rooms at the Many Glacier Hotel
3-5 The Many Glacier Hotel
6 The incredible decor at the Swiftcurrent Motor Lodge
7 The inspired common room at the Swiftcurrent Motor Lodge
8 The Great Bear Room at St Mary's
9 The West Motel Room at St Mary's
10 Saint Mary's Common Room
11 Room at the Glacier Park Lodge
12 The stunning room decor in my room at the Glacier Park Lodge
13 The Common Room at the Glacier Park Lodge
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Planes and Rental Cars:
Planes:
Yes its about a 10% fee to upgrade to the Economy Plus seats with a few more inches of leg room, but sometimes it's just worth it. I didn't bother on the smaller planes with the 2x2 seating and didn't mind. It was nice getting off the plane first at Glacier, as I was able to be first in line for the rental car and got my car before the baggage even unloaded and missed a very long line.
Rental Cars:The newest wrinkle in renting a car is "rent in advance" more than half of the rental companies I looked at have a "rent 30 days in advance and save 40%" plan. This beats all other rates found at all other places. For Glacier in particular your big choice is whether you rent at the airport or take a shuttle. Normally I'm all for a shuttle to save $100, but in this cast I would recommend one of the airport vendors direct. It's a long drive down the going to the sun road, and you dont want to drive it in the dark. Likewise it's a long drive back to the airport and I didn't want to work in the time for a shuttle. Lastly, it's a much, much smaller airport and I was unsure how many shuttles there were or how fast they would be.