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Glacier Park Lodging for large family group w varied needs

Glacier Park Lodging for large family group w varied needs

Old Feb 26th, 2012, 10:16 AM
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Glacier Park Lodging for large family group w varied needs

Hello all,

Does anyone have recommendations for the following:

I'm looking for lodging for Glacier Park for a group as follows:
1. Senior couple -- will need a handicapped accessible room.
2. Couple with 2 kids ages 10, 13
3. Single parent with kid age 9
4. Couple

We're trying to plan a birthday celebration for my dad (part of the older couple). Part of the difficulty in our planning is that wherever we go, we'll likely need to hire someone to help our mom and stay with her while the rest of us do something active. She'll be able to join us on car trips or a Going to the Sun Road Red Bus trip for example. But ideally, we'd like to find a place with a great view where she'd at least enjoy what she's looking at while we're off doing something more active. Especially if that involves social time for her - like a lodge where she could visit with other guests.

Challenge (other than the obvious number of people, combo of rooms, handicapped accessible needs): we're trying to find something for the 2nd-3rd week of June of THIS year.

I've been looking at VRBO & airbnb, but never having been and going solely on web research, am looking for recommendations as to how close/far we should be from the park if we want to do light hiking (considering we have a Senior member among the group), definite Going to the Sun Road trip, etc.

Does anyone have recommendations for:
Best lodges or cabins inside the park (assuming by some miracle we find availability)?
Best areas to look for something on VRBO?
Other suggestions given our needs?

Thanks so much!
oranon is offline  
Old Feb 26th, 2012, 12:17 PM
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We rented a couple of VRBO vacation homes when we visited GNP in late June 2009, one in West Glacier and one in East Glacier. I think a vacation home would be a great idea for such a diverse group of people such as yours because it gives you extra space for everyone; it gives you a place to congregate each evening for family time; it gives you a kitchen to prepare some meals to save on costs.

West Glacier was a good choice for our visit to the western part of the park as it was only about a 15 minute drive from the entrance.

The vacation home where we stayed (Bear Den) was adjacent to another vacation home (Fox Den) owned by the same person and these two properties would house 12 people. Both appear to be available in your time frame. Ours was a really nice property and the owner was great to work with, so I would have no hesitation recommending these properties. (Our house had a couple of small steps to the entrance, but then there were two bedrooms on that floor, so that might be OK for your mother.)

If you are interested in these properties, go to VRBO, click on the listing for Shiloh Valley Vacation Home Fox Den and about halfway down the page, click on the green "All My Rental Listings" to see the listing for Bear Den.
longhorn55 is offline  
Old Feb 26th, 2012, 12:22 PM
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http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals...y/west-glacier

You would need to research each individual Lodge/Cabin/Hotel at Glacier. At this point, it would be a miracle to find a spot for 2012 with that many variables. Does any of the group mind sharing a room or do you all need seperate rooms.

Would your mom be able to stay by herself at one of the lodges or does she require help to go to bathroom etc? Would she be able to do any of the boat tours? Or the Red Bus Tours?

I would research Kalispell for someone who could stay with your mom. It would be nice if you had an extra room for them perhaps in the VRBO cabin as well.
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Old Feb 26th, 2012, 04:29 PM
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If you don't find what you need in the park or a VRBO, check out Meadow Lake resort. http://www.meadowlake.com/
It is a very nice place near Columbia Falls which is not too far from the west end of the GTTS road.
tomfuller is offline  
Old Feb 29th, 2012, 06:22 AM
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Thanks to you all for your posts - they are extremely helpful! My family and I are continuing to research where to stay based on your suggestions including longhorn55's BearDen/FoxDen suggestion and tomfuller's meadowlake suggestion. To answer spirobulldog - our goal is to do as you suggest and find someone local to the area to stay with my mom basically to help her and keep her company while we're out. She is able to do the Red Bus Tour and from the looks of it, a boat tour as well. Thanks again!
oranon is offline  
Old Feb 29th, 2012, 06:51 AM
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As said by others, finding a room "in park" now would be ...a miracle and so a combo!!!
The only lodging facility with such a variety should be the Apgar village inn, but I'm sure you will not find for all of you.
Perhaps a combo between Apgar village inn, Apgar village lodge and west glacier motel & cabins +/- Belton Chalet.
All those lodges are not so far each other...
Eddies could be a good base to eat/breakfast and diner.
The restaurant Glacier Highland near Belton Chalet worth a meal.
Erik
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