We have reservations for Jackson Hole and then Yellowstone for one week this summer. Would like the pros and cons of flying in and out of Jackson Hole versus Salt Lake City. The price difference is immediately apparent -- @$650 for JAC and $315 for SLC, but what else am I missing here?? There are three of us. We are flying from ORD. Would we have to add in one extra day front end with hotel as well as back end if we do SLC? Financially it makes sense to go with SLC even with the two hotels but would like some feedback from folks on this. Thoughts? Experience???

We spent a week in Grand Teton/Yellowstone in September. We flew into SLC and drove to Grand Teton that day. It was an easy drive, about 4 hours, with a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. Since we had unlimited miles with the rental car, much cheaper than flying into Jackson Hole. On our last day, we drove back to SLC and spent the night there before flying out the next morning. We went out to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, which was an interesting couple of hours. Jackson Hole airport is tiny and situated in the mountains. How do you feel about little planes and interesting landings?

We had the same dilemma with one week to do Yellowstone and Grand Teton. We ended up flying into Jackson Hole figuring it was worth the extra money to have more time in the two parks. We flew on American Airlines from Dallas, and it was not a small plane at all. I think it was a 737 jet. I guess it depends on whether you want to spend your time driving from SLC or exploring Jackson Hole, Grand Teton and Yellowstone. We were glad in retrospect that we had the extra days on either end to enjoy the beautiful sights of the area.

I'm with anneryan all the way. It's worth the extra bucks for what adds up to just about an extra day in glorious Wyoming by flying into Jackson.

Well, it is not as if there was nothing to see between SLC and Jackson.
The route through Logan Canyon is pretty.

And for the extra money, you could stay a day longer! Or more.

We did the SLC option and drove a few years ago. This year we flew into Jackson Hole. By far the better decision. If you haven't settled on the place to stay check out Signal Mountain Lodge in the park. Easy access to hikes.