Planning a late July early August 2012 10 night hiking trip to Glacier National Park. It will be 2-4 adults and the trip will be centered primarily around hiking (easy-strenuous okay by us). I want to get our lodging secured and I am struggling a bit with allocating how much time to spend in which place. Because we want to be hiking as much as we can, I want to cut down on the amount of time we need to drive from place to place. We will be flying into Kilipsell and working east to west. Here is what I have in mind:

Two Medicine - Glacier Park Lodge - 3 nights
Many Glacier - Many Glacier Hotel - 4 nights
Lake McDonald Lodge or Village Inn at Apgar - 3 nights

We have decided to skip Waterton and keep that as a separate trip as we also want to do Lake Louise, Jasper, etc...

Here are my questions:

1. Do I have a good breakdown of nights in each place?
2. Is staying in Two Medicine preferable to staying in St. Mary's?
3. Are we better off at Lake McDonald or at Village Inn?

I welcome any thoughts or suggestions you have. Thanks!

For me, your repartition is good.
Village Inn with a view on the lake is a nice option and some diner options are possible by feet and so Lake Mc Donald lodge is not an obligation...(but go there for a dinner..)
In Many Glacier, another option is the Swiftcurrent Inn, with rooms in the Swiftcurrent motor inn rooms : large, clean and at the beginning of Iceberg/Ptarmigan trails and Swiftcurrent pass trails(nice italian restaurant here and a diner at Many Glacier Hotel)
For St Marys /Two medecine, I don't know.
Last year, we were at East Glacier to explore Two Medecine. This year we'll be at rising sun inn to explore St Marys. I don't think you can explore one by sleeping at the other because it will be a lot of time on the road.
The hikes to do :
- in Many Glacier, all...but Grinnel Glacier, Swiftcurrent pass to the cabin and Iceberg+/- Ptarmigan are not to miss...
Cracker is nice to see, but the beginning is to share with horse trails and it is sometimes a little...boring and "odorant"...
- in Two medecine, Cobalt Lake, Old Man lake and Twin falls are nice;
-in Lake Mc Donald : Avalanche(but easy and heavy traffic..), Snyder lake or the Lookout and in the North Fork the Quartz lakes loop are a must..
In fact, almost all the trails are fantastic...
Erik

I stayed at both the Lake Mcdonald Lodge and the Apgar Village Inn and liked them both. Lake McD lodge also has cabins right on the lake, in addition to the lodge itself. And it has an excellent restaurant.

Apgar Village Inn is also right on the lake, is really a motel, but the views from the rooms are spectacular. I remember waking up on my first morning there - still on NY time - to the most beautiful sunrise.

I loved the feel of Apgar Village - it was like a tiny little town in the old west, with one family style restaurant, a general store, two motels, a campground and not much else.

I don't think you can go wrong with either place but it depends on what you're looking for. They are close enough so that the activities will be equally available.

BTW, you can easily do a day trip to Waterton from Many Glacier. I did a leisurely drive, took a nice hike while I was there and had tea at the Prince Edward Inn, and a leisurely drive back to Many Glacier.

We're going for my first time this year Mid-July. From what I can tell the hikes that I really want to do are located at Logan Pass and Many Glacier area. So I think spending the most time(as you are doing) in Many Glacier would be the best bet.

Have you considered doing a hike to Granite Chalet or Sperry Chalet and spending the night at those places? I think those would be awesome!!!!

You still might want to take a Red Bus Tour into Waterton. We plan on doing that and having Tea in the Prince of Wales Hotel.

Thanks for the responses! We are not really tied to wanting to stay in one particular lodge over another, it is more about basing ourselves so we can make the most of spending it on the trails than in the car.

Spiro, we did kick around the Granite or Sperry Chalet but concerned that either we would have to pay for one nights lodging in a place we wouldn't be staying or keeping all of our belongings and leave them in a rental car overnight. Are we missing a better way to do this?

Erik, we considered the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn but one of the things we most enjoy is being able to sit out after a day of hiking (be it on our own balcony or a common balcony or porch) and relax and enjoy a cocktail to toast to the accomplishments of the day. I did not get a feel that this was possible at Swiftcurrent.

I appreciate the suggestions for Waterton but we have decided that we don't want to give up our time on this trip especially if we can easily combine it with another.

BTw, I meant Prince of Wales Hotel, not Prince Edward Inn, but you probably got the idea. Anyway, no matter since you're not going there anyway.

My DW and I enjoyed our 30th anniversary here-Meadow Lakes Resort. http://www.meadowlake.com/
It is on the outskirts of Columbia Falls. If your in Park lodging doesn't work out, this is a great place.