Grand Canyon
 

Need advice regarding activities/lodging at the Grand Canyon in mid April. Traveling with 13 and 15 yr old. North or South Rim?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I am not sure the North Rim is open by mid-April. The road south from Jacob Lake may still be closed. Any folks up there know?

Thank you for replying! I am trying to book lodging tonight and it appears that availability is limited. If North Rim is closed that will definitely reduce my research time.:)

The road may or may not be open by mid-April but that doesn't matter - the lodging on the North Rim does not open until May 15th.

Thanks for your response. I guess we'll be staying at the South Rim! Any recommendations regarding lodging there?

Xanterra is the lodging concessionaire at the South Rim (in park lodging)

http://www.xanterra.com/

There are 5 or 6 different hotels. El Tovar is the top end/historic hotel, but rooms sell out fast, are small and not great for a family of 4.

See if you can get a room at Maswick or Yavapai lodge. Both are basic 2Q hotel room properties, but they are both within 1/2 mile of the rim and on the free in-park shuttle bus route.

All the other lodges are right on the rim - if you can get rooms there even better.

elTovar, Thunderbird, Kachina, and Bright Angel are all on the rim. Yavapai and Maswik are back a bit but there are shuttles to the rim. el Tovar is a nice hotel and will be a bit more expensive than the others. The others are all clean and basic motel type places. Bright Angel has some cabins that are cute, basic and fairly small. If you are going to get two rooms anyway you might do almost as well using a suite at el Tovar which is higher and has a deck with a view of the canyon. Sometimes these are available due to cancellations. I haven't been lucky enough to get one but one of the people at the desk said they were the deal. Best of luck and you will probably get better information on cancellations if you call rather than on the web.

Thank you all so much! I am going to the website to book right now. Happy Travels!

Our family of 4 stayed at Yavapai a few years ago and it was fine. It is on the shuttle route and a short walk to the visitor's center. I would warn you against the cafeteria though. I thought the food there was terrible. We did some picnics and ate elsewhere after the first night. The rooms have refrigerators. There is a grocery store (expensive) in the village which also had a deli with fairly good sandwiches and soups

El Tovar and Bright Angel are interesting historic lodges and it is worth exploring the lobbies. The food at El T. is good

There are a lot of very interesting, varied ranger programs. Sunrises and sunsets over the Canyon are spectacular.