The View Hotel or Gouldings? Any opinions?

Horseback riding tour or jeep tour? Or neither?

We stayed at Gouldings twelve years ago and at The View in May, 2009. Gouldings was down-at-the heels at the time but it may be a better choice than The View which is insanely overpriced for its basic motel rooms and sub-par (but cheap) restaurant. The only good thing about The View is the view.

In May, we simply drove around the valley at sunset and took a couple walks. It was lovely. On our previous visit, we took an open-air tour from Gouldings. Driving is better.

If you stay at The View, you still pay the admission charge to the valley separately.

I loved Goulding! There is a tiny museum, we saw a movie in the evening, and in the restaurant they have frybread. At night, step out on the balcony to watch the stars.

We stayed at Goulding's October 2009 and found it really nice. It's been re-done and our room was very modern, clean and comfortable with all ammenities (maybe no t.v., but who remembers and who needs that in MV anyway). The restaurant there is nice, lots and lots of food, so order the minimum to start before you find yourself with a mountain on the table. The gift store has beautiful stuff and at better prices than in Scottsdale. We took an all day tour from Goulding's with Sandy and just loved it. She took us places you cannot, repear: CANNOT drive to on your own, and told us wonderful background stories. She cooked us a bbq lunch and sang a Navajo song for us. It wasn't cheap, but worth every penny.

PS: just remember this: Monument Valley crosses over between Utah and AZ, so if you book a tour, make sure you check your watch to the local time where you are staying. We nearly missed our tour because of that.

Instead of staying in Monument Valley, consider Valley of the Gods B&B just a little ways north. This is a mini Monument Valley where you will have the place to yourself with the 4 or 5 other guests. It is also near Moki Dugway, Goosenecks of San Juan, and Muley Point. We stayed one night in Goulding and one night at the B&B and found it much better. I am sure The View is nice. We took the Jeep Tour and would do it again as you see a lot. The guides/drivers are Navajo and ours was just ok, she repeater herself a lot. It wasn't a great tour, but about the only way to get to see a lot of area.

Nobody's mentioned the best thing about staying at Gouldings: It's getting up early in the morning, going out to your balcony and watching the sun rise over the monuments!

Another option close to (just north of) MV is the San Juan Inn. Our B&SIL stayed there and liked it very much.

http://www.sanjuaninn.net/?gclid=CLf...FR9M5Qod0jTOUQ