davensteph

Thinking about bidding on PL or Hotwire for a hotel in Rapid City, SD or environs, and taking the family for a drive (7 hrs from Denver) this April. Anyone have good/bad experiences with hotels? We are budget conscious but can budget up to $100/nite for the room, if it's the "right" hotel. Thanks in advance.

tlbooz

We stayed in Custer for our trip to Rushmore. Originally only booked 2 days but ended up staying for the whole week. We used Custer as our base to visit Crazy Horse, Deadwood, Rushmore and the Badlands. We stayed in the Best Western in Custer. Only bad thing I can say is the food options are very limited in the "whole" area.

Tess

$100 a night in the summer buys you very little in Rapid, sad to say. I don't bid on Priceline or Hotwire so can't give you zoning tips on rooms but I can tell you about a few good and bad places (we live in western Nebraska and are in Rapid every year for soccer tournaments and the occasional fun family trip)--the Radisson and Holiday Inn downtown are nice. I usually don't like Holiday Inns but this one is a keeper--it's built in the style of an Embassy Suites, if that helps. Don't stay at the H.I. Express by the hospital--ugh. The H.I. Express by the mall is much better. Run, don't walk, from the Motel 6. The Ramada Inn is great and has a indoor pool/slide that your kids would enjoy. We haven't stayed at the Quality Suites but others in our group have and they had mixed feelings about the place. Country Inn and Suites was new and nice. These places will all run close to or above $100 in the summer.

Don't know if you've ever used Quickbook.com but I've gotten some good deals there in the past. Also do a search on this forum (if you haven't already)--a lot of good info. on hotels in Keystone, Deadwood, etc.

placeu2

Depending on what your interests are there may be better towns to stay in than Rapid City itself. Custer, Keystone, Hill City are much closer to the most popular attractions. Deadwood and Sturgis are closer to the northern part of the Black Hills. If Mount Rushmore is on your list I recommend staying in the southern area at least 1 night to visit the presidents in the evening.

davensteph

Looks like I need to do my research. Tess, thanks for your insight and info. I'll probably re-post to this message thread to ask about updates, or to inform about selections. We've never been to the area, and my 4 yo will probably go nuts. Thanks again.

Photodog

Not fancy by any means, but is close to Mt. Rushmore is the Super8 in Keystone. Checked their website for mid-April, $62 a night. Be sure to check out Custer State Park while in the area.

placeu2

davensteph

Just curious about your choice of seasons for this trip. Average high for April is low 50's and Avg. lows in the mid 20's. I can picture potential snow, at least early in the month. I understand if that's what you have to do then do it. The night time show at Mt. Rushmore is outstanding but I would double check on scheduling for this early in the year.

This is a great family trip but most all of the activities and sights are outdoors. With of course the exception of cave exploring.

davensteph

excellent point. we don't mind 50's, but it's worth keeping the weather data in mind. bottom line is this, we can tolerate chilly weather, but we don't tolerate crowds very well (really at all). that's why we'd consider this, and most other national monument-type places in the off-season.