South Rim - Williams vs Cameron alternative accomodation
 

Hello everybody,
As an alternative for South Rim accomodation, what is the best choice: Williams, or Cameron ?
I checked some reviews and it looks that Cameron Trading Post is a nice place in Cameron.
We have planned not to spend more than $100/night for a clean room with private bath. We want to spend 3 nights in the area, for visiting South Rim.
Thanks in advance.

Time and distance wise it's a toss up. Cameron and Williams are both over 50 miles and over an hours drive to the Grand Canyon village.

Have you tried looking in Tusayan? Do you camp?

Utahtea

If you care about distance I would stay in Flagstaff. It's a simple fun towm with very reasonable and clean rooms. But, Williams is more fun especially if you have kids. They have a train ride to the south rim. When the train gets back they have a fun western "how-down" kids just love plus horse back riding. 100.00 a night can be found. Most all rooms are clean,

If you want to spend that much time near the South Rim then I think you'd e better off getting accommodation closer than either Cameron or Williams.

If accommodation inside the park (www.xanterra.com) is already booked or above your budget then I'd take a look at the options availbale in Tusayan (just outside the park). This makes much more sense than driving out to Williams or Cameron between each visit to the South Rim.

If you wish to see other things and base yourself a bit further out then Flagstaff has lots of options and there are things to do in the evening there. Having said that, I found Flagstaff to be a bit unappealing to say the least but it is the nearest larger town to the Grand Canyon.

We don't travel with kids. Lodges in South Rim are booked and Tusayan is expensive...

I loved the Cameron Trading Post - it wasn't five stars but the staff was friendly and it was clean. We were planning to go north to Page after visiting the south rim so that is why we picked Cameron. An unexpected advantage was 98% of the tourist went to the south entrance and we had the first overlooks all to ourselves.

On the way to Cameron, we saw the ruins at Walnut Canyon and Wupatki plus Sunset Crater.

Mike Honeycutt

Sorry, we only camp so I have no idea what the rates are at any of these locations.

Well keep in mind the cost of gas traveling back and forth to your lodging of a 100 miles per day. If you want to see sunrises and sunsets then I think I'd stick with Williams because the road is a lot straighter than the road to Cameron for driving in the dark.

Utahtea

I know expensive is relative. But would stongly encourage at least a review of the Best Western Inn just outside of the South Rim. Nothing too fancy but clean, plenty of rooms, super close to the entrance and cheaper than in the park.

There are several decent motels just outside the south entrance. I don't know if it is a town or what the name is. It doesn't come up on any maps.

It's A LOT closer than Williams or Cameron.

You are right, Connie--it's called Tusayan. I posted this on another thread for "coro", but I'll mention it here too---the Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan fits their budget (unfortunately the other hotels there do not), and apparently still has rooms available in June. There are also a couple of nights open at the Yavapai, inside the park. But they better hurry if they want to book these.

Oops---I just checked another thread of therws---they are now booked at the Red Feather. Good!