yellowstone hotels
 

any comments about the lake yellowstone hotel or the holiday inn sunspree in west yellowstone ? want to spend 4 nights in the region, what about staying 2 nights at each one of them?

I stayed at the Holiday Inn. It was right in town and the rooms were quite nice. They have a small indoor pool and a workout room. There is also a restaurant there. It really depends on whether you want to stay in the park or outside.

I think the hotel is OK. In general park accommodations always impressed me as being expensive for what you got. But given the facts that there is absolutely no competition, and that Xanterra, nee Amfacs, nee Harvey Houses, have had the catbird seat since year 1 what else would you expect?
Absolute monopolies tend to be unresponsive because there is no profit motive. And the regulatory control is not very strong.

In terms of strategy, you lodging polans will have the park bracketed so to speak. It is about 30 miles to Old Faithful from West Yellowstone, but a nice drive along the Madison River and the lower Firehole River. The Norris Geyser Basin is about 28 miles from the West Entrance, which is virtually in downtown West Yellowstone.

The big problem this summer in Yellowstone will be the condition of 2 key sections of roads. The Madison -
Norris road is under construction and the reports are that delays are common.
Also, the Canyon - Tower Falls road was scheduled to be reworked but the contract was botched and the work will not take place this summer, thus leaving the road in poor condition.
That means slow going even though the road is open, so I am told.

I think the Norris Geyser Basin is interesting, and driving there from West Yellowstone is worth the delays.

I don't know anything about either hotel, but strongly recommend splitting your 4 nights between 2 areas at opposite ends of the huge park to minimize driving time. Incidentally, the road from Tower to Canyon -- most of which was to be closed all summer for construction -- is open as of 2 weeks ago.

We stayed two nights at Lake Yellowstone hotel earlier this month. We got a free upgrade from a cabin to the main lodge because the shower in the cabin didn't have hot water:) The hotel is very nice, but we felt a little out of place. Very hoity-toity. We also spent one night in Mammoth Hot Springs hotel and liked that area much better.

If I had to do it again I would have spent two nights at Old Faithful instead of the Lake. I was expecting more animals around the lake, but only saw the standard bison. There is much more to do around OF and it is closer to other sites.

Old Faithful is about halfway between West Yellowstone and the Lake, so you could spend four nights there and skip the aggravation of switching hotels.