Best Time To Save On A National Park Trip

Above, a view of Grand Canyon Village where there are 6 lodges and campgrounds. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

When is the best time to visit a U.S. national park and, at the same time, save money on a trip?

It is generally very difficult, if not near impossible, to make a lodge or cabin reservation during the peak summer months at or near the more popular national parks and, if one's lucky, an available room or even a campsite may be pricier.

However, there are times when prices and crowds are down and there are places available to book nearby (within an hour and a half's drive, or less).

Travel + Leisure has an article on the best times to save on a national park trip.

They start it with:

At America's most popular national parks, travelers are greeted with everything from one of the country’s oldest mountain ranges to terrain dotted with as many trees as all of Europe, which is why the locations often draw large crowds.  

This can often mean higher accommodation rates when staying around the parks, which is why Priceline took a look at 16 of the most popular parks to pinpoint the most affordable time of the year to stay at accommodations ranging from hotels to lodges and bed and breakfasts near each park.  

To determine this, Priceline looked at weekly hotel bookings from 2017 to 2018, selecting nearby locations that offered an ample amount of lodging and were around an hour-and-half drive or less from the park.  

For cases where there was only one main city or location near the park, Priceline looked at lodging solely for that area. In instances where a park had multiple entrances or spanned a larger territory, Priceline looked at the nearest locations that offered ample lodging availability and were easily accessible by car.  

The list of most popular parks was based on the 2018 visitation numbers from the National Park Service, although the following parks were not included due to limited inventory to pull from on Priceline: Bryce Canyon National Park, Hot Springs National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Glacier National Park.

To read more, go here.