Has anyone done Yellowstone, what flights did you do?

[Billybagpuss]

Trying to plan a USA trip for 2025. Would love to see Yellowstone. We’ve done the west twice before but always end up doing Yosemite then on to vegas as Yellowstone is too far out.

how did you plan the trip?
my current thinking is fly into San Francisco for a couple of days. Then internal flight to Salt Lake City pick up car
a few days in Yellowstone and grand Teton then down to vegas via Zion and fly home from vegas.

we’ve never taken internal flights before but it seems easier than flying.

Thats what we did almost 20 years ago. It worked out fine. We flew from Oakland to Salt Lake City and back again. Its the best holiday I have ever had. Yellowstone is my favorite place on earth.
We tried tok camp but got snowed out in September, so stayed in a lodge just outside the park and drove in each day.

Thank you. How long was the drive in each day? With Yosemite we’ve always taken the hit and stayed in the village but it’s a lot more money.

Vegas-Bozeman iirc, it was years ago now.

Also went 20 plus years ago but we did the opposite way around. Started in Seattle, went (my order might be slightly wrong from memory) via Mount Ranier and Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Snake River, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and San Francisco. Was Amazing

The drives are long but beautiful. Depends how many stops you want.

Seattle then Bozeman. Bozeman is a really lovely little town.

The drive times are huge as speed is limited in the park. We did around 3-4 hours driving most days in Yellowstone. We stayed in West Yellowstone x 2 nights and Lake Yellowstone Hotel in the park x 2 nights which was the most hideous ripoff (think 5 star pricing for a 2 star motel).

Also accom is booked up as soon as it opens so you would need to be planning for at least 2026 to stay in the park.

Wow I had looked and there were a few available must get on it quickly. Thank you.

@Porridgeislife thats what we found in other parks we’ve stayed. We usually stay in curry village in Yosemite as it’s still expensive but ok value for money.

@Billybagpuss we started planning about 7 months in advance for a July visit (pre Covid) and there was nothing available except for the very overpriced hotel - where you also can’t get a meal unless you’ve booked months in advance! If there’s cabins available in the park grab them asap. Especially if you can get into Canyon Lodge/Cabins, Lake Lodge Cabins or Old Faithful Lodge/Cabins.

West Yellowstone also is a pretty good place to stay as restaurants in the park are universally awful/expensive. We found the mix of lake and West Yellowstone good enough to see the canyon, Old Faithful, lake and drive to Jackson via Grand Tetons for a day.

Airports Closest to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks (yellowstonepark.com)