Five national park lodges for the well-heeled
STORY BY David and Kay Scott
National park lodging varies from basic to plush with nightly room prices ranging from $ 150 to more than $ 1,000. For travelers who want to stay in a first-class national park lodge and don’ t mind depleting their wallets and purses, we’ ve written a short review of five lodges on the high end of the price scale.
We’ ve traveled America’ s national parks for 55 years and stayed in each of the lodges listed but one. Perhaps you can guess which one.
Keep in mind national park lodges, while owned by the federal government, are operated by private firms under contract to the government. For the privilege of conducting business in a government facility, the concessionaire agrees to pay the park a predetermined percentage of revenues it collects. Depending on the contract, there may also be a requirement for the concessionaire to spend money on renovations, new construction, and repairs.
For busy parks such as Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Yosemite, annual payments by the concessionaires amount to millions of dollars. Unusually large expenditures, such as foundation work on a historic lodge may be paid by the government.
David and Kay Scott are authors of“ Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges”( Globe Pequot Press). They live in Valdosta, Georgia. Visit them at blog. valdosta. edu / dlscott
MANY GLACIER HOTEL Glacier National Park 1147 Route 3 Browning, MT 59417 303-265-7010 glaciernationalparklodges. com / lodging / many-glacier-hotel
Many Glacier Hotel, built by the Great Northern Railroad, is in a scenic location beside a lake and surrounded by mountains.
Opened in 1915, the main lodge building has a three-story lobby with interior balconies supported by massive log columns. This building is connected to The Annex by an enclosed walkway, which contains the majority of guest rooms.
The four-story Annex does not have an elevator.
Several rooms on both the Parkside and the Lakeside have shared balconies. A Deluxe King on the Lakeside is $ 680. Suites with two bedrooms and two bathrooms are $ 964. This tends to be the most popular hotel in the park and, as a result, the most difficult hotel to book. The hotel’ s location is simply unbeatable.
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