Wow! How You Can Visit Three National Parks In A Week

Our family of 5 in front of the famous Yellowstone National Park sign

We just got back from an epic National Park trip.....Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. Yep, all 3 packed into a week and a minivan. I'm going to show you how we did it, the route we took and how I think it could be improved. Plus where we used points and miles and how much this trip actually cost. 

First, this is an amazing vacation. We have traveled all over the world as a family. I am at 51 countries and counting, my 13-year-old has already visited 15 countries and 5 continents. But these parks blew me away. The beauty and the variety of topography, animals, and plants are extraordinary. No wonder these parks were designated protected back in the 1800's. 

Now let's talk specifics and flights. You should always start with flights when you travel because if you use points/miles, your dates need to be flexible. When you are trying to book for an entire family, you are talking multiple seats on the same flight, flexibility is key. 

Since I earned the Southwest Airlines companion pass (buy 1 ticket get 1 free for 2 years) in February, I had enough points to fly my entire family to somewhere close to the parks. But where is the best starting point and ending point? Southwest Airlines offers a route search tool so you can see which airports are available. 

You can see that the airports around the parks are Spokane, Boise, Salt Lake City, and Denver. When I priced out the different cities and flights from San Diego, Spokane and Salt Lake City offered the best prices and routes. And since we wanted to visit Glacier National Park, the farther north we could start the better. 
We flew into Spokane, picked up a rental car and then drove to Kalispell, Montana. It's about a 4.5 hour drive from the airport. But the last 1.5 hours are a bit hairy in the dark so I recommend arriving into Spokane earlier in the day or spending the night in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, a super cute lake town. 

Tip: Fly into Spokane early in the day

We used 15,000 Wyndham points to stay at the Super 8 in Kalispell, Montana. There is a La Quinta in Kalispell as well which is now owned by Wyndham and looks nicer, but it was sold out. The Super 8 was actually just fine. The hotel provided a rollaway bed and breakfast. We were there for 7 hours so it was perfect. 
We left Kalispell, MT at 7am and drove on the highway for 2 hours which follows the park to the south. We had a reservation on the boat at Many Glacier for 11am so unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to take Going To The Sun road through the middle of the park.

Tip: plan your trip so you have time to drive the Sun Road. 

In my specific park post, I'll go into details about Many Glacier and the boat trip. By the time we left Many Glacier, it was dinner time. Fortunately, I had booked a hotel in Browning, Montana. I got one of the last rooms at the Glacier Peaks Hotel And Casino. I booked the room through hotels.com (if you use my referral link, you will get $50 off your first hotels.com booking). Since I have the Capital One Venture card, I earned 10x points on the stay and it gets me one night closer to a FREE night in the hotels.com loyalty program. 
The hotel was fine, had a sofa bed so our family of 5 fit in one room, and breakfast was good. But there is nothing to do in Browning and we kept finding that we headed back to East Glacier. 

Tip: stay in East Glacier instead of Browning. 

The next morning, we drove across Montana to Gardiner. It's a 5.5 hour beautiful drive. This is when the minivan came in handy. It had lots of USB ports and lots of seats. There are some hot springs along the way if you choose to stop. We drove straight to Gardiner which is located minutes from the northeast entrance gate to Yellowstone. 

Our family at the Yellowstone arch

Gardiner is a lovely town just outside the gate. We arrived in time to check in to our Airbnb.com, pick up some dinner and head to the river hot spring inside the park. I'll go into detail about this in my specific Yellowstone National Park post. There is a Super 8 in Gardiner that you can book for just 15,000 points. But it was already sold out so we booked an Airbnb.com which I charged to my Capital One Venture card and erased with points. We spent the next day on a private tour in the Lamar Valley, highly recommend this one, and the following day, we drove through the park. I bought the tour with my Capital One Venture card and erased the purchase. 

Tip: plan early so you can book your hotel with points

We spent the day in the park and exited Yellowstone through the south gate arriving in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in time for dinner. You will definitely want to read my blog post on Jackson Hole. This town is the most unaffordable city in the US. We stayed in a hostel which was awesome and I'll review it in my post. 

View from the top of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

We spent the next day in Jackson walking the town and river rafting. The following day, we hiked near Jenny Lake and drove to Salt Lake City. We spent the night at a Marriott near the airport using some of the $300 credit from our Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant credit card. The following day, we flew home on Southwest with tickets bought with points. 

Our itinerary looked like this: 

Day 1 - Fly to Spokane, drive to Kalispell, Montana

Day 2 - Glacier National Park 

Day 3 - Drive to Gardiner, Montana

Day 4 - Lamar Valley 

Day 5 - Yellowstone National Park 

Day 6 - Grand Tetons 

Day 7 - Grand Tetons, drive to Salt Lake City 

Day 8 - Fly home 

For hotels: 

• Kalispell on Wyndham points 
• Browning, Montana booked through hotels.com
• Gardiner, Montana booked through Airbnb.com and erased with Capital One Venture points 
• Jackson Hole paid for a hostal
• Salt Lake City used a Marriott credit 

After using points and miles, this trip cost about $2,000 out of pocket for 5 people including the rental car, hotels, food, gas and experiences. Not bad to see our beautiful national parks. Look for my posts with details about each park. If you decide to book on hotels.com or Airbnb.com, please use my referral links. You will get a credit on your first booking and support this blog. 

Thank you!