How Much Does A Trip To Yellowstone Cost? (2026)

Contents

1 How Much Does A Trip To Yellowstone Cost?— Lodging
2 Cost of Travel To Yellowstone National Park
3 How Much Does it Cost to Get Into Yellowstone Park?
4 How Much Does it Cost to Camp in Yellowstone?
5 How Much Does a Trip To Yellowstone Cost – Food
6 How Much Does Yellowstone Cost – Gear
7 Yellowstone Family Vacation Packages
8 How to Save Money on a Yellowstone Trip
9 More Tips for Visiting Yellowstone

How much does a trip to Yellowstone cost? For a mid-range trip — gateway town hotel, mix of restaurant meals and picnics, driving your own vehicle — budget roughly $250-$400 per day for two people, or $500-$700 per day for a family of four. A 5-day trip for two typically runs $1,500-$2,500 all in, not including getting there.

Here’s what that breaks down to:

Cost Catagory	Budget Option	Mid-Range	Splurge
Lodging (per night)	Camping $20-$99	Gateway hotel $150-$250	In-park lodge $250-$500+
Park entrance	$35/vehicle (7 days)	$35/vehicle (7 days)	$80 America the Beautiful Pass
Food (per day, 2 people)	$40-$60 (groceries + picnics)	$80-$120 (mix of restaurants)	$150+ (dining rooms)
Gas/transportation	Varies by distance/ vehicle	Varies by distance/ vehicle	Tours from $335/person
5-day trip total (2 people)	~$600-$900	~$1,500-$2,000	~$3,000-$5,000+

Prices are approximate 2026 estimates for peak summer season. Shoulder season (May and October) can reduce lodging costs by 30-50%.

Lodging is by far the biggest variable in your Yellowstone budget — and where you stay determines what you’ll see each day. A poorly located hotel can mean two hours of driving before you even reach what you came to see. Get the lodging decision right first, then the rest of the budget falls into place.

How Much Does A Trip To Yellowstone Cost?— Lodging

You have two main choices: stay inside the park or stay in one of the gateway towns just outside it. Both have real advantages, and the price difference is smaller than most people expect.

Inside the park — Yellowstone’s in-park lodges range from the most basic Roughrider Cabins at $135/night (one double bed, shared bathhouse) to suites at the Old Faithful Inn topping $700/night. Most in-park rooms run $200-$500/night in peak summer. The tradeoff for that price is unbeatable access — you’re steps from the geysers and wildlife at dawn and dusk, the best hours in the park by far. The catch: these book up fast, sometimes a year in advance. Go here to learn about how far in advance you need to book Yellowstone hotels.

Gateway town hotels — Hotels in Gardiner, West Yellowstone, and other gateway towns typically run $150-$300/night in peak summer, with budget options starting around $90-$130/night in shoulder season. You get more dining options, more flexibility, and often comparable or lower prices to the in-park lodges.

My recommendation for mid-range budgets: stay in two gateway towns rather than one — split your trip between the north/northeast and west sides of the park. You’ll cut your daily driving dramatically, see more of the park, and spend less than you would on in-park lodging.

Browse gateway town hotels and vacation rentals for your dates here — just zoom out on the map to see the area you are looking for.

I’ve personally stayed in most of these and they’re organized by entrance so you can match your lodging to your itinerary:

Cost of Travel To Yellowstone National Park

Depending on where you are coming from, the cost of getting to Yellowstone will vary. Flights into Jackson, Wyoming; Idaho Falls, Idaho; or Bozeman, Montana will range in the hundreds of dollars. You are going to need a car to get from one of those airports to Yellowstone and to drive around Yellowstone.

While you can take a guided tour of Yellowstone, if you spend more than one day, you’ll want to be able to explore on your own.

There isn’t a shuttle system in Yellowstone like there is in Yosemite and Zion National Parks. And it’s a big park with slow speed limits.

Driving will be the cost of gas plus hotels if you need to spend the night en route. If you drive to Yellowstone, you already have your vehicle, which simplifies things. Fuel in Montana, Idaho, and Utah is usually lower than in more western states.

Make planning your trip a cinch with one of my 1, 3, or 6-day itineraries or book a 1:1 consult.

How Much Does it Cost to Get Into Yellowstone Park?

Yellowstone National Park fees are:

7-Day Yellowstone National Park Pass (covers the Yellowstone entrance fee for everyone in your vehicle)
- Private, non-commercial vehicle: $35
- Motorcycle or snowmobile: $30
- Individual (by foot, bicycle, ski, etc.): $20/person
- New in 2026: Non-US residents (16 and over) must pay an additional $100 per person fee unless admitted with an Annual or America the Beautiful Pass.
Annual Yellowstone Pass (U.S. citizens and residents only. Covers the Yellowstone National Park entrance fee for everyone in your vehicle) $70

Note: If you enter through the South Entrance, it requires driving through Grand Teton National Park, which has its own entrance fee (The America the Beautiful Pass gets you into all National Parks).

Both types of passes are sold at all entrance stations and online through the Your Pass Now website.

If you have already paid your National Park entrance fees by way of the America the Beautiful All Access Pass, you can show that to the ranger in the entrance kiosk and drive right in.

BEST DEAL: The U.S. Park Pass is $80 and can be purchased online or at any National Park entrance. It gets you into more than 2,000 federal recreation sites across the country, including all our national parks.

Resident Annual Pass (U.S. citizens & residents): $80

New in 2026:

Non-Resident Annual Pass (non-U.S. residents): $250

How Much Does it Cost to Camp in Yellowstone?

There are 12 campgrounds in Yellowstone National Park and many more in the National Forests surrounding the park. Five of the campgrounds take reservations, the others are first come, first served. Yellowstone campsites cost from $20 for a basic tent camping site to $99 for a campsite with full hookups. That does not include tax. See what campgrounds in Yellowstone cost in the NPS chart below.

How Much Does a Trip To Yellowstone Cost – Food

When you are wondering, “how much would a trip to Yellowstone cost?” you have to figure in food costs.

There are plenty of restaurants and grills in Yellowstone. Lunch for one person could cost as little as $10 in one of the grills or much more in one of the dining rooms. Dinners run from $15-$40 per person.

Eating outside the park in one of the gateway towns can be less expensive. When helping people plan a trip to Yellowstone, I recommend grocery shopping outside the park for better prices and more variety.

You could eat every meal in a Yellowstone restaurant, but that takes a big chunk of time from your day. I recommend bringing at least lunch with you to picnic along the way.

How Much Does Yellowstone Cost – Gear

If you don’t already have all the clothing and gear you need for a national park trip, you may need to make some purchases. Consider specialized clothing, sun and rain protection, and things that make a trip outside more fun.

See my summer packing list and my winter packing list for all the necessities and find out how much Yellowstone gear costs.

Yellowstone Family Vacation Packages

How to visit Yellowstone depends on your goals and interests. For some people planning Yellowstone Park vacations, it might be easier to get an all-inclusive package. This could include transportation, lodging, food, and Yellowstone National Park tours.

National Park tour packages are definitely the easiest way to go and the most expensive. Like all these other cost categories, the prices vary wildly depending on how long you want to go to Yellowstone, how luxurious you want your trip to be, and what time of the year you travel.

This Yellowstone day tour starts at about $335 per person.

A Yellowstone vacation package costs from $1,025/person for four nights to $5,000 or more per person. Not including tax and tips.

How to Save Money on a Yellowstone Trip

Yellowstone doesn’t have to be expensive. These are the moves that make the biggest difference:

Buy the America the Beautiful Pass ($80). If you’re visiting more than one national park on this trip — and Yellowstone visitors often add Grand Teton, Glacier, or both — the pass pays for itself immediately. It covers entrance fees at more than 2,000 federal recreation sites and is valid for a full year. Even for a single Yellowstone visit, it’s only $45 more than the 7-day vehicle pass and covers your whole family.

Visit in shoulder season. May and October are the most underrated times to visit Yellowstone. Crowds are dramatically smaller, wildlife is highly active, and gateway town hotel rates drop 30-50% compared to peak summer. The park is fully accessible in late May and genuinely spectacular in October when the elk are rutting and the crowds have gone home. I’ve been going to Yellowstone for decades and some of my favorite visits have been in shoulder season.

Stay in a gateway town rather than inside the park. In-park lodging is a special experience, but it comes at a price — and it books up a year in advance. Gateway town hotels often match or undercut in-park prices while giving you more dining options, more flexibility, and the ability to book much closer to your travel dates.

Stay in two places. It sounds counterintuitive as a money-saving tip, but splitting your trip between two gateway towns — one on the north or northeast side, one on the west — cuts your daily driving significantly. Less time in the car means more time in the park, which means you need fewer days to see what you came to see. Fewer days means lower total cost.

Pack your own lunch every day. This is the single easiest way to cut your daily food costs. Eating lunch in a Yellowstone dining room or grill runs $15-$25 per person. A packed lunch from a grocery store runs $5-$8 per person and lets you eat at a pullout with a geyser view instead of waiting in a cafeteria line. I tell everyone I do trip planning for: grocery shop before you enter the park.

Book lodging the moment you know your dates. Gateway town hotels for peak summer (June-August) book up months in advance, and prices rise as availability drops. Booking early isn’t just about getting the room you want — it’s about paying less for it.

Consider a guided tour — at least for one day. A good Yellowstone guide is out in the park almost every day. They know where the wolves denned last night, which geyser is acting up, and which pullout has the best light at 7am. That kind of orientation is genuinely hard to replicate on your own, especially on a first visit. A full-day tour runs $335+ per person, but you don’t have to do a full day to get the benefit — a morning or evening wildlife tour is the budget-friendly version and often the best part of the whole trip. I’d rather do one great half-day tour than skip it entirely to save money.