10 days in June/July, Glacier

[John L.]

Hi All,
New to the forum and it looks great. Heres what I have. My wife and I have approximately 10 or 11 days at the end of June to early July. We are from Phialdelphia and want to fly out to either Montana or Canada, rent a car and do a driving tour of Yellowstone, Tetons, Glacier and into the Canadian Rockies (eg. Banff). It doesn't matter to us what the beginning or end points will be, as long as we have a decent access to an airport. We are both in our late 30's and enjoy driving long distances with views. We also don't like being tied-down by reservations, so living day by day in motels, lend to our sense of adventure. Some moderate hike thrown into our trips are definately a plus. Basically, we are just looking to be a couple of hobos for that time and go with the flow.

Some of my questions are: Is this amount of time possible or overly ambitious? How hard and expensive is it to rent a car in either the US or Canada and return it to the other? How tough will it be to stay at motels without reservations ? (We are not picky) How are the crowds? Any suggested major airports over others?

Thanks to all in advance. Looking forward to hearing.

John

[glc]

Returning a rental car cross-border will not be possible. Highly recommend you pick one city to fly in and out of, rent a car there, and do a "loop" trip. If you are not picky, you should be able to find a hotel room just about anywhere without reservations unless there is something special going on at the time.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

It is true that you won't be able to rent in one country and drop off in another, but if you do a loop, crossing the border in a rental probably won't be a problem. In any case, you'll want to check your rental agreement and make sure cross border traffic is specifically allowed.

I'd think Calgary would be the easiest major city to try and work out of, but you could also try someplace in Montana or maybe even Boise.

Going without reservations can usually be done, but keep in mind that it sounds like you will be traveling over the Canada Day/Independence day holidays, that could make it a little more tricky to find a room in popular areas.

[toddnick]

In 2007, I visited both Grand Teton and Yellowstone and in 2008, I visited Glacier. To be honest, it would be nearly impossible to do a loop drive in 10-11 days (and still spend any time enjoying the parks) and you can't rent the car in Canada and return it in America or vice versa.

My advice would be to cover this area over two separate vacations which wouldn't make airport travel an issue, one being Grand Teton/Yellowstone and the other being Glacier/Banff both are which you can easily spend 10 days exploring (especially if you plan to do some hiking).

Glacier was by far my favorite of the national parks I've visited thus far as I am primarily interested in hiking. The trails at Glacier blow away anything at Yellowstone and are much more extensive than those at Grand Teton. The peaks are spectacular at Glacier and the Going-to-the-Sun Road that goes through Glacier is the most spectacular stretch of road I've travelled. The GTTS usually opens for the season around mid to late June.

I'm planning another 16 day hiking/camping stay at Glacier this September.