We are traveling this coming weekend to see the Grand Canyon. We are hoping to visit the North Rim. It seems, that since this is not open year round, lodging is problematic. Any recommendations for a place to stay that is both nice and reasonably close to the park entrance? The Grand Canyon Lodge, which does not seem that great anyway, is booked.
Might not fit your definition of nice, But my wife and I just pitched a tent in the campground that’s within walking distance of the lodge. We hiked most of the day on the Widforss trail, went to the lodge and dined on juicy slabs of prime rib and copious amounts of wine and wandered back to our crummy little tent and sacked out. It was awesome.
We are flying in, so camping is not on the horizon. Otherwise, that would be fine.
What I am looking for is a good value. I am not picky. I just hate feeling that I have been ripped off.
Do you mean the South Rim?
The lodge is at the South Rim, North Rim is an Indian reserve. We took a jeep tour to the North Rim from Las Vegas and it was very nice. Saw several scenic spots, had a picnic lunch on the rim and then headed back to town. It was a LONG day though.
The OP was referring to this: Grand Canyon Lodgeon the North Rim.
OP, even if you don’t stay at the Lodge, it is certainly worth a visit for the views.
There’s lodging at the North Rim. Maybe 200 spots total.
There’s basically nothing else within 25 miles. The nearest town (Jacob Lake) has a lodge, but that’s about it.
Yes, I did mean the North Rim. The hardest part is that when searching from any of the big sites (Priceline, Expedia) they are always sending you to the South Rim.
Basically your choices are the Grand Canyon Lodge or camping. This is one place you need to plan ahead to visit if you want a roof over your head when you sleep. It is very remote.
I can see that now.
Plan B is two nights South Rim, two or three nights zion with day trip to North Rim.
Any recommendations for the South Rim, and then for Zion?
It’s been too long since I visited the North Rim to recommend lodging, but I’ve seen both sides and the North Rim PLUS Zion are not to be missed. Squeeze in a trip to Bryce Canyon, too, if you’re able. It’s magical. 
My mom and I took a long week’s drive through that area about ten years ago, and it was wonderful. We stayed loose, didn’t have any reservation and lucked out about every night we stopped.
There’s a small hotel just outside the North Rim’s park boundaries. I can’t remember the name. It was pretty much the closest lodging to the North Rim, and it was a 20-30 minute drive to get to the rim, but the room’s were comfortable, and the surroundings were gorgeous.
As for Zion National Park, I cannot recommend Zion Mountain Ranch. It’s on the east side of the park, and it’s hell and gone from everything else, so if you want to head into Springdale for food, you have to drive through the park (this is not necessarily a bad thing). The cabin my mom and I got was spacious, clean, well outfitted, and very comfortable. The view absolutely could not be beat. The staff was extremely friendly. IIRC, there was no tv and no cell phone reception. That might have changed in the last ten years, but we didn’t consider it a fault.
Depending on how far east you’re going, another place to stop in the summer is Vail, CO. I’d always thought of it as a skiing town, but ten years ago, they did good business hosting golf tournaments. It wasn’t busy, and there’s tons to see and do, all in that very laid back, no hurry sort of way. We ended up staying an extra day.
I stayed in one of the lodge’s cabins, having made a reservation months in advance. See if you can get on their standby list. Aside from that, there’s no place to stay other than camping. You may have to settle for the South Rim, though it’s a totally different experience.
And if if there’s time for only one side trip, I’d go to Bryce, rather than Zion.
I agree.
OP, since you are flying in…
On my second trip to the North Rim with my young daughter, I planned everything in advance - fly to Las Vegas, rent a car, drive to Zion for three days, trip to Bryce Canyon, then down to the North Rim for another three days and back to Las Vegas. Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
When we arrived at the car rental lot in Las Vegas, I noticed on the paperwork that I was not allowed to take the car out of Nevada. !!! I quickly decided to go ahead and sign, thinking that IF the car broke down in either of the other two states I would just pay to tow it to the Nevada border and then call the rental agency. Luckily we had no problem with the car.
Where are you flying in to? Could you buy some decent camping equipment there? Even if you had to give it away at the end of your trip, it wouldn’t cost you a fortune.
ETA: My recollection is that you can get some big-ass tents, suitable for car camping, for not much over $100.
My recommendation* is that you stay in Kanab, UT at the Parry Lodge. Kanab is roughly equidistant from Zion, North Rim, and Bryce and it has an old-timey feel. Supposedly stars from the old Westerns stayed there and they have rooms named after them. There’s an old barn in the back that shows free Westerns nightly (as of a few years ago). Whenever I go to Southern Utah I stay there.
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- My top recommendation is to stay at the park lodge(s) but that’s obviously out for the OP.
I just did a trip similar to what the OP is planning. I see he has started other threads but I’ll put all my comments here.
In my case the plan was to start and stop in Las Vegas, and then drive to Zion and backpack there for 4 nights. However, this was on Memorial day weekend and we only were able to get backcountry permits in Zion for the first and last nights. So what we ended up doing was driving out of the east entrance of Zion toward Kanab and camped on BLM land. That turned out to be pretty nice and since we were that far anyway we drove to the North Rim for a day trip and hiked down in the canyon for a little ways (down to the Red Wall Bridge).
If you don’t mind doing longer day hikes, then there is plenty to do in Zion. If hiking is not your thing, then one day and one night at Zion is probably plenty.
As for the OP’s itinerary, I would suggest skipping the south rim altogether and plan on Zion - North Rim - Page (via 89A and 89T, beautiful drive) and then returning towards Kanab on 89 to see the Grand Staircase - Escalante monument and finally Bryce Canyon. Return to Vegas would be through Zion and St George. That will be plenty of driving - going to the south rim would just be too much driving in my opinion The distance from North rim to South rim is something like 180 to 200 miles if I recall correctly. You will see plenty on the north loop I described.
As for the Parks, I think the fee for Zion is $20 (and you’ll need to pay it even if you just drive through the park). Grand Canyon is probably the same $20. Not sure about Bryce but assume another $20. Passes are good for 7 days, so if you buy the Zion permit you’ll have 7 days to complete the loop if you want to use the original permit to get through the park on the way back. I had an annual pass ($80) so I didn’t really pay much attention to the actual fees but be aware that you’ll need it even just to drive through Zion. There is also the option of highway 14 to the north (from Bryce Canyon to Cedar City) or 389 to the south if you don’t care to drive through Zion again (but it is a wonderful drive, there were bighorn sheep on the sides of the road, maybe 50 feet away).
Finally, be aware that there was construction on I-15 southbound between St George and Mesquite. On Memorial day weekend this interstate was single lane bumper to bumper stop and go traffic for about 15 miles - took maybe 75-90 minutes to get through. I’m certain the holiday made it unusually bad, but if you are planning on catching a flight that day allow some extra time. I don’t think there is an alternate route once you enter the canyon to avoid a traffic jam. The construction might be done when you go, but you’ll see it when you drive I-15 northbound if it is still going on.