Lake Yellowstone Hotel in Yellowstone National Park

imalemon

What does a Lake View, 1 Queen Size Bed, 300 sq ft room at Lake Yellowstone Hotel in Yellowstone National Park really look like? The hotel is a major tourist attraction and as such is always crowded during the day. The room itself has a huge bathroom area and an OK view of Lake Yellowstone. However, the sleeping area is a bit cozy. There is not a lot to do at the hotel, but it is a wonderful place to stay at for one night as part of one's tour of Yellowstone attractions. The food at the hotel where one has three meals is excellent. The lobby area of the hotel is very pretty and scenic. The dining room has great views of the lake.

The You Tube link to the video is: https://youtu.be/5ZnLznxto6w

joycesw

I guess you are not asking about but reviewing this hotel. This is a very unique hotel, very different from other National Park lodges. I half expected Gatsby to come driving up! We visited here on our own but did have a lake view room. It was fine...again, a lodge in a National Park, not a Four Seasons! We found the common areas very nice, and this hotel is not as crowded with non-guests as so many other park lodges are (think Old Faithful and Ahwahnee, or Majestic Yosemite Hotel). It is a great hopping-off point for other areas of the park (Lamar Valley) and Bear Tooth Highway (one of Charles Kuralt's most beautiful drives in America). Yellowstone is unique and a good reminder of why our National Parks are so special!

imalemon

I have been reviewing hotels that Tauck stays at for several years on the different tours that I have taken. I also review other hotels that I stay at under my "What Does a Room Really Look Like?" series. My review goal is to provide people an idea of what the rooms really look like. I also comment on some of the unique factors at the hotel as relevant, such as will there be free internet. While you are correct that a park hotel is not a 4 Seasons, my purpose remains to let people know what to expect from the room. The Lake View room is one of the more expensive rooms in the hotel. Is the price worth what one gets in return? Does one need to bring their own soap? My reviews will hopefully answer these questions.

AlanS

imalemon wrote:

"What Does a Room Really Look Like?" series. . . . my purpose remains to let people know what to expect from the room. The Lake View room is one of the more expensive rooms in the hotel. Is the price worth what one gets in return? Does one need to bring their own soap? My reviews will hopefully answer these questions.

Do Tauck travelers actually ask these questions? I don't. The only room related questions I ever see on the forums are, "Does the hotel have wash cloths? What type of electrical outlet do they have/what adapter is needed? Do they have hair dryers or irons?" etc. Do Tauck travelers make a decision whether to take a tour or not based on the room? I don't. I don't spend much time there and I trust Tauck. Except on ships, I don't think anyone has a choice of rooms. We have no idea what Tauck pays, and therefore what we actually pay for a room, except the amount listed for stays before and after a tour. Also, Tauck routinely changes hotels for overseas tours for a variety of reasons- hotel renovation, better deal, better location, declining service, etc. I suspect it can happen for North American tours as well. Most hotel websites have photos and sometimes videos of each type of room. So, I guess what I am saying is, I question the need for these reviews. I may be wrong, but you may be doing them without any sort of traveler demand.

British

I think you may be only half correct Alan, because people do moan about hotels quite a bit on this forum, but like you, hotel rooms are not things we think about when choosing a Tauck tour, it is where the tour is going. Time and time again we think what a waste it is to be staying in, what are, in the main, fabulous hotels, that we are basically just sleeping in. It barely matters if the room has a view or not because generally we are out of it before daylight and don't return again until it is dark again. But on more than one tour, we have heard people moaning about their rooms. I think I have mentioned the scene we witnessed on our last tour where a couple spent a huge amount of time moaning about their room allocation, in the time they were doing that, we went and came back from a lovely walk in some of the only free time we had on the tour, and they gave the tour director and hotel manger headaches about 'the view' in a room we have actually stayed in on a previous tour, it was no worse or better than any room, and anyway, none of us were in rooms during daylight. We love hotels that have a pool, but generally there is no time for a swim. On our last independent vacation, we stayed in a fabulous hotel for a couple of days that we knew we would be chilling out in and then moved on to a basic Marriott that was cheap and cheerful, but was right in the center of the city, near to sites and restaurants. It was clean and comfortable, that was all we needed, we were out early, did come back early one afternoon for a rest, the view did not matter, we closed the curtains so we could have a nap.
Friends recently went on an Abercrombie and Kent tour, to the same locations we are about to visit on our Tauck tour this coming week. They moaned about the room allocation, saying for the prices they were paying they expected to get the best rooms, they did not. More concerning to me was that several of the key elements of the tour did not happen and their driver got lost in the countryside and had to rely on the gps of their phone to find the way. And yes, their tour cost a great deal more than ours. We are going to compare notes on return.
I do like to know about hairdryers and outlets, and when I write a review, I mention that because so many people ask on the forum, even though if they read the Tauck info, it generally tells them, and if not, I go to the hotel website. I never thought about square footage of anything until I came to live in the US, it's something I hear about all the time here. I had to try to find out the square footage of our home for when people asked because I had no clue about it.