Amtrak Glacier Park Tour

[Lou G]

Has anyone taken the Amtrak escorted tour of Glacier National Park. Any thoughts on the hotels, trips and other amenities of this tour. We are considering taking this trip this summer.

 

[Gemuser]

Seeing as its nearly a week and nobody else has replied I'll add my $A0.02 worth. I have not done the Amtrak tour of GNP, but I have toured GNP via Amtrak.

In the Trip Reports forum there is part 1 of my trip report of an extensive trip of the USA, partly by Amtrak in Sept/OCT last year which included GNP. We left Seattle on the the eastbound EB at 4:40 pm, got to GNP at 10:00 am the next morning.

We stayed at magnificent GNP Lodge, built by the Great Northern Railway. The Lodge staff collected our baggage and we walked to the lodge. Great walk on a beautiful autumn day. That early rooms were not available, but baggage was taken care of and we had the run of the lodge. Our first stop was the tours desk and were arranged a tour to & boat ride on Two Medicine Lake, which left the lodge after lunch. This tours was great and the boat tour very good.

The next day we took the "Red Bus" circle tour, which included the continental divide & Stevens monument, Izaak Walton Inn, West Glacier and the "Going to the Sun" road back over the continental divide. A brilliant ride which we enjoyed immensely. [Tip: take your own blanket on the bus trip unless your at the hottest time of the year. The ones supplied only cover three people out of the four on the bench seat. With the top down going up over the continental divide on GTHS road can be VERY cold [for two Aussies anyway]. We left the following day on the EB for Chicago.

Hope this gives you some idea of GNP. The following website, and the NPS web site too, will give you some more ideas:

http://www.glacierparkinc.com/

 

[penfrydd]

Personally, I thought that the price for the Amtrak arranged tour was rather pricey. If you have patience with various internet sites, and don't mind making decisions, than you can arrange it all yourself at a much more reasonable price. We're going next July on a "round the country" tour, staying also, among other places, at Glacier Park Lodge. All are small tours, except for King's Canyon NP, where we'll rent a car. Either way you do your trip, you'll have a great time, as long as you have a sense of humor and can roll with the punches.

 

[montana mike]

I believe if you have the time and expertise to arrange your own plan you can save by booking separate segments yourself. There is so much to see and do around GNP. A vehicle is essential BTW. The key is what your particular interests are and your abilities--ie. this Park is a "hikers" Park to realize the full impact of its beauty and majesty. Just taking the Going to the Sun Road is a nice start, but visiting the Two Medicine area, Many Glacier area as well as places in the adjoining Flathead Valley (Whitefish, Bigfork, Flathead Lake, etc...) should be part of any trip as well.