Part of our Hotels guide.
The Grand Canyon offers rim-side lodges and cabins inside the park, while Gateway Canyons in Colorado is a resort built for hiking and off-road adventures. Both give direct access to trails, but the experience and setting differ sharply.
Related travel guides: Where To Stay For Best Hiking In Colorado and Hiking And The Outdoors In Namibia.
Best Places To Stay At The Grand Canyon
Inside Grand Canyon National Park, the main lodging is on the South Rim: El Tovar Hotel, Bright Angel Lodge, Kachina Lodge, Thunderbird Lodge, Maswik Lodge, and Yavapai Lodge. El Tovar and Bright Angel sit right on the rim; a room at El Tovar starts around $200 per night (2024 rates), and Bright Angel’s rustic cabins are often cheaper. Maswik Lodge is a short walk from the rim and has rooms from about $150. All South Rim lodges are operated by Xanterra and fill months ahead for spring and fall. The North Rim’s Grand Canyon Lodge is open only mid-May to mid-October, with cabins from roughly $180. No lodging exists on the canyon floor except Phantom Ranch, a dormitory-style camp that requires a backcountry permit and costs about $60 per bunk. The South Kaibab Trail and Bright Angel Trail both start near the South Rim lodges; the Bright Angel Trail is 7.8 miles one way to the Colorado River. If you want to cancel a booking.com reservation, note that most Grand Canyon lodges are booked directly through Xanterra or the National Park Service, not third-party sites.
Staying At Gateway Canyons In Colorado
Gateway Canyons is a resort in western Colorado, 50 miles west of Grand Junction, set in the red rock canyons of the Uncompahgre Plateau. It was founded by John Hendricks, founder of the Discovery Channel, and the property includes a car museum, a spa, and a fleet of guided adventure vehicles. Accommodations range from standard hotel rooms (from $250 per night in 2024) to multi-bedroom cottages (from $600). The resort’s own hiking trails include the 2-mile Canyon Trail and the 4-mile Mesa Loop, both marked and maintained. Guided hikes, mountain-bike rentals, and Jeep tours are available at the adventure desk. Gateway Canyons also owns Comfort Inn properties in the region, but the resort itself is a standalone destination. For guests who want to add your Marriott number to an existing reservation, Gateway Canyons is not a Marriott property, so no points can be applied. The resort’s restaurant, the Entrada, serves dinner nightly; entrees run $30–$50. The on-site Palisade Spa offers treatments from $120. Because the resort is at 6,000 feet elevation, hikers should bring water and sun protection even on short trails. The property’s location makes it a base for exploring the Colorado National Monument (30 minutes north) and the La Sal Mountains (45 minutes west).
What makes a resort a resort
Gateway Canyons qualifies as a resort because it bundles lodging, dining, recreation, and spa services in one gated property. The same logic applies to the Grand Canyon’s El Tovar: a historic hotel with a restaurant and guided ranger programs, though it lacks the full resort infrastructure of Gateway.
Reserve a flight without paying
If you are flying into Grand Junction to reach Gateway Canyons, you can reserve a flight without paying by using the “hold” option on airlines such as United or American, which allows a 24-hour hold at no charge. For the Grand Canyon, the nearest major airport is Flagstaff (90 minutes south), and the same hold policy applies.
