How To Plan the Perfect National Park Trip

We like to plan jam-packed national park trips trying to visit as many national, state, national monuments, and historic sites as we can in the days we have off. See our tips for planning the perfect national park vacation below!

• Deciding on a National Park
• Planning Your Visit
• Three Important Tips for any NP trip
• Where to Stay
• What to Pack

How do I decide where I should go? There are currently 63 national parks with more being added every few years. When deciding where to visit, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• What season should you visit a park?
  • The summer season is the best to travel to NPs if you don’t want to be limited to a region. Most of the national parks up north close partially during the winter season. However, this season is also the busiest and there’s nothing to ruin your day like being stuck behind a long line of cars when visiting a park. This has recently changed with more popular parks (Zion, Yosemite, etc.) requiring online reservations for entry.
  • Some parks are noted for their beauty during the fall season when the leaves change colors (Smoky Mountains, Zion).
  • We like to visit the southern parks during the fall and winter season. They’re less busy, still beautiful, and you won’t have to deal with the snow and freezing temperatures of visiting park up north.
  • Always look up expected temperatures in the park during the season you’re visiting. You may be surprised – some of the parks in the mountains like Glacier are still cold in May!
• Travel costs
  • When budgeting your trip keep in mind hotel (if you’re not camping) and flight costs will be the major expenses.
• How many parks should I visit?
  • We’ve found we get more bang for the buck if we explore an entire region in the few days we’re there, even if that means driving a few extra hours to visit another NP. It’s worth it!
• Booking flights: We always book with Southwest. You can’t beat free baggage and no change fees!

Planning Your Visit

• We always plan a detailed itinerary for the national parks beforehand. Many of these national parks are massive and without an idea of what to see you before you arrive, you will surely miss out on some of what these amazing parks have to offer.
• If you want to skip these steps below, use our national park itineraries. We’ve already done the research for you!
• Get inspired by travel bloggers! I usually start my research by searching the national park plus itinerary (ex. “Zion itinerary”) to get a sense of how many days I need to truly explore a national park. Once you have a better sense of the number of days you’ll be visiting you can narrow down which hikes you want to do.
• Use Google Maps! While doing your research, it’s helpful to have on hand in a separate tab in your internet browser a map of the national park you’re visiting and google maps. Slowly you can start to build your detailed itinerary this way.
• Plan Hikes: Some national parks can be entirely explored from your car, while making a few pit stops for photos. However, we highly recommend getting out and hiking into the parks!
• Hike intensity matters! You will also need to decide on the intensity of the hikes you would like to do. Usually, we only plan 1-2 strenuous hikes over our vacation week and keep the rest of the hikes easy-moderate.
• Tips for Lunches: Most national parks don’t have great lunch options, so always pack a lunch to eat during your visit! The first thing we do when we land in a new area from our flight is go to the grocery store and pick up a disposable cooler and lunch items for the next few days.
• Driving: Usually, we try to start our trip with the national park that is furthest from the airport that we will be arriving and flying out of. We’ve found that we’re most ready to make a long drive the first day of our vacation.

I’ve booked my flight! Now what? We have THREE MAJOR TIPS for you:

• Buy the America the Beautiful Pass! If you’re planning on visiting more than 3 national parks this year, buy the America the Beautiful Pass. For just $80, this pass gets you access to more than 2,000 nationally protected sites including national parks! Normally, national parks cost $20-$30 per vehicle per week, so this park more than pays for itself in just 3 visits! We are planning to visit 16 national parks this year using this pass! Buy online and you will receive the pass in the mail in 4-6 weeks.
• Download offline Google Maps – This one cannot be overstated. Make sure to download offline google maps! Most national parks do not have cell phone service. However, if you download offline maps you will still be able to navigate from point to point within the park.
• We love podcasts! If you’re driving for long periods of time, download a podcast to kill time. Many of this parks are in remote areas, where you’ll lose phone service, so we highly recommend downloading your podcast episodes in advance. If you’ve never tried a podcast, we personally love the Wondery podcasts.

Where to stay?

• Camp if you’re up for it – The best way to see the most of a national park during a visit will always be to camp inside the park. It’s cheaper and shaves off significant driving time getting into and out of the park (especially for the more remote national parks – ex. Death Valley). However, we like having nice showers at the end of a long day, so we prefer to stay at hotels.
• Booking hotels – I always use hotels.com to book our stays. You can usually cancel up to 24-48 hours before your stay if you need to change your plans. After 10 nights, you also get 1 reward night! Note that some of these national parks are miles away from cities. Using google maps to get a sense of the distance you’ll be driving in the morning is also very helpful. We’ve included the cities we stay at on our itineraries.

What to pack: 

We love our current hiking gear! We try to find budget items via Amazon. When you make a purchase using one of the Amazon affiliate links below, we get a small commission at no extra cost to you. This small source of income helps keep our website running. Prices last updated March 2021

• Don’t forget a backpack to take with you on your hikes!
• Always pack a few layers when hiking in the winter season.
• Hiking Shoes (Mens, Womens – Merrell Waterproof Moab 2) – I noticed that the shoes run a little small, so buy one size up. We love the waterproof feature! We bought ours on sale at REI for $100 each, but they can be found for cheaper on Amazon.

• Hiking Socks (Mens, Womens – FEIDEER hiking socks) – These socks were a find on Amazon and I cannot say enough great things about them. They’re just the right amount of thickness, keep you warm during the cool and wick sweat in the summer.

• Hiking Pants (Mens, Womens – Gopune hiking pants) – These pants are a thin material that wicks sweat during the summer and breaks wind during the winter.

• Hiking sticks (Bafx hiking poles, $22) – We recently started using hiking sticks while hiking and don’t think we’ll be going back. Some people don’t prefer them, but we found that they take significant pressure off of our knees during strenuous hikes.

• Water bottle (Pog, $9) – We love this spillproof water bottle!

View our itineraries for successful national park trips!

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