Planning a trip to Wyoming may seem out of reach when it comes to the logistics. Don’t let that stop you from getting to see one of the prettiest destinations in the country. Follow along to see how I planned an action packed week long trip on a budget.
When we first entertained the idea of going out west I knew I wanted to see Wyoming. The Tetons are one of the most visited mountain ranges in the country and for good reason. Bringing in around 2.5 million visitors per year, this popular spot is home to so many iconic photo worthy spots such as Jackson Lake, Schwabachers Landing, Mormon Row, and the beautiful Delta Lake. The views are worth the price itself.
Grand Teton National park is in my opinion one of the most notable destinations to visit if you are someone who loves nature but doesn’t want to do a ton of hiking. Keep in mind there are also PLENTY of hikes for people who are up for the challenges, but for those who want to see the most without having to put in exponential effort, there are tons of places to do that here.
Roadtrip Itenerary
Keep in mind I planned this entire trip approximately 2 months before leaving, so it can be done but it takes lots of dedication and planning. I am the type of traveler who loves to save as much money as I can within reason. We also had 2 of our friends with us which made the trip easier by splitting costs between 4 people. The first topic to discuss is travel. We live on the direct other side of the country in Eastern Tennessee. We knew this would likely be the most difficult and most expensive part about the trip. We all agreed that we would love to do a cross country trip at least once, since of few of the people going had never been west of Tennessee before. If this is something that interests or pertains to you I will also be listing how we achieved a cross country trip to Wyoming and back all within 9 days. This will include the following (a more detailed version will follow this).
- Day 1: traveling from Tennessee all the way to Amarillo Texas
- Day 2: traveling from Amarillo Texas, to Colorado Springs
- Days 3-7: Traveling to & exploring the week in Jackson Hole Wyoming
- Day 8: traveling from Jackson Wyoming to Lincoln Nebraska
- Day 9: traveling from Lincoln Nebraska back to Tennessee
(If you’re not interested in the road trip you’re welcome to skip this next section. You can easily fly in to the Jackson Hole airport and rent a car there).
Traveling From Tennessee To Jackson Wyoming
We wanted to get the most out of our trip while also breaking it up into sections. We started our 2 day cross country trip at 6AM Saturday morning, we booked it through Tennessee, all the way until we got to Memphis Tennessee. There were tons of things to see in Nashville as well if you want to add some extra stops in your itinerary. Our first stop wasn’t until we got to the Memphis Bass Pro Shop, now hear me out, it was actually incredibly cool and I highly recommend stopping. From here we drove through Arkansas and in to Oklahoma City (from road view there was nothing notable to stop at but the views are still pretty). From here we drove all the way in to Amarillo Texas and made it at about 11PM on Saturday night. The next morning we wanted to see a few of the sights in Amarillo so we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch, and did a little walking in the historic distric. One thing we missed but really wish we would’ve enjoyed was the Big Texan Steakhouse. From here we turned our direction North and headed for Colorado Springs, Colorado, which was only a roughly 5 hour drive. Once in Colorado Springs we stopped for a late lunch at Border Burger which I HIGHLY recommend the food was a 20/10. After eating we walked downtown Manitou Springs and it was so cozy and cute, there’s so much to see here. We waited out the rain for about 30 minutes but we didn’t let that stop us. We drove from downtown Manitou Springs, right to Garden of the Gods and caught a killer sunset from the top of the landmark. After we had one of the most beautiful views for sunset, we got some of the best ice cream at Frozen Gold which was very close nearby. We stayed the night at the Holiday Inn about 2 minutes away from the ice cream shop.
We chose to leave early the next morning around 7:30am to start our trip through Denver and in to Wyoming. We did make a pit stop near Denver to see the Red Rock Amphitheater and this is definitely a good roadside stop to make while you’re passing through since it’s a super popular spot for artists and singers to perform and you can likely catch someone there while you’re in town. After we made our pit stop we drove straight on through towards Wyoming. The drive from Denver to Wyoming is roughly 8 hours. To break it up a bit we stopped for lunch in Laramie Wyoming at “Born in A Barn”. Pretty much anything you get there is incredible. I will warn you do not get the Chile burger unless your tolerance for hot chiles is through the roof. After your pit stop in Laramie, the drive to Jackson will only be about 5 hours and 30 minutes.
Traveling from Jackson Wyoming back to Tennessee
The route home was much easier than the route to Wyoming, being as we had nothing else we wanted to see and were ready to book it home. This meant Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and got our journey started around 6:30am making very few pits stops, and trudging through the 13 hour car ride to Lincoln Nebraska. This is where we stopped over night to get a few hours of sleep at the Holiday Inn. We woke up again bright and early on Sunday and completed the roughly 14 hour drive from Nebraska to East Tennessee.
How we budgeted
Like I discussed earlier, we did have 4 people in total so that in itself made the cost of the trip more digestible. Also to note before you go, Jackson Hole is definitely one of the more expensive places that I have traveled to, luckily we accounted for this but don’t underestimate that this is a higher cost of living town. We did have a short amount of time to save for this trip as well because once again, I am a last minute planner and chose this destination roughly 2 months before we left, which meant me had to get right on the ball with saving money. We knew the most expensive costs on the trip for us personally would be the hotel itself, a car rental, and food. Below I’m going to list and explain each individual topic and how we save and budgeted for each to make the trip as cost effective as we could.
Hotel Costs
For our hotel, since we were planning 2 months in advance we did not have many options that were available within the year of 2025. Something to keep in mind when planning is the absolute busiest months of the year are June-September. That being said we knew we wanted to miss the busier season to make sure we got not only the lowest prices but also skipped the huge crowds. Keep in mind there are pros and cons to going during a slightly “off season”. Pro’s being that you rarely have to wait for crowds anywhere, prices are substantially lower, and it’s not too hot out to enjoy any hikes. The Cons include some areas being closed depending on the season (some of the restaurants in the park, as well as some of the roads in higher elevations due to snow), the only other con I could think of would be gambling with how the weather may turn out. Luckily for us we had perfect weather during our trip, the first week of May 2025 sat in the mid 60’s most days. However, we purchased our hotel at the Antler Inn for 5 nights and paid roughly $1100 in total, although this was the cheapest option and if you are wanting to stay at a higher end hotel plan for your cost to double or even triple, especially in the busier season. The hotel is right in the middle of downtown Jackson Hole and you can easily walk anywhere downtown from there. To make in cheaper on us for the time being we paid for our hotel using Klarna which means the 4 of us make monthly payments until it’s paid off.
Car Rental
We knew from the beginning that we would want to rent a car for this trip since we didn’t want to risk being all the way across the country and having to tow our car 2 thousand miles if an emergency happened. Now if you’re willing to risk it and want to drive your own this could potentially save you a lot of money. Tax and all we paid roughly $1,000 for our rental for 11 days (this does include a $300 deposit that we did get back so roughly $700 after everything considered). This included the day prior to our trip so we could get everything situated the night before we left, then the 9 days that we would we driving the car out west and back, as well as the Monday we got back so we didn’t have to worry about rushing home on our drive over the weekend or the following morning. We also knew this would be one of our most expensive costs and planned accordingly. This did however allow us to have peace of mind as well as not use our own miles on any of our cars. If you’re not interested in driving you can easily book a plane ticket and choose to rent a car from the airport for the time you’ll be staying. Depending on how expensive your place ticket is and how many people you have going this could be the more beneficial option for you.
Food Costs
When we’re on vacation we like to save money on most things where we can, but food is where we tend to splurge. When you’re going new places you obviously want to try anything new to you, so we planned about roughly $400 for this. We did try to be mindful of how and when we spent money on food. For example, on our way to Wyoming we packed plenty of road food to prevent us from having to spend money on fast food getting there since we wanted to save it for food we would actually enjoy. Something I would highly recommend ,that we unfortunately did not do, was plan restaurants that we wanted to try while there. Although it is easy to find many places in Jackson Hole, we wish we would’ve done more research on reviews. We had a hard time finding a lot of places where the food and service was genuinely worth the money. I’ll talk more on that in a later post on Jackson Wyoming, but I would highly recommend doing your research beforehand.
Other tips I recommend considering before you go:
- Being mindful that time of year can determine service (longer wait times due to shorter staff if it’s a slow season).
- Researching what hikes and scenic spots are open, and accessible. (Some hikes you can’t get to during early year because snow has not yet melted).
- Bring sunscreen no matter the time of year (higher elevation means UV rays effect you differently than other areas, I got a horrible sun burn the very first week of May).
- Research if you plan on visiting any other parks nearby and if so check in to road closures, and how it will fit into your itinerary etc.
Would I recommend going in an “off season” ?
I love to hike, see beautiful sites, etc as much as the next person, but I will say a huge part of my planning was with the intent of choosing a less busy season. I had researched a lot about going during the Summer months and I believe it would be incredible in the Summer, although we had the intention of wanting less crowds. the months of May and October both have the risk of the weather being too cold to enjoy what you planned for or running into a snow storm but the price difference was almost 1,000 dollars cheaper than literally 1 month later. The pros outweighed the cons to us which is why we landed on May. However I would have loved to been able to boat across Jenny Lake as well as hike to Delta Lake, both of which we were unable to do because of the snow/ice. This really was the only kink in our planning, being as most destinations are extremely accessible and did not have an overwhelming amount of snow at the time. To paint the picture, most days even though there was snow on the ground and some lakes were still frozen, I wore hiking boots, leggings, a long sleeve shirt, and sometimes brought a light jacket, but almost all of our outings ended up in me sweating and getting burnt. This can be drastically different for each person though, I believe we were lucky with the weather, I have seen many people say it was in the 30’s when they went in early May. That being said if I had to choose again I would have absolutely made my trip for the month of October. After talking to many people in the park and getting other travelers opinions, this is the month that everyone says it is still warm enough to enjoy everything outside, everyone is leaving from the “busier months”, animals are still active at this time, and the snow hasn’t had the chance to engulf everything as drastically as the post winter months. One thing we really wanted to see was a moose with a larger rack but unfortunately they had already shed theirs and started regrowing, late September early October would be a good time to see this. There are so many pros and cons to list but you really have to focus on what your priorities are and how that works best with the time of year. There is no wrong choice. Exploring the Grand Tetons will be a guaranteed unforgettable trip no matter what time of year you choose to go.
Be sure to follow along my upcoming posts as well. Next week I’m going to cover everything you HAVE to see while in Jackson Wyoming and even a potential day trip to Yellowstone National Park. There are so many things to see and do in the Grand Tetons that you truly can not make a wrong decision. Whether you are interested in hiking a 13 mile hike, enjoying the local hot springs, or leisurely driving the scenic route along the mountainside, you will absolutely be planning your next trip back before you even leave. It is hard to find words, and pictures don’t do justice for the actual beauty of Grand Teton National Park. This is something you have to see for yourself. Stay up to date with what destinations to add to your Teton Bucket List by signing up for our newsletters via my websites front page. Do yourself a favor and start planning your 2025-2026 trip to Wyoming now and thank me later.
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