Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

MONEY teamed up with Kayak to price out how much it would cost to visit each of the 60 national parks this summer - a tab that covers round-trip airfare, a week's worth of hotel rooms, plus a car rental, meals, and park entrance fees. MONEY reviewed what each park had to offer - from activities to scenery - and ranked them based on which were primed to deliver the highest value for your dollar.

Each of the top 10 parks are packed with must-do experiences and amenities but at prices that, relatively speaking, make them a steal. Did your favorite national park make the list of the top 10 most-bang-for-your-buck category? Check it out. The following is the link (slideshow I created) - 2 minutes long. Hope you enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyN7aBcVx8U

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Nice slide show!

I haven’t been to a couple of the ones covered but find it wierd that Yellowstone doesn’t top the list. Partcularly compared to some they do include, like Great Basin. The cave there is OK but otherwise it pales in comparison to Yellowstone and others they don’t list like Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Mesa Verde, Glacier, etc. They must have overweighted their cost estimates.

I have a senior pass and camp with my RV so all of them are nearly free once I get there. But I can rack up some hefty fuel bills to places like Denali (twice) and Acadia (this fall).

Also I’m skeptical of their hotel prices. The single in-park hotels at Zion and Yosemite are very pricy.

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

Thanks for watching. I'm glad you like it.

As to how they came up with the list, here's the "Methodology" they used and I typed it verbatim:

"To find the national parks offering the best value for summer 2018, MONEY analyzed more than 500 data points for all of the U.S. national parks. To rank each park, we gave the most weight to overall cost - using prices from June to September for roundtrip airfare, lodging and car rentals, all of which was provided by Kayak. We also calculated what travelers should expect to spend on meals, with pricing from Numbeo. We also factored in what each park had to offer visitors, weighing all available scenery ratings from GoOutsideBook.com and the number of things to do at each park from TripAdvisor."

Thanks again.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Thanks.

That leaves me at a bigger loss as to how they could rank Great Basin higher than Yellowstone or any of the others I mentioned, and others I didn’t. The cave is just OK, and there is little else.

I suspect nearby lodging is cheap, though. There is nothing in the park. And the campground is very basic.

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

Very nice presentation.

shelty Loc: Medford, OR

Some of the pictures are not very representative of the parks, and like what others say, one or more of the most popular parks have been left out, Like Yellowstone and Grand canyon. Yellowstone is the most visited of the parks.

Sunnely Loc: Wisconsin

Thanks for watching and your kind remark.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Yellowstone is the one I have visited most. I calculate I’ve spent nearly a year there over the last 48 years. But (fortunately) it isn’t the most visited:

Rank Name and location Number
of visitors
1. Great Smoky Mountains NP 9,008,830
2. Grand Canyon NP 4,298,178
3. Yosemite 3,951,393
4. Yellowstone NP 3,394,326
5. Rocky Mountain NP 3,176,941
6. Olympic NP 2,966,502
7. Zion NP 2,825,505
8. Grand Teton NP 2,587,437
9. Acadia NP 2,374,645
10. Cuyahoga Valley 2,161,185

Been to 1-8, and doing 9 this fall. Never heard of # 10!

Off to Zion again in a couple of weeks. Will visit Bryce and Grand Canyon at least while staged there.