So here we go.
My real vacation planning started when I confirmed with a relative that will move in for the week (Sunday-Friday) to babysit the pack. Once that was confirmed we went ahead with what we've been thinking about for a while.
Where to go with Tiny Tot (TT)?
After going through the options, we settled on Yellowstone/Teton. It seemed like a good option with a baby.
1. Would travel at our own pace.
2. Would have a car and would be able to attend to TT needs
3. Relatively short flight (TT..)
4. Would have full days based on the availabile flights
So after searching airports we immediately saw that we had an issue. While there was a direct flight EWR-BZN on the return the only direct flight was from SLC. That would be a solid 5hr trip from the Grand Tetons. On the other hand traveling with TT with a stop was a recipe for disaster. With that in mind we started the search for Tickets.
There was only 1 direct flight into BZN. UA. And of course there was no Saver awards available. So we kept checking and 4 weeks ago ( no $75 charge ) we found availablity. But for the way back there was no availablity with UA. There was with DL but that was going to JFK and would complicate parking my car at the airport. I checked the seat availablity on DL and it seemed pretty safe to wait. So we rebooked the UA EWR to BZN every day( hoping that we wouldn't run into an Issue with Shabbos) and lo and behold on Friday availability opened up on SLC-EWR and we had our flights booked.
Prices on hotels were crazy. In west Yellowstone ( our destination choice ) The Holiday Inn was $399 a night ( No IHG availablity ) Days Inn $289 etc. They were the only ones with point availability. We ended up booking the Days Inn with Whydahm points, which was the same price for the king's suite @15k per night.
We then booked in Jackson ( in the Grand Tetons ) for 35k Marriott the brand new Springhill suits ( opened on May 15 ) and left the SLC to worry about later.
Then came the car rental.
I've been dealing with car rentals for a long time so this was really a shocker. Avis,Budget & Enterprise didn't allow any one way reservations at all. With National I hit a road block. I burned though the entire list ( that didn't have built-in LDW) nothing did anything for unlimited miles. Even Honeywell came with just 700 miles included. I would need close to 2000 miles ( @.4 per mile..) Hertz the same thing. ( Btw no executive or President isle at either...) After wasting waaay too much time I booked with risk ( after being warned by some DDFers ) hoping for the best for $250. On the Friday before the trip thrifty went down to $300 so I booked that for backup which relaxed the situation.
Got some tips about Yellowstone from @somethingsfishy and @whyme at a little DO I had my trip planned.
And so we we were finnaly ready to go.
To recap
7/16 EWR-BZN 8:48AM arriving 11:33AM
7/16-7/18 Days Inn West Yellowstone
7/18-7/19 Springhill suits Jackson
7/19-7/20 Newpark Park City ( near SLC)
7/21 SLC-EWR 11:37PM arriving 5:51AM
To be continued
