Budget for the Ultimate National Parks Road Trip (Under $2000)

When we were planning our two-week National Park road trip, we ran into very little information about how much it costs. This is obviously because the amount can vary tremendously from only a few hundred to thousands upon thousands, depending on your travel style. 

To help other fellow travelers I decided to post the total cost of our National Park road trip. Below is a breakdown of how much it cost for us to road trip to four of America’s most popular parks over 14 days. This is not meant to show the cheapest nor best way, merely our experience to give you one example of a National Park road trip budget. 

We did not make it our mission to go as cheap as possible, but we were also trying not to spend too much money. The total rounded out somewhere around $2,000. Below, I have broken it down into the cost for accommodations, gas, and food. 

This breakdown does not include camping and hiking gear, or some car costs we ran into along the way, so keep that in mind and always budget more than you think you will need!

Budgeting for Staying in National Parks

Staying and camping in National Parks costs around $15-25 for a site. We tried to stay in the National Parks campgrounds when possible to be closer to the trails and sites we wanted to see. 

Many campgrounds inside the parks open up for reservations months in advance and fill up within the first day of being open, so be sure to get your reservations early! Some parks also have designated first come- first serve campsites that you can try to claim as well. Of course, most parks will also have many campgrounds not operated by the National Park Service nearby if you cannot stay in the park.

We also had a surprise extra cost of a hotel stay, due to getting snowed out of Yosemite, but after about 5 nights of camping in a row a hotel room was a nice break. 

See below for the cost of staying 12 nights inside the National Parks with one night in a hotel:

SPENDING EVEN LESS TO STAY

Free is, of course, always the cheapest accommodation. Many National Parks are near free dispersed campgrounds in National Forests and Bureau of Land Management areas. Below are a few websites that can help you find a free stay:

• iOverlander
• FreeCampsites

SPLURGING ON YOUR NATIONAL PARK STAY

If you want a slightly more luxurious stay the options are limitless! 

•  Many of the National Parks have their own lodges and hotels inside the park, but these are usually quite pricey.
• Airbnb and vrbo are both great for finding nearby cabins and vacation homes.
• If you don’t have your own RV, you can also rent a van or RV from local rental agencies to camp but in slightly more style!

Budgeting for Gas on a Road Trip

Gas is one of the easiest things to budget for. Input the distance to all of your destinations in Google Maps, multiply by the average price per gallon, and divide by your car’s average miles per gallon. If you don’t know your car’s gas mileage you can search to find the average for your make and model.

Sites such as AAA and GasBuddy can also calculate the price for you or give you a gas price estimate based on location.

Budgeting for Food on a Road Trip

For food we did not try to go as cheap as possible but also didn’t splurge. We drove for about 6 days of our trip and ate fast food for lunch and dinner most of those days. We estimated about $9 a meal on driving days. 

The rest of the days we took sandwich ingredients and ate sandwiches and chips for lunch and freeze-dried meals for dinner. Neither of us is huge eaters so we can typically split a freeze-dried meal between us as they are 2 servings worth of calories. We took several gallon bottles of water to boil over our backpacking stove and used about 2-3 canisters of propane. 

Other food we bought included: Cliff bars for a hiking snack, jerky, water bottles, and a variety of gas station snacks. 

We took a couple of nights to splurge as well and treated ourselves to dinner at a brewery in Zion, lunch at a diner in Glacier, and a pizza near Yosemite when we got snowed out. I made a generous estimate of $300 for this, but I would say to expect about $30-50 a person if you plan on getting dinner and drinks near a National Park. This will obviously vary depending on how fancy you want to get. 

SPENDING EVEN LESS ON FOOD

The easy way to cut food costs would be not to plan on eating out at all. Freeze-dried meals and fast food is also definitely not the cheapest way to go. A good cooler and more groceries will allow you to stretch your money much further! 

Additional Costs on Your Road Trip

Additional things to consider include the cost of showers (~$3-$5 per shower), firewood (~$5 per bundle), gifts, and anything else you may want to buy. 

Additionally, You will want a National Park Pass! At $80 these will get you into any National Park for an entire year as well as several other recreational areas. Since some National Parks can cost up to $35 per vehicle, this is a great buy if you plan on visiting several parks in one year.

Costs I purposefully didn’t include on here were our souvenirs and drinks (both alcoholic and not), as those will vary greatly from person to person. 

2 Week National Park Road Trip Total Cost

Our total cost came out to around $2000! This was for two people and over two weeks of travel. Again, this is not meant to be a guide or suggestion, just our personal experience if you are looking for a baseline estimate for the cost of road tripping to National Parks for two weeks. 

$2000
Total

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