Where to Stay at Zion National Park | Quality Inn Springdale Review

Planning an adventure trip to Zion National Park this summer? The place of the extraordinary Narrows, surrounded by red cliffs, some of them so high only angels can land on them. Then we’ve found you a great place to stay that checks all the boxes of having the perfect location and being well within budget.

It took us four years of planning to finally visit the park this Spring. Well no, not literally four years, but kind of! We were so adamant on staying inside the park, that every time we got some time away from work and checked for lodging options inside the park, they were always sold out! Yes! The reason being that there is only one lodge inside the entire park.

Though not quite happy at that time, we finally agreed to look at some options outside the park when we came across this town called Springdale and we quickly wanted to book the closest accommodation possible. Yeah, we don’t like to waste any time on the road and like to have as much time as possible for hiking, hence the stubbornness.

You see, we like to unwind and relax after a long strenuous day of hikes, and Quality Inn Springdale has exactly everything you need for doing just that.

Quality Inn Springdale at Zion Park

Location

Address: 479 Zion Park Boulevard, Springdale, UT 84767

Quality Inn Springdale is located just a hop and skip away from the park’s entrance. Okay no! But seriously it is so close that you could either choose to walk to the Visitor Center or just hop on one of the park shuttles, which run every 10 minutes and stop right next to the hotel.

So to give you some details, from March to November, the park runs a shuttle bus service both inside the park and around Springdale. There are 9 shuttle stops within Springdale; the farthest one being 15 minutes away from the park. This shuttle will take you from Springdale to the Visitor Center, from where you will have to hop on to another shuttle bus that only runs within the park and covers all the major points that you’d want to see.

But if you choose to walk from the hotel to the park, it will take you about 10 minutes and the views you’ll encounter on the way aren’t bad either, so all the more reason to walk! We purposely ditched the shuttle bus on most days only to enjoy those stunning views!

Arrival and Check-In Process

Check-In: 3 PM | Check-out: 11 AM

Since the hotel is located on the main street of Springdale – the Zion Park Boulevard, it is very easy to locate. The hotel’s reception is situated out in front and is kind of separate from the main building where the rooms are located, giving it a lodge vibe that we absolutely loved!

We landed at the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport around noon and decided to drive straight to the hotel, so the 3 PM check-in worked out perfectly for us. But, in case you reach prior to that, an early check-in can definitely be requested. The staff is pretty accommodating and they will try to get you a room as soon as they can.

As goes with most of our National Park trips, we do not like eating out during those days. Mainly because we know we’d be hiking a lot and would need something that is high in protein and carbs along with high nutrition content, which restaurant food mostly doesn’t provide. So on our way to the hotel, we looked at a couple of grocery store options nearby. We found one, called Sol Foods Supermarket, which was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel. So we dropped our bags in our hotel room, freshened up and headed straight to the store to stock up.

NOTE: Usually you can get decently priced products at supermarkets, but that doesn’t hold true in Zion, or in Springdale for that matter. The prices of items such as granola bars, trail mixes, and other snacks are exorbitant! So you’d be better off purchasing them beforehand and bringing them along with you. Since we didn’t know about the price variation from before, we ended up purchasing everything from this supermarket, which cost us around $150 for food for the entire trip. (This obviously doesn’t cover breakfast because it was included in our stay, but I’ll tell you more about it in the amenities section.)

The Rooms at Quality Inn Springdale

There are 42 rooms in the hotel, and you can choose between a standard room and a suite. Now, we’re the kind who love to live in rustic cabins and lodges during our National Park trips, in fact we’d be happy even if we just got a bed to sleep and a clean bathroom to use. And since this area mostly just has hotels, staying here was a good option. We went for the standard room which cost us only $150/night. The room was fairly decent in size and came appointed with two comfortable queen beds, a tidy fully functional bathroom, and a refrigerator, microwave and a coffee/tea maker, so meticulously organized to make the best use of the space. There was also a large window looking out to the colossal mountains of Zion National Park.

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Every morning we’d wake up before the crack of dawn and were able to see the sunrise from behind the mountains right from our window, which was pretty amazing!

Now, even though every room comes with complimentary WiFi, we’re the kind who like to steer away from our phones and laptops as much as possible and enjoy the nature to the fullest!

Oh and the hotel also has a temperature controlled outdoor swimming pool to help you soak away all your fatigue from hiking. But to be honest, we hardly used it since we were mostly outdoors the entire day.

Amenities

• Comfortable large king bed or two queen beds
• Refrigerator
• Microwave
• Coffee/tea maker
• Air conditioning
• Daily housekeeping
• Free WiFi
• Swimming pool
• Complimentary hot breakfast
• Self serve laundry
• Picnic area
• Stunning view

Breakfast at the Hotel

Breakfast Hours: 7 AM to 9:30 AM

The hotel offers a daily complimentary breakfast for all hotel guests, which I thought was great as we needed to fuel ourselves for all the strenuous hikes that we were going to tackle during the day.

The breakfast is usually the same everyday but it comes with a decent number of options to fill you up. To give you the details, the array of items include:

• Freshly made omelettes
• Delicious breakfast potatoes
• Hot sausages
• Waffles
• 3 varieties of breakfast cereal
• Breads and bagels along with a variety of spreads
• Boiled eggs
• Muffins
• Coffee, tea and juice
• Milk and yogurt

Pretty good, right? So take in all the protein you can, you’ll need it for all those hikes!

Now, since their breakfast only starts at 7 AM, and we wanted to have an even earlier start because we had so much to cover in 4 days. Also since we went during the peak season (which is from April to October). we wanted to beat the crowds as much as possible, so we usually headed out around 6 AM to cover the things that were accessible without a shuttle such as the Pa’rus Trail, the Watchman Trail, the Canyon Overlook Trail and the Mt. Carmel-Zion Scenic drive. And then came back before 9:30 AM to grab some delicious breakfast.

On the day we had to hike the Angel’s Landing, we skipped the hotel breakfast altogether and resorted to our energy bars because we wanted to make sure we were at the Visitor Center latest by 6:30 AM since it is the most popular hike in the park and once it starts to get crowded, there can be a wait of up to 4 hours just to start the hike.

You can follow our trick as well to get the most out of your park experience!

Hotel’s Surrounding Area

Since the hotel is located in the town of Springdale, there are plenty of options around for food and grocery. Right across the street, there is a convenience store, called the Hoodoos Market, that offers a quick solution for your snacks and frozen food needs. There’s also a cute ice cream shop next to this market.

For a more extensive option, walk 10 minutes or drive 2 minutes south where you’ll find many restaurants; from Italian and American to Mediterranean and Chinese, you will have a lot of options to choose from. As mentioned above, this is where the Sol Food’s Supermarket is also located.

Oh and for all you camping lovers, there’s also a camping ground and RV park right behind the hotel, if that’s what you love doing. Obviously that needs to be booked separately and you won’t get access to any other hotel amenities like the pool, the breakfast or the laundry, but who needs all of that anyway when you’re camping, right! For all the hotel guests, this area can be used as a picnic spot where you can spend some relaxing time in nature and enjoy some incredible views of the beautiful sandstone cliffs.

Few Things to Note

• If you plan to visit the park anytime between March and November, then remember that the road inside the park is closed to cars and is only accessible by the park shuttle. For this, you will either have to leave your car at the hotel and hop on a Springdale shuttle to the Visitor Center (operating from 7:10 AM onwards), or park your car at the Visitor Center and hop on the park shuttle (operating from 6 AM onwards). You can find the shuttle’s schedule here.
• Since you’ll be hiking on rocks and sandstone cliffs, areas can get pretty slippery, so remember to carry hiking shoes with good traction.

• Carry plenty of energy bars, trail mixes, water, and sunscreen since you’ll be out in the sun for most part of the day.
• Plan to start your day early if you’re visiting during the peak season since the park gets very crowded during the day. And the shuttles tend to have huge lines as well.
• Restrooms are located at every shuttle stop, except the Big Bend and the Court of the Patriarchs stop. Otherwise there are no restrooms on the trails. (With the exception of the pungent smelling compost toilets located at Scout’s Lookout). So plan accordingly!
• Always carry a light wind breaker jacket since it’s usually very windy at the top of the peaks.

Budget and Planning

We rely on a few trusted websites that help us save money and time when booking hotels, flights, and car rentals. Check out some of our preferred partners below:

• Booking Flights: We always use Skyscanner to compare different airlines, dates and prices all in one place to get the best possible deals. For a flight from Seattle to Vegas and back, it cost us $221 per person.
• Renting a Car: We prefer renting a car from Enterprise since we get the maximum value for less money through them. We paid $136 for 4 days for an intermediate car.
• Booking Accommodation: We usually prefer using Booking.com to book all of our stays. This stay cost us a total of $450, which was the best possible deal when compared with all other websites.

Apart from the above expenses, we also spent money on the following things:

• Food: We avoid eating out during our National Park trips and buy as much grocery as needed to support us through our time in the park. Since the prices were quite high at all the grocery stores around the park, this time we ended up spending $150 on food that lasted us 4 days.
• Park Entrance Fees: We have an annual National Park pass which comes out to be very economical. You can get one here. But if you don’t, then the entrance to the park is $35 per vehicle.
• Gas: We spent $44 on gas for 4 days.

Therefore, the total money we spent on the whole trip was $1257.

Zion National Park Travel Guide

Visiting the park soon? Don’t forget to check out our complete Zion National Park Travel Guide to get you the most out of your time in the park – 10 Magnificent Things To Do at Zion National Park.

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Overall Thoughts

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our time at the incredible Zion National Park. The hotel is a standard Quality Inn but with some additional camping and picnic area features, which makes you feel closer to nature. Its location is the highlight though. I don’t think we’ve stayed at a better located place and that too outside the park in any of the National Parks we’ve visited till now.

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Pin it for your next Zion Adventure!