Xanterra is the company that runs the resorts at Yellowstone (they have been awarded the concessions in the park). My wife and I spent four days and nights at the Old Faithful Inn in July 2004 and visited the hotels on Lake Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs and were very impressed by the fact that--in the dining rooms in particular--meal prices seemed surprisingly moderate (by North Carolina standards, anyway). Considering how few dining options park goers have, the company operating the dining concessions could adopt the attitude of a monopoly and charge whatever they please. However our experience was that the prices did not exhibit any evidence of gouging and in fact were quite moderate. For example, a top-rate-quality entree could be had in the main dining room at the Old Faithful Inn for about $18, which in our view was a bargain, especially compared to what a comparable meal in Yosemite runs (where the concessions are run by a different company). We would like to thank the folks at Xanterra (with whom we are not affiliated in any way) for keeping prices at affordable levels and not taking advantage of their position as sole concessionaires within Yellowstone. It sure helped us stay within our vacation budget.

Also, we had been led by our pre-vacation readings of various travel guides to expect inferior quality meals at the hotel dining rooms. This was not our experience at all; on the contrary, we were quite pleasantly surprised by the high level of both food quality and service during our stay. Both the Old Faithful Inn and Lake Hotel offer evening fare in their dining rooms that impressed us both in terms of its quality and reasonable price. In fact, when it comes to the food we purchased, I don't have a single bad thing to say, and I do have fairly high standards.

Recommended: Yes

Best time to go: June-August
Recommended for: Anybody
Review Topic: Overview