Where to Stay Near Glacier: West Glacier, Whitefish, Kalispell or the East Side

Last updated: October 2026

Part of our Glacier National Park guide →

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Pick your base by which part of the park you want, not by which town looks nicest. Glacier has two very different halves. The west side has Lake McDonald, Apgar and the west end of Going-to-the-Sun Road, and it’s an easy drive from Kalispell’s airport and the Flathead Valley towns. The east side has Many Glacier, Two Medicine and St. Mary Lake. Driving between the two takes about two hours whichever way you go: 50 miles over Logan Pass or 90 miles around the south end of the park on US-2 (NPS). If Many Glacier is high on your list, spend at least a night or two on the east side rather than trying to day-trip it from Whitefish.

Here’s how the main options compare.

Drive times from each base

Drive estimates come from OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data, run Oct. 21, 2026 (research/osrm_tourism.json). Where the National Park Service publishes its own distance or time, we show it, from NPS, Directions & Road Conditions. Times assume no traffic. In July and August, the park has warned of waits of up to 30 minutes at the West Entrance alone (NPS, June 2026). The Flathead National Forest’s listing for a cabin near Polebridge says most of the North Fork Road (County Road 486) from Columbia Falls is gravel and is only intermittently plowed in winter (Recreation.gov, Ben Rover Cabin).

Option 1: Stay inside the park

Nothing beats waking up already past the entrance line. Glacier has seven lodges you can drive to, plus two hike-in chalets (NPS, Lodging, Restaurants & Services):

What to know: Xanterra opens each month for booking 13 months ahead, on the 1st of the month. Its rooms have no air conditioning and no TVs, except the Lake McDonald Lodge suites. Its restaurants don’t take reservations. And the lodges run only from about May to September (Glacier National Park Lodges FAQ). Many Glacier has no cell coverage at the campground. Recreation.gov says coverage is limited in Babb, about 12 miles east (Recreation.gov).

Camping inside the park books through Recreation.gov, mostly on a rolling six-month window. Some campgrounds also release a smaller batch of sites four days ahead. The largest campgrounds are Apgar (194 sites) and Fish Creek (178) on the west side, and St. Mary (148) and Many Glacier (109) on the east (NPS campground data). Our full campground table is in the Glacier National Park trip planner.

Option 2: West Glacier

Best for: being first in line on the west side; rafting on the Middle Fork; arriving by Amtrak.

West Glacier is the town at the West Entrance itself, so it’s as close as you can get without staying in the park. Amtrak’s Empire Builder stops there year-round. In summer, Xanterra runs a paid shuttle that connects the depot with Apgar Village and Lake McDonald Lodge, and it needs a reservation (NPS). All four rafting companies the park lists for the Middle and North Forks of the Flathead have West Glacier addresses (NPS). For more ideas, browse West Glacier tours and activities on Viator.

The tradeoff: it’s small. There are fewer places to eat and stay, and the park notes that many businesses near the park operate only in summer. Plan your groceries and fuel before you arrive. There’s no gas inside the park (NPS). Rooms are limited, so check West Glacier availability early.

Option 3: Columbia Falls

Best for: a short drive to the West Entrance, with a real town’s services.

At about 17 miles and 25 minutes from West Glacier, Columbia Falls is the closest of the valley towns. Xanterra’s only property outside the park, Cedar Creek Lodge, is here, about 18 miles from the West Entrance (Glacier National Park Lodges FAQ).

The tax note: Columbia Falls charges a 3% resort tax on top of Montana’s 8% lodging tax (City of Columbia Falls).

Option 4: Whitefish

Best for: restaurants, a walkable downtown, and pairing Glacier with Whitefish Lake or the mountain.

Whitefish is about 26 miles and 40 minutes from West Glacier, and 12 miles from the airport. It’s the most built-out tourism town in the valley, and its prices show it. Zillow’s typical home value in Whitefish ($870,463 in Sept. 2026) is about 57% above Kalispell’s, which gives a rough sense of the local premium (Zillow Research). Nightly rates change by date and property, so check live prices for your trip.

The tax note: Whitefish has a 3% resort tax, and the Big Mountain resort area above town added its own 3% resort tax in June 2025 (City of Whitefish; Big Mountain Resort Area District).

Option 5: Kalispell

Best for: the widest choice of chain hotels and the lowest taxes; flying in late or out early.

Kalispell is about 9 miles from the airport and 32 miles from West Glacier, the longest daily drive of the main valley bases. In exchange, it has no resort tax, so you pay the 8% state lodging tax and nothing more. It also has the valley’s largest selection of groceries and services. Many travelers stay in Kalispell for the first and last nights of a trip and move closer to the park for the middle of it. Thinking of moving there? See the cost of living in Kalispell and the Flathead Valley. Or compare Kalispell hotels.

Glacier Park International (FCA) is about 9 miles from Kalispell, so it’s an easy place to pick up a car: compare rental cars at FCA.

Option 6: The east side (St. Mary, Babb, East Glacier Park)

Best for: Many Glacier, Two Medicine, the east end of Going-to-the-Sun Road, and fewer people driving between bases.

St. Mary sits at the east entrance of Going-to-the-Sun Road and is about 20 miles (35–40 minutes) from Many Glacier. East Glacier Park is the gateway to Two Medicine. Two Medicine Campground was closed in 2026. Two Medicine Road has been closed at Highway 49 since mid- to late September 2026, for road work scheduled to run through late 2027 (NPS). St. Mary Campground will be closed from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2027 (NPS campground data). St. Mary to Two Medicine is about 34 miles, roughly an hour (NPS). Amtrak stops at East Glacier Park in season (NPS).

The land just east of the park is the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, 1.5 million acres. Recreation.gov’s Two Medicine page points visitors to the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning (Recreation.gov). Sun Tours, which the park lists for tours of Going-to-the-Sun Road told from the Blackfeet perspective, is based in East Glacier Park (NPS).

The tradeoffs: there are fewer beds, a shorter season and longer distances to an airport. Glacier Park International is about 2½ hours away. Great Falls International is 130–165 miles from the east entrances (NPS). Plan on limited cell service. See what’s available in St. Mary and East Glacier Park; most east-side lodging is open only in summer.

Option 7: The North Fork (Polebridge)

Best for: people who want quiet and don’t mind rough roads.

Bowman Lake (48 sites) and Kintla Lake (13) are first-come, first-served campgrounds in the North Fork (NPS campground data). No vehicle combinations over 21 feet are allowed at Bowman, Kintla, Logging Creek or Quartz Creek (NPS). Since Oct. 4, 2026, the Inside North Fork Road has been closed to all traffic from the Polebridge Ranger Station toward Logging Creek for water-system work. Access to Bowman and Kintla lakes isn’t affected, and the park expects remaining restoration to be finished by summer 2027 (NPS). The park puts West Glacier to Polebridge at 28 miles and about an hour. Treat it as a separate trip, not as a base for the rest of the park.

A simple way to split a week

That’s a suggested framework, not a recommendation for any particular property. Splitting the nights between the two sides means you don’t have to drive across the park and back in a single day. Both halves of that plan assume a car. If you’re flying in, compare rental cars at FCA.

Before you book

• Taxes: 8% state lodging tax everywhere, plus 3% resort tax in Whitefish, Columbia Falls and the Big Mountain area. More on how these work in our guide to Montana sales, lodging and resort taxes.
• Park access rules for 2027 haven’t been announced. In 2026 there were no vehicle reservations, but Logan Pass parking was limited to three hours and the shuttle required tickets (NPS). In earlier years, an in-park lodging or campground reservation counted as access to its area. Check the park’s 2027 announcement before you choose between a lodge inside and a hotel outside. For reservations, road dates and passes, see the Glacier National Park trip planner.
• Pets aren’t allowed in Xanterra’s in-park rooms, or on park trails (Glacier National Park Lodges FAQ; NPS).

Doing both parks? See Visiting Yellowstone from Montana.

Sources

1. NPS Glacier, Directions, Transportation & Road Conditions: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/directions.htm
2. NPS Glacier, Lodging, Restaurants, and Services: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/lodgingrestaurantsservices.htm
3. NPS Glacier, Camping Information: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/camping-information.htm
4. NPS Glacier, Visiting Logan Pass in 2026: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/visiting-loganpass-2026.htm
5. NPS Glacier, “Going-to-the-Sun Road Open for the 2026 Season”: https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/news/going-to-the-sun-road-open-for-the-2026-season.htm
6. NPS Data API, campgrounds (parkCode=glac), retrieved Oct. 21, 2026: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/developer/api-documentation.htm
7. Glacier National Park Lodges (Xanterra), FAQs: https://www.glaciernationalparklodges.com/plan-your-trip/faqs/
8. Recreation.gov, Many Glacier Campground: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/251869
9. Recreation.gov, Two Medicine Campground: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/258799 9a. Recreation.gov, Ben Rover Cabin (Flathead National Forest): https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/234342 9b. NPS Glacier, Road Construction and Infrastructure Project Work: https://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/projectwork.htm
10. OSRM route service (OpenStreetMap data), queried Oct. 21, 2026: https://project-osrm.org/
11. City of Columbia Falls, Resort Tax: https://www.cityofcolumbiafalls.org/1222/Resort-Tax
12. City of Whitefish, Resort Tax: https://www.cityofwhitefish.gov/422/Resort-Tax
13. Big Mountain Resort Area District, FAQ: https://bigmountainrad.org/faq/
14. Zillow Research, ZHVI city data (Sept. 30, 2026): https://www.zillow.com/research/data/

Cole Bennett edits MontanaHelp, a research-driven guide to moving to and living in Montana. Articles cite official and public sources and are updated as rules and data change. AI tools help research and draft them; a person runs the editorial process and spot-checks one article from each batch before it’s published.

AI tools helped research and draft this article. A person runs MontanaHelp’s editorial process and spot-checks one article from each batch before it’s published.