Cheap places to stay, and what each one costs you
There are three real ways to spend less near Zion and a lot of pages pretending there are more. Each of the three takes something away from you, and it is worth knowing what before you book.
- Cheapest inside the park
- $35 a night
- Bus from the outer towns
- $5 one way
- Cheapest season
- Winter
- Springdale supply
- Capped by ordinance
The cheapest bed near Zion is inside Zion
It is also better positioned than any hotel in town, which is the part nobody expects from a budget option.
Watchman Campground is $35 a night for a non electric site and $45 with electric, and it sits just inside the entrance beside the visitor center. That is closer to the pedestrian gate than most of Springdale, so you can be on the 7:00am canyon shuttle without moving a vehicle.
What it costs you is a bed, obviously, and planning. Standard sites book six months ahead and the park says the campgrounds are full almost every night from mid March to late November. The C and D loops are tent only and will not take vehicles of 19 feet and over.
Lava Point is $25 with six primitive sites and a pit toilet, an hour away on a road that closes for snow, and it books only fourteen days out. The full camping picture.
Do the comparison properly
Two people camping at Watchman for four nights spend $140 to $180 on the site. The same four nights in a Springdale room in spring is a different order of number, and the campground has the better position. If you own or can borrow a tent, this is the answer.
Stay down the road and take the bus in
Virgin, La Verkin, Hurricane, Washington and St George are all stops on a $5 public bus to the park.
Those towns have ordinary lodging markets rather than Springdale’s capped one, and the SunTran Zion route connects them to the park for five dollars each way, Monday to Saturday. So the usual objection to staying further out, that you spend the saving on driving and parking, does not apply if you use the bus.
What you give up is real. No walking to the entrance, no canyon town in the evening, and a bus that runs to a timetable rather than every ten minutes. And no Sunday service at all, which has to shape your travel days rather than being discovered on the morning.
We are not publishing rates for lodging in those towns, because we have not checked them against the properties’ own material and a made up range is worth nothing. What we can tell you is that supply there is not legally restricted, which is the structural reason prices differ. The full comparison of bases.
Change the month instead of the town
The cheapest way to stay in Springdale is to stay in Springdale at a different time of year, and winter has more going for it than people assume.
Springdale rooms open up at short notice in winter and Watchman becomes bookable rather than a six month campaign. The park itself is at its quietest, and because the shuttle mostly stops running, the scenic drive opens to private vehicles, so you can drive to trailheads at any hour instead of queueing for a 7:00am bus.
The trade is genuine. Average highs of 54°F in December and January with lows around 30°F, ice on the paved trails, The Narrows in dry suit water, and the high roads closed. It is not a lesser trip, it is a different one. What winter actually asks of you, and the month by month figures.
The middle option
If full winter is too much, early June and the second half of November are the quiet, cheaper versions of the popular months. June averages 95°F but it is the driest month of the year at 0.3 inches, and November sits at 64°F.
Springdale is expensive by ordinance, not by accident
It is worth understanding why the budget end of this market is so thin, because it explains why waiting for prices to fall does not work.
Springdale defines transient lodging as anything rented for 30 consecutive days or less. New transient lodging is confined to a specific overlay zone, only Central Commercial or Village Commercial properties may apply to join it, and the town accepts a maximum of five applications per calendar year, in even numbered years only.
So the number of beds in Springdale grows by at most a handful every second year, in a town at the gate of a park that receives millions of visitors. That is a deliberate decision by the town about its own housing, and the price of a room here is the consequence. The ordinance in full.
What this page will not do
Quote you a nightly rate
Lodging here prices by date and by season across a very wide range. Any figure we printed would be wrong within a month and would be worse than useless when you were budgeting around it. The campground rates are on this page because the park publishes them and they are fixed.
Send you somewhere we have not checked
There are budget motels and rentals scattered along the road west of the park. We have not verified their rates, seasons or positions against their own material, so they are not listed here yet rather than listed with plausible detail attached.
What we can tell you without qualification: the campground rates, the bus fare, the ordinance, and the seasonal pattern. Those four things are where the actual savings are, and all four are verifiable rather than a matter of hunting for a deal.
Common questions about cheap lodging near Zion
What is the cheapest place to stay near Zion National Park?
Watchman Campground inside the park, at $35 a night for a non electric site and $45 with electric. It is also closer to the pedestrian entrance than most Springdale hotels. It books six months ahead and fills.
Is it cheaper to stay outside Springdale?
Generally yes, because Springdale caps new lodging by ordinance while the towns down the road do not. Virgin, La Verkin, Hurricane, Washington and St George are all stops on the $5 SunTran bus route, so you do not need to drive in.
When is Zion lodging cheapest?
Winter. Springdale rooms open up at short notice and Watchman becomes bookable rather than a six month campaign. Average highs are around 54 degrees in December and January, the paved trails hold ice, and the scenic drive opens to private vehicles because the shuttle mostly stops.
Can I visit Zion on a budget without a car?
Yes. The SunTran bus is $5 each way from St George and the towns between, and both park shuttle lines are free. Entry on foot is $20 per person for seven days rather than $35 per vehicle.
Why is there so little budget lodging in Springdale?
The town restricts new transient lodging to one overlay zone and accepts a maximum of five applications for it per calendar year, in even numbered years only. Supply grows by a handful of properties every second year at most.
The cheapest bed here has the best position
Which is not how it usually works. Check the campground before you look at anything else.
Also useful: visiting without a car, winter and Springdale hotels.
$35 a night inside the park, and closer than most hotels.
Camping near Zion