Our Winter Adventure Trip to Jackson Hole + Itinerary
My IG stories from this trip were probably my most responded-to travel stories of all time. This trip has always been on our bucket list, it’s a gem! It’s definitely worth putting on yours.
I have photos of everything we did in my Instagram highlight here…make sure to flip through them for more details and info as I didn’t include all of the photos and videos in this blog post.
I’ve included our itinerary below, and I 100% recommend every single thing we did, and 150% recommend where we stayed!
A few things to note:
- The area is surprisingly VERY touristy. There’s nothing in town that is like “local favorites” per se, which is what we like to do on vacations. Everything is powered by tourism and the town is very transient – they employ thousands of people on J1 visas (3-month work visas in Eastern Europe) and there is almost no one who is “from” Jackson.
- The people traveling there are a sight to see! Not one person wasn’t dresses to the nines, there is so much money there. It makes sense though! Not one building in the town wasn’t absolutely beautiful, modern, and unique and you pay a premium for this. Not to mention the huge million dollar modern cabins in the area are insanity. The airport is even bougie AF.
- It’s not a “cheap” trip by any means. It’s expensive to get there and you can expect to spend at least $100-$200 per person per day on food and activities that widely range in pricing. For example, the sleigh ride through the elk refuge was $25/person, but snowmobiling to the hot spring was $350/person!
- I’d recommend to stay in the Jackson Town Square area, not Teton Village. Teton Village is like a miniature Aspen, where it’s its own little village at the ski mountain. Beautiful and convenient if you’re skiing, but you’re kinda “stuck” there. There are just hotels and a few restaurants there. It’s about 20 minutes from the Town Square which is where all the best food, bars and shopping is.
- We went in late February just after a winter storm and it was very cold but manageable! One night was in the negatives, and the high was in the 20’s every day. Snow boots are a must, as well as mittens and a good winter jacket.
- We went during COVID times and they were VERY surprisingly strict about masks and social distancing (made me appreciate AZ soooo much more!). It was 100% necessary to plan everything out ahead of time and make reservations, buy lift tickets, etc. We planned about 3 weeks ahead of time so most snowmobile tours were already sold out, restaurants reservations were few and far between (wait times at restaurants without reservations is 1.5 hours+), and we could only get half day lift tickets. The Summer is apparently 10x as busy as well.
Lodging:
We stayed in a private creekside cabin at The Rustic Inn Creekside Resort & Spa. The location of our cabin was a premium price and 100% worth it. If you’re bringing the family, the lodge also has two bedroom cabins available with full kitchens and living rooms.
We were going to stay in the spa suites which is a secluded area of the resort but it was full. I got to see the suites when I was at the spa for my massage and I was actually thankful that we stayed in the creekside cabin that we did because of the gorgeous view! They have outdoor activities, fires and lawn games in the Summertime as well (we will definitely stay there again when we go in the Summer).
Here are some things that were recommended to us that we didn’t get around to (looks like we will have to go back in the Summertime!):
In town (Jackson Town Square):
- Stillwest Brewery and Grill
- Jackson Hole StillWorks Distillery – Huckleberry Moonshine was recommended
- Snake River Grill – there were zero reservations available!
- Jenny Lake – the road to the lake is closed in the winter
Teton Village:
- Mangy Moose for Apres Ski
- Waffles at top of the gondola
- Teton Thai
