Wall SD and The Badlands (Sioux Falls, Rapid City: car rental, where to stay, rent)

[Grasonville]

Visited once 10 years ago from Minnesota - nice people - amazing scenery.

Any suggestions for how to get there from Baltimore MD and where to stay?

[MikeyToo]

My guess would be flying into Minneapolis (MSP), then on to Rapid City where you would rent your car. Last time I was there was back in late 70's I think, right after they had the terrible flood. But a very seanic area worth looking at again.
Jammie probably can help you with accomodations.

[ElkHunter]

I would fly into Rapid City and get accomodations there. A lot mroe plentiful. You didn't mention how long you wanted to visit. But if it would be a week or so, I'd base myself out of Rapid city. Make the badlands a day trip or maybe two. But also get a chance to see the Hills, Searfish, Deadwood, Custer, Hill city, Mount rushmore, Crazy Horse, Jewel Cave, etc.

Just a thought.

[BusySocialWorker]

I would fly into Denver and drive upbut thats just me Rapid is more expensive, but if you want a faster trip, landing in Rapid may be the answer

[Jammie]

Grason, I'd have to agree that if it's at all possible, fly into Rapid and take it from there. The Badlands and Wall aren't a far drive from there. It'd be a nice day trip to tour there and you could be back to Rapid by nightfall.

But you may be wise to also check the price of flights to Denver or another area that has a large airport like Busy suggested. I've noticed that sometimes the price of flights will differ so dramatically.

There are several nice motels out in the Hills area. If you aren't set on getting a vacation package, you may want to choose your motel when you get there so you wouldn't be tied to one city for your entire trip. You may end up down in Hot Springs and dread driving way back to Rapid for the night.

This is just personal opinion and I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't want to do this, BUT~I think that Keystone is a very special TINY town in the Hills and that's where I would stay, at least for a night. It's right down the hill from Mt. Rushmore. If you check out the Picture sticky at the top of the page, I think I posted links to pics of Keystone. It's pretty close to Crazy Horse and Custer State Park and just a short ways from Rapid.

Do you know for sure yet when you'll be here? We'll try to answer any questions that we can and I hope you have a wonderful trip.

[blackhillsdreams]

Hi GVille,

I've been about 10 or 12 times. 1/2 the time, I've flown to Sioux Falls, 1/2 to Rapid. Both have their advantages. Car Rental/Flights seemed to be a good bit cheaper into Sioux Falls even outweighing the extra gas $$ needed to travel all the way to Rapid at times. You're looking at a 4 hour plus drive across the state but it's interesting scenery. Flying into Rapid is better if you want to save time and get there faster. If you want to go to Wall/Badlands, you might as well take the first option and just stop on the way to the hills...

As far as a place to stay, I've stayed at the Holiday Inn Xpress in Keystone several times, that is my favorite place because the hotel is nice and in a perfect location to see everything (Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer Park, Etc. just like Jammie said). If you want to stay in Rapid, I've stayed at the American Inn (I think that's it?) on the South side of I-90 sort of across from Rushmore mall area. That was pretty nice and the price was good. There is also a place across from the Milstone restauraunt, that is an older 2 story sort of L shaped hotel. That was just fine, clean and very reasonable.

If you are going for more than a week, you may enjoy 3 nights in one place and 3 nights in rapid so you get a variety of locations to pop over to.

Either way, you'll love it out there. As you can tell, everyone on this forum does!

All the best and Good luck to you!

[DannyBanany]

GVille-

I live in Rapid City, and there are endless possibilities of hotels and motels to stay at depending on your price range. We are now in the "off season" so rooms are very cheap and you may get a better hotel than in the summer. If I may suggest the new LaQuinta and Marriott on Exit 61 off I-90, it is pretty new and i saw a sign that said rooms were $59. It also has a water resort park if you plan on bringing kids or you just want to have a good time too.

What time of year do you plan on coming?

If you fly into Rapid City, it will be substantially higher in price than if you drive from Denver. Denver is the closest international airport and the drive from Denver is not bad. Sioux Falls will cost quite a bit.

Best of Luck!

[Badland wonder]

Oh come on, one night in Wall and visit the famous Wall Drug Store and do the badlands up right with plenty of time for driving, walking, and fossil hunting! And 1880 Town outside of Kadoka is fun too.