Yellowstone
United States
The first national park anywhere, sitting on top of a supervolcano
Photo by James Lee on Unsplash
Photos by Richard Hedrick, Richard Hedrick, Ahmed Zalabany and Roxann C on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of United States
June to September (most roads are shut from November to April)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 55mm in May
Where it is
44.60°N, 110.50°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Be at the Lamar Valley at dawn, which is when the wolves and bears are out
- Walk the Upper Geyser Basin rather than only watching Old Faithful
- See Grand Prismatic from the Fairy Falls overlook, not the boardwalk
- Drive south into Grand Teton, which is an hour and worth a day
- Book lodging inside the park a year ahead, or stay in Gardiner or West Yellowstone
Yellowstone travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget United States
ExpensiveDollars. The park entrance is $35 a vehicle for seven days, and an America the Beautiful pass at $80 covers every national park for a year — worth it if you are seeing two.
ATMs & cards
Machines at the park lodges and in Gardiner, West Yellowstone and Jackson, all with fees. Mobile signal inside the park is close to nonexistent, so download maps and carry some cash.
Avoid these
- assuming there is a machine or a signal where you are going
Use these instead
- Lodge machines inside the park
- Banks in Gardiner, West Yellowstone and Jackson
Mobile coverage inside the park is close to nonexistent. Download offline maps, carry some cash, and fill the tank outside the park where fuel is cheaper.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of United States
SafeBison injure more visitors here than bears, wolves and everything else combined, and every case is somebody who got close for a photograph. Twenty-five metres from bison and elk, a hundred from bears. Stay on the boardwalks: the ground around a hot spring is a crust and people have died going through it. Carry bear spray on any trail and know how to use it.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
- Yellowstone National Park — the boardwalks and the developed areas
- Gardiner
- West Yellowstone
Worth more attention
- Bison, which injure more visitors here than everything else combined, and every case is somebody who got close for a photograph — 25 metres is the rule
- Stepping off the boardwalk at a hot spring, where the ground is a crust and people have died going through it
- Bears on any trail — carry spray and know how to use it, which is not the same as owning it
- Winter road closures, which shut most of the park from November to April
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa United States visa rules
Travel authorisation requiredup to 90 days$40
ESTA under the Visa Waiver Program. Romania was admitted in 2025 and then suspended again, so Romanian passports currently need a full visa — this one has flipped twice, so check the official link rather than trusting anything written down, including this. Bulgaria and Cyprus have never been in the programme. ESTA is refused if you have travelled to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia or Yemen since 2011 — those trips mean a full visa instead.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 180 days
Visa required in advance$185
A B1/B2 visitor visa, with an in-person interview. Waiting times run to many months in some countries — start early.
How to get it: Apply for ESTA at esta.cbp.dhs.gov at least 72 hours before travel. Every other site charging for this is a reseller.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: travel authorisation
ESTARequired
At least 72 hours before you fly. Most come back in minutes, some take days.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- a credit or debit card
- your employer's name and address
- any other citizenships you hold
The page calls itself the "Official ESTA Application Website" in its own title, because the trade in charging for this is large. Valid two years, not per trip.
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of United States
LimitedRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
The care is excellent and the bill is the risk. There is no universal system, an ambulance ride alone can run into four figures, and an uninsured hospital stay can be genuinely ruinous. Comprehensive travel insurance with a high medical limit is essential — this is the one destination where skipping it can cost more than the trip by an order of magnitude.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
DecentPark food is park food and there is no way around it. The lodges do a decent dinner if you book weeks ahead. The better plan is a cool box: the gateway towns have supermarkets and there is nowhere better to eat a sandwich than a pull-out in the Lamar Valley at seven in the morning.
Getting around
Car needed- BoltNot here
- From the airport
- JFK to Manhattan $70–95 by app, against a flat $70 yellow-cab fare plus tolls
No ride-hailing, no public transport and distances inside the park measured in hours. A hire car is not optional here.
Time zone and your working day
America/Denver — 2 hours behind you
6 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 11:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–15:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 11:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 11:00–19:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of United States
Why these are United States's numbers and not Yellowstone's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2.4× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fast. Enough to work from a cafe or a beach on a hotspot all day. Mobile runs at 1.7× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Yellowstone, so these are medians for all of United States. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for United States, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
American English — local usage
- HelloHey / How are you doing?
- The bill, pleaseCan we get the check?
- To go, not eaten inTo go
- Fizzy drinkSoda
4 more phrases
- The undergroundThe subway
- QueueLine
- Ground floorFirst floor
- Thank you very muchThanks so much
Religion
Christian majority, no state religion
Constitutionally separated from the state, and enormously varied by region — the south is far more observant than the coasts.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Tip 18-20% at restaurants and bars — servers are paid below minimum wage and depend on it
- Expect sales tax to be added at the till, not shown on the shelf price
- Make small talk with strangers; friendliness is genuine and not a prelude to anything
- Carry ID if you look under about 35 and intend to drink
Don't
- Do not skip the tip to make a point — take it up with the manager instead
- Do not discuss politics, guns or healthcare with strangers unless invited
- Do not stand too close; personal space is larger than in Europe or Latin America
- Do not joke about security at airports or borders
Where to stay in Yellowstone
No Holistay rentals in Yellowstone yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Yellowstone on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Bozeman BZN
1h 30mfrom the airport· 141 km as the crow flies
90 min to the North Entrance.
Also worth pricing: Jackson Hole JAC — an hour to the South Entrance, through Grand Teton.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
