july yellowstone trip/ lodging/ car rental

ok, i THOUGHT i had this all figured out... but looks like i need some more of your input. Planning on flying out on July 10- have lodging in sturgess,sd for the 10th %26amp; 11th, then on the 12th in cody. on the 13th we check in at big sky, mt. check out on the 20th..looking for a midway place to stay on way back to rapid city airport for 21st departure. however, this is where things fell apart. I requested a 12 passenger van (two families, 8 people) from hertz, and two months later, they just called and said the car is unavailable... noone else seems to have the full size van..except in bozeman.. which means i would have to change the flights (no flights purchased yet) and the lodgings wouldnt work for 10th-12th. i really wanted to keep the family together - would be more fun- and cost effective. does anyone know of any other rental companies with these full size vans? should i look into changing our arrival and departure city (worried about lodging being available, it seemed we got lucky with availability) or do you think i should keep the original plans, and just get two cars, and a set of walkie talkies!!! (oh, and the flights into rapid city are $200 cheaper then into bozeman!!)

Any thoughts on this appreciated.

july yellowstone trip/ lodging/ car rental

one other thing - I do have an 8 passenger suv reserved as a backup..but i dont think it will hold all of us plus all the luggage. 4 teenagers - three of them large boys - athletic and over 6 ft tall. my daughter would be sandwiched between them!

:-) i know it%26#39;s going to be alot of driving.

july yellowstone trip/ lodging/ car rental

Hi jobosumm,

Call the Rapid City new car dealers of Chevy, Ford and Dodge and see if they do rentals. A few years ago my brother-in-law rented a mini van thru a local Ford dealer for his vaction trip.

I hope this works for you!

We are flying into Denver and going to Mt. Rushmore, Battle of Little Big Horn, Cody, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons, and Jackson Hole. I know it is a lot of driving but I got great round trip air fare and a great rental car rate. When I made rental car reservations for our SUV I saw vans on the list.

cc- what company is your rental from? i have called hertz, alamo, avis, budget, national and enterprise. thrifty has full size vans out of bozeman, no locations around rapid city. it seems that not many carry the larger vans, only the 7 pass mini van.

i will also try the car dealers, thanks! I believe ford makes the full size 12 pass van.

I went throught www. sidestep.com and compared prices but we are arriving and departing out of Denver. Denver has a bigger selection of cars than Rapid City, Billings or Bozeman.

Try Thrifty car rental!!!