SWS Question

[Amy H]

Do I need to make dinner reservations at the Grand Canyon? I would like to have dinner at the rim. Also, any suggestions on where to eat that night I am on my own. I am traveling with 2 children? Thank you.

 

[airbear]

My husband and I are going on this trip in July so I can't answer your questions I was just wondering when you and your kids are going?

 

[sayhello]

Do I need to make dinner reservations at the Grand Canyon? I would like to have dinner at the rim. Also, any suggestions on where to eat that night I am on my own. I am traveling with 2 children? Thank you.

Sorry, I can't really answer your question, because when I did SWS, we went back to Tusayan to eat near the Grand Hotel. We *did* have lunch on our own at the rim, but that doesn't help you with dinner. I ate lunch at the restaurant at Bright Angel Lodge. It's a nice, casual, "comfort foood" type of place. The other place people ate was at the El Tovar Hotel. I do believe you would be advised to make reservations if you want to eat at the El Tovar. It's a very fancy, rather expensive restaurant.

When are you doing SWS? It's a great trip! You're going to love it!

Sayhello

 

[kristilew]

AmyH - If you check out last summer's SWS trip reports in the sticky, there are details about the GC restaurants.

The short answer to your question is "it depends." You will not need a reservation to eat at Bright Angel, though you may have to wait a little bit for a table. I think for El Tovar dinner you will want to make a reservation now. We had lunch there with no reservation and got right in. We were early, though, before noon. It did start to fill up. Several others in our group had made El Tovar reservation well before going. If you are up in the air about it, your guides will be happy to help as well. You can tell them on the first day of the trip that you are thinking about it and they can check for you then.

Finally, the guides also took a group into town to the pizza place that night, so you might prefer to do that, if you or your kids have bonded with the group.

You're going to have a great time!

 

[Amy H]

My husband and I are going on this trip in July so I can't answer your questions I was just wondering when you and your kids are going?

We are going August 3rd and staying in Fruita with a real dinosaur dig after the SWS trip. My DS is 10 and this was his pick for this years trip!

 

[Aunt Cawa]

Hi Amy,

You are going to love the trip! We did this trip in '07 and loved the area so much that we were just back to the Grand Canyon for a longer trip last month. El Tovar is the only restaurant that takes reservations and it only takes them for dinner. The Arizona Room and Bright Angel both serve dinner but do not take reservations. The Grand Canyon dining page http://http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/dining-420.html has information about all their restaurants and sample menus. We stayed at El Tovar and ate there a few times and once at the Arizona Room. Both restaurants are nice and the service was great. However both restaurants are expensive but eating in El Tovar is a really cool experience. If you are looking for something a little more casual you might also want to look at the Maswik Lodge cafeteria. It is just a short walk from the rim or you can take one of the blue shuttles there. We ate there a few times and thought the food was very good. And I am not a cafeteria type girl!

Hope this helps. Have a great trip!