driving from SLC to jackson? to big sky?

[abc]

I bite the bullet and are now renting exclusively 4x4's, except in late spring when I don't expect ANY storms (or they melt off the road instantly).

Yes, it cost an arm and a leg. But missing my flight home would cost me the whole week's difference in price and some.

 

[thetrailboss]

I have been to all three. Targhee is too expensive to stay at, but their lift tickets are reasonable. I can stay in town of Jackson for $50 a night, but their lift tickets are wildly unreasonable. I can stay outside Big Sky for about $70 a night, and ski for free. I haven't looked closely at Sun Valley yet, but I know they don't have discount lift tix (no Mountain Collective resorts do). Sun Valley seems like the safest and easiest drive.

As for the gnarly terrain - yes, I know, they need a lot of snow to open super steep and exposed stuff. Of course. But this is all relative. Jackson and Big Sky and Targhee all have an impressive early season base, even if they got rained on recently. Utah has quite literally NOTHING right now. absent a multiple foot blockbuster storm, the skiing in Utah will be substantially more boring than anything on offer further north.

I don't mind driving in terms of time, at all. I log two 4-6 hour drives every single weekend to get to New England. My only concern is running into some gnarly driving conditions in a cheap ass rental car. I will beg for 4WD upgrade at the counter.

Have to agree to avoid Utah right now. We are struggling at best.

 

[thetrailboss]

not on max pass. big sky is the inexpensive choice. Jackson is the easiest to get to choice

OK. So your "pass" is the Max Pass?

If so, the drive from SLC to Crested Butte is not THAT bad, but it is longer. 6-7 hours. It's another option. I have not driven to Steamboat yet, but I have driven to Aspen/Snowmass and Telluride. Both were longer drives, but not that bad. Aspen/Snowmass was pretty easy drive. Telluride required some "interesting" remote mountain pass/canyons between Moab and Norwood, Colorado.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

yea, but Colorado is pretty much just as bad as Utah right now. North is the move I think. and I'm doing a full week at crested butte in feb/march

 

[Jcb890]

When you guys are saying "4x4", do you mean a dedicated 4x4 off-road type of vehicle? Otherwise, you can get an AWD SUV for a pretty reasonable weekly price at any of the major hub airports. It costs more than an economy FWD car, but not a ton more and will handle a lot worse in terms of driving conditions.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

When you guys are saying "4x4", do you mean a dedicated 4x4 off-road type of vehicle? Otherwise, you can get an AWD SUV for a pretty reasonable weekly price at any of the major hub airports. It costs more than an economy FWD car, but not a ton more and will handle a lot worse in terms of driving conditions.

everyone is referring to a four wheel drive or all wheel drive car. not some sort of off road vehicle.

it is ~3x more expensive to rent an SUV, and even then they do not guarantee that it is a 4WD SUV

I rented a "supplier's choice" for $225-ish, renting an SUV would have been about $700. I'm solo on this trip and am not spending $700 on a rental car.

 

[Jcb890]

everyone is referring to a four wheel drive or all wheel drive car. not some sort of off road vehicle.

it is ~3x more expensive to rent an SUV, and even then they do not guarantee that it is a 4WD SUV

I rented a "supplier's choice" for $225-ish, renting an SUV would have been about $700. I'm solo on this trip and am not spending $700 on a rental car.

That is what I figured, but then I am confused with you guys talking about the astronomical prices of the AWD SUVs and it seems like I have had a different experience than you.

Last year we flew into Denver (Jan) and Bozeman (Feb) and rented an AWD SUV at both airports. An economy car would have cost around $200-$250 for the week. The AWD SUV was maybe $300 or $350-ish, certainly under $400 though and less than double the cost. The ones I rented, it guarantees it is an AWD SUV - it says "Toyota Rav-4 AWD or similar" - something along those lines. So, I would that they owe me an AWD SUV as long as it says AWD or 4WD in the description of what I paid for. While it may not necessarily be a Toyota Rav-4, it will/should be an AWD SUV of some kind, which is fine.

Either way, we had no issues. We wound up not really needing the AWD, but I'd rather have an AWD SUV on vacation and not need it than be stuck in a little Nissan Sentra.

 

[jimk]

Jcb890, some markets such as SLC charge a big premium for 4wd, like Kusty suggests. I'm no expert in car rental stuff, but it seems like it runs on a crazy business model. For decades they allowed you to reserve anything you wanted with no commitment. On the surface that was good for consumers because you could keep making reservations for months in advance of a trip and just go with the one that you finally found to have the lowest rate and blow off all the rest. How can a business be cost effective when they have no clue if a reservation is really going to be claimed? Under this model they sometimes did not have the model you reserved. If you were lucky they gave you something better to placate you. They have to make an educated guess on how many cars to have on the lot. I have reserved what I thought was going to be a 4wd SUV only to be offered something like a Ford Escape that was FWD.

Lately, to get the best rates it seems like you have to pay in advance, for example with Priceline. I guess some folks get low rates by becoming expert at playing the preferred/loyal customer game, which is something I don't know much about. You did well with your SUV rentals out of Denver and Bz, but you'll see the big mark-up in some other places.

 

[Jcb890]

Jcb890, some markets such as SLC charge a big premium for 4wd, like Kusty suggests. I'm no expert in car rental stuff, but it seems like it runs on a crazy business model. For decades they allowed you to reserve anything you wanted with no commitment. On the surface that was good for consumers because you could keep making reservations for months in advance of a trip and just go with the one that you finally found to have the lowest rate and blow off all the rest. How can a business be cost effective when they have no clue if a reservation is really going to be claimed? Under this model they sometimes did not have the model you reserved. If you were lucky they gave you something better to placate you. They have to make an educated guess on how many cars to have on the lot. I have reserved what I thought was going to be a 4wd SUV only to be offered something like a Ford Escape that was FWD.

Lately, to get the best rates it seems like you have to pay in advance, for example with Priceline. I guess some folks get low rates by becoming expert at playing the preferred/loyal customer game, which is something I don't know much about. You did well with your SUV rentals out of Denver and Bz, but you'll see the big mark-up in some other places.

I know, we had looked at doing SLC also and I don't recall rental prices being crazy compared to Denver or Bozeman. They certainly weren't double if I recall correctly. Oh well.

 

[cdskier]

everyone is referring to a four wheel drive or all wheel drive car. not some sort of off road vehicle.

it is ~3x more expensive to rent an SUV, and even then they do not guarantee that it is a 4WD SUV

I rented a "supplier's choice" for $225-ish, renting an SUV would have been about $700. I'm solo on this trip and am not spending $700 on a rental car.

I know, we had looked at doing SLC also and I don't recall rental prices being crazy compared to Denver or Bozeman. They certainly weren't double if I recall correctly. Oh well.

For fun I just went to Enterprise's website. An "Intermediate" SUV for the time-frame mentioned out of SLC would be $500 vs ~$320 for their cheapest car option. Prices are a bit weird though as the "Intermediate" SUV (Rogue or similar) was cheaper than the Economy SUV (Santa Fe or similar) by $200! Meanwhile a Premium SUV (Suburban) is only $30 more than the Intermediate. However a "Full-Size" SUV (Tahoe) is more than double the Suburban! This pricing strategy makes 0 sense to me. I can get a Suburban for cheaper than a Santa Fe?

I've never had to deal with renting a car...do prices fluctuate a lot? (i.e. if I look a week from now for that same time-frame, will prices change drastically from what I see today?)

 

[BenedictGomez]

When they say SUV or RAV4, people think that means 4WD, but it doesn't; I think they're tricking people with that marketing. In fact, one rental company told me none of the RAV4 in inventory are 4WD, so unless the rental car explicitly stated it's 4WD, I would not bank on receiving that if my life depended on it.

In the last two trips I had out west (DEN & SLC), my experience was similar to Kusty's, in that the price difference between a normal car and a guaranteed 4WD (key here) vehicle was large. And the extortional part is it can get even worse on the fly! When I landed at SLC, snow was expected, and the rental car counters jacked up the rate even worse. LOL And IIRC, the pricing at SLC was significantly worse than the pricing at DEN.

EDIT: Just checked my spreadsheets for the trips

2016 SLC (4 door sedan for 8 days, wound up being a Nissan Sentra) =$222.25 I wanted 4WD, but it was insanely more money, I think like 3x what I paid in the $600 to almost $700 area. So I risked it and figured I'd ride the bus up LCC/BCC at worst. Wound up getting lucky and didnt need 4WD at all.

2017 DEN (mid-size SUV 4WD for 8 days, wound up being a Dodge Durango) = $316.59


So my memory was right about SLC, but incorrect about DEN. And that Dodge Durango was the worst P.O.S. you can imagine. Friends dont let friends drive Dodge, but it was the only 4WD DEN had left so beggers couldn't be choosers.

 

[mikestaple]

I’ve driven from W Yellowstone to Big Sky in a six inch snowstorm. Just like driving the last 10 miles to Jay. Did it in a suburban. My advice is drive during day light. At Big Sky the Challenger lift is open. That is all you need. Sun Valley. Make sure Warm Springs is open. Ketchum is a better eating and drinking town than Big Sky.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[kingslug]

I'm officially depressed about all this ...

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Yep, BG's post is my exact recent experience

 

[cdskier]

I've never had to deal with renting a car...do prices fluctuate a lot? (i.e. if I look a week from now for that same time-frame, will prices change drastically from what I see today?)

I'll answer my own question. Holy crap do prices fluctuate a lot. The Suburban that was $530 last night when I looked today is over $1500. The car that was $320 yesterday is $450 (but another car is now $350). Also, the Tahoe details say it is 2WD, none of the other SUVs say one way or the other. So I guess reserving online you have absolutely no idea what you're getting (at least from this one place)? That's one awesome business model.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

clear your cookies and use private browsing, they know you're thirsty

 

[cdskier]

clear your cookies and use private browsing, they know you're thirsty

No change even with Incognito browsing. Also just tried from my work computer and see the same results I saw on my own computer this morning.

 

[Smellytele]

No change even with Incognito browsing. Also just tried from my work computer and see the same results I saw on my own computer this morning.

Tuesdays are the best days to book travel

 

[abc]

the price difference between a normal car and a guaranteed 4WD (key here) vehicle was large.

How does one guarantee a 4wd?

All I see are classes like SUV of different sozes, with notes of say “Toyota RAV or similar”

 

[Jcb890]

When they say SUV or RAV4, people think that means 4WD, but it doesn't; I think they're tricking people with that marketing. In fact, one rental company told me none of the RAV4 in inventory are 4WD, so unless the rental car explicitly stated it's 4WD, I would not bank on receiving that if my life depended on it.

In the last two trips I had out west (DEN & SLC), my experience was similar to Kusty's, in that the price difference between a normal car and a guaranteed 4WD (key here) vehicle was large. And the extortional part is it can get even worse on the fly! When I landed at SLC, snow was expected, and the rental car counters jacked up the rate even worse. LOL And IIRC, the pricing at SLC was significantly worse than the pricing at DEN.

EDIT: Just checked my spreadsheets for the trips

2016 SLC (4 door sedan for 8 days, wound up being a Nissan Sentra) =$222.25 I wanted 4WD, but it was insanely more money, I think like 3x what I paid in the $600 to almost $700 area. So I risked it and figured I'd ride the bus up LCC/BCC at worst. Wound up getting lucky and didnt need 4WD at all.

2017 DEN (mid-size SUV 4WD for 8 days, wound up being a Dodge Durango) = $316.59


So my memory was right about SLC, but incorrect about DEN. And that Dodge Durango was the worst P.O.S. you can imagine. Friends dont let friends drive Dodge, but it was the only 4WD DEN had left so beggers couldn't be choosers.

I think timing matters as well. When we looked into trip pricing SLC and DEN were similar for car rentals. SLC was a bit more, but not crazy.

Like I said in my previous post, I look for the "4WD" or "AWD", exact model doesn't so much matter, I'd rather have something AWD/4WD. If that is what I sign up for, that is what they owe me.

Tuesdays are the best days to book travel

Normally correct.

How does one guarantee a 4wd?

All I see are classes like SUV of different sozes, with notes of say “Toyota RAV or similar”

You may have to find the right model. I didn't have many issues when I used Kayak and was able to find if it was AWD/4WD or not. I am now having a tough time finding that information though. I thought when I looked last year they had a little graphic showing the drive wheels.