Tours around Yellowstone

I like it when I'm in places like this and I see happy people on tour busses. It always reminds me that folks have different ways of enjoying themselves and different tolerances for travel: I'm seeing the place the way I like to and they're seeing it the way they want to.

I hope you find the tour you're looking for.

HHfundays wrote:
If your only way to get around Yellowstone is a tour bus then do that. But, if you have the option to drive yourself you will be able to stop at all the places you want to and stay for as long as you want to stay. Yellowstone is a very big park with great things to see.

Are you saying that you only have one day to do Yellowstone, or you that's all you want to spend there?
Either way, you'll see far more and at a more leisurely pace if you drive yourself,(and Far cheaper).
You may save yourself a few miles (57 +/-) if you move from Livingston to Gardiner, at least that'll put you almost at the north entrance. As others have said, Yellowstone is huge, with a lot more to see than you will in one day on a tour bus.

BarabooBob wrote:

We are retired now and plan on spending a lot of time just looking more in detail at everything.

I'm envious! Only 1056 days to go! :B

We plan on going back to Yellowstone for the fifth time this summer and will be spending 5 full days this time.
If you take a tour that spends one day on the north loop and one day on the south loop, you will drive past some much of what makes Yellowstone great. I like the idea of using the tour as an overview and then going back to see what interests you.
We are retired now and plan on spending a lot of time just looking more in detail at everything.

If your only way to get around Yellowstone is a tour bus then do that. But, if you have the option to drive yourself you will be able to stop at all the places you want to and stay for as long as you want to stay. Yellowstone is a very big park with great things to see.

We toured the park in two parts; Loop 1 then Loop 2. We put a down day after each tour then went back to the places of special interest that we saw the day before. That makes four days in Yellowstone which is enough unless you want to do some hiking. Grizzly is next to a bear and wolf sanctuary where you can challenge the bears by hiding food under rocks, etc.
Some folks seem to pride themselves on driving their own vehicles around the park which does two things; maybe three; puts a lot of miles on their vehicle and tires out the driver and the possibility of missing something important exists without the tour guides expertise.
We stayed at Grizzly and the tour vehicle picked us up there.

Yellowstone bus tours are operated by Xanterra. They have a number of options. The closest pickup for you would be Mammoth Hot Springs, a good 60 minute drive from Yellowstone's Edge. Yellowstone Edge isn't in Livingston, it is about 20 miles south. Not much in the way of amenities in the immediate area and absolutely no food or drink within walking distance.
There are private tours available that might pick you up at the park. They will be expensive, my guess north of $500.00 for the day. You can find them with an internet search (try "private tours of Yellowstone" as a starting point)

one day to tour yellowstone will make for a very, very long day especially starting from Livingston, MT. It will take 6 hours to just drive the loop without stopping anywhere.

When I read your item I was thinking that I've never seen a tour bus in YNP tho I think I recall something about winter tours, probably in a snowcat or something like it.