SpringHill Suites Springdale/Zion National Park Review [2021]

Zion National Park is one of the most popular (top 5) national parks in the country and it only seems to be getting more well-known every year. While Zion is one of my favorite national parks, it is often plagued by issues of overflowing traffic and parking shortages. One way to avoid the headache of these issues is to book a hotel located very close to the entrance of park.

The SpringHill Suites Springdale/Zion National Park is a perfect option for that and it’s just a great quality hotel all around. In this article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about SpringHill Suites Springdale.

Booking SpringHill Suites Springdale

I’ve been eyeing this hotel for quite some time in anticipation for a trip to Zion National Park and that day finally came March 2021. We booked this trip 24 hours prior to heading out based on the warm weather that moved in over Southern Utah and the great rates at the hotel.

We were able to book a king suite for two nights for only about $320 total (with taxes). If we had waited just two weeks to make the same booking, the total would’ve came out to about $800 so this was an absolute bargain in my eyes. Plus, we used the Chase Sapphire Reserve $300 travel credit so that we only actually came out of pocket 20 bucks for this stay!

As a Marriott Platinum Elite member and with the current promo, I earned a total of 7,275 Bonvoy points. At a valuation of .77 cents per point, that’s $56 in value back or 17.5% back. Not too shabby.

The SpringHill Suites Springdale is a category six property which means that you can’t use a free night certificate from a card like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless. However, if you have the more premium Marriott Brilliant card you can use your free night certificate at this property.

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Location overview

If you are planning a trip to Zion National Park, it is hard to beat the location of the SpringHill Suites Springdale.

First, the hotel is situated in an extremely scenic stretch of Zion Canyon scenery. While it is not located inside Zion National Park, it basically feels like you are already in the park with the stunning backdrop.

The SpringHill Suites Springdale is also next to several restaurants and shops. A short walk will take you to dining hotspots like Oscar’s, MeMe’s Cafe, and Zion Pizza & Noodle Co. Plus, the Springdale Visitor Center is also practically next door.

In terms of proximity to Zion National Park, it’s only four driving minutes away.

But there are a couple of issues with driving from the hotel to the park.

First, parking spots to the various trailheads fill up very quickly so you’ll want to get an early start most of the time. You’ll see a lot of cars getting “creative” with parking spots on the fringes of the parking lots and pull outs but getting an early start is your best bet.

Second, the main road going through the park (Floor of the Valley Road) is closed to passenger vehicles when the shuttles are running (March through October) so in many cases it will be better to just show up to the Zion Visitor Center which is the hub for the park shuttle buses.

There are free Springdale shuttles that will take you to the entrance of the park which is very close to the Zion Visitor Center. These shuttles were not running when we visited but they do resume in the middle of March. The nearest stop to the hotel is the Springdale Town Shuttle Stop #6, which is only about a two minute walk from the hotel.

(If you wanted to walk to the visitor center where the shuttles depart from, you could get there in about 25 to 30 minutes from the hotel.)

There are a lot of different cities you can stay in when visiting Zion and many people will stay in cities like St. George or Hurricane but those may require a good 30 to 60 minutes or so to get to the park. If you stay at the SpringHill Suites Springdale, the park feels like it is in your neighborhood.

The hotel is also decently close to some other major parks:

• Bryce Canyon National Park: 1h 45min
• Cedar Breaks National Monument: 1h 38min
• Antelope Canyon: 2h 30min
• Capitol Reef National Park: 3h 35 min
• Grand Canyon North Rim Visitor Center 2h 40min

Zion is a park that is perfect for doing a lot of short to medium hikes throughout the day and so it is nice to be able to quickly stop by your hotel room at different times in the day to re-charge. So that is just yet another reason why I’m a huge fan of the SpringHill Suites Springdale — it’s easy to get in and out of your hotel.

Check-in

We arrived around 2 PM but the room was not quite ready yet so we decided to head over to Oscars and enjoy lunch which was a nice break after the seven hour drive from our home in Tucson. I would highly recommend this burger joint as they have some very tasty options and even offer gluten-free buns!

After taking a minute to scope out the parking for Angel’s Landing (for the next morning), we went back to the hotel and checked in properly at 3:15 PM.

Undoubtedly, when you arrive in the lobby you will notice the beautiful floor to ceiling windows looking out to the canyon walls. Just taking one quick glance at the view let me know that I made the right decision with this hotel.

In addition to the dining area, there’s also a nice little lounge area in the lobby where you can play pool or just relax in some comfortable seating. While this hotel is part of the Marriott Springhill Suites brand, it does have some nice luxury elements to it which I really appreciated upon arrival.

Also, the staff at check-in was very friendly and helped kick our stay off on a nice positive note.

The room

The king suite was a nice and open room. The bed was on the firmer side but still comfortable and I enjoyed the floating headboard that came with built-in nightstands and good lighting options. If you need USB ports, your alarm clock will come equipped with two.

There was a 37 inch TV and we enjoyed kicking back after a long day of hiking and watching marathon of the classic Friday movies.

The “suite” is more of an open and compact junior suite (they have suites with more room available).

In one corner of the room, you’ll find a pull out-couch if you need extra real estate for sleeping.

They also have a nice little work station with outlets and good lighting for getting work done. There are also some sliding privacy panels that you can push aside if you would like to open up the room a little bit more and look out to the view.

We had a pretty decent view of some of the towering red rocks from our window.

The temperature swings during our visit were pretty drastic, ranging from the 20s to 70 degrees. But luckily, our AC and heater unit was working terrific and we were able to enjoy a comfortable temperature at all times.

The room came equipped with both a microwave and a refrigerator which is very handy at a place like this. You’ll be able to easily store and reheat your leftovers from the nearby restaurants and refuel yourself in between trips back into the park.

In the corner, there was a large closet complete with an iron and iron board.

The bathroom, which is accessed via a large sliding barn door (seen above), was spacious and modern. Although the bathroom only had one sink on the smaller side, it did have a good amount of counter space and good lighting.

The shower was thoroughly cleaned, and there were no issues with water temperature or water pressure which is always great.

The cleaning service staff was very prompt on multiple occasions. We requested towels a couple of times and they arrived at our door very shortly.

Breakfast

Breakfast takes place in the lobby area and they did a good job of setting up a spacious area with grab and go items. (Since this hotel visit took place during the pandemic, we were not able to partake in the full breakfast experience.)

They had a lot of different items to select from such as heated breakfast sandwiches, cereals, packaged pastries, muffins, bagels, PB&J, etc. If you are planning on being out and about in Zion National Park some of these snacks will be great for holding you over between hiking adventures.

Gym/Pool

The hotel has a nice gym equipped with plenty of cardio machines and free weights.

As nice as the gym was, I could not imagine spending time working out in the indoor gym at a place like Zion National Park when there are so many remarkable opportunities to get a great workout out in nature.

Just outside the lobby and below the gym, there is a nice outdoor lounge area complete with a fire pit that seemed to be pretty popular with other guests.

Since this was early March and temperatures were still pretty cold, the pool was closed and covered. They did have the hot tub open and in order to access it you will need to request a special key.

I thought the facilities and premises were really nice and well-kept.

The Virgin River wraps just behind the hotel and you can walk down and get fairly close to it which is also nice.

Final word

I found this accommodation to strike the perfect balance between price, location, and mid-level luxury. I think I would recommend this hotel to anybody visiting Zion National Park who wants a convenient hotel with nice amenities.