Sage Lodge — Hotel in Livingston

Me and my wife were planning a getaway trip to Yellowstone National Park. It was our first time visiting and were looking for the BEST place to stay. We fell in love with this lodging. See below for details & added pics.

Our goal was to go to Yellowstone National Park from the North entrance. If this is your goal too, then this is the place for you. We had to split our time here and other hotel in Gardiner because they did not have availability at Sage for the other days. So I can say, Gardiner is a small town before the North entrance but I would not recommend really staying there. Sage Lodge is in Pray, MT and is about 40-minutes from the North entrance but the drive to park is worth it for several reasons. This is because that 40 minute drive allows you to see animals on the way to the park. We saw eagle, bisons, cattle, cows, raven flying, elks, deers, sheep, and goats.

1. Ambience/location: "Breathtaking" does not even exemplify this place. You have to be there to truly feel the experience. First, it is surrounded by nature only. They did the best possible job in limiting light pollution and allowing one to vibe with nature. They have fishing rods and scope/binoculars available for use during your stay. They also had bicycles to use for their trails along with bear spray. We did the bicycle and one of the easier trails (~4-5 miles) and was absolute delight. On the trail we encountered deers roaming freely in nature. It was unbelievable. Waking up to the stunning mountain Views behind our rooming was stellar. At night, one can see the numerous stars! The placid lake behind the room was unreal!. Also, very safe.

2. Rooms: The room had a very "woody" feel. We loved it. The fireplace addition to our room was beyond describable here. It kept the sleep cosy. The one critic I would add is to do better job with the screening mesh to allow more smooth opening and closing but this was no big deal. The bathroom was clean and well maintained.

3. Staff/service: The staff were ALL so nice and welcoming. Coming from east coast, I never knew people could be so nice. This was like another world!. Special shout out to Grace at front desk for truly accommodating us in every way possible. One of our days, I asked her towns to visit nearby. She took the time to personally WRITE down on paper where to visit in Livingstone town. Most people would just say it and not write it down but this personal volition to help us was beyond exception--let's put it this way, I have stayed in countless hotels/lodges and this was first time a person personally wrote down suggestions. Grace even offered us water bottles on day of our departure for the road.

4. Dining: We fell in love with quality of food at Fireside restaurant. The salmon was great as was the chicken. The one critic here was our first night, the salmon piece my wife got was ridiculously small --about 2-inches. Wish I had picture to show but this definitely should be kept in mind. Otherwise, it worked out for us because we eat light and clean. We never ate at the Grill because it is not really our type of food (personal choice).

5. Recreational activities: Do check them out. We only did the bicycling because of time constraints but would have liked to stay longer to explore of it. They do have a gym which I saw people use.

6. Overview: So I personally wrote down things during my stay so later I can put it here. The great pros that I wrote down were: "clean, amazing bedsheet made out of silk, and great staff". -You will see likely all kinds of birds if you pay attention along with large animals like deers and elks

7. Areas of improvement: -Coffee cup sizes: In the morning there is coffee in the lounge area but the coffee cups are SO small. We need more larger coffee cup sizes for the road. I found myself drinking 3 cups of those small ones in a rush in the morning so I can "wake up" before our tour. This investment is small and I highly recommend it. -Dining: Be mindful of size of salmon served as mentioned above but otherwise this was definitely by no means a...

The Sage Lodge is truly a phenomenal resort and hotel.

My husband and I held a small wedding of 40 guests in the Yellowstone Room in April.

To start, we had to move our wedding date up and find a new venue and vendors in a very short amount of time. TJ and Sara were both lovely and so helpful. TJ gave us a great tour and Sara helped us with our initial booking.

As we progressed into planning the wedding and our stay, we began working with Kelly Irhke. Kelly is an incredible coordinator! She was so kind, personable, and had great attention to detail. She was mindful of our budget, and helped us determine our priorities for our cozy wedding. Leading up to the wedding, her communication was timely and her organization really kept us on track. Kelly and the kitchen staff also created an incredible Celiac safe wedding menu and were so mindful of cross contamination in the kitchen and at the wedding. Even the servers were aware that I have Celiac and were very clear about which additional food items were gluten free and specially served for me. It was a blessing to relax and eat freely on my wedding day! While we were at Sage for the wedding, Kelly was readily available for us and our guests during our entire stay. She handled the whole event so well that I kept remarking to everyone, “This is too easy! I’m too relaxed for my wedding day!” Additionally, my wedding party and I designed the flowers for the event, and Kelly jumped right in to help. She flawlessly executed the decor for the reception too, so that I could relax and enjoy my day. Overall, working with Kelly was one of the highlights of our stay.

Our stay in the ranch houses was wonderful. The ranch houses are large, but cozy, with stunning views of the mountains and pond. Housekeeping was timely and efficient, and we felt that the resort’s service as whole was exceptionally accommodating to us and all of our guests. It is clear that customer service is a top priority for every staff member. We also had two dinners catered at the ranch house: a charcuterie station for our rehearsal night and wood fired pizzas, Caesar salad, garlic bread, and huckleberry pie for my husband’s birthday. Both meals were delicious and beautifully presented. Our guests were raving about the huckleberry pie for the rest of the weekend too. Additionally, the set up and clean up service was great. There was one employee in particular, who I didn’t get the name of (a dark haired young woman). She was so helpful, personable, and timely. She went out of her way to deliver last minute ice cream to us after I forgot to order it with our pies.

Ultimately our wedding and stay at the Sage Lodge was wonderful, relaxed, and luxurious. However, the real highlight of our stay (for a busy bride and groom) was our interactions with the staff. Every staff member we interacted with was kind, professional, personable, and willing to go above and beyond to offer us a high standard of service. An additional special thanks to Penny, our server at the wedding who was so kind and helpful in boxing up our dessert, JT for providing transportation during bridal photos, Wesley for squeezing our large party in for a last minute dinner reservation in the fireside room, and Michael who provided excellent dinner service in the fireside room. Michael was attentive, gave us great food and drink suggestions, and even provided me an unplanned, last minute celiac safe dinner. As a very sensitive Celiac, I was so impressed.

All in all, thank you to everyone at the Sage Lodge. We are already considering Sage as a new family reunion destination, and my husband I will definitely be back for dinner and a weekend visit.

My last piece of advice for anyone planning a wedding or event at Sage: Utilize their suggested vendor list. Every vendor I used was wonderful, but particularly Kaci Q photography. I’m so grateful to Sage for connecting us with a great photographer and...

The sage lodge Montana is a prestige hotel typically costing over $600 a night. For that price one expects immaculate service- sadly the opposite was the case and what we experienced can be summed up as “inconsistent”.

We knew in advance that check-in was at 4pm, we called at midday from Livingstone to see if we could check in earlier, but they told us they were sold out and so not to expect our room to be ready until 4pm. That was fine as they had set an expectation, and we understood. So, we spent our time driving and walking around Gardiner.

We arrived at 3:05pm to check in and were told “welcome in” – a phrase that was consistently used by many staff. I asked on behalf of the president of a local club we belong to if they take group bookings, the receptionist told us, seemingly after checking with someone behind reception, that they did not. She then offered welcome mocktails by front desk staff. We had to wait until our room was ready at 4pm in any case. She told us “I’ll be right over with your welcome drinks – have a seat over in the Fireside Room”.

The front desk person must have forgotten us. We asked about our drinks at 3:35pm - the original person who checked and said they’d bring us our welcome drinks was no longer around. Another receptionist told us he needed to make the drinks, and it wouldn’t be long now.

We waited patiently in their Fireside Room as a waitress attended to a nearby table of 6 people coming to their table many times over the course of the hour. While they received meticulous attention, we seemed abandoned.

The reception area and Fireside Room have a truly amazing view of the nearby snowcapped mountains, one can’t emphasize enough the picturesque setting which even for us, who live 2 hours away in Billings, was more than impressive.

Finally, our welcome mocktails arrived at 3:55pm, nearly an hour after our arrival, with our room about to be available, and being ready to flop, this was to say the least irritating and what one would expect from a $100 2 star hotel, not a $600+ a night 4 star hotel.

We proceeded up to our room - it was a nice size with really nice furnishings, high thread count sheets, a large flat screen TV and a homely gas fire. It was right next to housekeeping and the elevator - I almost always ask to be away from elevators but likely neglected it and we lost the room lottery. But the elevator didn’t turn out to be an issue…

We tried to nap after a long drive but the room must be above or beside the lodge’s industrial laundry. It hummed and rattled as if a stream of helicopters were arriving outside with wealthy guests (no air traffic was to be seen though).

Sound proofing was not great and from time to time could hear music and guest conversations from the corridor outside.

We enjoyed a fabulous steak dinner cooked to perfection at the Grill, the gratin was the best I’ve ever eaten. Red wine selections by the glass were unimpressive – the cab and Syrah were underwhelming, and steer clear of the “cask wines”.

We did sleep well for the most part, but my wife was awoken by the adjacent housekeeping room in the morning.

We had breakfast at the Fireside Room – our waiter brought us tea and coffee but neglected to bring us teaspoons which we prompted him for – then he proceeded to disappear for over 5 minutes, and we resorted to asking one of his colleagues. A minor oversight and what friends would call a “first world problem”, still not the service we expected.

Upon checkout I again asked, just in case, about group rates for our local car club. I was told – of course we have group rates! This just about summed up our stay – inconsistent – hardly the mark of a $600/night...