Rough Riders Hotel — Hotel in Medora

First the good part: you cannot beat the location of the hotel if you are planning to visit TRNP. It is literally within walking distance of the visitor center. It also pretty central to Medora itself, so you can walk to the town square and restaurants, not that you'll ever be able to get a seat to eat anywhere. The room was pretty spacious.||Now the bad part. We were relegated to the Wooley Boys "cabins" because we are a family of 5. These are not actual cabins - they are more like connected 1 story apartments, separated by a thin connecting door, which I can attest to does not keep out noise, as my neighbors had a baby who we heard late at night and early in the morning. But that really isn't the bad part. The "cabin" is literally located in an alley, across from a VERY active laundry facility that has this weird incessant beeping that happens every 2 minutes. Obviously it must be hot in there, because the workers keep the garage door (which we faced) open all day long. Directly in front of our 2' wide "patio" was a local resident's backyard. While they had nice landscaping, between the laundry and the awkwardness of staring into their yard, there was no way we were sitting outside. We also had the pleasure of being situated next to the dumpster, so garbage disposal was quite easy.||This was absolutely a let down after the amount of money we paid to stay here and seeing the beautiful pictures of the historic hotel, as we couldn't even see it. We were a block and...

The hotel itself was fantastic. The rooms were pretty clean and the air conditioning worked like a champ, even when it was 97 degrees out. My only complaint was the pricing. I understand that Medora is basically North Dakota's version of Disney world but the fact that literally everything cost additional money on top of the $497.99 for a two night stay was a little excessive. The restaurant downstairs was nothing fancy but they definitely charged like a fancy place. For breakfast for my girlfriend and I, the total came to a cool $40 (it's worth noting that we both got one of the cheapest things on the menu. Staff was extremely helpful and polite. The only other thing that comes to mind is that the walls are tissue paper thin. We could hear kids yelling and screaming as they ran down the hallway until roughly midnight every night we stayed there. I would recommend staying at a hotel in Dickinson and driving down to Medora. It would be much cheaper and overall a better experience. (Bought the two nighter package for Rough Riders Hotel - $715.70, I had to budget out roughly $1,000 for food and entertainment for just my girlfriend and I. The food was outrageously overpriced so it cost us roughly $300 for food and drinks so please take that into account when planning a vacation here, I would do it all again because it was worth it but just keep the final price...

I rarely write reviews of places now that I travel so frequently for work but this place deserves five stars and more. First of all - it is like stepping back in time in a wonderful way, the bar staff is second to none, and the food is unreal. The rooms are perfect and everyone is friendly as can be.

For my brief story, and I am reluctant to call people to task but it is really worth noting for your trip, I was fully booked at the Wyndham down the road, paid in full, and upon arrival they told me they had cancelled my reservation no notice. I asked had they emailed, called, anything, they said it wasn't there responsibility to do so and they couldn't be ruder. Totally not indicative of Medora or North Dakota more broadly. I walked over to the Rough Rider and they worked it out to get me a room even with a busy weekend and a packed hotel - on top of it they gave me the standard rate, no fees or nothing. Jolene, the woman at the front desk, was the sweetest person at the place and must be working on being beatified, in my mind she's a saint already. I wish I remembered every other staffers name because they were all so great.

If you are staying in Medora, this should be your first choice. You will never forget the experience and if you are still deciding on a trip - go to North Dakota, it is truly a...