Our visit to the Best Western Premier Brian Head was our first great hotel selection during our Las Vegas Road Trip!
After a great visit to Great Basin National Park and completing the Lehman Cave Lodge Room Tour, we started our drive to Brian Head, Utah. Brian Head, Utah is gorgeous! It is a ski-resort town that sits at between 9,800 and 11,000 feet above sea level. The setting is serene and in a location that is tucked away such that you can disconnect from the daily hustle if you choose to.
What We Liked About this Brian Head Resort
Comfortable and welcoming lodge feel
Brian Head’s Best Western Premier is designed like a lodge. When you enter, you find an open, rustic setting accented with wooden furnishings and warm, cozy fireplaces. This feeling is comforting to us weary travelers after ascending the mountainside to get there.
Friendly Staff
The front desk and dinner dining staff were awesome! They were happy to share tips about the hotel and area, and made the start to our stay memorable and pleasant.
Clean Rooms
Clean sleeping areas and bathrooms make a hotel experience for me at every price point! I am happy that the warm and welcoming lodge feel extended to the pristine bedroom. I felt extremely comfortable in the well-kept room that we were assigned.
Beautiful Views!
Brian Head, Utah is gorgeous! It is known as a ski-resort town that sits at between 9,800 and 11,000 feet above sea level. The scenery is lovely. You get unobstructed views from each direction that you look of mountainside and open air. The Best Western Premier features beautiful indoor and outdoor social spaces where visitors can play games, chill and chat! From the outdoor seating areas complete with fireplaces, you can take in the gorgeous views that the area offers.
This is a great place to just get away!
Tasty, on-site restaurant
We dined at The Grand Steakhouse, the on-site restaurant at the resort. Arriving a little after sunset allowed us to get checked in and enjoy a leisurely dinner as the only folks present. The food was great, and the dinner wait staff was even better! Our waitress offered great information about the area. She even shared her story about how she ended up in Brian Head.
Close proximity to Cedar Breaks National Monument and Dixie National Forest
Proximity to Cedar Breaks National Monument was the primary reason that we chose to stay in Brian Head. This was one of the closest places to stay to the park. Just a few minutes down the road, you will enter the park.
Good stopping point between Great Basin National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park
If you are traveling from Great Basin to Bryce Canyon, why not hit up Cedar Breaks as well? And in so doing, when you stop at Brian Head, you get to drive the gorgeous scenic byway 143 on the way. When you do, you will pass the gorgeous Panguitch Lake and the large open expanses of roadway that make up Utah’s Patchwork Parkway!
What We Didn’t Like About the Best Western Premier Brian Head
Elevation
I once stayed for a few nights in the mile-high city (Denver, Colorado), and remember advice about staying hydrated due to the physical impact of staying at a high elevation. While I heeded the advice, I don’t remember feeling much different at 5,130 feet above sea level than I do at my central Ohio home (879 feet above sea level).
Brian Head, Utah, however sits at (and above) 9,800 feet above sea level!
And while I don’t quite know exactly where I started to feel the elevation change (I’m assuming somewhere between 5,130 and 9,800 feel 😉), it did impact me ever so slightly. Despite my efforts to stay hydrated, I did feel dry and I ended the day with a killer headache (an occurrence that is super rare for me).
While I wouldn’t label my symptoms as altitude sickness which strikes some folks pretty severely, the fact that I felt the change in elevation at all – even during such a short stay – makes me caution the traveler that may have more sensitivity to such changes.
Great Dinner Experience, but Breakfast Experience left a little to be desired
This comment is purely experience driven. While the food was great for both the dinner and breakfast that we enjoyed, the wait staff that served breakfast during our stay was less than stellar. Despite being only one of three tables that were occupied, wait times were long, and our order wasn’t the only one that was messed up.
When bringing this to the wait staff’s attention, they argued the particulars of my meal with me even though the menu clearly stated what was included. In the interest of time, I ate what I was given, and did not let this impact my day.
Overall, the restaurant was good. If there was a blemish on our stay at the hotel, the breakfast wait staff would be it. Again, this is purely experience driven. As you saw in my favorable review of dinner, I do not believe that the restaurant service is poor in general.
Conclusion – Best Western Premier Brian Head
Overall, we loved our stay at the Best Western Premier in Brian Head, Utah. We recommend it as a lovely place to stay close to Cedar Breaks National Monument!
One of the things that we were strategic about on our Road Trip from Las Vegas was to choose some good places to stay that 1) positioned us close to the parks that we were visiting and 2) made it so that we were able to make meaningful progress to our “next day sites”. This meant that we completed most of our drives after a day of visiting.
It was a strategic stop along our route that ended up offering convenience and comfort during our first night on our road trip.
What makes a hotel stay one that you would recommend when you are visiting National Parks? Let us know in the comments below.
Until next time, happy exploring!
