We stayed about 6 days in the town of Jackson when visiting Grand Teton National Park last summer. We were most excited to stay here out of the three places we went because we had heard so many great things about it, although we weren't that impressed with the town iteself and found ourselves often escaping to places all around it instead of spending time in the actual town. The greatest thing that the town of Jackson has going for it in my opinion is it's location to Grand Teton National Park. If you are into skiing, it's an excellent location as well.
Everyone that we met in Jackson that were locals stated that they traveled into the town to work because it was such an expensive place to live and lived about an hour outside the city. Everyone that worked here seemed to be a transplant from somewhere else so it was a place that I found lacking an identity and culture. I think what the town of Jackson is going for though is a country theme mixed them trying to be bougie, but there was something about it that just didn't feel genuine at all.
I didn't love that there is an airport in the National Park so when you are checking out the beauty of Grand Teton National Park you will hear and see airplanes flying over, which defeats the purpose of being in nature and disconnecting.
The town of Jackson is small with a lot of hotels and motels that can't accomodate the small town. For this reason, the streets are packed and crowded. They even have flags that you are supposed to take when you cross the crosswalk and return when you are done so cars stop for you. There is a lot of cars on the road in the area and it's congested and there is not enough parking spots for the amount of people floading the streets.
The stores are a little random in my opinion. They are trying to capitalize on tourism and get the most money they can so you will see touristy places like the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and other tourisy stores with cheap gifts that say Wyoming on them. You probably won't find any real cowboys here, but will find women dressing up as cowgirls for bachlorette parties and things like that. You have stores to appeal to those more bougie like galleries, jewelry stores, and pictures of real estate in the area. We ate at The Restaurant at White Buffalo Club and it was amazing! You will find boutiue kids stores as well since this is a place where you will find a decent amount of families. In the center of the town you have antler arches. All in all, if I visited Grand Teton National Park again, I would probably look for a place to stay outside of the town of Jackson that isn't too far away from the park. read more