Foreign Visitors

[pehayes]

Do you know of any foreign visitors planning to tour the USA in 2026?  The National Park Service will institute a new fee structure on January 1.  Foreign visitors will pay the regular Natiional Park entry fee PLUS $100 per person surcharge.  Supposedly good for seven days.  Not clear if that seven days includes multiple parks or just the one park you've just entered.  Not clear if it is a fee per vehicle or for each separate person within or upon the vehicle.  Plenty of confusing details in Google searches.  If you know of anyone planning a moto tour ( I do ) you should alert them to study and keep up with the information.  Just FYI.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[PeteS]

If you know these folks and you have a Senior Park Pass (Previously known as a Golden Eagle Pass) or Veterans Park Pass take them in your vehicle and you all get in for free.

Pete

[Motormike]

Not to mention the extra rules for travel into the EU and UK.  ETIAS and ETA respectively. 

[rocker59]

"Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the Annual Pass will cost $80 for U.S. residents and $250 for nonresidents, ensuring that American taxpayers who already support the National Park System receive the greatest benefit. Nonresidents without an annual pass will pay a $100 per person fee to enter 11 of the most visited national parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee.  "

https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/department-of-the-interior-announces-modernized-more-affordable-national-park-access.htm

[ridingron]

Not meaning to poke the bear but I think that's just a bit overboard.

[Perazzimx14]

"Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the Annual Pass will cost $80 for U.S. residents and $250 for nonresidents, ensuring that American taxpayers who already support the National Park System receive the greatest benefit. Nonresidents without an annual pass will pay a $100 per person fee to enter 11 of the most visited national parks, in addition to the standard entrance fee.  "

https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/department-of-the-interior-announces-modernized-more-affordable-national-park-access.htm

Wonder what is the "greatest benefit" to the American taxpayer? Is it they get to pay 1000's or 10's of 1000's dollars a year in Federal tax and then have to pay an additional $80 to access what their tax dollars pay for? Seems like non-resident visitors have it cheap in comparison.

A group of us are planning a trip out west this year and I'll have to buy a annual pass and chaps my a55 to have to do so.

[PeteS]

An American Citizen 62 and older can get a lifetime pass for 80 bucks. Used to be less than 20 bucks but still a deal if you travel especially out west. We have used it a few times just to ride through Parks we had visited a few times previously, Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, rather than ride around. Many Veterans can get a lifetime pass for free.
Check here to see if you qualify. Both passes allow you and three others in your vehicle free entrance to any US Park.

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/passes.htm

Pete
 

[pehayes]

Check here to see if you qualify. Both passes allow you and three others in your vehicle free entrance to any US Park.

The devil is in the details.

Bear with me on a little story.  In 2024 I hosted a dozen Guzzi Falcone riders from Italy on a three week,4000 mile tour of California.  I have the aforementioned Lifetime Senior pass.
When we entered Yosemite we were allowed me and three other motorcycles on my card (as above if we had been in a car).  Everyone else, including our service van paid individual entry fee.
When we entered Sequoia/Kings Canyon I was allowed in on my card but everyone else paid individual entry fee because they weren't actually inside my vehicle.  Everyone including my wife Regina who was riding her own Guzzi EV along side me!  She could only get in free if she got on the back of my bike.
When we entered Joshua Tree the entire entourage, including the service van were all allowed in free under my one card.

WTF?  When I questioned the process I was advised that implementation and enforcement were at the sole discretion of the individual National Park Superintendent at each location.  Like ship's captain at sea, they have supreme authority.

So, what will happen when you or your foreign guests visit the US National Parks?  Crap shoot.  I only introduced this topic so that both locals and visitors would be aware of significant changes in the system with no assurance of consistency.  Forewarned is forearmed.

PS:  All of this applies to National Parks and Monuments operated by the Department of the Interior.  There are other southwest facilities under jurisdiction of Native American entities.  The National Park fee system and discount cards do not apply on those Native run facilities.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[PeteS]

All good to know. My use has been limited to myself and my wife on the bike. Not too many places east of Mississippi that I aware it will help. Smokey MT National Park had no entrance fee when we were there and not sure about Acadia in Maine as that was too many years ago.

Pete

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

Wonder what is the "greatest benefit" to the American taxpayer? Is it they get to pay 1000's or 10's of 1000's dollars a year in Federal tax and then have to pay an additional $80 to access what their tax dollars pay for? Seems like non-resident visitors have it cheap in comparison.

A group of us are planning a trip out west this year and I'll have to buy a annual pass and chaps my a55 to have to do so.

Look at it as an investment if you're focused on the tax cost. The ROI is very high. In 2023 NPS received ~$3.5B in appropriations, it returned ~$55.6B to the US economy. I don't tend to look at it with that perspective, but even looking at it on a cost basis seems well worth it to me.

I expect this change will hurt tourism and local economies built around the parks, including the many small businesses, which could have an even larger social cost. I qualify for an Access Pass (disability), but still spend $80 each year to support the parks as they're by far my favorite attraction to experience while traveling by motorcycle across this grand country.

[Bulldog9]

Look at it as an investment if you're focused on the tax cost. The ROI is very high. In 2023 NPS received ~$3.5B in appropriations, it returned ~$55.6B to the US economy. I don't tend to look at it with that perspective, but even looking at it on a cost basis seems well worth it to me.

I expect this change will hurt tourism and local economies built around the parks, including the many small businesses, which could have an even larger social cost. I qualify for an Access Pass (disability), but still spend $80 each year to support the parks as they're by far my favorite attraction to experience while traveling by motorcycle across this grand country.

I have a buddy that's worked in the MPS for 20 years. He says one of the biggest complaints that the NPS gets every year. Are the bus loads of foreign tourists who come in sometimes in two and three bus caravans and flood the parks.

I imagine that this is designed to address this, not so much the individual family traveling abroad to see the beauty of our national parks.
 
But I think you're right, the second and third order effects of this may have impact. Not so much on the parks, but in the surrounding communities.

But I don't think this is very uncommon. When we were in Greece last summer, we had to pay entrance to a lot of the antiquity sites. Where are Greek and EU friends were able to show their ID and walk right in for free. It is what it is and a monetized society.

[rocker59]

I know we're talking Guzzisti, here (CHEAP), but sounds like the $250 annual park pass for international tourists will be something that they need to include in their list of things to buy and pay for.  Plane tickets, Hotels, Food, fuel, Park Pass.

If someone is coming over to ride a motorcycle around the west, visiting several national parks facilities, the $250 annual pass fee is a nominal cost.

The money brought in by the fees will help pay for staff and maintenance at the facilities.