Last week I got into a discussion with a colleague at work about some hotels and resorts around Rapid City. I mentioned some out-of-the-way places – I think my exact words were, “isolated mountain lodges.” The response? “We don’t really have any… do we?”

After mentally smacking my forehead, I quickly ran through a list of them in my mind. I think I did a good job of getting through the conversation politely – and without any more head-smacking, mental or otherwise – but it did get me to thinking about the types of accommodations in the Black Hills. I’ve decided there are three types:

Mountain Lodges. We’ll start with this one: the out-of-the-way cabins, resorts and lodges in isolated little pockets of forest. Typically you have to drive about a half-hour from Rapid City to reach any of them, but that’s the point, after all: to get away. K Bar S Lodge in Keystone (pictured above) is a great example: private rooms in the shadow of Harney Peak. The steam locomotives of the 1880 Train pass nearby, but that’s the closest you get to traffic. The stone fireplaces, family-style dining room and leather furniture add to the rustic ambiance. Not that you’re leaving civilization, of course – the lodge is only two years old, and has free Internet and televisions throughout. Other places like this include Audrey’s Abend Haus and the Custer State Park Resorts (Sylvan Lake Lodge is my personal favorite).

Downtown Hotels. I love historic downtowns, and the Black Hills are full of them. The city centers in Rapid City, Deadwood, Hill City, Custer, Spearfish and Hot Springs are beautiful, and they all have great accommodation options. The broadest range is probably in Rapid City, where there’s a good mix of modern convention hotels (the Radisson) and historic inns (the Hotel Alex Johnson). Deadwood’s downtown hotels are smaller, but there are more – Hickok’s, the Silverado-Franklin (in the picture below, with the Deadwood trolley), the Bullock Hotel and the Gold Dust/Holiday Inn Express certainly fit into that category. Many of these hotels have great restaurants, too – check out Enigma in Rapid City’s Radisson. If your inn doesn’t have a good food option, no worries – since you’re downtown, you can walk to one.

Interstate Hotels. These types of accommodations are usually chain hotels along Interstate 90 in Rapid City and Spearfish. Most of them are new, with free Internet, movie channels and plenty of rewards programs. A few of them have extras like attached restaurants (Minerva’s attached to Rapid City’s Ramkota Best Western) and indoor water parks (Watiki, pictured below, is connected to a LaQuinta and Fairfield Inn on Rapid City’s east side). These types of hotels are often good choices for families, business travelers or people who need to stay within 15 minutes of Rapid City Regional Airport.

Of course, like any list, this one can be sub-categorized a lot more, but I think it’s a pretty simple way of looking at your Black Hills hotel options, and it should help you a bit with your vacation plans.