The $100 nonresident fee, explained

Starting in 2026, eleven of the most famous parks charge visitors who aren't U.S. residents an extra $100 per person, on top of the normal entrance fee. It's the biggest pricing change in the park system in decades, and it changes the math completely for international trips.

The eleven are Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion.

The mechanics are simple. Every non-U.S. resident aged 16 or older pays the $100 surcharge at those parks. Kids 15 and under are exempt from both the surcharge and the regular entrance fee. A family of four with two teenagers, visiting from abroad, is looking at $400 in surcharges plus the vehicle fee for a single park day. That's not a typo.

The $250 pass that caps it

There's a new America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Pass at $250. It covers the $100 surcharge for the pass holder plus three additional nonresidents aged 16 and over, and it works like the regular pass otherwise. The break-even is brutal in the right way: two adults visiting two of the eleven parks would pay $400 in surcharges, so the $250 pass wins on almost any real itinerary that touches more than one headline park.

How to plan around it

If you're visiting from abroad and the itinerary hits one big park, pay the surcharge and move on. Two or more, buy the $250 pass before the first gate.

And remember what the surcharge list is: the famous eleven. The other 463 units in the system charge international visitors nothing extra, and most charge nothing at all. A trip built around monuments, seashores, and the less famous parks dodges the entire question, and honestly, it's often the better trip.

Fee policies shift. Check the official park page linked from any park here before booking flights around a number.