Has anyone done a vacation to grand canyon and New Mexico?

We did this last summer but we flew. We flew into Denver and rented a car. Then we spent a couple of days in the Colorado Springs area (Garden of the Gods, Pike's Peak, the zoo, the Olympic Training Center), drove to Santa Fe and spent a few days there, drove to Grand Canyon and spent a night, stopped in Sedona for a day, and then drove to Phoenix for the flight home.

If you flew into Phoenix, then Sedona would be on the way to Grand Canyon if you drive up there. You also could fly into Vegas and hit Zion and Bryce on your way to GC then loop down to Sedona and down to Phoenix or back to Vegas. There is a train that goes from Williams, AZ to the canyon but I haven't heard any great reviews of it.

Albuquerque and Flagstaff are connected by an Amtrak route, but not Sedona or the Grand Canyon. There is a tourist train that goes from Williams to the Grand Canyon, but like emalloy I have not heard anything good about it. It thinkit is more for children---they have a staged Western-style robbery, etc.

Your best option is to fly into Phoenix, rent a car and tour the Grand Canyon and Sedona, then Albuquerque, or the Las Vegas option suggested by emalloy. Car rentals are cheaper from Las Vegas but Phoenix may put you in a more central locaton for what you want to see.

We did trip a few years ago from Houston to Carlsbad NM, went thru the caverns . . then to The Grand Canyon for three days . . went on to California from there.

Are you flying or driving?

We took a similar trip last summer - flew into Albuquerque and out of Las Vegas.

Visited Santa Fe, Taos, Albuquerque, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Zion, and Vegas, plus points in between. You don't have enough time for all that in 10 days.

You definitely need a car to visit these places. Look into flying into Phoenix and out of Albuquerque, vice versa.

You could do something like this:

Fly into PHX & drive to Sedona upon arrival. 1-2d in Sedona, then 2d in Grand Canyon, find your way to NM stopping at the Petrified Forest NP and Acoma Pueblo enroute to Albuquerque. Then a couple (2-3)days in Santa Fe, day trip to Taos, overnight in Albuquerque. Fly back to Tampa.

The added cost of a 1 way rental would be more than offset by the benefit of not backtracking to Phoenix.

Wow, thanks everyone for your input. What I really want to do but now sure if there is enough days is:

- fly in to flaggstaff. stay 2 days in grand canyon.
- rent a car and drive to sedona. stay 2 days and then
- drive to taos where my cousin lives and stay a couple of days and go to ojos caliente and maybe then
- drive to santa fe (go to ten thousand waves) walk around the town (not sure where to stay yet and then
- leave out of albequerque and drop off the car. maybe go to old town and that tram that goes up the mountain. That would be the ultimate. We are more spa, native american sites and relax type of people with some adventure added in the mix. We definately want to visit the sacred sites that ssedona has to offer on the jeep tours or something like that. If anyone has any sedona hotel suggestions (mid priced) or santa fe i would be interested in your suggestions.

Thanks

I don't think there are commercial flights into Flagstaff.

Drive from Santa Fe down the Turquoise Trail and you can swing by Sandia Peak. Then continue down into Albuquerque; this will get you the views and save the time of taking tram, unless that is your main goal.

http://www.turquoisetrail.org/

In Santa Fe, head to museum hill to see some great Native American things

http://www.museumhill.org/

Old Town in ABQ is nice, but is mostly shops. Try the Hispanic Cultural Center for better insight to the culture

http://www.nhccnm.org/

I am not sure what Jeep tours that take you to sacred sites in Sedona you are talking about; think you are mixing things up.

If you want to see amazing Native American sites, try Chaco Canyon [ 2 hours from ABQ] or Mesa Verde NP in SW Colorado.

I think you need to tighten up what you want to do and what you can do in 10 days. You can go in and out of Albuquerque [Southwest usually has great fares], making a loop to AZ and then back again.

Deb

I think flying into phoenix airport would be better. Then driving to sedona and then on to santa fe, taos and leaving albequerque for last day.

Looking at the grand canyon lodge hotels that line the rim, el tovar,katchina, thunderbird..... The jeep tours i was talking about are the ones that take you to where they have the vortex energy sites like the bell rock etc. trying to find hotels in sedona that would be nice for 1 or 2 days.

If you want more Native American sites, Montezuma's Castle and Well are not far from Sedona, Walnut Canyon is just east of Flagstaff, Wupatki is on the way out of Grand Canyon, Inscription rock and Acoma pueblo are west of Albuquerque in NM, and for something different, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert NP is just of I 40 in eastern AZ.