KristenHecksher

We have a trip planned this June to fly into Phoenix arriving at noon on a Sunday. We have reservations to stay the first night in Sedona with plans to head to Grand Canyon, Monday evening after spending the day sightseeing in Sedona. We have reservations to stay at the GC Village Monday thru Thursday evenings. The only firm plans we have for the GC is a plane, off road, and river full day trip already booked for Wednesday. We have learned that there is quite a bit to see in Sedona, that our thoughts were to leave from GC on Friday morning and head back to Sedona to do more exploring. We have reservations to stay in Sedona on Friday evening and then our flight leaves on Saturday afternoon. We welcome any recommendations, absolute must see/do's, itinerary suggestions (even modifications). We will have a rental car, so driving is not an issue. Just want to make the most of our trip. Thank you! Kristen

J62

I'm curious - where is your river trip? There is no river access near the GC village.

J62

Three days/4 nights at GC village sounds like a lot to me if all you have planned is the one day excursion away from the GC on Wed.

If you are only going to explore the rim/overlook points then one full day is more than sufficient. With 2+ full days (Tue/Thu, and part of Fri) you have time to do a hike part way into the GC from the rim. In June it will be beastly hot, so you'll want to get a very early start - eg be on the trail by 7am.

If you are strong hikers, I recommend you take a ~3mi hike on the S. Kaibab trail to Skeleton Point. It's a 2000' elevation drop and gets you great views of the canyon & river below. The hike down would take me about 1hr as a jogger, 2-3 for slow steady walkers. The hike back up can take anywhere from 2-4 hrs. There is NO water at all available on this trail, so for that hike I recommend each of you carry 3-4 liters of water, plus plenty of food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Kaibab_Trail

If you don't want to go so far, you can hike 1.5mi / 1200' elevation change to Cedar Ridge. That round trip would take anywhere from 2-4 hrs depending on your pace.

If you are not planning to hike below the rim then I think you could cut one day from your stay at GC.

voyager61

I think 3 nights at the Grand Canyon is plenty of time and I would leave Thursday and spend your last two nights in Sedona. If you like hiking, Sedona has so many options, plus fun places to eat and it's a beautiful place to relax. Be sure to go to the Elote Café in Sedona. No reservations available, so you have to stand in line and wait. Get there very early because it is insanely popular, but for good reason.

MikePinTucson

I also would be interested in finding out about your river rafting trip, since there are none that originate in the GCNP. You would have to go to either Page, east of the GCNP or Peach Springs, about 150 miles west of the GCNP. Fill us in, because what you are planning may not be feasible if your lodging is at GC Village.

Seems like you are trying to put too many activities into the GC portion of your trip. At the south rim, unless you are very avid hikers, two nights is more than enough.

MikePinTucson

I would add, we routinely spend time in Sedona and visiting the GCNP, with 5 days in Sedona, one night and most of 2 days at the GC, and usually a day or two in Page.

KristenHecksher

Thanks for all the input so far. The tour we have booked is with a company that has these 3 modes of transportation worked out to fly out of the GC airport at the South Rim side and will fly to the North Rim. They take us from that point on a jeep tour and then on the river raft portion that will take us back to the south rim area.

I wasn't sure how much time to plan and didn't want to cut ourselves short trying to see too much, however, I have no problem adjusting the number of nights at GC to give us more time either in Sedona or another recommended location. The way I set up the trip was to capture time in Sedona on the front end and back end of our trip.

We are all 3 up for hiking trails, but nothing rigorous and that would take us the better part of a full day. 2 to 4 hours on a given trail would be up our alley.

I have heard the train from Williams with the mock "train heist" is pretty cool, but wasn't sure if we wanted to do that. Also, considering whether it is too much out of the way to drive toward Las Vegas to see Hoover Dam. Any thoughts on these ideas?

MikePinTucson

Way too far out of the way for Hoover Dam.

There are no raft trips from the north rim, either. They are probably taking you to Lee's Ferry, near Page. Before you pay any money, check into how you will get back to the south rim from the river. It is a very strenuous hike, and I think that is the only way to get to the SR from the river.

Skip the train from Williams. You don't get any scenery to speak of, and definitely no views of the GC. If you want a train ride, take the Verde Canyon Railroad, much more scenic, out of Clarkdale, about 30 minutes from Sedona.

If you can cut a night or two from the GC, definitely add it to Sedona.

emalloy

Perhaps they are going to raft from Page to Lee's ferry and bus back to south rim?

WhereAreWe

Do you have a link to the tour that you are describing for Wednesday?

There is no airport at the North Rim. There are no single day rafting trips within the national park portion of the Grand Canyon.

Based on what you're describing, I'm guessing you are actually flying from the South Rim over towards Page and may have some views of the North Rim...you will land in Page, take a jeep tour and then do a float trip of some sort down the Colorado river before being bused back to the South Rim. That sounds closest to what you've outlined.

None of those activities actually take place within the National Park however, so be aware of what you're getting into before devoting time and money to it.

Williams train ride is generally regarded as a tourist trap.

Hoover Dam is too far out of the way unless you can rebook flights and fly in or out of Las Vegas (or just do a roundtrip from Vegas). The Grand Canyon is about 4 hours from Phoenix and 5 hours from Vegas.

MikePinTucson

I agree, it sounds like the half day float trip from Page (Lee's Ferry), but with a whole lot of added cost for flying to page and back. If that is what the tour entails, I would cancel that and instead drive to Page after 1 or 2 nights at the south rim. You can take the half day float trip, plus get to see Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend.

J62

I'm also curious about the Jeep tours. From what I've seen before there are open air jeep tours that take you to the various lookout points along the south rim. These same points are fully accessible to anybody with a car, and are also served by free GC bus.

The red-rock jeep tours in Sedona are true off-road experiences. If you are looking for a wild (but safe) off-road Jeep ride, save that for Sedona, and take advantage of the free bus or your own car at GC to visit the vista points at your own schedule.

utahtea

If the float trip is out of Page to Lee's Ferry, then I agree with MikePinTucson. Drive to Page and spend a couple of nights.

Utahtea

KristenHecksher

My apologies for such a delayed response. I've been out of town at a conference. The tour we have booked is called the Scenic Canyon River Adventure through scenic.com. The details of the tour indicate a one hour flight over Eastern Rim, Colorado River and Page/Lake Powell. The jeep tour is of Antelope Canyon and then 15 mile float trip down the Colorado River. The tour ends at Historic Lee's Ferry where ground transportation takes us back to the airport at the South Rim. We are paying $389/pp for this 12.5 hour which I was hoping to be a really cool experience.

Would you still say that we should cancel this and plan a trip to Page and do tours from there?

Most of the comments seem to be around this tour, so I am really curious if it is worth it and as well, a better plan as to how to map out the 6 days we have to see this part of the country. My take away so far is to plan on 1-2 days max in GC unless we plan to hike, a day in Page and the rest of the time in Sedona. I have a 13 year old son that is pretty adventurous, but one of my goals with these summer trips is to explore and see historical places across the country. I don't care to make this trip about a long hike especially in the hot summer months. We have walked, hiked and explored, but usually to see something and not just for the sake of hiking. Hope that helps with what we are most interested in.
Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

J62

That does sound like an interesting tour of the Page area - You'll pack a lot into one day, all nicely packaged by the tour company. Be aware that it is a ~2.5 hr drive back from Lee's Ferry to GC airport.

Many here on fodors are do-it-yourselfers, including me. You can book the same float trip for $80 per person. A tour of Antelope canyon is not expensive - others on there know those details. And the flight is not over GC national park, but over the area upstream that is outside the park. I am sure it's still a very cool flight experience.

So my recommendation would be that if you are already planning to drive to / by Page, then book the float and visit Antelope canyon by yourself - no need for an expensive tour that starts/ends hours away. If you want to do a flight, then you can book a flight only excursion that starts and ends at GC airport for I believe ~$125 per person.

If you are not planning to visit the Page area and $1000 is not a big concern, then by all means go ahead and enjoy the tour you have booked. It does sound like a wonderful day and I am sure it will be quite memorable. Life is meant to be lived, and I would happily do this same tour.

utahtea

Dido what J62 said.

Utahtea

emalloy

Kristen, I agree with J62 also. In fact if you were to do the trip by yourself you would be hard pressed to do it all in one day and the cost might not be much more if you factor in fuel and time to get to Page and back, and probably the need to stay overnight there to get everything done. When we did the raft trip from Glen Canyon dam to Lee's ferry I think we paid $90 pp.

voyager61

I think two nights at the Grand Canyon is a minimum for your goals, because there are a lot of historical connections with different areas of the Canyon, and you can spend time just going from overlook to overlook reading the history about each spot and of each landmark around the canyon. As far as Sedona, the varied natural beauty surrounding it is the main attraction there. Many of the hiking trails are not strenuous and each one of them offers different vistas and settings. Plus for a teenager I would think a swimming pool would be a great asset to a summer vacation, and you can certainly find those wherever you choose to stay in or around Sedona. There are easy day trips from Sedona, like Jerome for example, but for us it is the red-rock setting that holds the most appeal, and it is a good place to slow down and relax.

TC

We did a trip from Phoenix a few years ago. Spent the first night in Sedona, second at GC on the rim, third in Monument Valley, fourth on the Hopi Reservation and then back to PHX. It was an amazing drive. I highly recommend MV and the Hopi reservation. MV is iconic. We stayed at Gouldings and did the jeep tour into the valley. Highly recommend.

KristenHecksher

Thank you all for these additional details. I am really glad you all asked for the specific details that you did because I really thought the flight was over the grand canyon. I am going to weigh out all of these ideas and make a decision on from there. I will also check out these other ideas posted by TC.

I am really excited about this trip. I have been doing these summer adventures with my son for the past 6 years experience new parts of the country and have always had an amazing time.

Thank you all again for your advice and guidance. I really do appreciate it!