Advice Please
 

We are visiting the USA from South Africa. We are in Dallas at the moment and have 5 days to explore something else. We have to fly out of Dallas again.

Any advice on must see/do things?

Would've loved to see Grand Canyon is that possible? Maybe fly to San Francisco, drive to Monterey, drive to Las Vegas, take a bus trip to the Grand Canyon and fly back to Dallas?

Be careful about the bus trip to the Grand Canyon. Many of them only go to the West Rim which is not in the Grand Canyon National Park but outside on the Indian Reservation. If it does go the the South Rim of the Grand Canyon then you are going to be spending most of the time on the bus and not much time at the S. Rim. If you are going to drive from SF to Las Vegas, you might as well drive yourself to the Grand Canyon and maybe fly out of Flagstaff back to Dallas instead of back tracking the 360 miles to Las Vegas.

That's a lot to do in 5 days and you will spend a lot of your time in the vehicle especially if you are returning to Las Vegas. That's going to be close to 1300 miles total driving for your itinerary.

If the Grand Canyon is top on your list of things to do. How about fly in and out of Las Vegas and do a southwest circle. Grand Canyon National Park, Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park. That route is under 900 miles with no back tracking.

Does the 5 days include the time it takes to fly from Dallas to SF?

Utahtea

You're in Dallas now and want to see the Grand Canyon in the next 5 days? I'd say airfare will be pretty expensive, see if Southwest has a cheap flight from Dallas to either Phoenix or Las Vegas. Work on that and then figure out the best way to get to the Grand Canyon.

Southwest currently has flights to Las Vegas from Dallas, leaving tomorrow and returning on Thursday for under $300 roundtrip. Similar price if you return on Saturday, a bit over $300 if you return on Friday.

I think that is about all you have time for if you only have 5 days and must fly out of Dallas. You don't want to chance a flight delay or cancellation that makes you miss your return flight out of Dallas. If you're ok with flying back on Saturday, there are a lot of things to do in that area (Utahtea mentioned the grand circle, or you could just spend a few days in Sedona after you visit the Grand Canyon).

Flights to Phoenix are around $700 roundtrip so that's not a reasonable option.

@Utahtea & @ WhereAreWe

Thank you very much for the advice.

We can depart Dallas on Wednesday the 21st and should return on Monday the 26th.

Thank you for the tip on the bus trips.

Maybe we should then only do Las Vegas and Grand Canyon.

rondup

As WhereAreWe mentioned, Sedona wouldn't add that many more miles to your trip and it's a beautiful location. Nearby is Montezuma's Castle National Monument.

Utahtea

Thank you very much, I will work with that.