My wife and I will be in Las Vegas from Dec 25 to the 30th. On saturday, we'd like to rent a car and spend the day away from the strip. We've done Zion, Bryce, Red Rock, Lake Mead, and Valley of Fire. Any other ideas? We'd like to limit our drive, (one way) to about 2-3 hours.

How about Mt. Charleston, Laughlin, or Death Valley? I'm not really sure what you're looking for, but all of these should be in your driving limit.

Mt. Charleston is generally 20-30 degrees colder than Vegas and they get snow. Laughlin is south of Vegas on the very tip of Nevada, so it tends to be a bit warmer. I've never been to Death Valley, but it's supposed to be beautiful this time of year. Hope this helps!

thanks jbee. What's to do in Laughlin, I'm not familiar with that area.

Laughlin is a little town situated in Nevada, right on the Colorado river. Arizona is across the river and California is about an hour south. River stuff is really big there. They have a boat tour up to a dam north of the town (I can't remember the name). There's also the London Bridge south of there in Arizona.

I'm figuring there's some good hiking or nature walks available- the scenery is beautiful, but I'm not much of a hiker, so I don't know for sure.

The hubby and I took a free Laughlin tour last year. You get to ride on the tour bus for free and they give you a coupon book that contains (among other things) a free buffet lunch. The sponsoring casino in Laughlin expects you to stay and gamble, but we spent 8 hours walking around the little town and riding the water taxi up and down the river. If we would have planned ahead, we could have taken a boat tour down to the London Bridge. IMO, it's a nice way to spend an afternoon, but not much more.

On a side note, there's a big, dry lake on the way to Laughlin where a lot of stuff goes on. I believe they've filmed some movies out there and there's always paragliders, dune buggies, concept cars, etc. out there. It's right off the highway, so you can't miss it. Let me know if you need more info on any of that- I can dig up some websites.

I remember really enjoying a day trip to Death Valley, while in Las Vegas in January or February. Snow began to fall, as we were traveling back to Vegas. I also remember visiting Laughlin, and the casino and hotel there was very nice.

Thanks.
Any idea how long it would take to get to Death Valley or Laughlin?

If you visit Laughlin, you might want to continue 25-30 miles further east to the little mining town of Oatman. The drive from Laughlin to Oatman is desert scenic and Oatman is a picturesque old mining town where wild burros roam the streets. It's a fun visit.

Oatman is not quite as far from Laughlin as I remembered. Mapquest indicates it is 18.3 miles.

I believe the drive to Laughlin takes around 1.5-2 hours, depending on traffic. We watched all of Happy Gilmore on the way back before hitting the outskirts of Vegas, and that was on a tour bus. Then again, our driver was quite a speed demon!

It's a 2 lane highway most of the way (unless they've widened it over this year), so you can get stuck behind a long line of traffic. Most large vehicles have been diverted to that highway because they can't go over Hoover Dam. It's a pretty drive, though. You can see the change in the desert as you go.

thanks all. I've got some good ideas