To utahtea or anyone else who can help us, we would appreciate your help.

This was our (two adults and 15 years old boy) original itinerary for spring vacation starting April 21

Day 1 - late evening arrival in LV and stay there for the night
Day 2 - early start to south rim GC ( no Hoover dam)
Day 3 - GC
Day 4 - from GC to Bryce
Day 5 - Bryce
Day 6 - from Bryce to Zion
Day 7 - Zion
Day 8 - from Zion to LV
Day 9 - Flying from LV around 3 PM

This was our original itinerary – now changes:
1) My son would like to take raft tour on Colorado River from Page. Tour starts around 11 and run about 3-4 hours.
2) He also wants to see both Antelope canyons and according to the reviews, best time to see Upper canyon is between 11 and 1



Adding these 2 activities to our itinerary means that we need to stay 2 nights in Page (driving from GC to Page in the morning to be on time for the raft will be too stressful for vacation)

We would like to do some hiking, not just to drive through parks, so how should be change our itinerary:
1) We could stay only night on GC and then drop one night from either Bryce or Zion stay
2) We could stay 2 nights in CG, then 2 nights in Page and then 2 nights in either Bryce or Zion (It hard to choose, which one to drop)
3) What is better: to see Antelope canyon or spend a day in Bryce or Zion?
4) What is chance of rain for this area in the end of April, since both Antelope and raft could be done only in good weather?
5) If we decide to stay last night Zion, how stressful is to drive to the airport in LV
to be there on time for the plane? I know, that this is about 3 hours drive, but what about traffic to LV on Saturday morning?

We and our teens didn't visit Antelope canyons, so I can't compare to the other natural wonders on your itinerary, but I cannot imagine dropping either Bryce or Zion. They are magnificent and not to be missed. Of the two, we preferred Zion (we actually spent three nights/two days there and were not sorry), but it's a matter of preference.

Definitely, you can spend your last night in Zion and still make a 3 pm plane out of LV (we did it without stress, though we don't mind getting up early), so that would pick up one night for you. It's too bad your arrival in LV is late evening; if you haven't already booked the flight, you could consider arriving midday and driving to GC on the first day.

IMHO, it would be a shame to go to the GC, Bryce, and Zion and not have a full day in each, especially since you say you like to hike and not just drive to scenic overlooks. I suppose it'd be possible to arrive early enough in the day at Bryce to hike, spend just one night, get up early to see the sunrise (if the clouds cooperate), do another hike, and transfer to Zion later that day.

But no doubt Utahtea will have sage advice.

I hear that in April the trails into Bryce Canyon area still closed because of snow. I don't know about late April, maybe someone else can advise on that. The Bryce Canyon website doesn't say and I'm sure that has to do with the fact that each years is different. You might call the park and ask and if the hikes into the canyon are closed then I would only spend one night at Bryce. You should be able to hike along the rim a little.

When we did the float trip we got back a little later than they said we would. I'd plan on the 4 hour time or even a little longer.

When we asked about Antelope Canyon and what was the best time, they said that each time of the day had special features because of the angle the sun came in. I think I would try and do the Antelope Slots Canyon on the day you arrived from the Grand Canyon, but don't worry to much if it's not near noon. Also try and do the 3/4 mile Horseshoe Bend hike.

Cutting one night from Bryce and driving from Zion on the last day would give you enought time to really enjoy each place. Yes you can run into traffic in Las Vegas, but you're not going to want to cut you time to close, so make sure you're back with 2 or 3 hours to spare.

Utahtea

It looks like you have 7 nights if you stay on night one in LV and drive back to LV from Zion on the same day that you fly out (which will be easy enough to do with your flight time).

I have just returned from a similar trip and would probably split your nights up as follows:
2 nights GC
1 night Page
2 nights Bryce
2 nights Zion

If you think the trails will be closed in Bryce then you can easily make do with 1 night here (as we did) and add the other night onto Page. Last week the trails were mainly open in Bryce but some of them were a bit slushy. A couple of the viewpoints were closed but that wasn't a major issue. Parts of the park had a covering of snow. I understand that Bryce gets a lot of its snowfall in March however, so your conditions may be worse than ours.

I found a trip to Antelope Canyon very worthwhile and it doesn't take long. We drove to the Canyon car park ourselves after checking out of our hotel and we picked up a tour guide there right away. You are right that people consider 11 to 1 o' clock the best time but I would fit it into your itinerary at any time. I think that time will be incredibly busy as a lot of people now seem to go around noon armed with their tripods etc intent on getting the perfect shot. It's a narrow canyon so I can imagine it could be a bit busy then. At this time of year, there was no-one there but it may well be busier in April. We drove straight from there to Bryce after having seen the Horseshoe Bend the day before.

Thank you very much for you help.
We will try to follow Where2Travel
suggestion and stay last night in Zion

I think you've been given good advice. I'd just reiterate a few things.

Antelope Slot Canyons--really terrific and worth adding on. Wouldn't worry about the timing. I had read the same things before going in 2004 and don't think it affected our pleasure at all. I really think it is more relevant to skilled photographers (which we aren't!).

We spent our last night in Zion and drove to LV for a 1:00 p.m. flight. Only stressful moment was trying to find a gas station near the LV airport...that almost made us late! But there is a time change from Zion to LV (I think you gain an hour....) so you need to factor that in. I believe it took 2 1/2 hours to go from Springdale to LV (driving at a good clip).

Fabulous trip. I'm jealous!

Some terrific advice. You do gain an hour driving from Springdale to LV. And it's an easy drive. You could do 2 nights at GC, 2 at Lake Powell, 1 at Bryce and 2 at Zion. It's only 2 hrs from Bryce to Zion and its a gorgeous ride.