Advice, please, on the following adventure this summer with 8 and 12 year old good travellers:

Vegas for two nights (Hoover Dam?) to
Zion for two nights (yikes - highway work out of here on Rt 9 sounds scary) to
Page/Lake Powell for two nights (I know it sounds weird but we're stuck with Bryce Lodge on specific nights that don't allow for change at this point) to
Bryce for two nights to
GC South Rim for two nights to
Sedona for one to
Phoenix for one.

Is this crazy? We're trying to see a lot since we won't make this trip again.

No, it's not crazy---the distances are not great and the drive is very scenic. You'll have a full day in each place to explore.

If you do not already have your air tickets, consider doing a loop from Las Vegas. I believe you will save a LOT on your rental car by returning it to LV instead of to Phoenix. (I just did a quick check and for Hertz the difference on a 12-day rental for a mid-size of standard car was $800.)

If you do it this way, reverse Sedona and the Grand Canyon (if you can) to save a bit on the driving at the end.

I would try to drop the Phoenix and add a day to Sedona.

Sedona has some very scenic and not difficult hikes. The Boynton Canyon Vista (not to be confused with the full Boynton Canyon hike) is short and very scenic. And it's a Vortex sight.

Then some hikes near Bell Rock such as Broken Arrow. Or you can take the Briken Arrow Pink Jeep ride.

Sunset in the Crescent Moon Picnic Area where you can watch the sun go down on Cathedral Rock acrosss Oak Creek is beautiful.

Starting and ending in the same place makes a lot of sense.

I did the loop starting in LV and ending in Phienix and the care was expensive. What bothered me is that they gave me a car in LV that had an Arizona plate. I brought it back for them and they charged me.

To make it worse, from the highway back to the car rental renturn I couldn't find a gas station to fill the car. That was expensive.

Have a great trip.

My point exactly. I hope they see this post before they buy their flight tickets.

As I mentioned above, I did a quick check with one company (Hertz). For a 12-day rental in late June, same car (a 4-door mid-size or full size, which were the same price), it was $387 total if the car is returned to Las Vegas; a whopping $1190 to return the same car to Phoenix.

Of course other copanies may charge differently, but I think it is always going to be expensive for the one-way rental.

No, you're not crazy trying to see alot in one trip. We too thought our first trip west would be our one and only. Well, TEN cross-country trips later we're going again this summer. It became addicting, similar to others' addictions to the beach. You will have a fabulous time and will probably want to do it again, too.

And you came to the right place; fodors rocks in terms of valuable, detailed information. If you haven't already done so, do a search under the various sites you'll be visiting. There are fabulous trip reports and tons of information.

Also, i agree with myer; drop phoenix and add a day to sedona.

Re flights, ten of our 11 trips were cross country road trips, but one year we had less time and had to fly. So we flew into phoenix and out of vegas to give ourselves a bit more time, appoximately 8 - 10 hours, which made a difference to us. While it was definitely more expensive, we didn't regret it.

Have fun planning!

Your plan sounds very scenic. I would keep calling Bryce Lodge to see if there have been cancellations, these come up all the time, as people make reservations a year in advance and wait until just before the trip to cancel. These are more likely to be found by calling rather than on the web site.

What would the weather be like for this trip in late March/early April...spring break time?

We've always had nice weather in mid April, temperature varies with elevation. Once we did hit a brief snow flurry in GC but it was melted in a couple of hours and there was snow on the trails at Bryce. Other than that a light jacket was all that we needed and sometimes not even that. Generally little rain, but sometimes wind in April, once a real duststorm that was as blinding as any blizzard in New England.