We are planning a trip over 4-5 days by hiring a car and driving from Las Vegas to South Rim then to North Rim and on to Bryce Canyon returning then to Las Vegas. Has anyone stayed at lodges at the North and South Rims and or Bryce Canyon? Any advice and recommendations on any aspect would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure why you would want to stay at both South and North rims, that's a lot of driving. If you do a search, you will find lots of advice on the lodges for all these parks. We stayed at Bright Angel on the South rim, which was a great deal - right on rim for about $60 a night. The rooms are very basic, but clean. The lodge at Bryce is also pretty close to the rim, and quite nice - large motel like rooms with balconies or patios.

At the South Rim, you have the El Tovar Hotel, Bright Angel Lodge, and the Thunderbird and Kachina Lodges. (Those are the places right on the Canyon Rim.) None are luxurious, but the El Tovar, and beautiful and historic old place, is the most upscale. Bright Angel is a rambling old lodge with a variety of facilities. (Some rooms are without a private bath and they also have some individual cabins.) Thunderbird and Kachina are standard motel-like facilities.

Our Tuack tour stayed at the Kachina Lodge last summer. The accomodations were basic motel, but the benefit of getting to see the sunrise over the Canyon in the morning was incredible.

We ate dinner one night at El Tovar which was hyped up as a gem of a restaurant. We found it overpriced and not very good.

Hve a great trip.

When are you planning this trip. The N. Rim is closed until mid-May.

Since you have such a short time, I would skip the N. Rim and do the S. Rim, Bryce and Zion.

Sorry, we camp so I'm no help with lodging.

Utahtea

Bright Angel has above mentioned lodge, but also mini-cabins - all with private baths.

Website to book accomodations at National Parks is xanterra.com - there is a way to go to each park, then to each lodging choice within that park and get a calendar that lets you know what has vacancies - can reserve on-line as well.

We stayed at Bright Angel and saw lodge and restaurant at Bryce. All are, as mentioned, clean but basic (no video games, pool, room service, etc.). However, they really seem to fit in with the feel of visiting the National Parks far better than staying at a national chain hotel.

We have confirmed our plans for next August - being hot at that time of year we leave early and will drive from Vegas to Sth Rim. We have booked room with view at El Tovar for one night. If the restaurant is not so good are there any other options in that area without driving out of the parking lot ?We should have time that afternoon and following morning to go on short trails and shuttle. Will leave late next morning for the scenic 5 hour ( maybe less) drive to North Rim where we will stay in a Pioneer Cabin at grand Canyon Lodge Lodge for two nights. Then the following day on to Bryce Canyon Lodge for one or two nights. We are used to long distances in Australia and figure that most of the scenery enroute will make the drive worthwhile and we will have seen most things. Any other advice or observations would be greatly appreciated.

I'm glad you got a room at the El Tovar. Actually, we enjoyed the restaurant there and found our meals to be quite good. Bright Angel Lodge also has a dining room and there's a restaurant called the Arizona Steakhouse, if I'm remembering correctly. Both are just a short walk from the El Tovar.

There are 2 lodges in Bryce in addition to some darling cabins. One lodge is quite close to the rim, the other is a bit of a hike. Be sure to ask, and request the one closer to the rim. If I remember correctly they were called "Sunrise" and "Sunset", but I'm not certain I can remember which was which, sorry!

We were at El Tovar last year. Rooms are basic but very comfortable, none have a veiw of the canyon, but the losge is right on the rim. We got up early the second ma=orning for sunrise and got the added treat of a hear of deer wandering about the grounds.

Restruant was nice, food average to above average for a government lodge and we loved the ambience.

Hope you enjoy as much as we did. . Rich

We ate at the dining room at El Tovar and at steak house at Bright Angel. Both had good (not great) food, service was very good. Dinner at El Tovar was made exceptional because it was in the middle of a violent and beautiful thunderstorm - we had a table with window overlooking the Canyon. Being from east coast of US, we have never seen such an incredible thunderstorm. Since we were also there in August, perhaps they will arrange a similar storm for you as well.

For breakfast and lunch there is a cafeteria style place in one of the other lodges at Grand Canyon (don't remember name but it is in same cluster of lodges at South Rim) that we found better than restaurant at Bright Angel - food is OK, prices good. We found Bright Angel to be fair food at unfair prices.

The scenery from South Rim to Bryce is quite nice. (unlike the scenery if you head further south into Arizona)