Planning a visit the end of May. We will be flying in and out of Las Vegas. No hiking, mostly driving and we are interested in seeing some beautiful scenery. Is the following itinerary doable? I know it is a lot of driving but we probably won't be taking another trip out West for several years.
Day 1: Arrive in Vegas that night
Day 2: Bryce National Park
Day 3: Zion National Park
Day 4: Lake Powell
Day 5: Grand Canyon
Day 6: Grand Canyon/morning Sedona/afternoon
Day 7: Tour Sedona and Tuzigoot National
Monument near Cottonwood. Later
that afternoon, head toward Vegas,
spending the night in Kingman.
Day 8: Hoover Dam, Las Vegas.
Fly out of Vegas at 11 pm
Appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Hi Misty! Personally, I would cut this list in half. But - if you really don 't want to do anything but drive:

Zion comes before Bryce if you're going north on I15 from Vegas.

Don't think you will have time at all for Sedona & getting back to Vegas.

Thanks Dayle for your reply. I have been checking WAY back on Fodor's postings for advice and as a result I have been rethinking my itinerary. Would this itinerary be more feasible?
Day 1 arrive in Las Vegas
Day 2 tour Hoover Dam and then on to
Sedona, spending night there.
Day 3 Leave Sedona in the afternoon and
arrive for night at the Grand
Canyon.
Day 4 Grand Canyon and stay overnight
at Page.
Day 5 Tour Lake Powell either spending
night in Kanab or Bryce.
Day 6 Bryce
Day 7 Zion
Day 8 Head back to Las Vegas, tour
Hoover Dam. Fly out of Vegas
that night.
Would this itenary be doable or should I leave out Lake Powell? Please help. There are 6 of us making the trip but everyone seems to be relying on me to come up with a plan.

After posting my last itenarary , I realized I was visiting the Hoover Dam
twice. Think I will visit it on the 2nd
day, not the last day.

hey misty, i don't know when you will have time to eat and go to the ladies room with this schedule. take dayle's advice.

I totally agree with the above posts. Either go North and do Zion and Bryce or go South and do Grand Canyon and Sedona. You are all going to get very stiff and cranky from all that driving. Get out of the car and take in the scenery!

If you are planning on staying at the lodges in the parks, better check right away. We tried for bryce on June 4&5 and it was already filled up.

Hi again Misty, Honestly I would vote with the other posters & cut your trip in half. End of May is prime time for these areas and you definitely will need advance reservations - even in LV if you're talking Memorial Day Weekend. Yikes!!! Also, you'll need to plan a lot of time to ferry across Powell - like several hours. It's a long wait....If you haven't been out to this area before, be aware that the biggest mistake people make is grossly underestimating distances & drive time in the west.

Hi Dayle,

Ok, so maybe I am trying to do too much.
Would it be feasible to do Zion, Bryce, and the North rim of the Grand Canyon in the 8 day period that I have. I really want to see these places. How many days would you allot to each. Appreciate your help. Thanks.

Misty- I'ld enjoy hearing a trip report from you when you return. We are planning a very similar trip in the early fall. It will be my first time west and just hope to hit a quick tour of Bryce, Zion, GC, Sedona and Las Vegas in 1 week.

Are you locked into flying in and out of Vegas? We did a similar trip about four years ago, but we flew to Phoenix, drove north, and flew home from Las Vegas. We stayed two nights in Phoenix, then two nights on the South Rim, then one night in Bryce and one night in Zion, then on to Vegas for two nights. I personally think Sedona's pretty, but a drive through was fine for us.

HI,
This is so interesting. I was planning a trip out west in June and had a horrible time getting ideas to plan a trip. This was before I discovered this site! My final plan was somewhat similar to several of Misty's. Anyway, we decided to bench the trip for this year in favor of Washington DC but will be doing this trip next year.... please do post some sort of trip report with details about places you stayed, visited, ate, etc... I love advice from those who have been there, done that rather than the canned stuff you read in guidebooks.

With a few adjustments your itinerary could work. Here is how I would do it.

Day 1 - don’t overnight in LV. Get car and start out for Zion. You could make Springdale in less than 3 hours (165 miles, mostly Interstate). Overnight in Springdale
Day 2 - spend entire day in Zion. Start out for Bryce (90 miles) and overnight in Bryce.
Day 3 - spend all day in BRyce and overnight in Bryce.
Day 4 - morning in Bryce and then head for Lake Powell (150 miles) . Overnight in Lake Powell.
Day 5 - spend part of morning doing Lake Powell and then head for Gr. Canyon (SR)  Overnight in Gr. Canyon
Day 6 - Gr Canyon until late afternoon and then on to Sedona
Day 7 - Sedona. Overnight in Sedona
Day 8 - Back to LV with stop at Hoover Dam

Hi Misty,
We did the exact same tour last summer. Flew into Vegas and drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, stayed 2 nights in the park; Third day left for Bryce and spent 2 nights there (wonderful place - hike down into the canyon!!!); fifth day headed to Zion for 2 nights, then back to Vegas for one night.
I don't think you can really fit anything else into this unless you just totally drive.
Get a tour book and look into scenic drives in the area. We followed many of them. E-mail if you need further info.

Misty, Good luck with your trip...I am going on a similar trip and will post my itinerary.....

Thanks everyone for all the replies. I really can't wait for my trip. I will be sure to let everyone know how everything works out. I wanted to fly into Phoenix and fly out of Vegas and found a good deal on flights about 3 weeks ago but when I definitely decided on this trip the prices had really sky rocketed. Don't know why prices went up as much as they did. Finally got a good deal on a flight in and out of Vegas and I have already purchased tickets. I went to the Grand Canyon many years ago and was awed by it. My husband and two daughters have never been out West so they are really looking forward to going. My sister and her husband are going as well. I believe we will really have a great time.

I have followed this thread and the only suggestion I would make is to leave LV the day you arrive, if it is not too late in the evening, and head for Zion. This gives you one full day to explore Zion.
Also, to maximize sightseeing, wherever possible leave one place and head for the next stop during the evening hours allowing you to have maximum daylight hours for sightseeing. Have a good trip.

Hi RQF! Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately I won't arrive into Las Vegas until almost 11:00 that night.

We decided to limit our itinerary to Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon North rim.

Day 1 Arrive Vegas late - stay overnight at Amerisuites (1/2 mile from airport)
Day 2 Kanab, vist Coral Pink Sand Dunes Park, maybe also visit Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument. Overnight at the Best Western Red Hills.
Day 3 Grand Canyon North rim, staying overnight in a cabin at the Grand Canyon Lodge. Frontier cabin, Western cabins not available.
Day 4 Grand Canyon, leaving for Bryce that afternoon. Overnight at Best Western Rubys Inn at Bryce.
Day 5 Bryce
Day 6 Zion, overnight at BW Zion Park Inn.
Day 7 Zion, late afternoon head back to Las Vegas. Overnight at Paris Las Vegas.
Day 8 Las Vegas (fly out that night)

Have any of you stayed at the above places? Any comments? Thanks

Misty: You're doing some good planning. Although we didn't get to check out Kanab on our last trip, the idea to check out Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is a good one. It's a 12-mile drive to the park once you turn from Hwy 89. Extraordinary landscapes! The park has a boardwalk overlook trail, a nature trail, a small visitor's center, and camping facilities. Your choices of Best Westerns should be sound; our past three trips to this area have included BWs, and they're dependable choices. Ruby's Inn at Bryce is a big establishment; it's the closest to the park and does a booming tour bus business. It has a restaurant and mega-shop. When you check in at the North Rim, see if you can get a low-numbered cabin. The cabins in the middle tend to be reserved for tour buses. The lodge generally tries to keep tour groups together, but sometimes you might draw the odd-lot cabin in the midst of a tour group. Even if you do draw a cabin in a group, don't worry- it's just that people who have multi-days at one location like to be away from the folks who are popping in and out for the one-night stay. Since the cabins at North Rim don't have AC, you can hear those rolling suitcases going down the paved paths as the troops move in and out. (This is not a big problem, but I'm just mentioning it for those who may be bugged by it.) Have fun!