jubilee611

im going to be in scottsdale for 4 days and i wanted to take a mini trip up to sedona and grand canyon. how far away are they from scottsdale? should i stay in sedona or flagstaff?

HowardR

If you want to see both, you better plan on an overnight stay somewhere.

desertduds

You could take off from Scottsdale early one a.m. and get to the Grand Canyon in time for lunch...you could either stay there or spend a few hours and head down to Sedona. In winter your days will be shorter and it will be dark by the time you get to Sedona, so you might want to stay at the canyon and take off for Sedona the next a.m....either take in the sites and head back to Scottsdale, or spend one night in Sedona.

utahtea

From Scottsdale to the Grand Canyon is 235 miles and will take about 4 hours to drive. That's a long day and a lot of driving to make it a round trip. It doesn't give you much time at the Grand Canyon.

Sedona is 125 miles and would take about 2 hours drving one way. This might be an option if you don't want to spend the night out on the road.

No way can you do both and have any time to see anything in a day trip...especially if you go in the winter when the days are short.

Utahtea

k_999_9

Utahtea has it about right. (Not sure about the post that says leave Scotts. @ 1a.m. for lunch at GC -- must be in a slow-moving vehicle.)

It does seem possible that you could leave Scotts in the early a.m. and go directly to the GC for an overnight stay, but I'd recommend against trying to do Sedona and the GC with one overnight stay.

ceg

For a mini-trip I would recommend just going to Sedona overnight. Just 2 hours away from Scottsdale you won't have much driving and that will leave you time for hiking, jeep tour, etc. Trying to go to the Grand Canyon also won't leave you enough time to explore. Are you planning on going Thanksgiving weekend? The Friday after thanksgiving you can expect a lot of traffic on I-17 and on 89 into Sedona.

desertduds

Oh dear, jubilee and k99, I didn't mean to leave home at one o'clock a.m.......I meant leave early one morning...in order to get to the canyon for lunch, you could leave Scottsdale by 7a.m. or so........whatever you do, you'll have a great time!

giro

Personally, I don't see it as a problem to leave early in the morning; arrive at the grand canyon about 4 hours later. You should have 4 hours of good viewing. Next morning get up "(early if you want to see sunrise...and deer around the park!) spend a couple more hours and then head down to sedona via oak creek canyon. It will be a beuatiful trip all the way. Stay in sedona a few hours and then leave for scottsdale which is 2 hours away. There is no reason not to take in both areas. Not hard at all!!

badjuju

I stayed in Sedona and did the drive to Grand Canyon - about 2 hours. I did not spend too long there at GC - not too impressed. Had more fun in Sedona - a lot more thigs to do. I would not waste hotel fee in GC - you're only going to see a hole in the ground. And that IMAX movie, skip it. It's lame - worst IMAX movie I've ever seen.

IMAX movies are supposed to be mind blowing, incredibly lifelike, the kinda rush that makes your brain tell your body to throw up. Not this crap. it was more like national geographic on the big screen. people were not even moving or twisting - even worse, a few old ladies watched it with a straight face.

I only spent $35 at GC - $20 gate fee, $10 IMAX (about 5 miles from GC), and $5 on postcards.

I had more fun with the horseback riding and jeep tour in sedona.

Calamari

We took the kids to the Grand Canyon two years ago. IT was fantastic! We stayed at the Enchantment Resort in Sedona and took one day to do the GC. We wished we had planned to stay overnight. We did not stop to see the IMAX movie. It did not make sense to watch on screen what we had just driven for hours to see in person. We had a great time!