Parks around Las Vegas
 

My husband and I have to be at a conference in Las Vegas starting Monday afternoon Nov. 12th. We fly in late on Wed. Nov. 7th. We would like to see the Grand Canyon (north rim will be closed) and at least one other park, maybe Zion or Red Rocks?? Any suggestions on nice places to stay, go and eat? We like good food! And four star + hotels!

We took a helicopter tour to The grand Canyon (from Vegas) and loved it. We also drove to Hoover Dam, such history and not difficult or too time consuming.
These are my 2 suggestions.

Hi Ruthie,

I think you will get more responses if you retitle your question! After all, the "parks around Las Vegas" are in States called Utah and Arizona!

Also, do a search under those states using the sort function above, or using the search box, type in "Zion" and you will get hundreds of posts with all kinds of details and recommendations.

A good way to start. Happy planning.

There's a great article in this month's National Geographic Traveler (I think). Either that or Outside magazine.

If you insist on seeing both Grand Canyon and Zion, you're going to have to do a lot of driving. It's about 2-1/2 hours to Zion (to the north) and about the same to Grand Canyon to the south. Red Rock Canyon is an easy 30-minute drive from the Strip. You can also do a detour to Valley of Fire to or from Zion.

There's no four star hotel at either place, so I'm afraid you will be disappointed. There are a lot of really nice places to stay near Zion, but nothing truly luxurious (Desert Pearl is nice ... and I just stayed at Flanigan's). Flanigan's has the most upscale restaurant near Zion; the food is very good but, in my opinion, overpriced.

There's not anything really comparable in the Grand Canyon. I'd probably suggest El Tovar in the park as the most upscale hotel, but even that is pretty spartan. The restaurant there is especially good for atmosphere, but the food isn't truly excellent.

But when you go to a national park, you are going to enjoy the scenery and beauty, not to stay in a cushy hotel.

I think the suggestion for taking a flight to the Grand Canyon is a good one and will save a lot of time, allowing you to see some of the canyon in a day.

If you really want luxury, then I'd suggest that you go to Sedona, which has abundant Red Rocks and is closer to the Grand Canyon, and then just skip Zion this time.

If you take a helicopter trip to the Grand canyon please remember there are no restrooms onboard so plan your business. Our trip was about 1.5 hrs and was perfect. some take you down to a landing zone for a lunch and Champagne, but maybe still no restroom!
Overall we enjoy helicopter trips.

Grand Canyon is more like 4 hours drive from Las Vegas, not 2.5

which ever hotel you decide to stay in Vegas use promo codes to book it'll save you a bunch: http://www.smartervegas.com/hotels.com

for stuff to see in the area you can check out the attractions around and in Vegas:
http://www.smartervegas.com/Attractions.aspx

enjoy ;)

Grand Canyon Nat'l Park's south rim is a pretty solid 5 hour drive from LV, more if there is a hold up on Hoover Dam. And in Nov there is a good chance for snow, although ADOT does a pretty good job of keeping i-40 and st rt 64 clear unless it's a huge blizzard. And you'll be lucky if there is snow. Very few people get to see the canyon in winter when it's the most spectacular!

If you do decide to do a flight/heli, make sure that you know where you are going. Many are advertising that they take you to the "west rim" when in fact they are taking you to "Grand Canyon West" the Hualapai Tribe's business venture, outside of the national park boundary. Not the heights, depths or colors that you'll be anticipating and that you can only see at the park!

Many thanks to everyone for their info. Think we'll skip Zion and just stick with South rim GC and Sedona.