Southwest vacation ideas for family with teens
 

My wife and I are planning a Southwest vacation for 14 days next August with our teen children (ages 11, 14, 17). We definitely want to include Zion, Bryce, Lake Powell, and GC (South or North). From there we are open. (Not Hoover dam area- been there.) I would certainly appreciate any ideas or recommendations where to go after GC in our time frame, especially with teens (towards Sedona? towards Colorado? towards New Mexico?) We are open where we fly into and out from. Also, for those of you who have done similar trips, when "hopping" from one destination to next, did you travel early in the day or towards evening?

You might want to add Monument Valley Tribal Park on the Arizona-Utah border, Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona.

If you go to far into New Mexico or Colorado you will spend days traveling and you really don't have a lot of time after seeing the places you have listed.

I hope you are planning on at least two days at each park you listed.

At Zion your children will probably enjoy tubbing the Virgin River. You can rent the tubes right outside the park in Springdale. My boys always loved to do this.

We just did the Float Trip on the Colorado River from Page, AZ and it was the highlight of our recent trip. I also hightly recommend the all day boat tour on Lake Powell to Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

The guided tour at Canyon de Chelly is very good. At Mesa Verde make sure you take one or two of the ranger guided tours of the pueblo ruins.

Utahtea

you'll have been in a lot of hot weather during the start of your trip. how about ending it with 4-5 days on the beach in san diego.

Heading to Monument Valley, then SW CO, then NM makes sense to me. In terms of time of day to drive, it's better to hike in the mornings and drive after noon. That way, you get cooler weather for the hiking times, and are in an airc onditioned car for the afternoon heat and/or thunderstorms.

Are your teens excited about the trip? We had a tough time when we took our then 14 year old to the Grand Canyon. Typical for the age, she was very bored with the long spells of boring driving. Break up your time with things that they are attracted to. Ex. Lake Powell- boating, Durango, Co.-rafting, horseback riding, Canyon de Chelly-jeep tour by Indian guide, tours of Mesa Verder. As well as the great National Park hikes, enjoy the evening campfire programs at the campsites, even if you are not camping.Many sites can take a day's drive from the last place.(We traveled early in the day.

Thank you all for your comments and recommendations. They are all most helpful. One question- if, after GC, we head out to Monument Valley/Canyon de Challey/Mesa Verde, where do we fly out from to return to the East coast?

Albuquerque. It's 3.5 hours from Durango, and you can stop by Chaco Canyon on the way, if you're not burned out on education and deserts by then.

I forgot to add that ABQ is good only if you're flying Southwest. For anything else, you can catch United Express to Denver from Durango, then connect from there.

Hi drument,
My family did a 2 week southwest vacation the summer of 2002. We're also from the east coast, kids had never been west of the Mississippi.
Anyway, a couple of things my husband and I learned early in our planning:
1) Renting a vehicle from one airport and dropping it at another is very expensive!
2) Determine what arrival city gives you the best airfare, and look at touring plans from that city.
We looked into flying to: Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Las Vegas.
We ended up flying rt Salt Lake City, from Syracuse, NY for $186.00 pp through Expedia. Since the airfare was such a great deal, we worked our trip in a circle.
We started w/Moab, Utah, south to Lake Powell, N. rim of the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas (strategically placed in the middle of our trip to break up the National Parks for kids), Zion & Bryce.
My older son wasn't too psyched about the trip. He has a terrible time flying ~ bad ears & motion sickness. Anyway, once we got him to Moab, he was the one leading the hikes! He was gung-ho! and we all had the very best vacation ever, even with the long periods of driving. I was forever saying, "look out the window now, boys". Just spectacular!
Some highlights of our trip: O.A.R.S. 4x4 trip through the Canyonlands & float trip on the Colorado river, hiking in Arches National Park, touring the Glen Canyon dam, having the deer roam about just outside of our cabin @the North rim, kids loved Vegas, and horseback riding @Red Canyon, just outside of Bryce. My sons had never been on a horse before, and they thought it would be "lame". It was so much fun! The scenery was incredible, we laughed when our oldest boy was assigned a jack-ass, perfect fit for him! We also rented a boat while at Lake Powell, but this didn't turn out to be a "highlight". Adventure ~ yes, challenging ~ yes, but everybody was a bit nervous on the "lake" they call Lake Powell. We're boaters who live on Lake Ontario, and of course we didn't expect them to be the same, but there was no comparison!
Some advice: Purchase a southwest guidebook, check out the national parks websites, do your driving in the a.m., and study a map of the U.S. This trip will be a gift to your children. Have a good time planning. Tricia

If you are planning to visit a number of NATIONAL parks, get the Annual Park Pass for $50. It'll pay for itself after a couple of parks, since entry into each park can be as much as $20 each time. You can get an annual pass at the gate to any National Park.

Happy travels!

I agree w/ many of the suggestions above. The float trip on Co. River from Page is great & very informative guides. I booked it through the Grand Canyon (south side) and left from there by bus ride to Page. Also recommend the guided tour at Canyon de Chelly (great place!). The teens may not "think" they are interested in Mesa Verde until they actually start to climb down and see & hear about the place. Then the interest will grow.

I did a circle of all the places mentioned above (except Durango), from Las Vegas back to Vegas. That way, you don't have the extra charges for one-way flights & vehicle drop-offs.

Book the 1/2 day horseback ride at Bryce down into the canyon. Fun, interesting, & well worth it.

With teens I would certainly take the 3 or so hour mule ride in Bryce. I would head towards Colorado stopping at Monument Valley before visiting Mesa Verde, a must for kids. I also think they would enjoy Arches (Moab, UT) and a rafting trip while visiting Moab.

The above recommendations are sound, the truth is beauty abounds in the Southwest and it is hard to go wrong. But my 2 cents is fly into Las Vegas & head east to Utah. See Zion & Bryce Canyon. It's your choice as to N or S rim of the GC - North is very remote, South is mobbed during Aug but there are more facilities and this is the traditional view of the GC everyone has seen in pictures. When you're done with this & Lake Powell I'd swing south to Flagstaff (A good place to spend some time in its own right) and cool off - it's at 7000'. Then pick up Hwy 89A and head south. Mile for mile, this is one of the most scenic drives in the country. It includes Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Jerome (An cliffside ghost town that has been given new life as an artists colony), a fantastic drive over Mingus Mountain that will terminate in the charming town of Prescott. You will want to stop often along the way for pictures & sightseeing so the kids won't get too bored. I'd finish the trip with a day or two in Scottsdale & fly home out of Phoenix. Yes, PHX/Scottsdale is hot in August. But some of the best resorts in the country are here and can be had for a song in the summertime (The Phoenician tops the list, IMHO). The whole family might appreciate a few days poolside before heading home. Have a great trip.

With 3 kids that are teens you should just hit the mall.

guitarbusinessman

We have a 13 year old girl and 17 year old boy and took a similar trip in August. Took 12 days total. It turned out to be one of the best of our annual family trips - this is what made it work for us.

Flew Boston to Las Vegas. Benefit of FF mile upgrades to have all of us fly first class - the kids thought it was a great experience. Stayed one night in Las Vegas - it was 105 degrees but kids enjoyed pool and seeing Elvis walking around 6 times. (Stayed at Flamingo to see live flamingos and penguins - family favorite birds)

Drove via Hoover Dam to 2 nights at Bryce Canyon (wanted to see Zion but logistics/hotels just did not work out). Kids loved Bryce - took horseback ride through Red Canyons. Late-riser son even woke us all up to see sunrise over Bryce. Drove to Lake Powell - could have skipped that, as it did not add anything to trip. 2 nights at South Rim of GC - son and husband did some moderate hiking.

Drove via Yuma, AZ towards 5 nights in San Diego. Somewhat interesting to kids as we had never been through the desert. Stopped at several reservations.

San Diego was great place to end up. Much to do there. Flew home from San Diego. One-way car rental added only $50 to cost of car (Alamo) - so one-way rentals are not always pricey.

Important details for our kids - planned on plenty of pool/beach time. Ate at restaurants with foods they especially liked. Only made our son wear a shirt with a collar once - for dinner at El Tovar at Grand Canyon. Did not make our teenage son get up real early every day. Had hotel rooms/suites with enough space so we did not get on each others nerves. Brought laptop so computer games and emailing friends were not absent for the whole time. On any given day, kids had large say in what we were doing or schedule - for example, chose if we got up early for drive to next stop or left later in the day.

Have a good trip - it makes us sad to realize that these family trips disappear very soon for us.

My kids, ages 14 and 17, liked Vegas and Flagstaff. Flagstaff will have cooler temperatures.

Thank you to all who have responded to my inquiry! All the comments were great and have given me plenty of ideas to think over as I plan for next summer. Seems there are two camps: "towards Monument Valley/Mesa Verde" camp and the "towards Sedona/Flagstaff/Phoenix" camp! Concerned about amount of total driving time (especially with teens in car) if we go to Mesa Verde (and back?) yet where else in country can experience the cliff dwellings like they have there?! Thanks again and would welcome any further comments.

There are other cliff dwellings near Phoenix at two other Nat'l Mts. Walnut Canyon National Monument has several dwellings which are particularly good for kids/teens; you can walk in and among a few of them. And its a short, easy hike.

Montezuma Nat'l Mt. is a wonderful dwelling and literally located just outside the visior center.

However, IMO, you should still try to do Mesa Verde. Its in a class by itself and worth the drive. I think with 14 days you can easily do 'both camps', as you said. The distances aren't that bad. We always tried to 'sample' as much of the west as we could.....not only did it keep our kids/ teens VERY interested, there were many sights we didn't find as interesting as others.

Those we did find intriguing we visited again on subsequent trips (we've taken 8 out west trips, see my july Trip Report for more details.)

drument - before you think I'm a jerk, know that my husband posted the message about going to the mall. Without breaching my identity or yours, we know you - check out my name and check out how my husband signed his name!

As you know, we did a similar trip to the one your planning. You are getting great advice from this board (except, of course, about going to the mall). One thing I will add: we did not find it much more expensive to do a one way car rental. On one trip, we rented one way from Las Vegas to Phoenix. The rental agency charged us an extra $90, which I didn't find too unreasonable. Depending on how far you roam, a one-way rental could save you an extra night in a motel, and there would go your $90. Compare some rental car rates - some agencies did not do one way rentals.

We also did not find the flights to be any more expensive. I believe the airline takes the price to destination x and to destination y and then averages the air fares together. I think our into-Vegas and out-of Phoenix flight was about $10 more than what Vegas would have been. We are planning another different airport trip next summer to Yellowstone and the airfares were not significantly higher out of these airports, either.

Also, for the airport you'll be flying out of, I think your best destinations would be Las Vegas, Phoenix or Denver. We are not served by Southwest. Karen

Found a wonderful page you might want to check out. He is a teacher interested in archaeology. His page has may photos as well as links. www.dnsonline.net/~jkrom/jk_anasazi/intro.htm. If you have the time and want to work on an actual site try www.crowcanyon.org.