southwest

Family wants to got to the Grand Canyon. We have never been out west at all. Where would we fly into?(the airport at the grand canyon is apparently very small and you can't get a commercial flight there) Where would you fly out of? Only want to spend 1-2 days at the canyon(south rim). Where else should we go? Don't want to drive more than 2-3 hours at a time, preferably less than that. What is not to be missed?

Hope someone can give me good ideas. Children are in grade school.

Useful

Hey southwest,
You definitely would benefit from the search service at this site.
There are so many excellent posts with information you will find very useful here.
Phoenix is the most popular city to fly into to visit the Grand Canyon. Then there's Las Vegas if you get a much better rate flying from your departure city. The cost difference in renting a vehicle can be great also. Picking up a vehicle at one airport, dropping off at another is always much more expensive.
You may also want to look at some maps, start w/U.S., move onto Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, etc. Determine what else you want to do in addition to the Grand Canyon.
Since you only have one week, you may want to spend some time in Sedona. The Pink Jeep tour is awesome. Start searching!!

southwest

I have been searching around and notice many people doing Bryce/Zion and many doing Lake Powell/Monument Valley/Canyon de Chelly.

I thought it might be more interesting to not say where I want to go(because it's all new and interesting to me) and see where others recommended. My ideas lent themselves to too much driving and not enough time to see the places so I thought I would throw it out there and see what I got back.

I hope this is not too presumptuous of me but I know there are lots of people out there who like to help with this kind of stuff and thought maybe if I had no preconceived notions I might get better info.

Thanks!

rqf

If you fly into Las Vegas in one week you can easily do the NOrth Rim of the Gr. CAnyon, Lake Powell, Bryce and Zion.
You could do the same out of PHX but you would have to drive almost twice as many miles.

Linda

June of 2ooo, Husband & I flew to Las Vegas for a one week business trip - had a blast. We drove through Zion to the North Rim (about a 5 hour drive), stayed at the Grand Canyon Lodge - losts of families - no tv - yea! Sit on the veranda at sunset with many other families to watch the beautiful changing light on the canyon. From there, drove east tp Page - took half day float trip down the Colorado, i nite in Page. Drove South to Sedona - stayed at a B&B - a real splurge for us -Montezumas Castle and well - lots to see never got tired of the beautiful rocks and sunsets and sunrises - truly mentally relaxing time. Ended trip one quick nite in Phoenix where we paid a small fee to leave the car here instead of Las Vegas where we picked it up - it was well worth it. We are going back in April - this time to Canyon de Chelly, Tuscon, and so on. We are from Maryland and and thinking about retiriong out there we loved it so much - good luck - by the way if you do the North Rim - make loding reservations now - as it fills up quickly. The lodge has a decent restaurant - again make reservations each am cause it also fills up quickly.