MicheleVee

First of all, many thanks to all of you for all of the help you've given me so far in choosing hotels for our exciting trip in July! We have the basics all in place, now I truly would appreciate your help in helping me fill in all of the details! We've never been to Sequoia or the Grand Canyon, and haven't been back to Vegas since 1980. I'd really like this to be a special trip for my husband, 13-year old daughter, and me because I don't know when we'll be able to plan (or afford) another trip like this. We're starting out visiting relatives in San Jose and ending up relaxing and visiting relatives in Phoenix. Listed below is a tentative itinerary for the days in between, and I'd really like any and all suggestions you can give me. I'm sorry it's so long ...

Tuesday, July 22 – Leave San Jose mid-morning and drive to Sequoia, arriving at approximately 3:00 p.m., check in to Wuksachi Lodge – is there a visitor's center we should stop at when we arrive at Sequoia? Any dinner suggestions?

Wednesday, July 23 – Leave Sequoia mid-afternoon and drive to Las Vegas, arriving at approximately 9:00 p.m., check in to New York, New York Hotel, explore the hotel (Brooklyn Bridge, rollercoaster, etc.)

Thursday, July 24 – In between going to Hoover Dam after an early breakfast and seeing Cirque de Soleil "Love," at 7:00 p.m., what do you suggest from the following: statues at Caesar's Palace, Bellagio fountains, Mirage volcano, Madame Tussaud's, gondola ride at Venetion, MGM Grand studio walk, Forum Shops at Caesar's.

Friday, July 25 – Leave Las Vegas early morning and drive to Grand Canyon, arriving at approximately 2:00 p.m , go to Visitor's Center, check into El Tovar, start touring the Canyon (best place to start?), dinner at El Tovar at 8:00 p.m., enjoy the sunset.

Saturday, July 26 – See the sunrise, spend day touring Grand Canyon (any particular suggestions here?), leave at 4:00 p.m. and drive to Sedona, arriving approximately 7:00 p.m., check into Best Western of Sedona (suggestions for evening?)

Sunday, July 27 – Spend entire day at Sedona, go to Tlaquepaque, jeep tour, Verde Wilderness Train? Leave for Phoenix at about 7:00 p.m.

Momof3boys

We ate at the Waksachi Lodge dining rm and I remember we enjoyed it. There is a good visitor's center at Sequoia and you can take the tram tour for part of the grove - then head out and walk the various sites. In Las Vegas, we also enjoyed the IMAX in Luxor maybe ?? and King Tut exhibit. You can watch the Bellagio fountains numerous times since different music. At the Grand Canyon, the rim side walk is a great place to "start", but I hope you take time to head into the canyon. We even did a short "stroll" down the Angel Bright Trail after dinner 1 nt. Just remember it takes 3x as long to walk up as to walk down, but we had mt goats keeping up company that evening so that was fun. In Sedona, you could take a sunrise balloon flight and we enjoyed a picnic and afternoon at Sliding Rock SP. Sounds like you already plan to take a pink jeep tour which is fun and informative. Enjoy your trip.

Myer

Without reading it again, it looks like you're never anywhere for more than a night. That's not good. Your car will always be full of luggage and you'll be driving more than enjoying.

Having said that, I stayed at the BW Inn of Sedona last year. If you click on my name you can find my very detailed report.

The motel has an interesting build. You go up a hill to get to the main level. The motel has three levels and goes down from the main level.

In my report I list a row of rooms that have one door to the parking lot and the other to a large patio facing Chimney Rock. Fantastic view. I would definitely stay there again. Also, good breakfast included.

I would try to get to Crescent Moon Picnic area an hour before sunset and find a good view of Cathedral Rock. If you can find a spot where the reflection of the Rock is in Oak Creek, all the better.

I have photos of the trip on my web site:

www.travelwalks.com

You can see sunset at Cathedral Rock, the view from the BW patio and many other photos of the trip.

About Grand Canyon. It rated at the bottom of everything I saw because from above it looks like a giant bowl and the Colorado River looks like a stream. Hike down the Bright Angel trail for an hour and then turn around and come back up. You'll get a better perspective that way. My mistake.

In my opinion the beauty of Sedona is the surroundings and not the town.

I thought two hikes were particularly scenic; Boynton Canyon Vista (not the full Boynton Canyon) (very short) and Broken Arrow (a few hours). Neither hard. Pink Jeep also maintains a parallel road to Broken Arrow. Funny to watch the Jeeps pass me and watch the people yelling as they think they're going over.

spirobulldog

I think you are not spending near enough time at each place. You are really rushing it just to say you saw something. There is a big difference in seeing something and actually experiencing it. That said, what you have can be done if that is the way you like to see things.
I would eat at the Wuksachi Lodge Dining Room. They do take reservations in the evening. We ate there 4 times around New Years a few months ago. We found the entrees to be outstanding. We found the desserts to be mediocre at best. They have a nice buffet breakfast, if you want a lot for breakfast. There is a lot to do in Sequoia. One could easily spend a week there. Of course, you must see the General Sherman tree. I would stop at Giant Forest Museum and allow 30 minutes there. Moro Rock is cool place to see. You might also want to see the Cave and Tunnel Tree. This is just scratching the surface. Keep in mind that Vegas, Hoover, and Grand Canyon will be very hot. Exploring Grand Canyon mid-day in July will be challenging due to the heat. If you could work in Slide Rock State Park near Sedona, that is neat and is a good way to beat the heat. I am assuming that the water runs year round there, I am not totally for sure of that. Sequoia will most likely be nice enough and not to hot to enjoy some hiking there, so you might plan on doing more hiking there than in Grand Canyon. The morning you are there early in the Canyon would be the time to go below the rim for an hour or so. I have never stayed at El Tovar and it is high on my list, so I envy you on that one.

MicheleVee

I certainly agree that in a perfect world, at the very least we'd love to stay at Sequoia and the Grand Canyon for a few extra days each. However, since we will be visiting family for several days at the beginning and end of this vacation, we just couldn't take any more time off from work. So I guess we really want to see the highlights, and hopefully go back to the Grand Canyon, Sequoia and/or Sedona separately in the future and spend more time there. Lucky for me, the information I've received in response to my post have helped to insure that we don't miss the must-sees during the short time we'll be at each stop on our vacation.

Myer, actually we booked the Best Western of Sedona after reading your recommendation in a previous post, and requested one on the rooms in the block of rooms with the best views. We're really looking forward to it.

Please keep the suggestions coming. I've learned so much from this Fodor's board -- now all I need is to have a lot more money to travel all over our lovely country ...!