My husband have three weekends available to travel from Nashville, TN leaving mid-afternoon (flying) and returning Monday night. We are in our VERY early 60's, love beautiful scenery, historical places, native american history & artifacts and unique shops. Like to hike and love wildlife viewing. I would like suggestions of great cities to visit from some of you 'frequent fliers'. We particularly like the Western U.S. He is from Houston and have family in Austin so have been there, as well as San Antonio. We have also been to Sedona and loved it. We are also open to other cities. Any ideas??

Thanks!!
Julie B

Not really a frequent flier but like the idea of flying to SLC or Las Vegas and renting a car for Grand Canyon and the southern Utah National Parks.

Sorry but what's SLC?

Salt Lake City.

So would you be leaving out on at Thursday or a Friday? So you have Fri, Sat, and Sun--then the travel days are Thursday and Monday or what?

What month-when?

With a short amount of time, I would get as close to the action you can to start with. If you wanted to see Arches National Park, I would fly into Moab instead of Salt lake.
For Yosemite, I would fly into Fresno instead of San Francisco.

I have been to about half of our National Parks. I really enjoy most all of them. You could easily fly into Denver on a direct flight from Nashville and do Rocky Mountains. Or into Seattle and do Olympic or Mount Rainier. San Francisco and do the coast, Yosemite, or The Redwoods.

If you have never been to Yellowstone or Yosemite, those are my two favorites.

I agree that "SLC" is a neat city for those with 3 days. Denver is reasonable as well, with so much of the Rocky Mountains nearby.

Those destinations are also airline hubs, making the trek from Nashville especially convenient.


Perhaps Santa Fe, NM would be a reasonable fit to your criteria as well.

If you loved Sedona, Santa Fe is a great choice. Fly into ABQ, NM. We used to fly from Atlanta for long weekends. We also would drive on up to Durango CO. Great if you love mountains and be sure to visit Mesa Verde National Park. We went in all seasons, incuding a Valentine's Day weekend.

Another option would be to fly to Denver and go up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain NP. Amazing.

Depending on connections, fly into Jackson WY and visit Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone. Even if you just get into the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone during a weekend trip, it would be wonderful.

Fly into Kalispell MT for a trip to Glacier NP.

If you like Native American history & artifacts, I love the area east of the Grand Canyon. I just love driving around the desert of AZ - Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly (amazing pictographs - take a tour by a Navajo guide), North Rim of the GC (depending on the time of year), the best fry bread I've ever had was at Cameron Trading Post and I love stopping in at Hubbard Trading Post too. I had meeting in Scottsdale every summer and looked forward to just driving around and seeing new stuff. As much as I love Sedona, I enjoyed exploring the area more.

You could take Southwest nonstop to San Diego - but a 4 hour flight for a 3 plus day getaway might be a bit much.

And rather than stay in SLC - I would suggest you get up to historic/beautiful Park City - with plenty of outdoor opportunities. http://www.booking.com/hotel/us/capr...FRJThwodhw_8Hw

Oops - that was for San Diego. Hopefully this will be the Park City page. Victorian atmosphere, and great restaurants, etc. Also check out the great Norweigan Skier - Stein Erickson's Lodge - mid mountain - at nearby Deer Valley.

http://www.parkcity.org/
http://www.steinlodge.com/ppc/stein

And as for Denver - you might like the cute little town of Frisco - up at the Summit, with the fabled town/ski area of Vail being only about 20 minutes further.

http://www.townoffrisco.com/

I like the idea of flying in to Albuquerque and going up to Santa Fe, then head over to Bandelier and loop west past Valez caldera, through Jemez and back with a stop at the Native American museum just south of Bernalillo and back to ABQ.

If you want a great Native American site, from ABQ you could head up to Chaco Canyon. Do be aware that there are NO lodging choices there unless you camp and there is 15 miles of unpaved road to get to it, but worth the effort. The closest lodging we have found is up in Bloomfield which is also close to Aztec Ruin.

Have a great trip!!

You could fly to Denver and do a nice loop of going up to the RMNP, through the park, down the other side to Silverthorne and back to DIA.
The actual driving loop is not lengthy so you would have time to enjoy the Park.
You could also go from Denver to Vail via Leadville (I'll ask the Coloradoans to give the route) and have a nice scenery and some hikes if you want.
You don't say the time of year, so this will be dependent on that.

Have you considered San Francisco? The most beautiful city in the USA. There is so much to see and do in this area - you might even rent a car and do a few hours in Sonoma or Napa wine country, and see some redwooods. For something a little closer, how about Quebec City - another amazingly beautiful city, much like being in France.

The problem with SF for a weekend is the long flight. It's certainly doable - but a lot of time in the plane means less time on the ground.

Santa Fe, Tucson area, Denver (RMNP), Flagstaff area, New Orleans, Rapid City area (Black Hills), anywhere in So Cal and go to the desert/mountains, Las Vegas (Death Valley), maybe Savannah?

They don't all have everything on your list but at least 2 or 3 things that you like.