3 days road trip around Las Vegas

[Surfbird]

I am coming to LV early February, me and a colleague are renting a car on Friday morning (Feb 10th) and we have three days to drive around - Grand Canyon (South Rim I suppose) is a must and , the first stop on Friday, what would be a good plan from then on?

I would like to see Death Valley, but is it doable in three days to see both Grand Canyon AND Death Valley, or would we just be sitting in the car all day long?

If it is not doable, please put together a feasible plan/suggestion with nice things to see and do with reasonable drive times per day - we need to be back in Ls Vegas on Sunday evening.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys! And thanks in advance!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Doing the Grand Canyon and Death Valley could be done, but that would be a lot of driving for a short amount of time.

What I think you might be better off considering is doing a loop to the Grand Canyon and Zion. It would look something like spend Friday afternoon and Saturday morning at GC, drive up to Zion Saturday afternoon. Spend Sunday at Zion, before making the 2-3 hour drive back to Vegas that afternoon.

There's of course a lot more you can do in the area, and really a lot of other options like Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, Sedona, etc, but that's one starting point to consider.

[Surfbird]

My previous post got one, but a very good answer, and now I got another questiom:

Since it does not seem feasible to do both GC and DV in a 3-day roundtrip from Las Vegas, which one would youchoose?

And which one has more other nice points of interest nearby (and suggestions, please) that would not mean that we would just driving in our rental and not be out and about experiencing?

Yours sicerely,

Surfbird

[Moderator Note: Please keep all questions about this trip in the same thread.]

[Midwest Michael]

Which is better is a very tough question to answer, I'd really look at the national parks website and explore the sites of both parks and see which looks more interesting to you.

If you are looking for more things to do beyond the one main stop, then I'd probably go with the Grand Canyon. I previously mentioned Zion, but there are lots of other possibilities. You've got Antelope Canyon, Walnut Canyon, the Sedona area, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, or even Monument Valley (although that might be a bit far with 3 days). The Hoover Dam and Route 66 are also options on the way. Of course, you wouldn't have time for all of those things, but you'd have lots to pick from.

Death Valley is a bit more removed from other destinations - although it is a perfect location to include on a loop with San Francisco, Yosemite, and the Coast for a trip when you have more time. However, if DV is more appealing to you, another possibility would be to include Death Valley as part of a Series of Daytrips from Vegas, returning to Vegas each night.

[Surfbird]

Which is better is a very tough question to answer, I'd really look at the national parks website and explore the sites of both parks and see which looks more interesting to you.

If you are looking for more things to do beyond the one main stop, then I'd probably go with the Grand Canyon. I previously mentioned Zion, but there are lots of other possibilities. You've got Antelope Canyon, Walnut Canyon, the Sedona area, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, or even Monument Valley (although that might be a bit far with 3 days). The Hoover Dam and Route 66 are also options on the way. Of course, you wouldn't have time for all of those things, but you'd have lots to pick from.

Death Valley is a bit more removed from other destinations - although it is a perfect location to include on a loop with San Francisco, Yosemite, and the Coast for a trip when you have more time. However, if DV is more appealing to you, another possibility would be to include Death Valley as part of a Series of Daytrips from Vegas, returning to Vegas each night.

Trip is now over for this part and it was a hoot:

1. Grand Canyon: got there just in time for sunset - great colours! Explored point views until afternoon and then on the road again
2. Saturday night in Kanab, Utah - all bars closed at 9 PM, and no taxi service in town (closest bar just across the state line 5 miles ways). But what an experience, loads of fun!
3. Sunday - back top Vegas via Zion (amazing) and Valley of Fire (would have been probably also amazing, had we not seen what we saw before it...)

We eneded up doing 850 miles in three days, and it was not too bad.

Thanks,

Surfbird

[Lifemagician]

Thank you for coming back and sharing.

Sounds like you had a great trip, in the limited time you had. Any pictures to share?

Lifey