Las Vegas 5-6 days round trip mid June

Am I excited! - Got the ok to go to a conference in Las Vegas & have arranged 5-6 days at the end to experience the awesome sights of the South West USA which seems a world away from New Zealand. Mindful of other postings & not wanting to cram too much in. Perhaps Bryce Canyon via Zion National Park, then to Moab, then via Canyonlands to Meas Verde. Then to Monument Valley and on to the Grand Canyon. Unsure of the options of South Rim vs North Rim vs Grand Canyon West. Could we fit in Lake Powell & Antelope Canyon? At some stage along the way would like to do some rafting if possible (half day only).
Is your standard economy car rental ok or would you advise an upgrade?
On the other hand is it just too late to plan a road trip & we should stick with arranged tours - not usually my scene!

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

As it happens, nearly that exact same trip came up recently, so have a look at their timing and my comments as a first step. You might be a little tight on time, and you'll need to make arrangements for some places to stay, particularly near the Grand Canyon, ASAP. The North Rim fits in with your other destinations a bit better and is less visited. The South Rim has more tourist facilities and more places to view the Canyon from. You will have to make some decisions such as how much time you can devote to rafting and such at the expense of seeing other places, but be assured that there are no 'right' decisions, only what works best for you. As for the car, when you go to book look carefully at the price difference between a compact/economy and the next size up, intermediate/mid-sized. If it's not too much more expensive and fits in your budget, that's an upgrade I'm usually willing to make for the extra room and horsepower, but it's not essential.

AZBuck

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

There's certainly no reason you couldn't do a trip, but you'll probably have to work a bit, and do so quickly to find things like lodging or rafting tours that aren't booked up. It can be done certainly, but you'll have to get to work.

I'd recommend you start just by sketching out your trip. I'd say you've probably already got a bit more than you can realistically do. I see about 7-8 places you've listed to go in 5-6 days, and that doesn't include driving time. However, if you sketch things out, you can see how quick of a pace you'd really be looking at, and how that fits with the kind of trip you want to do.

For the Grand Canyon, the South Rim is the area that gets the most visitors and has the most services, and is what most people who have seen the grand canyon have seen. The North Rim is at a higher elevation, so the views are different, it gets less visitors, but there are not many services available either. The west rim is part of an indian reservation and is not part of the National Park. It does have the skywalk, but the views aren't quite as spectacular, it can be quite expensive, and I believe the roads heading out there are in pretty rough shape.

Hi,

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Mindful of other postings & not wanting to cram too much in.

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I think you are already pretty crammed without Lake Powell and Antelope canyon. An early start from Vegas and you could do a "whistle stop tour of Zion and get to Bryce for evening. Day 2, looking around Bryce and driving to Moab is another full day. Day 3, Arches and/or part of Canyonlands and drive to Mesa Verde is another very full day. Day 4, look around Mesa Verde, drive to MV and look around and stop the night. Day 5 drive to Grand canyon through East entrance to South rim, explore and stay in the park or just out the South entrance for the night. Day 6 back to Vegas.

As said previously, you could spend a day at the North rim between Zion and Bryce instead of the South rim, but they are all going to be busy days and not much time for rafting unless something else gives. From a personal point of view I would prefer more quality time at Zion and Grand canyon whilst visiting Bryce, Lake powell/Antelope canyon and MV instead of cramming in Arch's and Mesa Verde, but that's me, it's your trip ;-)