Arizona/Utah trip "mimicking" ABD to save $$$

[mickeymom629]

Thanks for the details from so many!! I'm looking forward to planning and will definitely be looking back at this thread to do so. My original thought was that we would fly into Phoenix and fly out of Nevada or somewhere north.

 

[wed100105]

Just curious if you ended up planning your trip like the ABD. I’m looking at doing a similar trip this Christmas break. I’d love to hear how your trip went!

 

[Donalyn]

Christmas Break - beware the elevation issues in the SW. And the road closures for snow, etc. I was at the Grand Canyon in March - it was cold and there was snow on the ground.

In the US - I think that it would be pretty easy to get a similar experience as the ABD trips (other than Backstage Magic), provided that you don't mind driving and planning. Some are easier than others. For instance, trips that go into and out of the same airport (Alaska) or other bigger locations where one-way car rentals are not an issue.

My biggest issue with the Arizona/Utah trip is that it isn't enough time for all of the amazing places along the way. Especially, if you like to hike. I'd rather spend the same amount for 2 to 3 times the time and explore it on my own time. Or divide it into a few different trips.

For instance, I've thought about a week (or longer) trip out of Grand Junction - hitting Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley, 4 corners, Mese Verde and Canyon of the Gunnison (or whatever that is called).

Then another trip, out of Vegas, to hit the remaining 3 of the Utah Big 5.

Then a trip up from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon, Page, Sedona and surrounding areas.

And that doesn't even get you time in New Mexico....

It is truly an amazing part of the country.

We are currently planning a DIY Alaska. We will switching Seward for the time in Denali, but otherwise having a similar trip. Should be about half price.

 

[blabadie]

We are on the upcoming adults only departure for this tour in May. very excited. But we were bummed it did not include Bryce Canyon and Zion. For those locals on those thread, we are looking to do this on our own. Do you recommend before or after? (We are thinking, after) And could we do both of those in 1 day or will we need 2 days for them both? Last question - where should we fly out of if we do these on back end? It almost looked just as easy to head back to Grand Junction and just fly out of there. Other recommendations?

Not a local, but have visited the Utah national parks a couple times. Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks are absolute must-sees if you're in the area.

You will need a day at each park. You could easily spend more than a day at Zion (and could get by with a little less than a day at Bryce depending upon your hiking interests), but fitting them both in a day would be too rushed. They are a couple hours apart

Zion gets very busy. I would heavily recommend getting an early start to avoid some of the park entrance traffic. Park shuttle buses run from the visitor center throughout the park. Check out each of the national park's websites for things to do, maps, hike descriptions, etc. There really is a lot info there. Guidebooks are always fun, but you can get quite a bit of info just from the parks' websites.

We stayed at Zion Mountain Ranch.. It was conveniently located between the two parks and was a collection of upscale cabins in a pretty setting with a nice, farm-to-table restaurant onsite. Lodging inside the national parks is also fun, but books up early and is a little less convenient if you want to visit both.

Closest major airport is Las Vegas (about 3 hrs).

 

[mickeymom629]

OP here. As it turned out, we were invited to a friend's daughter's wedding in Tempe, AZ for March 2. Our flight from MD to AZ was cancelled on March 1 but we were lucky enough to get one early on the 2nd and make the wedding! It was warm there. The day after the wedding, we drove to Williams and walked the strip and had lunch. It was windy and cool. Then we drove the rest of the way to the South Rim, saw the iMax movie and checked into a Bright Angel cabin for 2 nights It had snowed the week before so some of the trails down the canyon were too dangerous for us but there were still mule rides going and people wearing crimps? on their shoes. We loved walking the path along the canyon and watching the sunrise and sunset from viewing locations. Then we drove to Page/Lake Powell and checked into a Hampton with a balcony for 2 nights. Did an impromptu Horseshoe Bend trip via $5 bus tour - price is probably going up because they are "commercializing" it (saw bulldozers). Our slow-water raft trip for the next day was cancelled due to expected high winds for the afternoon, but we ended up walking around the Glen Canyon dam/Lake Powell area ourselves and we were the only ones in the whole area and it was better than the raft ride, I'm thinking. Drove into Utah to say we were in Utah - amazing landscape! Visitor center was closed, so we drove back to Glen Canyon Dam and watched the movie (ongoing and you just walk in and out when you want) and walked around. The next day we did an Antelope Canyon tour which I had booked last minute on the way from South Rim to Page. You can only see the Antelope Canyon by tour and we had a good guide. Then we drove to Sedona and stayed one night at a Best Western Plus (fire pits outside of rooms). We walked around the town. The next day we took a Pink Jeep tour (not dare-devil). It was good but I was freezing the entire time, even though they gave us blankets and ponchos (it was drizzly). Checked out of hotel and drove back to Phoenix via Jerome (suggestion of our Pink Jeep tour guide) - check it out if you can! It's got a haunted history. It is up on a HIGH mountain and very cool. We didn't have plans to do this, so we just drove through to the airport hotel. Took the rental car back to the original place we rented from, shuttled from the car rental to the airport to wait for a shuttle back to our hotel for the night.

I loved the time of year that we went because it was not hot and I can't imagine doing all the walking and hiking we did in the heat! Luckily we did not have snow fall while we were there because that would have made hiking trickier. 2 nights in each place was good for us and we saw a lot in the week we were there. I would have like to have had 2 nights in Sedona for a hike. Landscapes were amazing everywhere!!!! Driving was a little "hairy" at times on mountains and we saw the stupidest people along the rim - no wonder why people fall by accident. You don't have to be on the edge to get a good picture! I just couldn't look at some people because they were scaring me with what they were doing for a picture. I'm glad we weren't there during the busy season when idiots must be more numerable.

Utah will be a separate trip, one day.

 

[emmamelissa]

We've done this several times: in Greece, in San Francisco, and in Rome. I use ABD or Tauck's website to look at itineraries and activities and then see what can be independently booked. You can't get everything ABD offers this way, but it's a convenient way to help yourself put together a coherent, fun itinerary for sightseeing and activities. It helps if you're trying to plan a driving trip too. I find that the things you can't replicate easily are usually the 'cultural' activities (cooking classes, etc), but that the tourist stuff and historical sights are easy to do. That works great for us, because we prefer the latter.

 

[cmph]

Not a local, but have visited the Utah national parks a couple times. Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks are absolute must-sees if you're in the area.

You will need a day at each park. You could easily spend more than a day at Zion (and could get by with a little less than a day at Bryce depending upon your hiking interests), but fitting them both in a day would be too rushed. They are a couple hours apart

Zion gets very busy. I would heavily recommend getting an early start to avoid some of the park entrance traffic. Park shuttle buses run from the visitor center throughout the park. Check out each of the national park's websites for things to do, maps, hike descriptions, etc. There really is a lot info there. Guidebooks are always fun, but you can get quite a bit of info just from the parks' websites.

We stayed at Zion Mountain Ranch.. It was conveniently located between the two parks and was a collection of upscale cabins in a pretty setting with a nice, farm-to-table restaurant onsite. Lodging inside the national parks is also fun, but books up early and is a little less convenient if you want to visit both.

Closest major airport is Las Vegas (about 3 hrs).

I'm an ABD lurker (can't quite see my family fitting in to the group travel model yet), and just wanted to thank you for this post! I booked Zion Mountain Ranch, and we are really looking forward to it! We are in Phoenix, transplants from the east coast, and we haven't made it to Utah yet. My kids, MIL, and I are not campers whatsoever (much to DH's sadness) so this will be perfect.

For everyone else reading this - there are a lot of great AZ suggestions so far.

• Sedona is amazing and my personal favorite. We also stayed at the Best Western Plus (last year, with my family of 4, very convenient location, liked the access to the sports club with the indoor/outdoor pool and games areas, small rooms but decent), and DH and I previously stayed at L'Auberge de Sedona - upscale, gorgeous, great for couples. The adventurous Pink Jeep tour we did in Sedona is one of my kids' favorite things we've ever done on a trip.
• Prescott is only about 90min from Phoenix and lovely too. There is an area that we drive through on the way to Watson Lake park that makes us think of scenes from Cars. The Prescott Resort is pretty decent, nothing high-end, but the nicest I have found in the area.
• Jerome is really neat, very unique, although I haven't convinced my kids to stay in the haunted hotel yet.
• I'm not personally that big on Flagstaff, which is the place everyone in Phoenix escapes to in the summer (to beat the heat) and in the winter (to go skiing). I'm not a skiing fan, and we haven't found any really nice places to stay there, TBH. I'm a little particular about hotels. The Little America hotel (in the recently renovated rooms only!!) is the best we've done. It's really not bad, just a bit old - even actual keys for doors in the unrenovated rooms last year!
• In the Phoenix/Scottsdale area itself, it's really easy to find nice resorts. We do staycations every now and then, just b/c summer has amazing deals. Although we haven't stayed there overnight, the Civana spa and resort in Carefree is lovely; it's #2 on my favorite spas for couples so far (Aulani's is #1).
• Tucson is not very popular, it seems, from the perspective of someone who didn't grow up in the Phoenix area and hears all of the negative remarks about it. However, I think it has some fun things to offer - such as Old Tucson, which is cheesy but fun if you're a fan of Western movies and involves quite a drive through saguaros to get there. We've stayed at the Tucson Omni a couple of times and highly (highly!) recommend that you only do that if you stay in one of the newly renovated parts.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We've done this several times: in Greece, in San Francisco, and in Rome. I use ABD or Tauck's website to look at itineraries and activities and then see what can be independently booked. You can't get everything ABD offers this way, but it's a convenient way to help yourself put together a coherent, fun itinerary for sightseeing and activities. It helps if you're trying to plan a driving trip too. I find that the things you can't replicate easily are usually the 'cultural' activities (cooking classes, etc), but that the tourist stuff and historical sights are easy to do. That works great for us, because we prefer the latter.

This is how we ended up doing Greece on our own, as well. I priced out the Greece ABD and then started pricing out the hotels and transportation components on my own. I also realized we wanted to see Corinth, Epidaurus, Olympia and Sounio while we were there and found a private tour company in Greece to do that tour for us. Once I priced everything out, I realized we could do 10 nights in mainland Greece, 5 nights in Crete and 4 nights in Santorini in beautiful hotels with private tours for about the same cost as ABD, so we ended up doing it on our own - it was spectacular. I, too, look at ABD's other itineraries to get a general tour/location/logistics sense for other vacations - I've already planned future trips to Canada and Arizona/Utah using their itineraries. I AM planning on booking a Rhine Cruise with ABD, though, as I can't see booking a private river cruise ship to take us on that itinerary, LOL! We will most likely do Germany on our own, though, before that cruise.

 

[RamblingMad]

I lived in Phoenix for 12 years, and I'm returning in another month. I hiked there the entire time I lived there. Where you hike depends entirely on the time of year.

What type of vacation are looking for? I went car camping in Sedona back in April. I split the site with one of my friends. Cost me less than $30 plus food.

Are you road tripping it? Are you flying in? Are you camping out, RVing, or renting a hotel? How do you feel about staying in cabins?

The Grand Canyon is an amazing place, but you want to get permits and hike down to the bottom and camp out in either the spring or fall. It's entirely different than hiking along the rim to the lookouts. And it entirely depends on your fitness level.

Havasupai Falls is also amazing, but it's much more difficult to get permits. And it costs a lot more. I recommend camping out here. The campground is much closer to the other falls.

If you want to travel up to Utah, there is an animal sanctuary that you can volunteer at on the way to Zion/Bryce.

The trails at Zion are totally different from the ones at Bryce. Bryce is far less busy, and I prefer it. But if you haven't been to Zion, you'll want to go. You can rent the boots and walking stick just outside the park for doing the Narrows. The steeper hikes like Angel's Landing require you to have a decent level of fitness. For Bryce I totally recommend the Fairytail Loop. The Hoodoos are amazing. You'll feel like you're on an alien planet.

I don't think you can do it all. You'll want to make a bunch of little trips to properly take it in. And you'll want to have your hiking legs ready to go.

 

[pjacobi]

Havasu Falls was animated in "Cars". The nearby town of Peach Springs was the inspiration of Radiator Springs.

-Paul

 

[RamblingMad]

Havasu Falls was animated in "Cars". The nearby town of Peach Springs was the inspiration of Radiator Springs.

-Paul

If you hike to the back of the campground, you can go down and explore some more falls. It's truly a paradise.

The ten mile hike down isn't bad either. The first two take you down most of the way. Then, it's six miles to town. Finally, you hike down hill for two more miles on what feels like sand. This is why it's best to camp out. If you stay at the hotel down there, and you want to visit the other falls, you have to hike down that "sand" hill for two miles and back up each day. Now, hiking out requires leaving as soon as possible in the morning. I left with a headlamp on and made it to town before the sun came up. The problem is that you don't want to do the last two miles uphill in the middle of the day. It's really hot and exposed.

Of course, you want to put your food in either a Ursack or a Bear Canister. The tribe let's horses go through the campsite, so if your food is out in the open, a horse might get into it.

 

[pjacobi]

I stayed at the Havasu Falls "hotel". It's just slightly better than camping. It was suitable for me, but I don't think the wife would have approved. The best part was the confirmation letter with the "Delivered by Mule Train" postmark.

Everything in the village is delivered by helicopter or mule train.


-Paul