Bindlestiff Tours is headquartered in Las Vegas. The reason for this choice of city is no accident, because when a person or group is considering a tour of a national park located int eh southwestern United States, unless you live in he area you are going to need to pick a city to start your journey. The strategic location of your starting point is going to have a large effect on your trip, due to the fact that national parks are generally very remote. National parks have a protection from both development and encroachment that is stipulated by the federal government, so as to protect the park itself from becoming developed from multiple aspects. The natural beauty is protected from developers who would want to use the land for housing, mining or many other uses, and also from becoming overly tourist oriented. It was realized long ago that even too many modern conveniences that are designed to make tourism more convenient will spoil a natural environment, and for this reason you are not going to find hotels, restaurants and even large towns within a good distance from the boundaries of any national park. No matter how popular the park is, you are also not going to find any major airports nearby, and you will mostly have to use the nearest city to the park you want to visit to fly into. This is the strength of Las Vegas as a starting point for tours of Zion Canyon National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. Las Vegas is situated quite close to both areas, and also holds a plethora of restaurants and hotels to make your stay a comfortable one. Las Vegas is a tourist location in its own right, so all of the things that tourists are going to want or need can be easily found here.
The biggest reason for starting your tour in Las Vegas is the proximity to Zion. While there is an argument to be made that starting a national parks tour in Salt Lake City is equally beneficial due to its proximity to the same parks as Las Vegas, the simple fact remains that Las Vegas is better set up for tourist traffic, cheaper flights and hotels, and more entertainment. In addition, while most national parks are going to be roughly a 4 hour plus drive from a major city, Zion Canyon is only 2.5 hours from Las Vegas. This means that anyone who is visiting Zion only can make a day trip of it, going out in the morning and returning that night. Anyone who wants to use the time to their advantage and visit multiple parks can create a tour loop, which basically travels from the starting point to the nearest park, then to the park nearest to that one. Bryce Canyon is about 4 hours from Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, but only 2 hours from Zion. This means that if you are going to visit both places, starting in Las Vegas and traveling to Zion first, then on to Bryce and other parks from there will save you more than 2 full hours of travel time. Consider this when you are planning your next tour of southwest national parks, or just leave the driving to us and check out any of our tours that visit the parks you want to see.