Category: Travel News

If you are coming to Las Vegas on vacation, you are going to have a great time in the entertainment capital of the world, however some people are going to want to also experience some entertainment that is less manufactured and a little more natural. These folks are going to be drawn to the fact that there are more than 8 national parks within driving distance of the city, most of which can be reached in less than four hours drive. This gives those with a sense of adventure the ability to dedicate nearly as much time as they want to the exploration of the beautiful and unspoiled nature that exists in these protected spaces. If you wanted to dedicate a few days in each park, you could easily spend more than a week out in the wilderness. Most people who are coming to Las Vegas prefer to spend one or two days out of their vacation to also see some of these awesome places, using the city as a logical starting point for the trip. We would actually warn against driving yourself to areas like the Grand Canyon or Bryce Canyon simply because the drive through the desert is not something that everyone is used to. Driving four hours with no landmarks and all the scenery looking pretty much the same can feel like a far longer time, so unless you have done this kind of driving before we would suggest leaving the driving to us. But which parks should you visit if you only have a few days? Most people answer this question with a combination of the Grand Canyon and a few other parks, generally based upon personal preference. Some parks are going to have better hiking than others, and some are going to have better photography

Zion Canyon National Park has grown dramatically in popularity over the past ten years. The popularity of most southwestern national parks has grown due to marketing campaigns put forth by the national parks department, but Zion has shown significantly more growth than the rest. It has gotten to the point of some officials feeling the need to figure out new methods of decreasing traffic and congestion at the park, as there have been growing issues with parking and trash hauling as tourism has grown. That said, many people ae wondering why exactly that Zion has grown so much more popular than other parks in the same region that ae equally as beautiful and has just as many amenities. The answer probably lies in Zion’s proximity to Las Vegas. Las Vegas is the perfect place to begin a tour of Zion Canyon national park if you are not from the area. Those from other parts of the country or the world are going to need to fly into a major city to use as a starting point for their national parks tour, and Las Vegas is perfect in the way that it is a tourist attraction on it’s own and therefore has good prices on flights coming into and out of the city. It also has an enormous amount of hotel rooms and restaurants that will fit any budget, so obviously it is going to appropriately serve as your starting point if you are planning on simply flying in and then moving to the next phase of your trip.  Because of the proximity to many of the parks in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, there is a booming tour business that takes visitors from the city to these areas for exploration.  Bindlestiff Tours is one of the premier tour companies that

Zion Canyon National park is one of the most visited places in the country,  and is recognized by most people from the southwestern portion of the United States as a “must see” area sooner or later. Zion is unlike most of the other parks that are in the general vicinity of Nevada, Arizona, California and Utah in that the majority of these parks are going to take roughly four hours to get to from the nearest major city. Zion on the other hand is only 2.5 hours from Las Vegas, which positions it perfectly for single day tours or multi-day tours that also involve other parks. Starting in Las Vegas makes sense for nearly any national park tour that involves southwestern parks, because Las Vegas itself is positioned in the general center of the desert.  It was created as a stopover location for those who were traveling across the country and would need to cross the long and uninhabited stretches of the desert on their trip. Las Vegas was a valley that was positioned around the half-way point of the uninhabited areas of desert in between Arizona and California, so it grew in popularity as the area that would be perfect to stop and resupply or rest. This literally created a tourist town over time, as more and more hotels, restaurants and other necessities were necessary to cater to this group. Once gambling and other vices were legalized to cater to this crowd, the position of Las Vegas as the destination instead of the stopover was born. However the elements that made it function as a stopover never went away, so it is still appropriate to use the city for the needs that one has during a trip to other places like the nearby national parks. There are cheap flights

If you have booked a vacation to Las Vegas, you are probably planning on taking a day trip outside of the city for one of the days of your trip to go to the Grand Canyon.  It would be a shame to come all this way only to not go a little further in order to experience one of the greatest scenic wonders on earth. Las Vegas has long been understood to be the perfect starting place for a Grand Canyon tour, because of it's close proximity to the park, being about a one-half day's drive from downtown. While it is preferable to actually drive out to the park and return the next day in order to have ample time to explore and hike, those with only one day of exploration time are usually satisfied as long as they are not the ones driving. This can be quite exhausting to drive 9 hours in a day while also hiking and exploring in a park. For this reason, a new marketing campaign has begun allowing tours to the "West Rim" of the Grand Canyon, which is 2 hours from the city. This area was completed recently with a tourist attraction called the "Grand Canyon Skywalk" which is a glass bridge suspended over the canyon floor. This installation has been heavily criticized for spoiling the natural beauty of the area, and many have wondered how such a structure can be developed in a national park that restricts development. This is because the Westy Rim is not part of the national park, and is actually land owned by The Hualapai Tribe. The Skywalk was developed to attract tourists to an area of the canyon that had little for tourist traffic, being outside of the national park and far less scenic than the actual

Every year thousands of tourists coming to Las Vegas are greeted at the airport with advertisements from tour providers discussing their tours of the Grand Canyon. Many of these tourists have planned to take a day or two out of their trip in order to visit the Grand Canyon, because if you have come this far from home to visit Las Vegas, you might as well use the position as a starting point to also visit one of the most photographed places on earth. The advertisements you will generally see aggressively promoting Grand Canyon tours will also mention the "Grand Canyon Skywalk" which is a man-made glass bridge which is suspended above the canyon floor.  Many have been critical of this structure, as it spoils the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon itself, simply for the shock value of walking high above the canyon floor. What many do not realize is that the Grand Canyon Skywalk is a tourist attraction that is designed specifically to lure Las Vegas tourists, based upon the proximity of the West Rim of the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas. The West Rim of the Grand Canyon is located 2 hours from the city, and can be reached by driving or helicopter from Las Vegas. What many people are unaware of is that if you arrange for a tour of the West Rim, you are actually not going to tour the Grand Canyon National Park, which is actually located in the South Rim 4.5 hours away. There are two different tours that are being provided from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, the South Rim tour and the West Rim tour. The South Rim is far more lush and scenic, and is probably the area that you have seen in photographs and in movies. The South

Touring the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas makes a lot of sense, because the Grand Canyon National Park area is relatively isolated and is going to require several hours of driving to reach from the nearest cities.If you live in the southwestern portion of the United States, you are probably able to calculate driving distances from your home that may be under a day's drive or so, but if you live elsewhere in the country there is a good chance that it is far more beneficial to fly into the closest cities then arrange transportation to the Grand Canyon from there. The closest cities that are going to support major airline traffic are going to be Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, Las Vegas being most people's choice simply because it is a tourist attraction of it's own. You can fly into Las Vegas and create a dual vacation, spending the time that you want to at the Grand Canyon and also a few extra days in Las Vegas itself during the same trip. Because Las Vegas is well set up for tourism, you will generally find that the flights will be better prices than travel to Salt Lake City, and there will be more affordable hotel rooms as well. When you use Las Vegas as your starting point for your trip to the Grand Canyon, it might be a good idea to leave the driving to a professional company like ours that provides Grand Canyon tours, due to the fact that driving an unfamiliar rental car across the desert can be a bit of a harrowing experience. The drive to the Grand Canyon National Park is about 4.5 hours, and if you go during the summer the temperatures can easily be over 110 degrees. There are extremely large sections

When you are planning on coming to Las Vegas for a vacation, you may want to consider taking a few days out of that trip in order to visit one of the many national parks that are located in the vicinity of the city. Naturally, by "vicinity" we are not talking about walking distance! There are numerous national parks and protected spaces that are incredible to tour which are located within a day's drive time from the strip, and if you are adventurous and would like to experience a different aspect of the desert while you are in Sin City, then plan on taking a drive outside it and through the desert. We would actually not suggest this for people who are unfamiliar with driving through the desert, or who are not experienced with long distance drives due to the fact that driving in the southwest is not the same as driving on the east coast. It is best to think of distances in terms of hours that it will take to get there, because driving in a desert does not give you the constant visual stimulation that driving through populated areas does. In the desert you can literally drive for a hundred miles without seeing another car, or any kind of building at all. Yes, that means that there are stretches of road that are not going to have a single gas station for more than 100 miles, so you really do have to prepare for this type of trip. In many cases, your cell phone is not going to have a signal out there, and your navigation system may also not work properly as many of the roads may not be the same as the last time they were mapped. You will need to carry lots of water

Las Vegas is a perfect starting point for the touring of many national parks and protected spaces in the southwestern United States. 7 national parks can be reached within a comfortable one-day drive from the hotels in the city, being located in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, California, and Nevada. Each of the parks that can be reached from the Las Vegas starting point are going to involve stretches of hundreds of miles where you are driving through desolate desert, and you may not see another human being or service station for many of these miles. Many people from more populated areas will underestimate the desolation of these highway drives in the area, as they have never experienced driving in remote areas. In these desert areas there is many times no cell service, no accessibility to food, water or shelter, and ultimately provide a certain amount of danger if your car was to break down or you would run out of gas. The temperatures in the summertime can easily go over 110 degrees, and there is little to no shade. You are very much on your own in the desert, so come prepared. Pack plenty of water and anything else you might need to survive if anything was to go wrong. The 7 national parks that are the most popular to drive to from a Las Vegas starting point are the following" Yosemite National Park: California, 7 Hours Zion National Park: Utah, 3 Hours Arches National Park: Utah, 8 Hours Bryce Canyon National Park: Utah, 3 Hours Monument Valley And Four Corners: Southwest US, 8 Hours Mesa Verde National Park: Colorado, 8 Hours Grand Canyon: Arizona, 4.5 Hours It is important to understand that it is better to plan your potential driving trips through the desert in the number of hours you