Category: Travel

It is a dream for many people to visit the Grand Canyon. After all, the Grand Canyon is one of the most visited and photographed areas on earth, and it would probably be quite difficult to find many people in the civilized world who have not seen at least one picture of it. The area is not only scenic but also offers some of the best hiking and outdoor activity choices in the world, all with the backdrop of the sheer canyon cliffs and walls to frame your visit. There are few adventure travelers and explorers who would not like to visit the area, but the trip itself is usually hindered by the logistics of the tip and the travel times that it takes to get there. The Grand Canyon suffers from the same issue that many parks do which results in lower visitation levels than would be expected. Simply put, they are really far away and the drive to them is difficult. Driving through the desert is not like driving on the east coast or in a city, the desert all looks the same to most people, resulting in the driving time feeling much longer than it actually is. A four hour trip through the desert can be exhausting, leading few to feel refreshed and ready for exploration when they get there. If you have planned only a single day trip and now need to drive home, it may be overwhelming. This is why so many visitors to Las Vegas use tour services which will transport them to the Grand Canyon from their hotels. For them it is usually worth the fee in order to avoid the exhausting drives. Starting your Grand Canyon tour in Las Vegas makes a lot of sense. Unless you are from the southwest, you

There is a reason that there are multiple companies operate tours that use Las Vegas as the starting point and travel to national parks in the southwestern United States. The most obvious is the physical proximity to these areas that allows for a ground transport to get you to your park of choice in less than a half day. This is actually the very same reason that Las Vegas grew in popularity. It was once a simple town that was situated at about the mid-point across the desert between developed areas, and provided rest and food for those who were traveling from the east coast to California. The Mojave Desert had to be crossed in order to get there, and the unforgiving harshness of the landscape combined with travel time made it necessary to establish a point at the rough halfway marker where people could rest and take a break from the trip. After a while, it became more of a destination onto itself by providing the things that people could not get elsewhere, like gambling. The actual specifics of travel time and location were the real reason Las Vegas grew out of nothing, and continued to thrive even though it had little surrounding it. This is the very same reason it makes perfect sense to use it as a starting point for travel out into that desert, to the remote national parks that are located in the desert region. The city is big enough to support commercial airline traffic, essentially allowing you to use faster means to cover the distances from your home to the starting point, before driving the rest of the way. Because it has become such a destination on it's own, you can also get cheaper and more abundant flights and hotels there. Las Vegas is

Las Vegas is one of the most popular tourist locations on earth, and every years sees millions of people from all over the world arrive in order to partake in the fantastic weather, the entertainment, gambling, shows, food and hospitality.  While the draw of Las Vegas is obvious for most people, there is an additional aspect that fewer people are aware of which also results in thousands of people coming to Las Vegas. That reason is that Las Vegas is perfectly positioned as the starting point for southwestern national parks tours, and many outdoor enthusiasts flock to Las Vegas each year in order to tour the large number of national parks that are located within a short drive of the city. With regards to national parks, we consider a "short drive" to be less than 8 hours, as most national parks are located in remote areas that are not developed for many miles in all directions, in compliance with the federal laws that created them. This means that for just about all parks you are going to have to arrange some form of ground transportation from a starting point, and unless you live in the general vicinity this probably means flying into a city like Las Vegas and leaving from there. Las Vegas itself became popular because it was viewed as a "stopover" in the desert where most of these parks are located, essentially being positioned about half way across the desert from one developed area to the next. This is why it stands to reason that it is a perfect starting point for most parks located in that same vicinity. Las Vegas is also viewed by many as the perfect starting point simply because the popularity of the city as a tourist destination on it's own offers a wider

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