I am going to Las Vegas with my mum and sister and want to hire a car to travel to see the Canyon and Monument Valley. I think we will be able to do this with no problems but I think my mum has seen too many scary road movies and is not so keen. I take it these places are well sign posted and are used by lots of other people so must have plenty of places to stop off on the way. Help me convince my mum we will be ok please.
As Ivgeno notes, it is a very long drive. How hard it is will really depend on how long you are willing to spend driving. There is a ton of empty country out there so your mum’s concerns are certainly not invalid. It is not a day trip, that’s for sure. HOWEVER…
With a little planning, the effort is well worth the trip.
For a little help with the convincing, here are some websites of places you can visit along the way:
http://www.nps.gov/grca
http://www.camerontradingpost.com/
http://www.navajo.org/
http://www.navajonationparks.org/
http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm/monumentvalley.htm
http://www.nps.gov/wupa
http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/
http://www.nps.gov/lame/
Man there is soooo much to see and do! I hope you get to make it happen!
Have an EXCELLENT trip!
You’ll be fine. The Grand Canyon and surrounding areas are some of the most visited places in the world! As an alternative, you can charter a helicopter from Vegas to take you on a sight seeing tour to the Grand Canyon, and relieve her driving anxieties! (Unless she’s afraid of heights…)
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It is a very long (6 hours each way) drive and all desert for the most part. You could drive for miles and never see anyone else on the road. At night is really really dark as there are no street lights and it is in the middle of the desert. The good part is there is no traffic like there is in Las Vegas. Now driving in Las Vegas is dangerous in itself. They have no idea what driving laws are there until something happens. There is a 24 hour television station that just shows traffic problems and accidents in the valley.
It would be cheaper to rent a car and drive yourself rather than take a tour. Just wanted you to be aware that driving here is different than anywhere else.
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http://www.myvegasbuddy.com
i was in vegas the beginning of march this year. i did the helicopter over the grand canyon and i fully recommend it as you will see alot more than driving (hoover dam, lake mead etc). if you do drive, if i recall correctly the pilot told us that to drive from vegas to the look out point over the canyon it was about 20 miles.
make sure you allow some time for shopping in vegas as there are shopping malls all around and dont forget to take in some shows!!
i stayed in the planet hollywood. great hotel/casino but more geared to the younger singles as most of the croups are in basques and g-string after 9pm with pole dancing going on too. the others on the strip were not like this though from what we saw
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We went to Vegas in November but also travelled to Yuma Arizona, It a alot of driving the roads are not what you’d expect, Have you been before, the Vegas Strip in 6/8 lanes wide and the roads out towards the Canyon are like empty carriage ways in the desert. If you want to do it you need to hire a car with Sat Nav, Make sure you take a cool box with plenty of water and expect some long straight roads and some deep drops onto the canyon.
Having said that it is well worth seeing, if you’ve not been before maybe take a tour to see what the US and the desert is like, but i’f you’ve been to US before then you’ll know the sort of roads i mean.
Have a fab time !!!
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As Ivgeno notes, it is a very long drive. How hard it is will really depend on how long you are willing to spend driving. There is a ton of empty country out there so your mum’s concerns are certainly not invalid. It is not a day trip, that’s for sure. HOWEVER…
With a little planning, the effort is well worth the trip.
For a little help with the convincing, here are some websites of places you can visit along the way:
http://www.nps.gov/grca
http://www.camerontradingpost.com/
http://www.navajo.org/
http://www.navajonationparks.org/
http://www.navajonationparks.org/htm/monumentvalley.htm
http://www.nps.gov/wupa
http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/
http://www.nps.gov/lame/
Man there is soooo much to see and do! I hope you get to make it happen!
Have an EXCELLENT trip!
References :