Last week we got back from our trip that took us from Vegas to Zion, Horseshoe Bend, and Grand Canyon in just 5 days, and we had the BEST time. We really wanted to visit all 4 places, but only had 4 days of PTO to work with. Excluding the day we went home, we got to do Vegas to Zion, Horseshoe Bend, and Grand Canyon in 5 days and drove over 700 miles in that time. When we were planning this trip, we were initially inspired by this post by Where’s Janice and how she plotted out a 7 day grand circle road trip. I wanted to share how we planned out our trip if you are hoping to do a road trip which was a modification of the national parks Grand Circle (omitting Bryce Canyon) with just 5 days (while also getting to enjoy a bit of Vegas!).
I shared lots about our 5 day adventure on my Instagram story (saved under the NV/UT/AZ highlight), but I wanted to use the blog to share more details!
Here’s the map of the loop we did in order to visit Vegas to Zion, Horseshoe Bend, and Grand Canyon in 5 days.
We opted to fly into Vegas because it seemed to be our cheapest option (as opposed to Phoenix, Arizona), plus we thought it would be fun to explore Vegas. And it really was! I had been with my parents back in high school and Garrett had never been. It ended up being so clean, we felt so safe, and we had a BLAST!
We took an early flight that landed around 9 am (Vegas time) so that we could hit the ground running and make the most of our time. First thing we did was Uber from the airport to our hotel and drop off our luggage there. If you can’t check in early, make sure you talk to the front desk and most hotels will hold your luggage for free so you can go explore without lugging around your stuff.
First thing we did was get some food. I had heard that this was actually a pretty good brunch spot for not super expensive. We were here on a Saturday and it was PACKED, although we only waited for a table for about 5 minutes. Garrett got a hash that was SUPER tasty and I got a sage fried chicken sandwich. Both were good, and I recommend this place if you are looking for something relatively inexpensive with a LOT of food.
If you have never visited Vegas, make sure you take time to walk through some of the different hotels. That alone is a super cool (and FREE) activity in Vegas, because a lot of them are so cool! Our faves are the shopping center at Caesar’s Palace (also check out their free light show called Fall of Atlantis), the canal shopping center at The Venetian, and the Bellagio conservatory (also their free fountain show!).
I will admit, visiting the Vegas Sphere is a pricey attraction to go to, but it is SO well worth it. If you’ve never heard of the Las Vegas Sphere, it’s relatively new, I think only opening up in the last year or so.
The easiest way to describe it is IMAX theatre on steroids. It is also a music venue– U2 performed there last year. If you want to visit and experience the sphere without going to a concert, it regularly shows a about 50-minute long movie multiple times per day.
I could probably write an entire blog post just on our sphere experience, but here’s a little video about the Sphere if you’ve never heard of it:
You show up to the sphere at your ticketed time (there’s not much of a point getting there early) and you’ll hang out in the lobby for about an hour before the movie. You can grab drinks and snacks and also interact with the few exhibits they have, like AI robots (although I am still doubtful if they are actually AI lol).
And then the movie. WOW. The pictures I took will obviously never capture it, but it’s incredible. Well worth the money in my opinion. The screen extends all the way across the ceiling and behind you, so it almost feels like a 4D movie. Plus the picture quality is better than my vision. Very, very cool experience!
We opted to stay at Treasure Island hotel for our first night in Vegas. Because we were there on a Saturday, most hotels jack up the prices very high for the weekend. Treasure Island seemed to be the best deal on the Las Vegas strip that we could find. It was actually pretty walkable to The Sphere and while it was a longer walk to dinner (I recommend using the free trams when you can), we didn’t mind all the walking too much!
We liked the room fine and it all felt clean. Not a bad place to check if you are looking for a slightly better deal, but want to stay on the strip!
We visited Best Friend at the Park MGM which came highly recommended and did NOT disappointing. One of our favorite meals during our trip. I will dream about the birria ramen for a while!
We were about to fall over with exhaustion at this point, but we rallied just a bit longer to go to Jimmy Kimmel’s comedy club to see Gina Brillon. It located kind of across the street from Caesar’s palace and the ticket prices were super reasonable if you are wanting to see a comedy show!
Valley of Fire state park is only about an hour from the Vegas strip and only a slight diversion on the way to Zion National Park from Vegas. If you have plenty of time to spare, it’s definitely worth stopping at; however, I think we could have spent a whole day there and we didn’t use our time there as wisely as I hoped.
We hope to return to Vegas one day soon, and when we do, we hope to spend more time here at Valley of Fire. The most interesting hikes look like the Pastel Canyon Hike and the Fire Wave via the Seven Wonders Loop.
Once we got to Zion, we were actually able to find parking at the Visitor’s Center and then jump on some shuttles. Unfortunately, the Narrows was closed, as was Weeping Rock. Apparently, April is ideal to go to Zion for the sake of crowds; however, it is often a time where things are closed due to flooding! We really want to go back to do the Narrows, so this just gives us an excuse to return 🙂 time to update the travel bucket list, I suppose!
The Court of Patriarchs is hardly considered a hike, it takes about 5 minutes to walk up a hill from the shuttle stop, but definitely a necessary stop to get some great views!
Then we opted to hike the lower, middle, and upper emerald pools. The lower pools alone is considered easy, and the middle and upper are considered more moderate. If you do all three, it is supposed to take about 3 hours round trip. It took us more like 1.5 hours to do all 3. If you are in decent shape, the hikes really aren’t too challenging and shouldn’t take you long to do!
After our hike, we jumped in the car to Springdale (the town located just outside of the National Park) and got some dinner at Zion Pizza & Noodle Co. I can’t say that I loved this chicken burrito pizza that we got, but I liked the crust, so I imagine that a more “normal” pizza combo there would be really good!
Also the service there was so great!
It started to rain while we were eating dinner, but that did not deter us from doing one last hike for the day! Our waiter at dinner highly recommended that we visit the Canyon Overlook Trail because he said “it’s the easiest hike for the best views” (count me in!!)
He was 100% right! After a short and beautiful drive through the canyon and then through a tunnel, there is a trailhead that only takes about 20 minutes to hike to the top of.
We stayed at the Comfort Suites Kanab National Park Area which was clean and inexpensive and also had free breakfast!
I feel like if you are wanting to pick an area to stay in for a few days and visit several parks, Kanab would be a great place to pick. It was only 1 hour from Zion, its about 1.5 from Antelope Canyon, and about 1.5 from Bryce Canyon.
This day we were honestly SO tired, that we decided not to really do any hiking. It was also like 40 degrees and super windy! But like I said, Kanab is convenient to Antelope Canyon and Bryce Canyon (although a bit out of the way), so you could absolutely visit there. Btw, Antelope Canyon requires a permit that is sometimes hard to obtain and it’s highly recommended that you take a tour– here are some options through Viator:
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is the Nation’s largest animal sanctuary for homeless animals and is located in Kanab. It is absolutely huge (3,700 acres) and has all sorts of animals like dogs, cats, pigs, goats, horses, and bunnies.
You can take free tours, so we took a short one to visit the pigs and goats. It was a lot of fun petting the pigs and feeding them breakfast. This would be a great free activity to do if you have kids!
After Best Friends, we decided to get headed toward Horseshoe Bend. This place really is a cannot miss.
It’s not really a hike to get to it as it is a walk (about 10-15 minutes) but the views are incredible. The height did make me nauseated though!!
Also just want to shout out that if you visit Horseshoe Bend and need a little pick me up, this coffee shop in Page (just 5 minutes from Horseshoe), was really good and inexpensive!
Then we headed to our hotel at the Grand Canyon. On our way there, we passed by a scenic pass of the Little Colorado River Gorge. It is free to stop at and owned by the Navajo. It’s right off the highway on your way between, so it’s worth stopping at!
This place was a bit of a splurge (although cheaper than staying in the park) compared to the other places we opted to stay at, but SO well worth it. Almost as soon as we got there, we got in the hot tub and the pool. This place would be so great to bring your family– there is an arcade, free s’mores at night, and an outdoor movie playing by the pool every night.
There are not a lot of food options in Tusayan and they are all a bit pricey. We got some decent Mexican food at Plaza Bonita. My fave part though? The prickly pear margarita. It was yummy, but I imagine it would taste INCREDIBLE after a day of hiking in the Grand Canyon!
One thing that we figured out is that the food prices in Tusayan are a bit high and there aren’t a ton of options. The Squire Resort has a breakfast buffet for $20 a person, but it was pretty good! If you plan on hiking in the Grand Canyon, you need to make sure you eat a good breakfast, so this was a good way to get a lot of protein before our hike!
We chose to do the South Kaibab Trail past Ooh Ah Point and to Cedar Ridge for our “big” hike in the Grand Canyon. This hike is considered moderate and I think that is a fair categorization of it. It isn’t too hard on the way down, but the way back up is very steep and gets exhausting. You definitely need to be in decent shape to do!
It is a 3 mile hike round trip and takes about 2-3 hours on average to complete. It took us 1.5 hours, but we were moving pretty fast and were EXHAUSTED after, so take your time!
The views are so worth it though!
The Grand Canyon was absolutely our favorite part of this trip, and this hike was big part of that. The views are insane and you just can’t capture how incredible it is.
We packed some snacks with us (definitely a good idea), so after we finished our hike, we got on the free shuttle to the Red Route to Hermit’s Rest. Riding on this shuttle with all of the stops will take you and 1.5-2+ hours to do, but it is a free way to see a lot of different angles of the Grand Canyon. You don’t have to stop at every stop (I don’t recommend that you do), but definitely stop at Hopi, Powell, Hermit’s Rest and the Abyss.
Also, stop by the Grand Canyon Village. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time here, but they have several stores. This is a good place to look if you are shopping for Navajo jewelry.
By this point, we felt like we had seen so much (although I know it was a drop in the bucket) and the sun was starting to set. We stayed in Kingman, AZ which is about 2.5 hours from the South Rim. We chose to stay here to split up our drive back to Vegas a bit. We had considered staying in Seligman, Arizona (only about 1.5 hours from the south rim), but it seemed like there was better accommodations and food options in Kingman.
We ate at El Palacio in downtown Kingman which was pretty good (although pass on the “empanada”– its a quesadilla NOT an empanada lol). We stayed at a Best Western Plus and like a lot of places in Kingman, it felt a little dated, but it seemed clean and had a free breakfast which is always a win!
The Hoover Dam is not too far out of the way from Kingman to Vegas, so it’s worth stopping at if you have time! It’s pretty cool, but after seeing the Grand Canyon the day before, we were like “this isn’t that big” haha
And then we were back in Vegas! After dropping off our rental car, we checked into the Bellagio for our last night before heading home. I wrote a whole separate crazy post on how I got this night at the Bellagio for free, because if you are planning a trip to Vegas, it’s super easy!
We hung by the pool for a LONG time which was so nice and just what we needed after so much travel and being so busy. Doing Vegas to Zion AND Horseshoe Bend AND the Grand Canyon in 5 days is not for the faint of heart and treating yourself to some pool time after is a requirement in my opinion.
We also treated ourselves to our first Whataburger experience and had to make a TikTok/Reel to commemorate it 😉 :
And then if one burger wasn’t enough for one day, we followed it up with Gordon Ramsay’s burger restaurant in Planet Hollywood for dinner. This was a REALLY good burger– I got the euro burger which had goat cheese, truffle aioli, roasted tomatoes, and arugula on it.
And then we got the Cirque du Soleil Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage. It is actually going to end in July 2024, but there are a number of different Cirque du Soleil shows on the Vegas strip (I linked some of the ones I saw recommended on Viator below)
It was such a good show and so cool. Cirque du soleil feels like a classic Vegas thing to do, so you have to see a show if you have the opportunity!
Lastly, we had promised ourselves some gelato at Eataly when we were exhausted doing our Grand Canyon hike, so we fulfilled our promise to ourselves after Cirque. Check out Eataly if you are near the Park MGM. They have so many different types of Italian foods and sweets and it was so yummy.
Final verdict: can you do Vegas to Zion, Horseshoe Bend, and Grand Canyon in 5 Days? Absolutely! It’s a lot of driving and requires some planning to make sure you know what you want to do before you get there. However, if you are working with limited PTO time and want to see as many places as you can, it’s so doable!!
If you enjoyed this post about how we traveled from Vegas to Zion, Horseshoe Bend, and Grand Canyon in 5 Days, you may enjoy this post about our 4 day trip hiking and exploring Banff, Canada!
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