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Just pent 3 nights at Yavapai 06 May, and couldn't really fault it. The room was spotlessly clean, and the service was great. Only ate at the coffee shop once - it was quite adequate.
Ate most meals at Bright Angel, where the food was good and reasonably priced.
I would highly recommend doing the Xanterra tours if you are staying there. We did 2 tours for US$35 per person - 2 hour Desert View bus tour, then a 4 hour Hermits Rest tour. Both are excellent, and the drivers are full of all sorts on facts about the Grand Canyon. (Just book at hotel tour desk.) It is certainly easier than driving and trying to find a parking space!

I had never been to the Grand Canyon before, and it is true - you cannot put into words what it is really like. I would definitely recommend staying at Yavapai for its location - it is far enough away from the rim to be quiet, but close enough to walk. Much better than staying outside the park itself, in my opinion.
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Incurably addicted to Nature? My husband and I are, and so we took a bus tour from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and it was totally worth it. The bus tour costed us 75 per head (I heard sometimes its more .. sometimes we can get better deals). Bus picked us up from our hotel - Stratosphere (good rooms and attractions but we lost on all slot machines there!!) at 7 AM.. we stopped at other hotels and picked up the rest. It was a diverse crowd and the bus tour guide being so funny had all of us talking and interacting with each other in minutes.

Our first halt was at the Hoover Dam and the drive from there was in anticipation of whats instore at the Grand Canyon Village.
We reached the magnificient Grand Canyon. Its a totally unimaginable place. Grand Canyon is an erosional feature that owes its existence to the Colorado River. If we choose to walk - which all us of did, it was a total of 2.3 miles walk along the rim.

The view, the walk along the rim, the serenity, the breeze, the colours of the rocks, the vastness, the height, the look of nature, the sunshine on the Canyon, the old trees and woods which depicts mother nature, I think I could go on and on about the spectacular Grand Canyon.

How many of you go to Vegas and miss this trip to the Grand Canyon - I just have one thing to say - You will believe the beauty and feel the serenity when you see the place.

Go Grand Canyon!!

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The walls whisper of billions of years, the rapids roar like thunder, and time drifts by as endlessly as the Colorado River flowing...

At first I mistake the noise for the sound of my own heart hurling itself against the bars of my rib cage as boatman Jan Yost maneuvers us toward the lip of the rapid. But then I hear it againclouder, closer, and directly overhead. Thunder.

Perfect. Here we are drifting toward Lava Falls, the largest rapid in the Grand Canyon, a spot where the entire Colorado River is churned into chaos, and even the sky above is about to go wild. I chuckle at the theatrical melodrama of it all: wind blowing in strange gusts, clouds swirling with rain, canyon walls cloaked in gray. "Now," I think to myself, "if only we had some of that jagged horror-movie lightning."

A lightning bolt cracks across the sky.

No rapid in the world is the subject of more campfire stories than fabled Lava Falls. Cutting through an ancient lava flow, it is a jumble of massive waves and roiling currents where the river drops 37 feet in a few hundred yards. It has been called the fastest navigable white-water rapid in North America.

The roar of the rapid sweeps our voices away. We have to shout to be heard. The sky above, the river below, and the dories in between. There is a gust of wind and the feel of the dory dropping down the first wave as if falling into an elevator shaft....

To most of its five million visitors a year, Grand Canyon National Park means breathtaking vistas, postcard views of imponderable reaches. Even without the Hollywood-style special effects, it is one of the most dramatic landscapes on the planet—277 miles long, 10 miles across, over a mile deep. Step to the edge and your sense of scale shatters like glass. Whole mountain ranges could be hidden down there. Set the Empire State Building in the sand on the canyon floor and its roof would barely peek out of the inner gorge.

The spectacle of all that space, of cliffs plunging a thousand vertical feet, of nothing between you and eternity but thin air shot through with golden light, can, for some, teeter on that fine line between wonder and terror. Visitors have been known to recoil with fright at their first glimpse. Several years ago, a German woman took one look over the edge and fainted, falling to her death over the rim. Four days later, a man from Japan was similarly overcome and toppled in.

For most, the view is less fatal but no less inspiring. It moves some to song, some to silence, and some to wedding vows. The sight of the Grand Canyon from the rim is, as one early explorer wrote, quite simply "the most sublime spectacle in nature."

But there is another side to the Grand Canyon, one barely imagined in those guardrailed views from the rim. It is a world where you can run your hand over billion-year-old rocks, where the rapids roar like thunder and fern-draped side canyons echo with a silence so deep you can hear your own heartbeat. That world lies in the blue-green ribbon shimmering thousands of feet below the rim: the Colorado River.

"Everybody ready?" asks head boatman, chuck wales, as he shoves his boat, the Toroweap, off the gravel bar and into the river. We float almost motionless for a moment, the turquoise blue of the hull shimmering on the water, before we catch the current and move downstream. Three other boats fall in line behind, each one floating quietly in the pool of its own brightly colored reflection.

My wife, Jill, and I have joined 13 other passengers and six crew members for a 14-day journey down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. In 1869, John Wesley Powell and his men—with a few bags of moldy flour and a large sack of coffee—became the first to complete this journey, filling in one of the last great blank spots on the American map.

Now, 23,000 people a year run the river. That's not all that will be different. We'll have steaks on the grill, ice for our drinks. And the wild, silt-bristled Colorado River has been tamed, a bit, by Glen Canyon Dam. Still, a float trip through the canyon is one of the great American adventures. Thoughts of dams vanish like mist at the first tug of the current, or at the sound of the first white-water rapid.

"Badger Rapid?" Jill half asks, half tells me, as we hear a rising rumble near Mile 8. We check the straps on our life jackets, tighten the strings on our sunglasses, and reach for the handholds.

You can run the river in 40-foot motorized boats, or in smaller, oar-powered rubber rafts that wallop and bend their way through the rapids. But we have chosen dories for exactly this kind of moment. "A perfect craft for the canyon," says Derald Stewart, a dory builder and boatman who is rowing the Temple Butte just ahead of us. "Buoyant, quick, and. . . ." The bow of his boat dips into the rapid, slides down the slick, tonguelike first wave, and then rises, twisting slightly like a bubble caught in a crosswind, straightens, and curls down the other side. . . graceful."

We turn to watch the other two dories bounce through the rapid—the maroon Redwall and the black Muav. They are craft of ancient lines: 18 feet long, flat-bottomed, flared out widely amidships, and swept up on both ends like a quarter moon. They seem to leap through the white water. Every wave, every pirouette of current, touches them, brings them to life. It is the motion...of dance. Exactly. The dories are dancing with the waves.

In the first days, there are only a few dances. Although there are over 160 rapids in the Grand Canyon—and some of the largest in the world—most of the big ones come later, in the lower canyon. Here, the boats drift quietly, moving easily beneath the slow parade of canyon walls.

Unlike the all-at-once views from the rim, the river-level views of the canyon are revealed one cliff face, one bend, at a time. It is a poetic way to see this landscape, each layer cut by the river a verse in the poetry of stone. It becomes a chant: Kaibab Limestone, Toroweap, Coconino Sandstone, Hermit Shale, Supai, Redwall, and down and down, as though we are sliding into the center of the earth. A river flowing backward in time.

We pass a side canyon where 300-million-year-old sea creatures called nautiloids swim fossilized in rock. We drift beneath cliff walls wavy with the lines of a riverbed turned to stone 400 million years ago. There are places in the canyon where the width of your hand can encompass nearly a billion years of geologic time. "Kind of makes our 70 years here on earth seem insignificant, doesn't it?" I once heard a passenger say. "Or precious," the boatman answered. "Or precious."

Every bend yields something new. At Vaseys Paradise, a snow white fountain of springwater appears out of solid rock. Near Mile 50 I hike alone into a small grotto so silent I can hear my pulse—the red river flowing in my own veins. Once, we float up silently on a herd of bighorn sheep: seven ewes and two rams half hidden in the brush. In the stillness, we can hear the clicking of teeth as one of the ewes bites at an itch on its flank.

The dizzying cliffs and stifling heat can make the Grand Canyon seem a lifeless place, an empty stone house. At Unkar Delta near Mile 72, on a broad flat where the walls peel back a bit, letting in more light, lies the largest archaeological site in the canyon. From about 950 until 1150 A.D., when they were driven out of the canyon by drought, a group of Anasazi families lived on this spot, growing corn, hunting mule deer, and making pottery.

Other cultures have left pictographs, a few small granaries, graceful split-twig figurines sprinkled throughout the canyon. But it is the pottery at Unkar Delta that seems to echo the most. The ground sparkles with shards—sunset red, gray as fog, pinched clay braids, and the famous black-on-white pattern. Picking them up is like holding a chip of time in the palm of your hand. "The Anasazi potters have always inspired me," says Jan Yost, an artist herself. "Here they were eking out an existence, and yet art was still so important to them that they spent precious extra hours just to make something beautiful." How could they not, I think to myself, setting the shard back among the stones, with so much beauty all around them?

Dawn. the sun's first light has just now brushed itself across the desert sky, turning it a soft, watery blue that will last only a few hours before the heat of the day. At this early hour, the canyon walls seem to lean in to stare at themselves in the river, their reflections swirling the water with ribbons of gold and orange and red. There is a canyon wren singing, its song skipping down the scale like pebbles sprinkled down a cliff face. The notes add music to a morning breeze already tinged with the aroma of brewing coffee and the soft scent of sage.

But there is more on the breeze than the smells of breakfast. There is an edge of tension. By Mile 93, the openness of the upper canyon is gone. The walls have closed in, gone dark with rock as old as time itself. At 1.7 billion years old, Vishnu schist is some of the oldest rock on the planet. The earth's bones. It squeezes the river tight. The shadows seem to swallow the light. The air rumbles with the sound of rapids.

We have entered the Inner Gorge, the dark heart of the canyon. It is, as boatman Amy Wiley calls it, "the land of the giants." Here are the rapids the Grand Canyon is famous for—Horn Creek, Granite, Hermit, Crystal. Granite lies just downstream, close enough to have rumbled all night in our dreams.

Packing goes slower today. People check and recheck their gear. The air seems heavy, and it is harder to breathe. We are about to put ourselves into the maw of the Colorado River's power, into the very strength that has carved this canyon. To ease the tension, all the boatmen have slipped into black shorts—Vishnu shorts they call them, in parody of the rock that creates the Inner Gorge. Despite the humor, they take this stretch of river very seriously.

After a long scout, with Derald sketching the rapids in the sand to be sure of the route, all the boats run Granite safely. We relax a bit. Still, as the boatmen like to say, "Events occur." This time, they occur in Hermit Rapid. The Temple Butte slides down the fourth of seven mountainous waves, lines up for the fifth in perfect position, and then is upside-down. Just like that. As quick as slapping a mosquito. From downstream, we hear a shout, "They're over!" It is a sunny morning, already hot, but the water is frigid. A long swim can be dangerous. Two passengers come floating downstream. Kristi Washburn is wide-eyed but gives the thumbs-up sign when I yell to her. Ed Smith swims up snapping photographs with his waterproof camera.

With help, Derald rights the boat, the buoyant dory rolling back up easily, collects his remaining passenger, and floats down to a beach where we stop to regroup. The adrenaline is coursing like electric current. Everyone is talking. "I've never felt so helpless in all my life," Ed says, still shaking with cold and with the enormity of what he was moments ago afloat in. "That river did whatever it wanted with me."

No one is hurt. Nothing important is lost. Within a few minutes we are back on the water, running a whole string of rapids—Boucher and Crystal, some of "the Gems"—without incident. "There are just two kinds of boatmen in the Grand Canyon," an old river saying goes, "Those who have flipped and those who are going to." Later that night, sitting in the boats, drinking beer and retelling the story, Derald takes me aside and whispers "Jeff, if you put that in your article, just make sure and say I hit it square." So...he hit it square.

The Grand Canyon is not a single gash. Hundreds of smaller side canyons cut their way to the main canyon, slicing their own depths through the rock, each one a beautiful brushstroke in stone. After a day in the big rapids, the river slows for a few days, giving us time to relax and explore. At Shinumo Creek we wade through jade green water to slide like river otters down a small waterfall on our bellies. At Matkatamiba, we create "butt dams" by sitting close together in the narrow creek to back up the water, and then jump up, racing the mini flash floods downstream. We take a whole day to wander the blue-green paradise of Havasu Canyon.

It is a world unimaginable from the rim—the sensuous swirls of rock, monkeyflowers tickling your calves, drops of water like dew on your face. If it was the power of water that created the Grand Canyon, it is its artistry that makes it beautiful. Deep in Havasu Canyon the rest of the world seems distant.

It is a calm before the storm. Near Mile 175, the nervousness among the guides returns. We are nearing Lava Falls. Forty-foot motor rigs have been flipped here, dories tossed end for end. Once, when I rowed my father through on a trip 14 years ago, he shook my hand four times below this rapid and said, "That's the most exciting thing in my life since I met your mother."

The guides scout for a long time, standing atop the black boulders pointing at the waves. The roar of the rapid is deafening. Jan stretches to limber up. Derald winds and rewinds the tape over a blistered finger.

The guides are back in the boats, and suddenly there is water everywhere—waves breaking over us like white mountains, sheets of rain hammering the dories. Thunder like rocks rolling in the sky; rocks rolling like thunder in the river.

"ABL!" I hear Chuck yell as we are shot out into the quiet water below. "Alive Below Lava." As the last of the boats comes safely through the waves, the sun breaks out as if on cue.

"The world looks different below Lava," Chuck says as our two boats float close together. "It always does." With the big rapids behind us now, we drift in the current hardly dipping the oars, searching for bighorn in the cliffs. We soak each other in water fights with the bailing buckets to beat the heat and work on our campfire stories for the last night.

Thinking about what stories I will tell, I remember watching Jan sketching in a dory, Amy scrambling among the rocks to photograph the star-burst pattern of an agave plant. Each of us, in our own way, tries to capture a piece of a place like the Grand Canyon, something to carry away with us. Yet, is there a color on the palette for the softness of the sand in the morning? Or an f-stop for the taste, like iron, of fear in your mouth standing above a rapid?

For all the photographs and paintings, for all the words we write, the canyon remains just beyond the reach of our imaginations, ungraspable in its entirety. We take our memories, like a pocketful of colorful threads, and weave our own view of it as best we can.

Our final camp is on a small crescent of beach just above Mile 237 Rapid. Below, where the river goes still with the fat fingers of Lake Mead, a motorboat will meet us tomorrow and speed us back to a bus bound for Las Vegas. For now though, there are toasts to be made, stories to tell long after dark, sitting in the warm sand. And tomorrow, one final rapid to run. This time there are no Hollywood theatrics, no sky-splitting bolts of lightning. There are just soft shafts of sunlight draped across the canyon walls, the song of a canyon wren mixing with the roar of the rapid. And one last time, the dories dancing. It is enough. It is more than enough.

The information in this story was accurate at the time it was published, but we suggest you confirm all details before making travel plans

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The El Tovar is by far one of the best restaurants we have ever been to! If you are not a guest at the hotel, you can make reservations 30 days ahead of time, which we did. The building is beautiful with much interesting history. The dining room has some great views and the dining was an experience in luxury. I had the duck, which was unsurpassed in flavor, my husband had the trout and he said he had never had better trout, and my daughter had the brucettia for supper. It was all delicious. The prices were lower than if I had the same meal in Atlanta, and the service was the best.

The El Tovar is hailed as the parks finest restaurant and it certainly lives up to its name. The ambiance of the restaurant probably has not changed since the hotel was first opened 100 years ago. It has a rustic and natural feel that compliments the park's landscape. The service was good but what really suprised me was the food. My girlfriend and I ordered steak and it was definitely the best steak I have ever had. My hats off to the chef from NY who cooked up the meal. Don't get too excited about Canyon views though, only a handful of tables face out the window. However, I would certainly recommend eating at the El Tovar when staying at the park.

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Where do you start with highlights in Las Vegas? Race for Atlantis is a must do at Ceasar’s Palace, Star Trek - The Experience is another not to miss. For sheer wonder, go to Freemont Street at night and see the spectacular light show. Go on a helicopter ride over the city at night.

Probably the easiest highlight to tackle is simply to wander down the Strip at night and look at all the hotels in their glory. Quick Tips/Suggestions:

Drink plenty of water while walking about, it is very hot in Vegas and you dehydrate very quickly.

Try to visit as many hotels as possible, they are attractions in their own right. Best Way to Get Around:

Walking is the best way of getting around, although if you need to go from one end of the Strip to the other, a taxi is probably a better idea. There are also moving walkways operating between many of the hotels, just hop on and let the path do the walking. Shuttle buses also operate up and down the Strip. If you plan to go further, then the car is the only viable option.

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I have been long-haul on British Airways, and can tell you that the services and facilities – eg, leg room, space, food, in-flight movies etc – do not differ greatly. Nonetheless, I do give a lot of credit to Virgin Atlantic for an easy, stress-free flight. Although the space in the economy seating – what do you expect, I’m not willing to pay £8000 to sit in first class - was limited (I am about 6”1’), I still had free movement and enough space to sit comfortably for 10 hours. The service from the stewards was top-rate, and we were continually offered free drinks. I can not remember what I had to eat on the flight, but we had two meals per flight, as well as snacks, all of which I found reasonable – do not believe the harsh stereotypes of disgusting aeroplane food (unless you are flying with EasyJet I suppose.) In-flight entertainment was excellent, with a choice of 9 or so movies to keep me entertained, as well as music. All the movies are updated monthly, as to keep it up to date, so you will not be watching any films that have been out more than a couple of months.
and I feel more beautiful.

It should be noted that there are many stop over flights, which enable you to visit other parts of America such as San Francisco. However, this is time consuming, and if you are only really going to see LV, it is definitely worth flying direct.

After the flight, we nipped into a taxi which drove us to our hotel in a couple of minutes. As the strip is fairly modern, the first hotel being erected just after WWII, everything is built together efficiently and effectively, so no long distance journeys from destination to destination. One thing to say about the taxis is to ask the driver lots of questions. A small percentage of the time, they can be a bit grumpy and impatient, but many have a tremendous and fascinating local knowledge of the area. I gained a lot of information about LV’s history, as well as ideas and places to visit.

Nonetheless, the taxis are fairly expensive – all running on the same meter due to a number of businesses owning the whole ‘taxi industry’ in LV – and I would suggest the bus. The buses run almost constantly up and down the strip, though if time is limited (which it probably is as there is so much to see) it may be worth spending a few extra dollars on a taxi.

However, walking the strip is what I would recommend the most, especially on warm, pleasant days. Although the strip is 4 miles long, and it wouldn’t be too wise to walk it all, walking enables you to stop and look in shops, cafes, restaurants or hotels at your own leisure. There are monorails joining some hotels, which is an easier way to travel – free and direct. However, they are very limited, and I would only recommend using the one linking the Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay.

ACCOMODATION

We stayed in the Excalibur, in the southern end of the strip. The room was fairly standard – bed, air con, table, sofa, television etc. However, this really isn’t important at all, for the simple reason that you spend such little time in your room. As this was our first visit, we weren’t quite sure where to stay, but the Excalibur is a lively, relatively cheap option. I would also recommend Circus Circus as one of the cheapest options, but it is more family orientated in the hotel.

Every Hotel has a casino, with literally thousands of various slots, as well as tables for blackjack, roulette and craps (amongst others). In many hotels, there are also poker rooms to compete against fellow gamblers. For the high rollers, there are separate rooms to gamble away thousands at a time – not greatly appealing to me!!! When gambling, free drinks are given, though you often have to wait for a long time to be served by the few waitresses there are covering a huge casino floor.

There are often food courts in the hotels as well, with a few small cafes and restaurants in addition to the usual McDonalds and Pizza Hut. I would urge everyone to visit a buffet at least once during a visit, all of which are fairly cheap.

Lots of hotels have arcades for the U21’s, but most are not as ‘up to date’ as all the information guides say. They are fairly standard, just as you would see in England. I would highly recommend the arcade at Circus Circus. It is huge and also has an indoor theme park with an indoor log flume.

LAS VEGAS WEATHER

Throughout the year, the weather is mainly sunny. I feel it is best to go between March – June, as in the summer months my friend told me it was uncomfortably hot on occasions, and it was best to stay inside with the air condition. In summer, it is also far busier leading to cramped, sweaty conditions in many of the leading hotels.

TIPPING

Though slightly irrelevant at this point, tipping is an important factor in LV. From taxi drivers to blackjack dealers, it is claimed you should “tip everybody.” It is hard to suss out how much you should give, but a couple of dollars per taxi fare should be sufficient, and if receiving a free drink in the casinos, it is customary to leave a one dollar bill.

SHOWS AND ENTERTAINMENT

I can not speak highly enough of “The Tournament of the Kings” at the Excalibur. In a small arena, you are divided into countries cheering on your horseman in jousting and fighting events throughout the evening. The atmosphere is immense, as is the action and drama. This is a really professional show where the actors do really go at each other with their swords, adding to the realism and excitement. Throughout the evening, I had to remind myself we weren’t in the medieval era!!! Served with half a chicken and wedges was fun, having to eat it with your hands – you can see how the atmosphere is set – and the overall meal and entertainment turned out to be great value for money. I got talking to a couple of Americans just before the show who had seen the show no less than 34 times. WARNING – if sitting in the front row, make sure you eat fairly quickly as the horses can kick sand up into your meal.

There are shows throughout the strip with huge stars such as Elton John and Celine Dion. However, performers often change and it is best to research who will be there at the corresponding dates. Huge musical shows as well as sports events are usually held at Caesar’s Palace.

The gondola rides in The Venetian are a must for any romantic couples, serenaded as you travel through a canal inside the hotel. Definitely worth doing, as the scenery is beautiful – sounds a bit strange doesn’t it as you are inside, but the ceiling is painted like the sky and the shops and cafes around are stunning. Be warned though, you often get the feeling you are being stared at by others along the river.

The Stratosphere is another must for everyone visiting LV for the first time. It gives a fantastic view of the strip – a great photo opportunity. It also has the fastest lift in the world, climbing 120 floors in about 20 seconds – apparently going 21mph.

There is quite a number of simulator rides and Imax 3D experiences, some of which are worth visiting. Most are only a few dollars, and quite fun. Obviously these change frequently, so I could not recommend a certain film to you.

There are also a number of free shows which are performed nightly in the overall attempt to gain the upper hand from hotel to hotel. I can recommend a few…

Treasure Island outdoor show – amazing sound, action and fireworks telling a story of enemy pirates. It includes dancing and fighting, as well as a huge moving boat – amazing considering this is all just outside the hotel. (Performed three times per night.)

Exploding volcano – outside the Mirage every fifteen minutes. I was unsatisfied with this spectacle, which lasted around two minutes. Worth seeing though if you are walking past.

Fountain Show – at the Bellagio. Huge jets fire masses of water in time with the music. There are also different demonstrates, so I saw the fantastic fountains about six times in all. Really spectacular.

The Conservatory – inside the Bellagio. Absolutely amazing plants, as well as a real life scene from Monet’s famous paintings. Really worth seeing, along with the famous Italian glass inside the hotel.

The Freemont experience – downtown, to the North of the strip. This is definitely worth seeing, with millions of LED lights giving a daily laser show on the ceiling!!!

M+M world is a huge building dedicated to the wonderful chocolate that is M+M. Interesting.

FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

The Rollercoaster around New York New York is not for the faint-hearted. Apparently, the views are great and you even get to see the strip upside down, but the queues are often long and slow moving.

The stratosphere has a number of rides, including a rollercoaster. There is also a ride that tips you over the edge of the building, as you sit there facing down 120 storeys – not really my cup of tea!!!

EATING AND DRINKING

As I have mentioned, it is definitely worth checking out a buffet or two, but there are a number of other fantastic bars and restaurants. I am only going to mention a few of the ones that stood out for me, because there are numerous restaurants, all serving great food.

Coyote Ugly at New York New York is a lively bar just like in the film, with table top dancing and a wild, party atmosphere.

Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris Hotel is a great restaurant with terrific views, as you suddenly find yourself in France, which I found out is actually in America, not… France?!?!?

The Cheesecake factory is amazing for a light lunch or massive cheesecake – at Caesar’s Palace.

The Terrace Restaurant at the Bellagio is a stylish place to dine, with the additional factor of the magnificent fountains as a show every fifteen minutes.

SHOPPING

There are a fair few shopping centres but I would only recommend the Premium Outlet Centre just North of the strip. It sells clothes at an amazing price, half of what you would expect to pay in England. If you have children or grandchildren, it is definitely worth getting them some clothes, as there is loads of Nike and Adidas items!

For the more lavish shopper, get to the Mall at Caesar’s Palace. It has shops from all the best designers such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and D&G. Quite expensive though, as you can imagine.

There are also masses of souvenirs which are a must, located all along the strip.

GRAND CANYON

It is essential for anybody on a single visit to fly via plane or helicopter over the Hoover dam and around the Grand Canyon. It is safer to book in advance, but you can get great deals from operators on the strip. We flew to Grand Canyon, had BBQ lunch on the rim of Grand Canyon, flew down into basin by Helicopter and went on a boat along the Colorado river and back up in the Helicopter and flew back to Vegas for £150 each. The views are simply breathtaking, and I would love to meet anybody who could put the whole experience into words.

GENERAL LAS VEGAS BOULEVARD

Las Vegas is not simply about gambling. For me, it was more about looking at the overwhelming sites in and around the hotel – here are a few of the fantastic hotels and what they represent…

Luxor – pyramid

Excalibur – medieval castle

Venetian – Venice

Paris – Paris (obviously)

Caesar’s Palace – well you can imagine, absolutely awe-inspiring.

New York New York – fantastic skyline of New York and Statue of Liberty (with memorial to Sep 11.) x

There is also constant building work along the boulevard, meaning rapid growth for LV. In ten years time, I think the Strip will be twice as big and popular as it is now. My prediction is that there will eventually be a “London Hotel” – though I will claim the idea, just think of the possibilities; Houses of Parliament, London Dungeons, London Eye?

MY TIPS AND IDEAS

Plan a basic itinerary before you arrive and list all the things you plan to see, and then tick it off once you have – it is very easy to forget to go somewhere which you will regret later.

Spend time visiting each casino, and collect as many souvenirs as possible – eg money pots, used decks of cards and matches.

Avoid the roads as much as possible – its extremely dangerous crossing seven lane highways – use bridges from hotel to hotel as much as possible.

Avoid travelling on the roads at weekends; it becomes extremely congested at times.

When checking out at the airport, especially terminal two at the McCarren airport, it is worth checking in your bags as early as possible (usually around four hours before boarding) and then getting a taxi to the Hard Rock Hotel/Cafe for lunch - just off the strip by the airport. This means you waste minimal time waiting around at the airport, and the hotel has a huge variety of memorabilia which is worth seeing.***

Watch out for any fashions or clothes people are wearing – in a couple of months, it is likely to be a hit in England, but double the price.

This is possibly the best advice I had from an American whilst standing in the queue for breakfast – “Think 24 hours, not 12!” Everything is always open, so go to bed when you are tired, not necessarily at conventional hours. There is too much to see for you to be wasting time sleeping – there is always time to sleep when you get home!

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas Tours at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Valuable Links:
Grand Canyon Tours
Las Vegas Tours
Hoover Dam Tours
Las Vegas

Trin Tragula was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space, or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake.

"Have some sense of proportion!" she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.

And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex--just to show her. And into one end he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.

To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford is a sense of proportion.’ (Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy)

The Grand Canyon, may not be the whole infinity of creation, or a fairy cake but it certainly puts size into perspective, and as for a sense of proportion well...

The Grand Canyon is undoubtedly one of the true natural wonders of the world. The rock formations are known the world over, as the red strata is one of the most photographed areas in the world. This stratum shows millions years of evolution and erosion, the inaccessibility of some of the pictographs (cave drawings) are proof of that. But however many pictures you see, however many holiday programmes you watch, you could even know every statistic there is to know on what is essentially an enormous hole in the ground, but the reaction when you first see it, is indescribable it is very difficult not to gasp in amazement and awesome may be a horrid word, but for the Grand Canyon, it works.

When we visited we took a rather long way round, we drove around the North rim up to the far end of the Grand Canyon, where we stayed in Page on the shore of Lake Powell. The two extremes of the Grand Canyon are marked by two dams, the Glen Canyon dam in the East which forms Lake Powell and Hoover Dam (as repaired by Christopher Reeve in Superman!) in the West forming Lake Mead. Now, the Grand Canyon itself is 150 miles long, so I really don’t understand why the majority of visitors chose to visit only a 3 mile area of it, which is on the South Rim about half way down where you will find the Grand Canyon Village.

There are several ways of seeing the Grand Canyon; one of the most popular is by Helicopter or Plane. We didn’t do this but I understand from many reports, this can be a little unnerving. I think you’re fine if love flying, but if you suffer from motion sickness it can get very turbulent, I think they plan on cleaning out the machines fairly regularly. The prices for this seem to range from $150 - $250 depending on the length of trip.

Then there is by raft, this is one of the ways I would really love to see the Grand Canyon. The main issue is getting out again, there are only a couple of stops along the way where you can actually get access to the river so they offer trips of 3 days minimum or 7 days takes you down to the end of the line at lake Mead. The other issue with this area of the Grand Canyon is the white water so if you don’t want to do rapids, don’t do it. I was pregnant at the time of our visit so this option was out, but even if I hadn’t been you have to book places on the raft trips upwards of 18 months beforehand. My cousin did an independent canoe trip through and it took him 2 years to get the permit to allow him to do it, as the number of visitors allowed within the rim is strictly regulated.

However there is another option, as I mentioned earlier we stayed in Page and you can take a one day float (no rapids) down the Glen Canyon which is not as vast, but just as beautiful and costs (from memory) $50. These can be booked in Page itself and you do not need to pre-book. We did this and it was a wonderful day, the peace of floating down the river, seeing the wild life and rock formations and after just a short walk some 4000 year old pictographs. They provided lunch. The whole day was truly amazing, and fine for pregnant ladies. You get out at Lees Ferry, which is at the entrance to the Grand Canyon and is where the other rafting trips start.

Then there are the options that you can take from the Grand Canyon village, you can walk down into the rim, which if you plan on staying overnight you will need an overnight permit but if you do this you could stay at Phantom Range, if you don’t want to walk down you can take a mule. It is however a two day trip to go down to the valley floor, although the distance isn’t huge, it’s a really steep climb and you need to make sure you are properly prepared, copious amounts of water are essential as dehydration is the biggest problem. Mainly because this is desert country so it is hot. Having visited in the middle of summer some of the pictures of the Grand Canyon covered in snow are very beautiful but does looks very bizarre.

At this point I would recommend anyone who is interested in hiking, mules or planes to also have a read of the Grand Canyon review by Trampus, who describes her hair raising activities in excellent style.

Daily life at the Grand Canyon village is fairly predictable. Everybody wakes up fairly early, before sun rise to see the sun come up on the Grand Canyon, the colours change substantially and dramatically depending on the time of day, and photographers are out in force throughout the day, we are fairly good photographers and it has to be said all the photos we took from the Grand Canyon rim were well below our usual standard, and I think this is a fairly common experience so it is worth buying some postcards or something similar while you are there. The most popular time for photographs is of course Sunset, when the colours are at their most vibrant, and it is very orange. Most visitors to the Grand Canyon do not venture down inside the rim and simply gaze in wonder from the edge at the village, so at sunset in particular guard your spot early as from the various lookout points there is a huge number of people lined up with their cameras ready for the nightly show.

Accommodation in the village is actually fairly reasonable for a National Park, there are the usual sorts of hotel available and naturally you pay a supplement for a canyon view, there are 4 campsites within the park and any lodging is booked up way in advance, so you do have to get in early. The website address is www.grand.canyon.national-park.com and this has all the details you will need, although a straight forward search gives loads of options so it is worth having a good surf before you book.

the Grand Canyon village is as I mentioned earlier only a very small part of the Grand Canyon itself and I would strongly urge any visitor not to make it their sole focus. For me the most enjoyable part was not the Village, which I would not have missed for anything but the stay in Page beforehand. Page is on the shore of Lake Powell and at the entrance to the Glen Canyon, although is not as vast as the Grand Canyon it is very beautiful. The rock formation within the Glen Canyon is much softer than in the Grand Canyon, a bit like the difference between the Dolomites and the Alps for any of you who may have crossed them in Europe. There is much more to do in Page and it is cheaper, not being within the National Park. The view from the hotel room genuinely does not look real, it is like a picture of utter tranquillity and the changes in colour throughout the day is the only thing that reminds you it is not a painting.

The other noticeable difference in Page from the Grand Canyon village is the colour of the river, there is a very definite difference between the blue of the water and the red of the rock. However, the river running through the Grand Canyon is the Colorado which literally translates as ‘Colour Red’ and not without good reason, we were very lucky as we arrived on a blue day and then we had torrential downpour of rain, which disturbed all the sediment within the river, so the following day it was red or just dirty whichever way you want to think of it. This only took effect from the entrance to the Grand Canyon, and apparently can take several weeks to clear. From the Grand Canyon village the river is barely visible, and I love water so the main reason for preferring Page to the village was the fact that the river was so accessible. The Grand Canyon is just that, very Grand, very majestic but the Glen Canyon is smaller, softer and I feel more beautiful.

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Grand Canyon Tours at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Valuable Links:
Grand Canyon Tours
Las Vegas Tours
Hoover Dam Tours

The Grand Canyon is more than a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. It is more than an awe-inspiring view. It is more than a pleasuring ground for those that explore the roads, hike the trails, or float the currents of the turbulent Colorado River.

This canyon is a gift that transcends what we experience. Its beauty and size humbles us. Its timelessness provokes a comparison to our short existence. In its vast spaces we may find solace from our hectic lives.

The Grand Canyon we visit today is a gift from past generations. Take time to enjoy this gift. Sit and watch the changing play of light and shadows. Wander along a trail and feel the sunshine and wind on your face. Attend a ranger program. Follow the antics of ravens soaring above the rim. Listen for the roar of the rapids far below. Savor a sunrise or sunset.

As the shadows lengthen across the spires and buttes, time passing into the depths of the canyon, understand what this great chasm passes to us - a sense of humility born in the interconnections of all that is and a willingness to care for this land. We have the responsibility to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to form their own connections with Grand Canyon National Park.Read more »

My husband and I just came back from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have seen the South Rim three times and this was my first visit to the North Rim, which is not nearly as crowded as the South, but equally as beautiful!

We saw seven deer as we were leaving the park, Kaibab Plateau, which is full of trees, something you don't see much of on the South Rim.

I would recommend to anyone who has seen the canyon not to miss the North Rim. I would not recommend driving South Rim to North Rim just because it would take about five hours one way. We spent time in Page, Ariz., which put us in position for the North Rim. Plus, there is so much more to see once you are north Zion and Bryce canyons, which are equally as impressive as the Grand Canyon. Not as many viewpoints on the north end as the south.