Canyons, coastlines, city days.
Rim walks above the Colorado, slot canyons on Navajo land, the circle road out of Waikiki, a jazz boat working the Mississippi. What each one is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven bookings that carry a whole trip.
Whether it is a first crossing or a fifth, these are the ones people come home talking about: the glass floor hung out over the Colorado, the deck that finally beat every other view in New York, the airboat that actually turns up alligators.
NYC: Empire State Building Tickets – Observatory & Museum
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Two hours out of Las Vegas, a mile straight down.
Most canyon days start in a hotel lobby on the Strip before six. West Rim gets you there fastest and adds the glass Skywalk out over Hualapai land. South Rim is the postcard and the longer drive. Hoover Dam goes on the way back either way, and the seat you book decides how much of the day you spend on a coach.
Which canyon day is yours?
Everybody wants the canyon. Which one you should book comes down to where you are sleeping and how far you will drive before breakfast. Three ways it actually gets done, each one priced and reviewed.
From Las Vegas
The West Rim day
11 to 12 hours (approx.) · from $109 · 19,535 reviews
Coach off the Strip before dawn, twenty minutes at Hoover Dam, then Eagle Point, Guano Point and the glass Skywalk that hangs out over Hualapai land. Back in Las Vegas for dinner. The shortest drive to a canyon that still drops four thousand feet.
Compare the West Rim days →
Navajo-guided
The slot canyons
1 hour · from $78 · 7,801 reviews
Antelope Canyon is on Navajo Nation land and cannot be walked without a Navajo guide and a permit, both carried by the tour. Lower means ladders and tight turns, Upper is flat and busier, and the light shafts come through around the middle of the day. Horseshoe Bend is usually bolted on.
See the Page walks →
Red rock base
The Arizona slow lane
13 hours (approx.) · from $235 · 2,405 reviews
Sleep in Sedona or Flagstaff and the canyon becomes a morning instead of a marathon. Red rock trails on the doorstep, a jeep track up Schnebly Hill, and a South Rim run that arrives before the coaches from Nevada do.
See the Sedona days →
The country keeps different hours.
Neon under a helicopter over the Strip. A honky-tonk on Lower Broadway with the door propped open and the band already three songs in. A steamboat working the Mississippi with brass on the top deck. Evenings sell out ahead of mornings, and the good ones cap their numbers.
The islands run on early starts.
Oahu’s circle road leaves Waikiki around seven and comes back past the North Shore at dusk. Maui gets out to Molokini before the wind picks up. The Big Island does a lava field and a manta ray in the same day, and Kauai keeps the Na Pali coast for boats and helicopters only.
Boats find what the road cannot.
Humpbacks off Juneau through the summer, manatees in the Crystal River springs through the winter, alligators in the sawgrass an hour west of Miami. All three are boat days, all three want the first slot of the morning, and all three run in weather that empties the beaches.
Some cities are still built for walking.
Charleston kept its carriage routes and its single houses. Savannah laid out twenty-two squares and still shades every one of them. Boston painted a red line through four hundred years, and Philadelphia keeps the room where the arguing happened. These are guide-led cities, and the gap between a good guide and a bad one is the whole afternoon.
Pick the place, then the day.
The country splits into trips, and every trip has a shape. New York for the decks and the harbour. The Southwest for the canyons. Oahu for the loop road. New Orleans for the walk and the boat. Chicago for the river.
Know the kind of day you want?
Sort the whole country by what you actually want to be doing that afternoon. Everything behind each tile is already priced, rated and written up.
A morning’s drive changes everything.
Every big American city keeps a park, a canyon or a swamp within a couple of hours of downtown. The coach leaves early, the return seat is already part of the ticket, and you are back before the restaurants fill.
Three trips that always work.
Nobody sensible tries to see the country in one visit. These are the three routes people actually book, each a week or less, each built around the parts that have to be reserved in advance.
Route 1
The New York week
Book a deck for the first evening while the jet lag is still useful, the Liberty Island ferry for a full morning, then Brooklyn, Harlem and the park. Everything else is a walk or one subway ride.
Plan the New York days →
Route 2
The Southwest loop
Las Vegas out to the West Rim, north to Page for the slot canyons and Horseshoe Bend, Monument Valley with a Navajo guide, then down into Sedona. Long drives, short walks, very big skies.
Plan the canyon loop →
Route 3
The island week
Oahu first for the circle road and the North Shore, then a short hop to Maui for Molokini or the Big Island for the volcano. Reserve the boats for early mornings; the afternoon wind decides the rest.
Plan the Hawaii days →
Memorial and history sites
Places listed on their own terms.
Part of what this site covers is a memorial, a war grave or a site of slavery. Those pages are kept out of the lists above and gathered here instead, with the practical facts a visitor needs and nothing added on top.
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