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The American Southwest is the rare place where the driving is not the price of the trip — it is a good part of the trip. This itinerary, built by Max from a real request for two weeks of national parks with two teenagers in the back, is shaped around that: 2,000 kilometres in a loop out of Las Vegas, with nothing driven twice.
The order is deliberate. Zion first, for three nights, because it is the closest and the best introduction; then up 1,200 metres to Bryce, where the hoodoos and a certified dark sky do the work. East to Page for Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, one night inside Monument Valley for a balcony facing the Mittens, and three at the Grand Canyon entered from the quiet eastern gate. Vegas bookends it. Next to every choice, Max's "why".
It is also honest about what gates this trip. Angels Landing needs a lottery permit, Antelope Canyon cannot be visited without a Navajo guide booked ahead, and The View sells out months out — those are in the plan, not in the small print.
Read it as inspiration — or hit "Copy this trip": you'll get your own version with upcoming dates, car included, and change whatever you like. Prices are honest estimates as of writing; your copy re-checks them.
Las Vegas · 1 nights
The Strip · ★★★★★ · 8.8 41,200 reviews
Luxury King Suite — sleeps 4 · Room only · Card at check-in; resort fee charged per night
Why it's here: Every room here is a suite with a sofa bed, which on a family trip is the difference between one room and two. You are on the Strip for the one evening the trip spends there, and you can walk to it.
Zion · 3 nights
Springdale, at the park's pedestrian entrance · ★★★★ · 9.3 2,100 reviews
One-bedroom suite with kitchenette · Room only · Pay at the property
Why it's here: It sits at the footbridge into the park, which matters more than any other feature in Zion: you walk to the shuttle instead of hunting a parking space that fills by 8am. Suites have a kitchenette, and by night four of a road trip that is worth real money.
Bryce Canyon · 2 nights
Bryce Canyon City, at the park entrance · ★★★ · 8.4 6,800 reviews
Family room, two queen beds · Breakfast available · Pay at the property
Why it's here: A mile from the park gate, with the indoor pool that matters when it is 1°C outside at night. Bryce Canyon Lodge inside the park is the prettier answer and books out roughly a year ahead — this is the one you can actually get.
Page · 2 nights
Wahweap Marina, on the lake · ★★★ · 8.2 3,400 reviews
Lake-view room, two queen beds · Room only · Pay at the property
Why it's here: The only stop on the route with water, and after five days of red dust that lands differently than it reads. Rooms face the lake, the boats leave from the property, and the town hotels are ten minutes away with nothing to look at.
Monument Valley · 1 nights
Inside Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park · ★★★ · 8.9 4,600 reviews
Premium room with balcony, two queen beds · Breakfast available · Prepaid; the park entry fee is separate
Why it's here: The only hotel inside the tribal park, and every room's balcony faces the Mittens — you watch both sunset and sunrise without leaving it. One night here is worth more than three anywhere else on this road, which is exactly why it needs booking months out.
Grand Canyon · 3 nights
Grand Canyon Village, inside the park · ★★★ · 8.3 5,200 reviews
Room with two queen beds · Room only · Prepaid at booking
Why it's here: Sleeping inside the park is the entire game at the Grand Canyon: you walk to the rim for sunrise instead of queueing at the gate with the day-trippers. Maswik's south wing was rebuilt recently, so you get new rooms at lodge prices. El Tovar on the rim is grander and its rooms are small and gone a year out.
Las Vegas · 1 nights
The Strip · ★★★★★ · 8.8 41,200 reviews
Luxury King Suite — sleeps 4 · Room only · Card at check-in; resort fee charged per night
Why it's here: Same suite as night one, which after 2,000 kilometres is a feature rather than a lack of imagination — you already know where the pool and the car park are, and the last night of a road trip should require no decisions.
Toyota RAV4
Pickup: Harry Reid International Airport · Thu 15:00
Drop-off: Harry Reid International Airport · Wed 15:00
Unlimited miles · Full to full · Free cancellation until 48 hours before pickup
The exact calendar your copied trip opens with — flights, hotel, and every place in its part of the day. Tap any block to see it on the map.
You land, collect the car you'll live in for two weeks, and spend one evening in the loudest place on the route.
The rental centre is a shuttle ride from the terminal — allow an hour from baggage claim to actually driving.
Why it's here: Collect the car today even though you don't need it until tomorrow. Rates are cheaper from the airport than from a Strip desk, and tomorrow morning you just leave.
Drop the bags, get everyone into the water, and let the ten-hour time difference start unwinding.
Why it's here: Day one of a jet-lagged family trip is not the day to schedule anything. The pool is the plan on purpose — tomorrow starts a lot of driving.
Walk south past the canal, the volcano and the wheel to the fountains, which run every fifteen minutes after dark.
Why it's here: Vegas is the trip's punctuation, not its subject — one evening of noise and light before two weeks of empty road. Teenagers rate this stop higher than you will.
Three hours north and the rock turns red. First canyon before dinner.
Two and three quarter hours up I-15 through the Virgin River Gorge, then east on Route 9 as the rock turns red.
Why it's here: Leave by nine. The last forty minutes are the best driving of the day and you want them in good light, not at dusk.
A one-kilometre scramble on the far side of the Mount Carmel tunnel, ending on a ledge above the whole switchbacked canyon.
Why it's here: The best view-per-effort ratio in Zion and the right way to meet the park — an hour, not a day, with a payoff that resets everyone's expectations for the fortnight.
Southwestern cooking on a patio under the cliffs — the one Springdale room that isn't a burger counter.
Why it's here: Springdale has about six real restaurants for a town the whole park eats in. Book this one; the alternative is a forty-minute wait with tired kids.
Wading up a river between 300-metre walls — the day Zion is famous for.
Shuttle to the last stop, walk the paved kilometre to where the path ends, then wade upstream into the slot as far as everyone is happy to go.
Why it's here: You do not need the full day-hike permit version — the first kilometre of wading is the photograph everybody comes for. Rent neoprene socks and a stick in Springdale; October water is cold enough that bare legs end the walk early.
A shaded loop to three pools under a dripping overhang, gentle enough after a morning in the river.
Why it's here: Deliberately easy. The morning was the effort; this is the walk that lets the day end without an argument.
Ice cream on the main street, and the cliffs going orange behind it while you eat.
Why it's here: Nothing booked. You're three days in with eleven to go, and the trip needs a soft evening more than it needs another viewpoint.
The climb to Scout Lookout, then wheels and a sunset bench.
The paved climb from the Grotto up Walter's Wiggles to the saddle — the whole Angels Landing approach, stopping where the chains begin.
Why it's here: Angels Landing itself needs a Recreation.gov permit, and for autumn dates the seasonal lottery closed on 1 July. Scout Lookout needs nothing, has most of the view, and is the version I would send a family up regardless of permits. First shuttle at seven — the climb is brutal once the sun is on it.
Hire bikes in Springdale and roll the flat, paved river trail — the one path in Zion where wheels are allowed.
Why it's here: Legs are finished after this morning and the afternoon still has to go somewhere. Wheels solve it, and the Pa'rus is the only place in the canyon you can use them.
An hour up from behind the visitor centre to a bench facing the Watchman as the last light comes off it.
Why it's here: Short, close to the hotel, and it happens to be where the light lands last. If everyone's had enough, skip it — that is what an example trip should say out loud.
Out through the tunnel and up onto the plateau, where the night sky arrives.
Out of Zion through the 1930 tunnel, past the slickrock checkerboard, then two hours climbing north-east to the plateau.
Why it's here: This is a drive worth doing slowly — the switchbacks out of the canyon are the road itself as an attraction. You gain 1,200 metres today, which is why tonight feels like a different season.
Your first look into the amphitheatre, then a level kilometre and a half along the edge of it.
Why it's here: No descending today. The altitude is real and everyone should meet Bryce from above before walking into it tomorrow.
Bryce is a certified International Dark Sky Park — on a clear October night you can see the Milky Way with no equipment at all.
Why it's here: The single most underrated thing on this whole route. Bring every warm layer you packed; it drops to freezing and nobody believes me until they're standing there.
Down the switchbacks into the amphitheatre and back out the gentle way.
Down the switchbacks at Wall Street, along the floor between the spires, and back up to the rim at Sunrise Point — about five kilometres.
Why it's here: The best short hike in any of these parks, and the only way to understand the scale of the hoodoos is to stand under them. Walk it in this direction: down the steep side, up the gentle one.
Twenty-seven kilometres to the end of the road at 2,780 metres, stopping at the overlooks on the way back down.
Why it's here: An afternoon spent mostly sitting, which is the right shape for a day that started with a climb out of a canyon. Drive to the far end first and work back — every pullout is then on your side of the road.
The dining room next to the hotel does an honest buffet, and the indoor pool is warm.
Why it's here: There is nothing else within thirty minutes and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Eat early, swim, sleep — tomorrow is the longest drive of the trip.
The long drive east, ending 300 metres above the Colorado's tightest turn.
Two and a half hours down through Grand Staircase-Escalante on Highway 89, with a short walk to a field of balanced rocks on the way.
Why it's here: The Toadstools are a forty-minute round trip from an unmarked pullout and almost nobody stops. Break the drive there — a car this full needs a reason to get out halfway.
A kilometre and a half of sand from the car park to a rim 300 metres above the river's tightest turn.
Why it's here: Go late in the afternoon — the sun has to be behind you or the whole thing is a silhouette. There is a railing at the main viewpoint now, and there was not one for years; hold on to the smaller ones anyway.
Back at the marina, where the light goes across the water instead of the rock for once.
Why it's here: You've been looking at stone for a week. The lake is a change of register and it is right outside the room.
An hour inside the slot canyon, then the trip's only afternoon on water.
A short truck ride out to the wash, then an hour inside the sandstone corridor everybody has seen a photograph of.
Why it's here: This is Navajo Tribal Park land: permit only, guided only, and booked in advance — there is no turning up. Book the moment your dates are fixed, because the midday slots go first and midday is when the light beams come down.
A boat to Antelope Canyon's flooded lower end, or kayaks from the marina if the water is calm.
Why it's here: The trip's one water day, and the only chance the teenagers get to be in charge of something. October water is cold but the air is 24°C, which is the right way round.
Ten minutes from the hotel, a concrete wall 200 metres tall holding back everything you spent the afternoon floating on.
Why it's here: It explains the lake — which until you see the dam looks like it has always been there. Quick, free, and on the way to dinner.
The road runs straight at the buttes, and the room has a balcony facing them.
Two and a quarter hours east, ending on the straight length of US-163 that runs at the buttes like a runway.
Why it's here: Approach from the north so the valley arrives head-on through the windscreen. The famous stretch of road is signposted as a pullout now — stop there, not in the traffic lane.
A rough dirt road you drive yourself, past John Ford's Point and the Mittens, at about three hours with stops.
Why it's here: You can do this in the hire car — it is dirt and washboard but it is not four-wheel-drive country in dry October. Check in first so you're not carrying the luggage round it, and take the Navajo-guided version instead if you want the backcountry the self-drive loop can't enter.
The Mittens go from orange to black from a chair outside your own room, and then the sky fills up.
Why it's here: This is the whole reason for the one expensive night. Nothing scheduled, nowhere to drive to — the view is the room.
In through the quiet eastern gate, the canyon arriving in stages.
Three hours south-west across the Navajo Nation, with a stop at the 1916 trading post at Cameron for lunch.
Why it's here: Cameron is the honest place to buy Navajo silver on this route and the food is better than anything in the park. It is also the last cheap petrol before the canyon.
Mary Colter's 1932 stone tower at the park's quiet eastern gate, then 40 kilometres of rim road into the village with five overlooks on the way.
Why it's here: Entering from the east instead of the south is the single best decision on this leg. You get the canyon in stages through an empty gate, while everyone arriving from Williams sits in a queue.
Five minutes from the room, on the railing everyone photographs — busy, and worth it anyway.
Why it's here: First evening, so take the easy famous one. You have two more nights here to find the quiet viewpoints.
Below the rim and back up — the day the canyon stops being a photograph.
Switchbacks below the rim to a stone shelter and a water tap, then the climb back — about five kilometres and 300 metres of ascent on the return.
Why it's here: Going below the rim changes the canyon from a picture into a place. Turn round at the resthouse: the rule down here is that the way back takes twice as long, and every rescue on this trail is somebody who forgot it.
A room of windows explaining the two billion years you just walked into, then a flat paved walk back along the edge.
Why it's here: Twenty minutes here makes the whole canyon legible, and the walk back is level ground after a morning of climbing. Teenagers who thought a museum was a punishment come out arguing about time.
The 1905 dining room on the rim — dark timber, white cloths, and the canyon out of the window.
Why it's here: The one meal on this trip worth dressing for, and the reservation opens well ahead — take it the day you book the hotel. If it's gone, the Arizona Room does the same view for half the price.
The empty half of the rim in the morning, and the whole thing from the air after lunch.
The park shuttle along the closed western rim road, hopping off at the overlooks — Hopi Point reaches furthest into the canyon of any of them.
Why it's here: Hermit Road is shut to private cars most of the year, which is exactly why it's the quiet half of the rim. Ride to the end and walk back between stops as far as anyone wants.
Twenty-five to forty-five minutes out of Tusayan, crossing the rim where the ground drops away with no warning at all.
Why it's here: The one expensive splurge I'd argue for on this route. Nothing else shows you how wide it is, and the moment the floor disappears under the aircraft is the thing your kids will still describe in ten years.
Twenty minutes east of the village, off the shuttle network, with a fraction of the crowd at Mather.
Why it's here: You've earned the good one. Grandview needs the car, which is precisely why it's empty — and it's the last canyon light of the trip.
Route 66, then the dam that stops the river that cut all of it.
South to Williams, then the old alignment west through Seligman — the town that talked Route 66 back into existence.
Why it's here: The direct road is faster and duller. Seligman is twenty minutes of detour for the diner, the barbershop and the whole roadside-America idea the kids have only seen in films.
The 1936 wall in the Black Canyon, right on the approach to Vegas — walk the crest, or take the tour down into the power plant.
Why it's here: It is on the road whether you stop or not, and it closes the loop the trip has been drawing: this is where the Colorado, which cut every canyon you've stood in for two weeks, finally gets stopped.
The High Roller at dusk for the whole valley of lights, then dinner and whatever the teenagers have been lobbying for since day one.
Why it's here: The trip ends the way it started, and the contrast is the joke: two weeks of silence and empty rock, then this. Fill the tank tonight — the drop-off wants it full and the morning will be tight.
Two thousand kilometres, a tank of petrol, and a flight home.
Late checkout if the hotel will give you one, and a last hour by the pool.
Why it's here: Flights home leave in the evening, so there is no reason to be up early. Two weeks of 6am starts have earned this.
The rental centre is off-airport with its own shuttle — allow ninety minutes from leaving the hotel to standing at the check-in desk.
Why it's here: Around 2,000 kilometres on the odometer, red dust in the footwell, and the tank full. Give the return more time than feels necessary; the shuttle is the part that always runs late.
The hotel and every place on the itinerary — "Find on map" next to a place focuses it here
Fourteen is the comfortable number for this loop, and it is the shortest one that isn't a forced march. Zion needs three nights, the Grand Canyon needs three, and Bryce and Page need two each — cut any of them and you are driving four hours to look at something for an afternoon. Ten days works if you drop Monument Valley and one Grand Canyon night, but Monument Valley is the stop people remember.
Early October, which is what this itinerary is built for, or late April to mid-May. October gives you Zion at 26°C instead of the high thirties, the shuttle still running (it operates March to late November), and school-holiday crowds gone. The trade-off is Bryce at 2,500 metres, where the same nights drop to freezing.
Yes — there is no way in without it. Antelope Canyon sits on Navajo Tribal Park land and can only be entered on a permit with a Navajo guide, booked ahead. The midday slots, when the light beams come down, go first. Book as soon as your dates are certain.
For the chained final section, yes: a Recreation.gov lottery permit, with the seasonal draw for September-to-November hikes closing on 1 July. There is also a day-before lottery. But the walk up to Scout Lookout — the whole climb including Walter's Wiggles — needs no permit and has most of the view, which is the version this itinerary sends a family on.
A mid-size SUV is right for four people and two weeks of luggage; nothing on this route requires four-wheel drive. Valley Drive in Monument Valley is 27 kilometres of dirt and washboard and an ordinary hire car handles it in dry weather — the Navajo-guided tours exist for the backcountry the self-drive loop cannot enter, not because the loop needs them.
It depends where you fly into Las Vegas from, which is the single biggest line and one no article can honestly put a number on. What is fixed is the shape: 13 nights of hotels, a two-week SUV hire, park fees covered by one $80 annual pass, and a handful of ticketed things — the Antelope Canyon tour, a boat, a helicopter if you want it. Max prices the whole thing live for your dates and your airport, in your own currency.
One click creates your own copy of this itinerary — upcoming dates, re-checked prices, and the freedom to change every detail. Or have Max build you a new one, from scratch, just for you.