<p>I am looking into booking a trip this summer to the grand canyon. My AAA travel agent suggests this train trip, which starts in Williams and takes you up to the canyon, it includes 3 nights hotel and some meals and a tour. Has anyone taken this trip? Is it worth the money (about $350 per person for 4 days/3 nights with tour and most meals)? Any comments or suggestions? Thanks!</p>
<p>I haven’t done the train trip but a friend of mine did and he didn’t think the train trip was that great but that’s just one anecdote. Whether to take the train probably comes down to how much you like trains for the sake of being on one.</p>
<p>Outside of the cost of the train, the cost of $700 for 3 nights plus meals seems a bit high. Go online and check to see what those same hotels would cost you if you just booked them yourself. Better yet, decide if you’d even like to stay in the hotels they specified or if you’d rather select your own. For meals I always like to be free to choose where and what to eat myself - i.e. I don’t like to have meals included in a ‘package’ but that’s just me. Note that it’s not that far to just drive from Williams to the Grand Canyon. There’s not much of anything in Williams itself other than hotels, gas stations, fast food places, etc. You might want to consider staying at the GC the entire time (assuming any of these hotel nights included in the package are at Williams rather than the GC). </p>
<p>Finally, 3 nights at the GC is great if you plan to hike, do the mule ride, etc. but if you don’t it seems like a lot of nights for one spot (but I’m not good at relaxing on trips - I like to be on the go).</p>
<p>We’ve done the train trip, but the price was lower then. We enjoyed it.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks. For the record the trip is for 3 of us, including my senior in high school daughter. She has always wanted to see the grand canyon. I have no desire to hike or travel on mules or any other outdoorsy type of thing, and do not want to wander around trying to figure out where to go. So it seems like the guided trip would be a good idea. It just seems so pricey, and I wanted to know if anyone knows of something similar - but cheaper. I was quoted $1000 for the 3 of us.</p>
<p>I don’t know why you’d need a guided trip to the GC. Just drive to the visitor center at the south rim (the one where you’d end up if you head in from Williams) and you can look at the overlook there and ask the visitor center people to suggest where you should go and what to see - they’re very helpful and can suggest what to do based on your desires. You can then do the drive along the rim and pull over at all the overlooks. If you don’t plan to hike or do the mule ride then you’ll be mostly just driving and using the overlooks. It’s well worth seeing but it seems that 3 nights might be a little long if you don’t plan anyithing other than using the overlooks.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm[/url]”>http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm</a></p>
<p>According to the park rangers, the average amount of time that visitors spend at the Grand Canyon is 3 hours. Or at least that’s what they said when I visited years ago. I recommend staying longer than that! We camped there overnight and took a short hike (about 3 miles RT).
You might want to look at including Sedona on your itinerary. Very beautiful and it looks like there’s lots to do there.</p>
<p>I agree with both posters above. The only problem is it might be too late to book a room inside the park. They fill up way in advance. We’ve been to the GC twice (North and South Rims). IMO you can’t do the experience justice by driving up, taking a look, and leaving. It is a phenomenal sight. If you spend at least one night, you can wake up to see the sunrise. There are gentle, short hikes and good ranger-led activities for non-outdoorsy types. We lucked into a room in the Thunderbird Lodge, right on the rim, with a great view. It’s a basic motel–nothing fancy–but you can’t beat the front-row seat.</p>
<p>Look into visiting Sedona. The redrocks are worth seeing.</p>
<p>Just me, but I’m not sure why anyone who doesn’t enjoy the outdoors would want to even go to the GC. And 3 nights would be way too long if you don’t intend to hike or ride or paint or something… I’d suggest that if you do go, take an hour walk down one of the more traveled trails, then just hike back up. It will be a much more memorable experience than just going to the overlooks.</p>
<p>One more comment, summer is NOT the best time to go. It is beastly hot. You would want nothing more than to get to your car or room for the AC. Spring or fall is much nicer (and I once hiked to the bottom and camped Christmas week, so the winter can also be quite interesting!).</p>
<p>I went to Grand Canyon in August, no problem. Elevation is about 8000 feet at the rim.
I wouldn’t hike to the bottom in August though!</p>