We’re taking you to 11 amazing day trips from Las Vegas. All of these places are within 20 minute to four hours driving distance from Las Vegas so you can get out of Sin City for a while or stay a night and make for some fun weekend trips from Las Vegas too.

You will want to arrange a tour or plan to take these day trips from Las Vegas by car because there isn’t good public transportation to make these sights easily accessible. There are three other states within a short driving distance of Las Vegas and plenty to see outdoors so get a group together and take some of our recommendations for the best day trips from Las Vegas.

11 Cool Day Trips From Las Vegas- Episode Transcript

1 (41s):
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today, we’re sharing 11 of the best day or weekend trip destinations to take from a SinCity Las Vegas.

2 (1m 8s):
My Las Vegas travel style is get in indulge in it as much debauchery as possible and get out ASAP. But I know that there are some people that go to Vegas for several days, even sometimes more than a week. And it’s a major destination for families, believe it or not, but as you will see with Vegas, there’s only so much you can do. There’s only so much lights and entertainment you can handle. And at some point during that week stay, you may want to get out of town.

3 (1m 33s):
Yeah, I love Las Vegas, but Kim, you hit the nail on the head with that one. People can really get Vegas burnout if they spend longer than a week in there. And if you’re planning on spending just a week in there, some of these places that we’re going to mention are the perfect little day trips for you to go within an hours drive. And you can do something during the day, recharge your spirit to come have that debauchery and the evening, right. But if you’re going to be there longer, you know, I would say four days week or so, some of these trips here are more conducive for like drive the day, spend the night, and then come back and give yourself a little bit of reprieve because I’m telling you people don’t believe it, but that big as burnout is real, but either way, Vegas is a great place to use as a hub.

3 (2m 17s):
So we want to list here for you 11 awesome places to go from Las Vegas.

2 (2m 22s):
Now from shortest to longest distance from Vegas, here are 11 amazing day trips from the SinCity.

1 (2m 28s):
So number one is still in Nevada. It’s just right outside of Vegas and it’s called a red rock canyon. It’s only 20 minutes outside of like city center. And it features really scenic desert cliffs, Buttes and rock formations. And there is a really awesome 13 mile scenic drive, which offers up to viewpoints. And we’ve actually seen desert tortoises while doing this drive before. So that’s really

2 (2m 52s):
Wow. Were they big?

1 (2m 54s):
Yeah, they were pretty big,

3 (2m 55s):
Huge,

2 (2m 56s):
Huge,

3 (2m 57s):
Huge.

1 (2m 60s):
And there’s a lot of hiking and trails to do in this area as well. You can even camp. So one of my favorite hikes that we’ve done was icebox canyon, because if you’re looking for a little reprieve from the desert Vegas sun, this is a,

2 (3m 13s):
Would you recommend doing this hike in the summer, the Vegas heat summer,

3 (3m 17s):
Brittany tomatoes do this in the Vegas heat and summer. Yeah, but again, the name ice box canyon. So part of it is sun exposed. No doubt. The later half of it, you are in the canyon. It is shaded. I would recommend this one, but again, even if you don’t want to get out of the car and you just want to see nature, they have that drive. You see the beautiful red rocks. Believe it or not. I mean, obviously we know they, Gus is in the desert, but you leave just outside of those buildings. And obviously you’re just right out there in nature. And there are some pretty rock formations and colors that they have in that Las Vegas desert at red rock canyon.

1 (3m 53s):
Yeah. The icebox canyon it’s so narrow that it rarely sees sunlight. And so it gets really chilly in there, which is why it’s called icebox canyon. And there is a little waterfall at the end. I’m sure that during not peak summer season, the waterfall is flowing a little bit better, but there’s still a nice triple when we went even in the middle of July.

2 (4m 13s):
Wonderful.

3 (4m 13s):
Who knew there were waterfalls in Las Vegas? Huh? Like natural ones.

2 (4m 16s):
Yeah. That’s crazy. Number two is just a little farther out. It’s 37 miles, which takes about 40 minutes to drive. And this is the iconic Hoover dam.

3 (4m 25s):
Yes. And if you don’t know what Hoover dam is, my goodness just Google it. But at the same time, I’m sure most of us know Hoover dam straddles the border between Nevada and Arizona. So you get a for you get across another state off of your list. You can drive across and go to Arizona. But basically it is the dam that holds back the Colorado river. It forms lake Mead, which is a beautiful recreation area where people like to go water skiing, take boats out onto the lake. And it’s actually really famous. This is a hydroelectric dam. So this pretty much powers, all that fun that you’re having in Las Vegas when you’re there, all those lights, all that glisten comes here from the electricity at Hoover dam, but it’s such a sight to see has an amazing history.

3 (5m 8s):
It was built during the great depression. It was a feat of engineering at the time. It still really is to this day. And it’s really cool to just take the 40 minute drive, to go check it out.

1 (5m 17s):
I believe they also have tours. I haven’t actually taken the tour. I’ve only seen the dam itself, but I believe Jamal

3 (5m 22s):
Did. They have tours. When we went as a family, one time when I was a kid, we did our tour of Hoover dam. We got to go inside of it. They tell you the crazy history about it. They tell you some cool facts about how, if they took all the concrete from here, it would be enough for a two lane highway from the west coast, all the way to New York and how at its thickest, because you know, it’s thinner at the top and thick as it goes down to the bottom of a canyon, that’s just how dams are built. They said that there is cement still curing in the center that is not solidified yet. So that’s crazy stuff that they tell you. And you could see, I don’t want to say the water leakage to freak people out, but water will always find a crack and a way in. So there are parts in that tour where you can just see the water that’s coming in and trickle and touch it.

3 (6m 7s):
It’s really interesting, really fun.

1 (6m 9s):
So number three on our list is valley of fire state park. And it’s about 45 minutes away from Vegas. We talked about this in episode eight and it’s also in our American Southwest itinerary. If you guys haven’t checked that out, please do check it out. It’s available on our website, Travel Squad, Podcast dot com, but valley of fire state park is the oldest and largest state park in all of Nevada. And it’s really awesome because there’s a lot of history there. It has Patrick lifts, rock formations, dramatic red sandstone formations. We saw one that looked like an elephant and we did see some other cool rock formations while we were there as well. But the highlight of the park is the fire wave. And Kim was the one that showed this to me.

1 (6m 49s):
So why don’t you tell us a little bit about that, Kim, because you were the one that sent me an Instagram pic and was like, we got to go here.

2 (6m 54s):
Yeah. There’s a lot of these like orange, red, like cream sickle looking rocks in this area of Arizona, Nevada, even Utah. But this one is really close to Las Vegas. So it’s really cool. And when we were there, very few people were there, which also makes any park 10 times better. But the fire wave is just this beautiful part of the park where these sandstone formations and the flow of them, it looks like layered colored rock of orange and yellow. I have a picture of myself in one, and I think Brittany took it from not too far away. And I looked like a little speck in this like vast ocean of orange and red and white rocks. It’s it’s beautiful.

3 (7m 32s):
Yeah. And one thing I do want to say about valley of fire also is it is sun exposed. It’s not like red rock canyon where you can actually get some shade. You are fully sun exposed when we went and did this. If you go back and listen to episode eight, we did this trip or American Southwest that included valley of fire in December. So the sun is still out, but definitely cooler temperatures. The fire wave hike is only 1.5 mile round trip. So if you want to brave it out in the summer, it’s not terribly long. But again, that highlight, like you said, Kim, those colors, but it’s really those striations within the rock layers. Like if you’re seeing like sedimentary rock where you can see the layers, you can see it with the color striations that are coming through there.

3 (8m 12s):
And each layer is a different color and it’s so, so beautiful. I love it out there. Every time we go and pass valley of fire state park, when we’re driving north on interstate 15, we always talk about, Hey, we need to go back and do another trip to valley of fire.

1 (8m 26s):
Yeah, I would definitely go back. And if you are there, I would recommend going in the cooler months, because like Jamal said, it’s completely unexposed, which also leads us to a number four death valley national park, which is another sun exposed place to visit. Not far from Vegas, it’s 126 miles away. It takes about two hours to get there. And we talk all about death valley national park in episode 23. And this is the hottest and driest national park in the U S

3 (8m 54s):
Hottest for sure mean, we’re talking about trying to avoid the heat out there in the desert by Los Vegas. But let me tell you something, I’m sure you’ve probably heard in the news lately, the excessive heat waves that have been going on pretty much in all of the U S and certain places here on the west coast. And they always keep mentioning death valley, national park, statistically, it’s always the hottest place on earth. It’s even getting hotter right now with those breaking records up to like 130 degrees. And we’ve mentioned this on a previous episode before people actually like to go during the summer because they want to experience that heat. And I think the excessive heat lately has really been making more people want to go. So while we’re telling you beat the heat and the other places, you know, and they’re not very shaded and they are sun exposed, I guess this is the one exception to where you just want to go feel what 130 degree heat feels like.

3 (9m 40s):
I don’t know. It’s wild out there.

2 (9m 42s):
It’s wild. But the thing about Vegas too, is that yes, in the summer, it’s really hot, but in the winter it’s actually really cold. So you can take a little day trip to death valley national park and get away from that cold a bit. It’s still going to be a little chilly there, but I think it’ll be better than Vegas in the winter.

3 (9m 58s):
Yeah. And other than experiencing the heat, again, we have a full episode on it, but some of the highlights that you could see at death valley national park, I mean, it’s really underrated how beautiful the desert can be. There’s amazing salt flats that are out there. They form the polygon salt formations that death valley is famous for. There’s artists drive, which is a one-way nine mile drive that passes through a road, had colorful desert Hills. I mean, it’s really just the colors in the desert on the rocks. I mean, we’re talking about it in lots of places, but it’s really, really everywhere. And the thing that death valley is most famous for Badwater basin, which is the lowest point in north America. So go check it out. I remember being there, you see the sign that says you’re so many feet below sea level.

3 (10m 41s):
Absolutely crazy.

2 (10m 42s):
This sand dunes are fun to go walk on there.

1 (10m 44s):
Oh my God. It’s so hard to walk in sand though, but it’s really fun to try to take jumping pictures with everyone jumping in the sand. Yeah.

2 (10m 51s):
You can bring your little sled and have a little fun time sliding down the sand dunes there.

1 (10m 56s):
Yeah, we’ve been sandboarding before, not in death valley, but it is really fun to sand board, sand sled. That’s really cool. We also checked out Zubrin ski point, which is the most famous viewpoint in the entire national park at death valley. And it overlooks these golden Badlands. Very, very beautiful.

2 (11m 13s):
I would highly recommend this stop for anyone that’s in biggest as a family. This is a great family day trip to take.

3 (11m 19s):
Yeah, I think so too. And you know, another national park and a very unique one, as hard as it gets out there, believe me. There are a lot of visitors to death valley national park.

1 (11m 29s):
Hey travelers, let’s take a quick detour to talk all about our Travel Itineraries that we’ve created just for you. We now have six different trip itineraries one week in Kauai and

2 (11m 40s):
American Southwest weekend or road trip

3 (11m 43s):
A week in Yellowstone and grand Teton, national parks,

1 (11m 46s):
A road trip adventure featuring all three of Washington state national parks,

3 (11m 51s):
Big island, Hawaii, and an Arizona road trip that features all three of Arizona’s national parks.

2 (11m 57s):
We are obsessed with these. These itineraries are 20 to 30 page PDF guides with every detail of the trip laid out. We’re talking where to fly into the exact route to take where to stay park entrance prices, where to eat and driving distance between attractions plus what things to see and do even the hikes we recommend and their mileage and the time to allow for each one and so much more.

1 (12m 18s):
I have story highlights on our Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, where you can see the full guides. We’ve done all of the research and have taken these exact trips, taking out all of the guesswork from the planning. So all that you have to do is show up and have fun

3 (12m 31s):
And purchase your comprehensive Travel Squad Podcast, itinerary on our website at Travel Squad, Podcast dot com, best of all, they’re on sale right now for $30. So travel on over and get yours today. All right. So we’ve taken you to a few places in Nevada. We’ve taken you to California here because death valley national park is in California, but we’ve mentioned it in many episodes before. Finally just had a very recent episode on it. Number five on our list, driving north out of Las Vegas to Zion national park, it’s only 160 miles and two and a half hours away. You can definitely do this in a day trip. If you wake up early enough, come back in the evening or spend the night. But this is still definitely a day trip at two and a half hours away,

2 (13m 14s):
Two and a half hours away in Utah lies this beautiful national park. There is a ton of stuff to do there. So I would recommend going as a trip all on its own. But if you are just doing a day trip, Angel’s landing hike is a great one to do. The narrows is kind of one that you’re going to want all day for, but can still be done in a day trip.

1 (13m 33s):
Absolutely. And there’s still other hikes there that Zion’s known for just going and seeing Zion canyon and driving through and doing some of the scenic drives. That’s a beautiful and amazing on its own. And you’re going to see a lot of wildlife as well. We saw some deer while we were there, but it’s a beautiful desert landscape. And we talk all about it in episode 97. So if you haven’t listened to episode 97, go back and take a listen, subscribe to our podcast. So you get our episodes, every travel Tuesday, but Zion’s one of my favorite places because it’s just really majestic with all of its beautiful, really steep red cliffs. And it’s one of the first national parks that Jamal and I visited together.

1 (14m 13s):
And so I think that’s another reason why I really love Diane.

3 (14m 17s):
One thing that I really liked that’s unique about Zion also is, I mean, we mentioned it at red rock canyon, it’s in the name. If you can’t tell red rocks, right? People know the red rocks in Sedona, Arizona, which I’m going to give a little teaser may or may not be coming up here on this list a little bit later. But one thing that makes zine unique about its red rock canyon formations, is there still so much lush, greenery and foliage that’s there where the other places not necessarily so much. So it gives you a unique contrast that you really don’t see at other places that have like iconic red rock formations.

2 (14m 49s):
I would recommend taking this day trip in winter and Vegas as well, because you’re not going to necessarily escape the cold in Vegas. You may be going to a colder area being Zion, but we did a day trip from Vegas in January to Zion. And it was so beautiful. The snow is amazing against the red rocks in the summers. I am can be really hot. So you’re going to be hot in Vegas and then go to the heat in Zion, which is why I recommend going in winter.

1 (15m 15s):
So number six on our list is Joshua tree national park. That’s back in California, it’s 187 miles away from Vegas and it takes about three hours to get there. And we talk all about Joshua tree, national park and episode 30, but I love Joshua tree. It’s famous for the Joshua tree, which has a really cool look to it. If you haven’t seen one, look them up, they’re all over Joshua tree. And I would recommend going here in the winter, because again, you’re in the desert, but there’s lots of trees and boulders to see within this national park.

2 (15m 47s):
If you can plan your day trip so that you come back to Vegas leader at night, you’ll be able to see so many stars in Joshua tree because there’s not a lot of light pollution. So one of the main attractions of Joshua tree national park is the stars at night.

3 (16m 1s):
And this is a very, very popular place for people in California, more particularly LA to take weekend trips and go camping. So even if you are in Las Vegas and say to yourself, you know, I’m tired of the hotels want to come out here at camp, that’s perfectly conducive for what you are saying. Kim too is maybe, maybe at the three hours. You know, you can do it in the day, but this may be at the level of work potentially. You want to spend the night and can stay out there, look at the stars and have a really good time out there in Joshua tree.

2 (16m 29s):
Now everything on the list from seven and up is going to be about four hours or more away from Vegas. So for these, you still can do them in a day. We definitely have roughed out more than four hours, one way for day trips before, but you also may want to just spend the night there and come back to Vegas for the rest of your trip.

3 (16m 46s):
Yeah. These are the good ones for when you got that Vegas burnout going on. You’re just like, all right, I’ve had like a three, four day bender. I need to take a break and then come back and finish off my last couple of days over there. These are perfectly conducive for you for that.

2 (16m 60s):
Number seven on our list is Bryce canyon, national park. Also in Utah, we do have an episode on this as well. That’s episode 33. If you want to go back and listen to it. And I highly recommend you do to prep you for this day trip because Bryce canyon is gorgeous.

1 (17m 15s):
It has so many unique geological structures. I mean, the hoodoos are so beautiful. There’s thousands of hoodoos in Bryce canyon and Jamal, what is the Hutu

3 (17m 25s):
I was going to say, who knew what a Hoodoo was before we went on this trip? Hoodoos are basically desert formations that are withered towers of rocks. So the rock because of the wind ice formation that forms in between the cracks, the rocks really carved themselves naturally in a way. And they wither so that they’re almost like little pinnacle towers, but there’s hundreds and thousands of them in these unique formations of just towering rocks that look like towers. Quite literally, those are what hoodoos are

1 (17m 56s):
And whether you’re a hiker or not, Bryce is a great place to visit because they have scenic drives panoramic overlooks, but they do have some of the most gorgeous hikes. We did two really amazing hikes. We did one called fairyland loop, and then we did another one that was a twofer and it was Queen’s garden to peekaboo loop. And we had a really awesome time on both of those hikes.

2 (18m 17s):
I think what’s the most beautiful about this national park is that it’s all bright orange and reds and whites, and just the colors alone, not even thinking about the hoodoos and the peekaboos and the arches, this, the colors alone will blow you away.

3 (18m 30s):
For sure. Bryce canyon is definitely one of my favorite national parks. I mean, I really love all of Utah’s mighty five, but Bryce is up there with it on Zion, just as well as one of my personal favorites. So if you’re willing to invest the drive, you’re definitely not going to regret it.

1 (18m 46s):
Yeah. And as we mentioned, you know, Zion and Bryce as national parks, we do have a itinerary on our website for Utah’s mighty five national parks. So go check that out because it lists not just Zion and Bryce, but it also lists Canyonlands Capitol reef and arches. So definitely go on over to Travel Squad, Podcast dot com and check out that itinerary.

3 (19m 6s):
Number eight on our list is going to be page Arizona. Now we have an episode on this. This is part of that American Southwest that we had valley of fire on episode eight, we did a whole loop in that area, but instead of doing that itinerary itself, you know, if we’re just doing those day trips, go to page Arizona, it’s 270 miles away from Las Vegas, about four hour, 15 minute drive for you guys. But what Paige is famous for is antelope canyon. And I can tell you, there is nothing like antelope canyon that I’ve ever seen up close in person. And we don’t want to you ladies, tell us a little bit about antelope canyon.

2 (19m 44s):
Antelope canyon has two sections in it, upper and lower. Both of them are these giant slot canyons on the Indian reservation. And they’re beautiful colors of like oranges and purples. And you walk through them on a guided tour. So you get to go up and down ladders. You get to like squish through the slot canyons itself. And it’s really cool because it’s all naturally forming from wind and the river.

3 (20m 10s):
It’s really unique, quite honestly, the formations in there and just how water and wind can make such beautiful rock structures. And it’s so humbling because you’re in there. It’s very narrow, but I don’t want to say narrow to the point and you’d get claustrophobic, but it’s wide enough, but narrow enough for you to just really appreciate being down in there and just seeing the array of formations that have been made. They have several iconic points that you can actually see. I don’t know if anybody is familiar with this, but if you’ve ever been to a mall or any touristy place that has those like photo image galleries, that kind of light up to a lot of artists and photographers go to antelope canyon, take the photos in there where the natural light comes in.

3 (20m 52s):
And then it has that backlight that they put into the real photo itself to make it feel like you’re there. So if you’ve ever seen that that’s antelope canyon and I promise you lots of places in art galleries have those type of photos that feature antelope canyon,

1 (21m 5s):
And they have a lot of different structures. Like there’s a sand stone structure that looks like a woman who has hair is blowing in the wind. It’s like really, really cool and upper antelope canyon. It’s famous for a light beam that you have to go at like a specific time of day and a whole bunch of photographers go there to capture the light beam that comes down through the slot canyon.

3 (21m 23s):
That’s the photo that I was telling you about that you see where it has that backlight. So it comes in as if that’s the natural light, really in the photo,

2 (21m 29s):
You cannot tour antelope canyons on your own. You have to do it through a guided tour, organized by the Indian reservation. So you can make reservations online. I highly recommend you do that well ahead of time. So they don’t sell out. They do sell out during the summer. We went as a squad in December. So squad tip Take your trip during that season because our guided tour was our group only. And you hear stories of the summer guided tours where it’s like a two hour wait for your tour just to get in. And they’re really shuffling you through.

3 (22m 5s):
Yeah, not only was it a personally guided tour, our tour guide was our personal photographer. She was like really happy to do it. And when they have more time like that, she was able to tell us really good photo techniques to take with your phone at better ways to catch the colors and the lights and what filters to use, et cetera. So I would really recommend it even though during the summer, you’re going to be in the canyon and it’s going to be cool. It’s going to be shaded. It is a lot more enjoyable when you’re not with those mass crowds. So solid squad, tip Kim, go do this during the winter and off season.

1 (22m 36s):
And Paige, Arizona is home to horseshoe bend, which is another iconic spot in Paige. It’s an overlook that’s on the cliff that looks down to the Colorado river and it’s a horseshoe shape, which hence the name horseshoe bend, but it has really scenic views. And it’s a natural wonder. Just be careful not to get too close to the cliff because you know, there’s nut there. And the drop-off is approximately a thousand feet down.

3 (23m 2s):
Yeah. But really amazing unique views of the Colorado river from there and a crazy way to see the river make that dramatic. U-turn going through.

1 (23m 10s):
If I were to go back to page Arizona, which I’m sure I will eventually, I also want to hit off lake Powell in that area

2 (23m 16s):
Lake Powell. Yes. It’s a really big boating destination.

1 (23m 20s):
Yeah. And there’s a lot of slot canyons along the lake. And so you can kayak through some of the slot canyons, which would be a really unique experience. Do you like houseboats there too?

2 (23m 29s):
Ooh. I love a houseboat. Number nine on our list is iconic American national park. The grand canyon in Arizona. It’s about four and a half hours driving from Las Vegas. So definitely one that you’ll be pushing your limits on doing it as a day trip. We also have an episode on this it’s episode eight. We took this on our grand American Southwest road trip where we hit up a few of these other places. Grand canyon is grand. And if you haven’t seen it, you have to see it.

3 (23m 59s):
Yeah. And real quick, before we get into a little bit more about the grand canyon, we’ve mentioned several places on this list that are from episode eight and that road trip. We also have a Travel Squad Podcast itinerary on our website that features grand canyon, antelope canyon, as well as valley of fire state park. So if you’re not going to be doing these as solo day trips from Vegas, or maybe an overnighter and just want to do a desert road trip, do check out our itinerary for American Southwest.

2 (24m 28s):
It’s only 30 bucks. So get it while you can.

1 (24m 30s):
Yeah. The grand canyon is amazing. And you think that you get like a really good look from an overlook, but I would highly recommend hiking down into the grand canyon because you start to see all of the beautiful layers and colors within the rocks. But if you aren’t wanting to hike, you can just do a drive along the desert, you drive, and there’s like six different canyon viewpoints, or you can walk along the rim trail. And again, you’re going to see how beautiful the grand canyon is.

3 (24m 57s):
You can take the easy way out from Las Vegas. They have chartered helicopter rides that take you to the grand canyon, fly you over. You look at it, but again, you know, it is 272 miles. So with that helicopter ride to the grand canyon helicopter ride back, they’re not going to really spend too much time showing you the grand canyon. Plus it’s going to be really expensive. So invest the drive, get out there, put your boots on the ground in a way, if you will, and really experience this wonder not just of America national park, but really of the world itself. I mean, grand canyon is famous throughout the world. No desert landscape quite like it. Absolutely breathtaking.

2 (25m 33s):
Number 10 is a place that dreams are made of Sedona Arizona, about four and a half hours from Las Vegas. This place is magical and I’m not just saying that it truly is magical underneath the city. There are energy vortexes that are known to heal certain things. And that’s why you’ll find a lot of holistic and crystals and that kind of like woo stuff. There

3 (25m 56s):
You say, woo stuff, but you like that. And I, and I kind of teased. I said maybe, maybe it’s not on the list when we’re talking about zine a little bit Sedona here, you are number 10, but yet Brittany and I had gone to Sedona Arizona one time for her birthday. We had a great time out there. And again, I can’t just reiterate and I were sounding like a broken record, but it really is true. There’s something to be said about how beautiful and breathtaking the desert can actually be. And Sedona is famous for its red rocks. I feel like they shine a little bit more red out here than any place else, quite honestly. And you do get that holistic feel and natural energy that comes from Sedona, Arizona.

3 (26m 37s):
But I really like it because it is a touristy place, but it’s not overly built up. So they have these cool craft shops, open aired malls and plazas that you can go to. So it is a fun place to go to just spend time and kind of like weekend spa, retreat place.

1 (26m 53s):
Yeah. And if you do any hikes in Sedona, I would highly recommend going during golden hour because all of the red rock start to glow a beautiful orange and red color. And you’re surrounded by that green vegetation as well. So we did the devils bridge hike in Sedona during golden hour. And it was so beautiful. Like the entire landscape was just glowing and I really loved it. It was the perfect way to start my birthday day. And we’re actually going back again this year, just a few weeks back to Sedona. And it’s just a little bit after my birthday and we’re going to go and do some more hiking in the area cause I didn’t get enough.

3 (27m 31s):
So for golden hour that hiked devil’s bridge, it’s iconic. Google it, see what it is. Sometimes photos don’t do justice, but the photo is going to probably give you a better picture than I will verbally describe it to you. But another squad tip for you regarding sunset or sunrise Is that if you go up the road that will take you to the Sedona airport, they have a paid parking lot and you’re going to want to pay because they have a whole bunch of benches that just overlook the canyon from the top of the hill and plateau there where you can actually watch the sunset. So it’s a really awesome place to go. So do that morning hike during golden hour, go to the top of the cliff and watch the sunset from the top.

3 (28m 13s):
You won’t regret that.

2 (28m 14s):
That’s nice. And you know, because you’re in Vegas, you are used to spending a lot of money. So donut is on the pricier end of these destination. So if you can get up early and plan to come back late a day trip is actually a great way to go for Sedona.

3 (28m 29s):
I was going to say, Sedona might be more expensive than Las Vegas,

2 (28m 31s):
Maybe depending on where you stay and how far out you book

3 (28m 35s):
Seriously,

2 (28m 35s):
But it’s free to hike. So a day trip is perfect.

1 (28m 39s):
So number 11 is the last place we have on our list. And it’s great basin national park. This is back in Nevada, it’s about 300 miles away from Vegas. So it will take you a little bit of time and four and a half hours to get there. And let me tell you, we drove there Jamal and I from Vegas. And it’s a little sketchy to get out there because you are in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing around you for miles and miles and miles. But once we actually got there and got to the national park, we did a cave tour and this is the first time we ever did a cave to her in a national park. We did the Lehman caves. You have to do a guided tour, but it was so worth it. And it was so beautiful.

3 (29m 19s):
Yeah. I mean the national park system here in the U S has several places that have caves, great basin. You don’t hear a cave in the name. You think, oh, basin in the desert. It is, but there is also a cave and that was really the highlight, but there is still other hikes that you can do out in the area above ground without going out and getting in the cave. But what’s really unique here about great basin is on the Nevada side, you know, you kind of in a hilly area and then you’re actually really close, I would say, within five miles to the Utah border. And then you just look out into Utah and then it’s all flat. So it’s almost that kind of crazy disparity of like mountain desert. And then you really see like Utah flat desert out there really quite interesting and great basin.

3 (30m 2s):
National park is really cool. But why don’t you tell them a little bit about the grand palace tour, Brittany, I know you mentioned we went to the cave. Why don’t you tell them a little bit more about that? Because I feel like that’s one of the major highlights is the cave tours.

1 (30m 15s):
Yeah. So we did the grand palace tour and it was about a 90 minute long tour and you only go about half a mile into the cave, but we went into a place called the Gothic palace, the music room in lodge room, and you see these massive gigantic stalagmites, the lag tights columns. And we learned all about how they form, how long it takes to create them, what the different structures are called. So it was really educational and interesting as well.

3 (30m 46s):
Yeah. And if you want to get outside of the cave, like I said, they have lots of hiking up there, trails that we would recommend for you. One of them is Lehman’s Creek. It’s a 6.8 mile trail. This one’s really cool. You’ll actually go through several diverse habitat. Some of it just being forested areas to actual sub Alpine Meadows. So you’ll have like a clearing out of beautiful Meadows. And then all of a sudden you’ll be in forested areas with the trees. And so it’s really beautiful. And during April, when we went there is still snow on the ground. So it gives you that desert snow landscape. Also

2 (31m 18s):
There, you have it 11 places that you can visit outside of Las Vegas. If you need a little break from SinCity or if you want to entertain your family or you’re with a group and you want something to do outside the city, tons of great options, some are really close some far, but definitely check them out if you’re going to be in Vegas for longer than two days of partying.

3 (31m 38s):
Yeah. Take that break, save your liver, save your wallet and recharge yourself out in nature and enjoy some time and utilize Vegas as a hub. If you can, if you’re taking that extended trip. Yeah.

2 (31m 47s):
Now we are going to take a little day trip from this episode to hit on questions of the week And our first question is coming in from Elena, from shaker Heights, Ohio. And Elena’s asking, is there a destination in this area that you haven’t been to yet, but would like to go?

1 (32m 12s):
I would really like to go to the Canab area. It’s only a few hours outside of Vegas, but near that area is the wave formation kind of like the fire wave in valley of fire state park. But on a grander scale, you actually need permits to get on there and you have to take the guided tour. And in that area, they also have coral pink sand dunes, which I hear are really beautiful to see at sunset because the sands like a nice coral pink and there’s another trail called Kodachrome state park that has some very beautiful panoramic overlooks that I want to go see. So I really want to hit Canab and see that from Vegas.

3 (32m 52s):
So I can attest to that because Brittany always tells me like, we need to go out and go to Canab. But we mentioned several places from Vegas. It’s close to many state lines, whereas canal, Brittany, you didn’t mention that. You just said the city, whereas Canab,

1 (33m 6s):
It’s only three hours away from Vegas, but in Utah.

3 (33m 9s):
And I actually think that to get to Canab you do have to drive through the area. That’s close to Zion national park, right?

1 (33m 15s):
You do. Yeah. You do go through St. George and that area.

3 (33m 18s):
So just be an extension of continuing on through Zion right there. And you could get into canap. Hmm.

2 (33m 24s):
Okay. I don’t have anywhere because there’s a lot of places on this list. I haven’t even been to like the Hoover dam. I would love to go check that out. So I still have a lot to check out on this list and I’ve done. I’ve done a lot already, so I don’t have an answer to that one. The Lena

3 (33m 37s):
I’m just going to go with Canab make Brittany happy. I can’t think of any other places too. Like I said, I mean, the desert is beautiful. You’re surrounded by desert, but I feel like with this list, we’ve really hit a lot of the highlights on that too. So Canab for sure.

2 (33m 49s):
Yeah. Unless we wanted to add musky onto this one. I love

1 (33m 52s):
That.

3 (33m 52s):
I love Mesquite too. Cause it’s a good place to stay on the cheap, still in Nevada hotel, good food gambling. But without that Vegas price. But other than that, there’s not really anything to do with this.

2 (34m 3s):
That’s a good thing to mention. If you are going to do any of these day trips and you want to stay outside of Vegas and get closer, like if you’re going to go to Zion and maybe you want to get an hour closer, take your drive time off for whatever reason. The next morning mosquito is a great place to stay as a kicking off point instead of Las Vegas,

1 (34m 21s):
Kim, I thought you were going to say, you also wanted to go to Pahrump.

2 (34m 24s):
Pahrump. Been there, think I’m good.

3 (34m 28s):
But Trump is just outside of death valley national park for a town of 5,000 people in the middle of the desert in Nevada probably had some of the best Thai food we’ve ever had a little bit too spicy for my liking in terms of spice level, but quality for town of 5,000 pleasantly surprised.

2 (34m 45s):
Yes, definitely say in prompt, if you’re hitting up death valley, question number two is coming in from hunter, from Houston, Texas, Hunter’s asking what was your longest trip to Vegas and what did you do?

1 (34m 56s):
So I only been to Vegas for a weekend. I don’t think I’ve been to Vegas for much longer than that. Except for when I was about 10. My mom loaded myself, my brother and some of my Filipino aunties and cousins and a car and we road trip to Vegas. We stayed at Excalibur. We drove to the grand canyon. It was quite the time, but I think I’ve only stayed in Vegas for like two days. And if we’ve been there in the area for longer, we’ve done some of the side road trips.

3 (35m 23s):
Yeah, for me, quite honestly. Same thing. Really? When I was a kid went for longer, maybe four or five days as a family. Again, you said it earlier, Kim Vegas is a family destination now, too. So even before I was of drinking age and could gamble or anything like that, we as a family, but as an adult, I know it, you know, we live so close. There’s no really reason for us to go longer. And I do know the Vegas burnout because lots of people that we talk to tell us, they go for extended periods of time. And that’s part of the reason why this episode was inspired. As we’ve heard from a lot of people that they get burnout after a while, or don’t realize how much money they’re spending and run out. So these are definitely good little breaks for you guys. But as an adult, no more than three days I’ve spent in Vegas.

3 (36m 6s):
And that was like on a holiday weekend. And one of those days is obviously driving. So not too long at all,

2 (36m 11s):
Same. I think I showed up on a Friday, left on a Monday and that was my longest trip there. I think the people that are coming for a week or longer are like from the east coast or have never been to Vegas before. So they really want to enjoy it. But we go all the time. Cause we’re so close.

3 (36m 25s):
Yeah. Or people business oriented coming out for conventions. And the convention is like three days, but they want to do personal stuff also. So they’re staying longer, which I totally get, but they should take us up on this suggestion and really use a day to go do one of these things.

2 (36m 41s):
And then our third and final question this week is coming in from Brittany, from Kentwood, Louisiana. And Brittany is asking, how can I save money on a trip to Vegas? Good question. Don’t know if I have any answers for you though.

3 (36m 54s):
We’d like to blow money in Vegas. No, not really. I think the best tip that I could really give is if you’re going to be gambling or staying in Las Vegas, stay in downtown Las Vegas. And what downtown Las Vegas is. It is the old Las Vegas and by old boss Vegas, I mean really where Las Vegas originated. Now everybody knows that the strip Las Vegas Boulevard that has all the big resorts on them. Yes. You’re going to go check that out. Yes. You’re going to see the sites, but staying in downtown Las Vegas, the hotels, you can get moderately priced for like $75 a night. There aren’t resort fees. The food is a lot less expensive and you really get local prices in a touristy area by not staying on the strip.

3 (37m 35s):
So that is a great money saving tip

2 (37m 38s):
In downtown. Vegas is really nice. I like downtown. It’s

3 (37m 40s):
Really fun. I liked downtown Las Vegas. It’s just because it’s not built up like the high end resort. You don’t pay that high end price.

2 (37m 47s):
And another tip, if you do want to stay on the strip, I would not recommend staying in the resort hotels like the typical casinos, the big ones, because they do have resort fees of like 30 bucks a night and they do charge for parking each night. And so you’re going to have added expenses there, but there are chain hotels on the strip. There’s like holiday Inns and that kind of thing. So you could potentially stay at one of those on the strip, maybe even use points or AAA discounts for those kinds of hotels and still be in the, in the thick of it. If you do wanna stay in a resort style hotel, I recommend the Flamingo. It’s one of the lower price ones. And it is right in the middle of the strip.

1 (38m 24s):
Another tip that I have for you is, you know, Vegas, it costs a lot of money to drink while you’re out. So if you get some white claws or some beers to enjoy in your hotel before you go out, so you spend a little less, that’s another good way to save the money.

2 (38m 39s):
And not only that, but you don’t have to keep them in your room. You can bring your white claw.

3 (38m 43s):
I wasn’t going to say open alcohol rules. So you could walk on the street with it, buy your own booze at a convenience store, carry it with you, do that versus getting it out. Or if you’re, pre-gaming going to the clubs, if you’re going to the clubs to party, I hate to tell you you’re going to pay $20 plus for a drink. That’s a reality a lot of times

2 (38m 59s):
Because you’re a girl because you can go to no cover nightclub.com and you can sign up men to men and women can get into clubs for free and women will often get free drinks in an open bar for several hours.

3 (39m 12s):
Look at those perks. I do

2 (39m 14s):
Have some hacks, I guess Brittany.

3 (39m 16s):
And the last thing that I do want to say, I’ve mentioned this before, you can take it or leave it. Obviously gambling gets you free drinks in the casino. That gambling also has you lose go to a roulette table debt, whatever the minimum is on red bet. That same minimum on black you’ll always come out, even unless it lands on, depending on what roulette table you’re playing, the one green or the second green that they have, which is very rare that it hits the green because there’s only one or two of those on the wheel versus everything else being black or white. So you have your chances of just breaking even and getting your free drinks every time they come around. So that’s a good way to get free drinks also while gambling red, black,

2 (39m 57s):
All right, Squatty. So I hope you enjoy SinCity and these 11 destinations to get out of it. Thanks for tuning in this week. And listening keeps the adventures going with us. Follow us on Instagram and YouTube with Travel Squad Podcast, tag us in your adventures, let us know where you’re going. And if you have questions, go ahead and send those on it.

3 (40m 14s):
If you found the information, this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please be sure to share it with a friend that that would enjoy it too. And as always guys, please subscribe, rate, and review our podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes

1 (40m 28s):
And stay tuned for next week’s episode, we have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you.

3 (40m 33s):
Bye