Help me pick a spring break destination

[Colleen27]

We'll have a week for a road trip, starting from any of the cities in the poll. It has to be one of those specific cities because the impetus for the trip is using up a travel credit from a cancelled trip earlier in the pandemic, so we'll be starting from one of the places where the company has a rental location. "Other" is not an option.

The parameters: not too cold or snowy, decent hiking/outdoors opportunities, and enough interesting places to explore to fill a week-long loop in the general area. Bonus points for national parks, since I have my annual pass already, and places with good BLM, state park or dispersed camping availability.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Denver and SLC are often cold/snowy over spring break. If you go to Vegas you can do a loop through southern Utah to Zion's and Bryce. Weather permitting you could include the south rim of the Grand Canyon, but the north rim will probably still be closed for the winter.

 

[Kitty 34]

Vegas, baby.

 

[kdonnel]

We are doing 3 nights in Vegas and 3 nights in Sedona for spring break in 2022.

 

[Colleen27]

Denver and SLC are often cold/snowy over spring break. If you go to Vegas you can do a loop through southern Utah to Zion's and Bryce. Weather permitting you could include the south rim of the Grand Canyon, but the north rim will probably still be closed for the winter.

That's what I figured about Denver and SLC. I wasn't sure about the weather at Zion and Bryce either; we loved both when we were there over the summer of 2019, but I think I had it in my head that they'd be wintery in March. I would love to get back to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, though; bad timing landed us there on a Saturday on that same road trip and it was so crowded that it was hard to enjoy the place. Like Disney World-at-Christmas kind of crowded around the visitor's center.

We are doing 3 nights in Vegas and 3 nights in Sedona for spring break in 2022.

DD13 is pulling for Vegas. She's seen a bit about Omega Mart on TikTok or Insta and thinks it looks like fun, and as the least outdoorsy of my kids, she has a way of finding art experiences to balance out some of our hiking and camping. I've actually never been to Vegas except on layovers where we didn't leave the airport, so it would be new territory for me too which is always a plus.

If we do settle on Vegas, I'm not sure whether we'd head east to Sedona or west to check out Death Valley and Manzanar in the cooler weather. Both were on DD20's wishlist for our cross country trip but we skipped them because of the extreme summer heat.

 

[Sinder]

I picked Vegas
We are planning a Vegas/Grand Canyon/Sedona trip next year

 

[HeatherC]

I say Phoenix. Will be warm and sunny. Can visit the Grand Canyon and even southern Utah (Bryce, Zion) or Sedona and even Santa Fe if you want to venture further afield.

PS..can I come? Love road trips!

 

[kdonnel]

DD13 is pulling for Vegas. She's seen a bit about Omega Mart on TikTok or Insta and thinks it looks like fun, and as the least outdoorsy of my kids, she has a way of finding art experiences to balance out some of our hiking and camping. I've actually never been to Vegas except on layovers where we didn't leave the airport, so it would be new territory for me too which is always a plus.

If we do settle on Vegas, I'm not sure whether we'd head east to Sedona or west to check out Death Valley and Manzanar in the cooler weather. Both were on DD20's wishlist for our cross country trip but we skipped them because of the extreme summer heat.

We went to Death Valley in July, it was brutal. But we enjoyed it enough to go back again in October, much better.

Your going to be in a camper, right? You won't have the long day trips we had.

Death Valley was a long day trip from Vegas. The second trip back we actually double booked a hotel night and spent the night at The Ranch at Death Valley while not giving up our room back in Vegas.

Other places in Vegas of interest for kids is the Atomic Museum. My older kids spent hours there looking at all the exhibits.

Omega Mart was fun and interesting. We were not able to follow the underlying story but still had a great time.

Another quirky place to visit is the 7 Magic Mountains. It is about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas, sorta out of the way unless you are headed towards LA.

Don't think you have to go to the south or north rim of the Grand Canyon if Grand Canyon West works better for your route. We had a great experience at Grand Canyon West. I think they don't have the safety goals the NPS has so you actually get to do things you probably shouldn't but that extra bit of danger makes it that much more fun!

Since I haven't done the Sedona side yet I don't know if it is more entertaining or less entertaining than the Valley of Fire, Death Valley side.

 

[mrs. magoo]

I voted for Phoenix. You can go to Sedona, The Grand Canyon, Tucson and even Zion if you want. Disclaimer my family is not into Vegas at all.

 

[AppleDumpling]

I picked Phoenix as well. We did this trip about 10 years ago, starting in Phoenix, and driving a week-long loop to Grand Canyon and back. Places of interest we visited: Sedona, Slide Rock, Walnut Canyon, Montezuma’s Castle, Flagstaff, Wupatki and Tuzigoot Monuments, Sunset Crater, and Grand Canyon south rim. We went in March, had perfect weather and a wonderful time.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Bonus points for national parks, since I have my annual pass already, and places with good BLM, state park or dispersed camping availability.

What is BLM?

 

[JimMIA]

What is BLM?

Bureau of Land Management. They operate a lot of public lands, many with camping.

 

[sarah4770]

I would count out SLC in the spring. I second vegas, to valley of fire and Death Valley, and maybe Manzanar, or vegas to zion and Bryce, but they could still be chilly.
Be warned the drive through death valley to Manzanar is …l..o..n..g.
but I don’t understand the camping? Are you going to pack tents on the plane?

 

[Sinder]

I would count out SLC in the spring. I second vegas, to valley of fire and Death Valley, and maybe Manzanar, or vegas to zion and Bryce, but they could still be chilly.
Be warned the drive through death valley to Manzanar is …l..o..n..g.
but I don’t understand the camping? Are you going to pack tents on the plane?

I was assuming the OP was renting an RV when she got to her destination since she mentioned "rental"

 

[Colleen27]

I would count out SLC in the spring. I second vegas, to valley of fire and Death Valley, and maybe Manzanar, or vegas to zion and Bryce, but they could still be chilly.
Be warned the drive through death valley to Manzanar is …l..o..n..g.
but I don’t understand the camping? Are you going to pack tents on the plane?

We're renting a campervan. I don't tent camp, like at all, ever. But I love van camping. My girls and I traveled for almost 6 weeks in my DIY minivan-camper conversion in 2019 and spent 3 weeks in a rented campervan in Alaska this past summer. And I have a credit from a pandemic-cancelled trip with a campervan rental company that has locations all over the lower 48, so I'm looking at the possibilities for a spring break meetup - DD13 & I escaping Michigan winter, DD20 flying in from San Francisco to join us.

 

[JimMIA]

Places of interest we visited: Sedona, Slide Rock, Walnut Canyon, Montezuma’s Castle, Flagstaff, Wupatki and Tuzigoot Monuments, Sunset Crater, and Grand Canyon south rim. We went in March, had perfect weather and a wonderful time.

This would be my recommendation unless you have already visited those areas.

If you've been to Grand Canyon, I would consider areas along the AZ/UT border. Those include Lower Antelope Canyon (my avatar), Monument Valley, maybe Four Corners, etc. I think Arches, Canyonland, Mesa Verde, etc would be too far for a one-week trip.

 

[Imzadi]

If you go to Vegas you can do a loop through southern Utah to Zion's and Bryce. Weather permitting you could include the south rim of the Grand Canyon, but the north rim will probably still be closed for the winter.

I was about to write this myself. ⬆ Also add in, exit the Grand Canyon through the East Gate, continue heading east through the Painted Desert to Monument Valley, AZ, and/or down to Sedona, AZ.

I'd also suggest, if you can, start out in Vegas and end in Salt Lake City. Then you can hit ALL the places talked about above, looping from Sedona, up to Monument Valley, up to Bryce and Zion before ending in Salt Lake City .

 

[JimMIA]

You should Google Maps all of your drives, because some of them are MUCH longer than you think...or take more time to drive than you think because of winding mountain roads.

For example, in the suggestion above, Sedona is about 2 hours south of the East Gate of GRCA. Monument Valley is 2 1/2 hours NE of the East Gate.

 

[Imzadi]

You should Google Maps all of your drives, because some of them are MUCH longer than you think...or take more time to drive than you think because of winding mountain roads.

For example, in the suggestion above, Sedona is about 2 hours south of the East Gate of GRCA. Monument Valley is 2 1/2 hours NE of the East Gate.

Yes, and I did that routinely when I visited the Grand Canyon 8 times.

 

[JimMIA]

Yes, and I did that routinely when I visited the Grand Canyon 8 times.

I was making that suggestion to OP, regarding all of our suggestions. It wasn't directed specifically at your excellent suggestion; I was just using that as an example.