[Merged] visit to Las vegas, grand canyon and San diego

[nadeem373]

A trip to Grand Canyon
Keeping in mind all the good advices of this forum, particularly “Redrox”, I finalized our trip. The holidays of my son (15) were starting from December 20th but, unfortunately no flights were available on this date. Finally, we managed to buy tickets for December 18th, 2008 from buffalo, NY.
On December 17th, I picked up my son from school at 3:00 pm and drove to Buffalo airport; it’s around a 2 hour drive from Brampton, Ontario. I booked the Rodeway inn ‘park and fly package’ ($80+tax), for one night stay and parking for 14 days. I obtained reviews about this hotel from different forums and they were very poor, but the latest review on Yahoo’s forum mentioned that the hotel did lot of improvement, particularly in building renovation and furnishing. For this price it was not a bad choice with continental breakfast and free shuttle to /from airport.
I did my air booking via travelocity.com; it was a US airways connecting flight to Las Vegas with a stop in Philadelphia. I found awful service. First, they were charging $15 each way for 1st check-in luggage and $25 for 2nd check-in luggage, furthermore, food/drinks during the flight were paid, even for water you had to pay $2, and in more than 7 hours flight time they did not serve any free food/beverage .
In the waiting lounge at Philadelphia airport I came to know that there was snow in Las Vegas and Grand Canyon area. I was afraid about my plans but luckily when we landed at Las Vegas at 3:30pm, the snow had stopped and there were only a few showers and low winds.
I picked up my rental compact car from payless car rental ( initially I was thinking for an SUV but guidance from Redrox changed my mind as he suggested that the road from Las Vegas to GCNP does not require any SUV even in snow and also the roads from GCNP to Flagstaff and Sedona are good for economy/compact cars. Similarly, I refused to buy gas from the rental company as suggested by forum folks. For 9 days rental, including all taxes /airport levies etc., they charged me $118.50 for a compact car, which was a Suzuki Forenza. (I booked it via WWW.CARRENTALS.COM)
I spent that night in Las Vegas and visited the Stratosphere observatory which they offered free being stay there (I booked Stratosphere for $28 including all taxes via expedia.com). I dropped my plan to visit to strip that night as it was very cold and also I need a sound sleep for travelling to GCNP in morning.
On 19th Dec I started my journey to GCNP at 8:00 am, fortunately it was sunny day totally opposite to yesterday’s weather. I stopped briefly at Hoover dam and then reached Tusayan at 2:00 pm, first I thought to go for IMAX movie but changed my mind, I had my lunch at Macdonald’s and noted that the prices were around 25% more than Las Vegas. After lunch, I headed to GCNP, there is $25 entry fee for a car which is valid for 7 days (at the gate they provide me the map of park). Even though it was sunny but still the roads, buildings and mountains were covered with snow.
My first stop was Mather point, I parked my car and rushed to see the canyon, It was really an amazing experience, I looked it from different angles, took few photos and made a short movie. The rocks top were covered with snow but colorful layers of rock strata were clearly visible. I missed the colorful desert plantation due to snow as they were covered with snow but I enjoyed the beauty of snow layers over the canyon. The crowed was limited and we were able to move freely to explore the beauty of canyon from all angle and different locations. I stopped at el Tovar Hotel, explore the canyon from its premises and also visited handy craft shop. I liked the hotel’s location. I went to the Hermits road and finally I checked-in Maswik lodge (south) which I reserved via WWW.GRANDCANYONLODGES.COM for $91.75 including taxes. It was a normal room with 2 double beds (I think the price is little bit high). I watched sun set from Yavapai observatory. I can’t forget these moments. After dinner I rode on village route bus from Maswick lodge and had good view of the village.
Next morning we woke up early and watched sun rise from Mather point, viewing color changing rocks was an amazing experience. After that I drove to East Canyon as suggested by “Redrox” to go to Sedona. I stopped all the point on the way (Lipan point, Desert view etc) and enjoyed the beautiful scenes and desert views. The route 89a for Sedona was very scenic I really enjoyed driving over it. Sedona is a great place, red rocks are fantastic. This day was also sunny we enjoyed the jeep tour (but I selected a mild and short one). One can find cheaper rates for Jeep tour (not from pink jeep company but from other companies) they may offer you$39+tax=$44 per person. In evening, way back to flagstaff I stopped on few scenic points and finally checked –in Best western Pony Soldier Hotel, the receptionist told me that I am lucky that it is sunny today otherwise there was 54 inches snow fall till day before yesterday. In night we shopped around in Flagstaff Mall and had a good dinner. Next day, I drove to Phoenix and straight went to Botanical garden, there is $15 per person ticket but for student it is $7.50, my son was happy that finally he manage to utilize his school card which I asked him to carry with him during the travel, mine Real Estate college card also worked. Finally I got the colorful view of desert plants which I missed in Grand Canyon. There was exhibition of Dale Chihuly glass artwork (one of the most successful artists ever to have displayed in gardens throughout the world) we enjoyed his artwork, it was amazing. At counter they told me that tonight there is a special show for which special lighting arrangements have been made in the garden particularly on Chihuly works, I tried to buy its ticket but it was sold out show. From Botanical garden I went to Heard Museum, we did not much enjoy here as it was the same type of museum which we saw in Washington DC in summer. We had a drive of downtown as it was Sunday and all offices were closed then headed to hotel. In evening after having tea we went for shopping as usual ( its my wife’s hobby) to nearby Mall.

[nadeem373]

My next destination was San Diego, after having good breakfast I drove to San Diego. I stopped at Yuma for gas, I found cheapest gas in Arizona $1.47 per American gallon, (it was forum folks suggestion to fill up gas tank here being the last city of Arizona). When I was 90 miles away from San Diego, I got stuck in high winds and heavy rains, it was really difficult driving, compact car, going up on elevations, high winds, heavy rains and low visibility, there was no option left but to follow any long body commercial vehicle. But when I entered in San Diego rain was stopped and visibility was better. First I checked in hotel at Chula Vista, had a warm bath, had a cup of coffee and then drove to Seaport village, parked car inside their parking and bought a $0.38 post card as for free parking you have to buy something from their shops, it is a good place for walk along the shore, view of boats and cruises and shopping in bazaar. There are many good hotels along the shore with lot of good restaurants. From here I went to Gaslamp Quarters, visited many shops and had a dinner in an Indian Restaurant. Next day I visited the Balboa Park, it was Tuesday , someone in forum mentioned that there are few museums free on every Tuesday in Balboa park, but when I asked from information centre, they told me that automobile, hall of fame and air and space museums are free today but for only those having San Diego county ID. I visited few museums, enjoyed free tram ride, small Botanical garden, I was not interested in zoo (although I had coupon $8 off per person on value ticket which I downloaded from WWW.MOUSESAVER.COM
From here I visited the La Jolla cove and Shopping Mall, it is a good place, beautiful shore and well maintained sea park. It reminded me my native place Karachi which is having the identical climate like rocks all along the sea shore, big holes in rocks made by sea water, golden sand and Seagulls. This Shopping Mall is a nice place for shopping. I enjoyed the environment of La Jolla a lot. Than I visited Coronado Island, hotel Del Coronado is awesome after that we went to the San Ysidro Outlet Mall, it is located just adjacent to Mexico border. It was December 23rd, Christmas shopping was on peak, the Mall was totally crowded I never saw such a huge crowd in shops, 90% of buyers were from Mexico, there were big queues on “Coach” shop for payment. Next day we changed our plan for sea world as my son insisted that he has already seen it in Orlando, so we visited to Birch aquarium, it is very small aquarium and I will not recommend for anybody except for small kids. We made plan for Mexico visit but changed due to Christmas eve, similarly the wild animal park hours have been curtailed to 4:30pm only, finally we decided to have a round of city via trolley (light local train) we bought day pass of $5 per person and started our trip. We stopped at downtown, had lunch at Gaslamp Quarters stop, then stopped at Mission bay, it is a good place, you can enjoy the park and shore there is very good Mall also (Fashion Valley Mall). Tomorrow, I had to drive to Las Vegas but the weather forecast was not good, it is more than 5 hours drive in normal weather conditions, and I didn’t want to take any risk particularly if there is heavy rains and high winds, I watched WWW.WEATHER.COM many times before going to bed.
In morning the forecast changed little bit now there was 25 mph winds and light showers. I decided to drive, I was thinking that being Christmas day there will be very thin traffic but it was busy day lot of peoples were travelling to Los Angeles and other places, and at some places there were heavy rains and low visibility but after travelling 50% the weather become sunny and bright but with high winds. I stopped at Primm to fill the gas tank, here again rain started and continued till I reached Las Vegas. After checked-in hotel I went for dinner and then parked the car and started journey of strip via Deuce buses, the ticket is $5 per person for 24 hours unlimited travel and these buses ply 24 hours. We stopped at Mirage the “Eruption “ show was about to start, we enjoyed this show it is really a good show, then we enjoyed the Bellagio fountain show, it’s a great show, we visited the Mandalay bay by tram from Excalibur but the habitat of shark was closed at that time then we visited the MGM and had a chance to look white lion. After that we visited New york New york, Paris and Forum shops and finally went back to hotel for sleep.
Next day we visited the Las Vegas Outlet Malls, being Canadian it was a “boxing day” in our minds, the Mall was packed to capacity, all the buyers were tourists. After spending few hours there we had a lunch and went back to hotel for parking the car. Now again we started the trip of strip via Deuce buses as last night’s ticket was still valid. We stopped at Treasure Island, it’s show was about to start, today the strip was jam packed, hundreds of peoples were waiting for the show but they were delaying it due to high winds finally after 20 minutes wait they cancelled it, from here we went to Mirage via tram but the habitat of dolphin in Mirage had already been closed. We went to Wynn and Encore, the Dream fall in Wynn looks very beautiful in night. My son was interested in Ferrari/Maserati cars, we went their showroom in Wynn, they charged $10 for visiting the showroom and photograph in Ferrari. You can see these pictures (normally 3 pictures) on internet with company’s name over the photo here you can select back ground but if you want to buy picture without company name then you have to pay $10 more. Now, it was 8:30pm, we have to reach airport at 10:00 pm, we waited for Deuce bus , but due to big rush it was full to capacity the driver refused to take more passengers, we hired a taxi to our hotel, picked up our car rushed to rental car return facility, returned car to Payless car rentals, took a shuttle to airport. Flight was in time, we arrived Chicago at 5:30 am to pick up Buffalo flight but it was 3 hours late, we arrived Buffalo at 1:00pm , called hotel shuttle and reached hotel, the weather was very good it was in plus temperature and light rain, our car was shining there was no snow over it even though 3 snow storms have passed in our absence but last two days plus temperature and rain washed out all snow. We felt lucky ourselves, before travelling back to home my wife paid the final visits to Buffalo Mall and Outlet Malls and purchased all those large items which she chose in Las Vegas, Arizona and San Diego but kept them pending due to only one hand carry restrictions by airline.

[ghu]

I'll be visiting las vegas and the grand canyons for the first time, this summer! thanks for your post!