• Ballooning over Albuquerque. Pure magic.
• Grand Canyon. Awe Inspiring.
• Antelope Canyon. Stunning colours and a great adventure.

So what did we do on our trip?

London (stopover)

The trip started with a visit to the Aspire Lounge in London Gatwick.

New York

Radisson at JFK

Cambria Hotel

Three Days in NYC

Washington DC

DC on a weekend

Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill

Albuquerque

Howard Johnson in Albuquerque

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Albuquerque, New Mexico: Breaking Bad Tour Highlight

Flagstaff (overnight stopover)

Residence Inn Flagstaff

Grand Canyon

Yavapai Lodge, Grand Canyon

The Biggest Hole: Grand Canyon South Rim

Grand Canyon to Page Road Trip

Page

Page, Arizona: Antelope Canyon Highlight

Clarion Inn

Travelodge by Wyndham

Las Vegas

Bellagio Hotel

Luxor Hotel

Venetian Resort

What Happens in Vegas….

Calgary (stopover)

Aspire Lounge Calgary

WestJet Calgary to London

The post USA! USA! USA! appeared first on etrip.tips.

Day One

We flew into Las Vegas on what was almost a private jet, being a half full Embraer ERJ-145. A quick cab ride later we’d arrived at the Bellagio and set about getting checked in. After oohing and ahhing at the room we set out to discover the Secret Pizza place which was right next door. [Casino Counter: 1]

Secret Pizza

We’d had the Secret Pizza place recommended to us and it sounded quite cool – a restaurant that doesn’t exist. I envisaged secret doors, passcodes and handshakes to get in but upon further research it was just down an alley. Good enough! It was on level two of The Cosmopolitan, the next hotel from the Bellagio on the Strip, so we headed over. [Casino Counter: 2] Ange said I had to get a shot of her in the big red shoe in the foyer!

We discovered the unmarked corridor signifying the entrance to the restaurant and emerged into…

…a pretty normal looking pizzeria. OK, no signage, but it was just a pizza place.

The pizza was ok, washed it down with a beer (me) and a soda (Ange).

And then we were off again!

Caesar’s Palace

An icon! We headed over to check it out [Casino Counter: 3]. We noticed that there were posters for some pretty good acts coming through and playing at the Palace, so we headed to the ticket office to see when and whether we were lucky enough for our trip to coincide with their shows.

The posters promised Jerry Seinfeld and Phil Collins so we were very excited as we got close to the booths. I breathlessly asked if they had tickets left for Seinfeld only to be told that our stay in Las Vegas was the worst timed ever, as all the great acts would be starting their time at Caesar’s in November and we were leaving on the 19th October. Except Phil Collins. He was starting on the 19th. At night. After we’d left. Lol. #shipspassinginthenight

We headed back to the Bellagio to watch the fountains while eating room service.

Day Two

Gold Coast for Brekky

I balked at spending $26 (per person! plus tax! plus tip!) on the breakfast buffet at the Bellagio, so we researched our Las Vegas brochure to find a cheaper one. Not surprising, all the hotels on the strip were equally as expensive, but there was a hotel off the strip, relatively nearby, who offered a $10 buffet! Bargain, sign me up. So we walked over to the Gold Coast Hotel [Casino Counter: 4].

Now America is not really built for pedestrians, Las Vegas especially. While there was a footpath alongside the road, it seemed the only people using it were the homeless and joggers. One itinerant gentleman who happened to be in front of us disappeared from view as the footpath crossed the freeway and we looked around as we passed the spot of his Houdini move to discover a path of sorts under the bridge.

Passing on the opportunity to explore a whole new world, we kept walking in the morning heat until we hit the hotel.

There we again trudged all the way through the gaming floor until we reached the restaurant (I’m starting to see a pattern here). There we waited in line with an assortment of elderly folk clutching some sort of card to discover that the $10 per person is only for members of their loyalty club (hence the cards) and that our price was $12 each. Still better than $26 we thought and gladly paid.

It was an amazing spread with pretty much everything you could have imagined. A long line of counters offered everything from breakfast potatoes, to waffles and eggs at least four ways. One thing I couldn’t see were any drinks. Once I got back to my table I could see why – all the drinks had to be ordered from your waitress.

Ange hadn’t been able to see any milk for her cereal so asked our waitress for some, and it came in a glass, much to my amusement and her puzzlement.

I went back for a fruit plate (yes I’m counting the mini donuts as fruit – sue me!). By the time we left there was quite the line of people waiting to come in, the odd family but by and large an elderly crowd.

We decided to get an Uber back to the hotel. We could have walked again, but it was so tedious in the hot sun and just made us tired so we succumbed to the American way and took a car. Even with the Uber and the increased per person cost of the breakfast, we still came out ahead. And assuming the health benefits of the walk weren’t obliterated by the pollution we breathed in getting there, we came out ahead health-wise as well.

We checked out of the Bellagio and wheeled our luggage down the strip, past the weirdest tribute to New York I’d seen, to the Luxor [Casino Counter: 5], and checked in.

The Luxor

Lunch

Once we’d checked in, we didn’t want to go too far for lunch and discovered, nestled on the mezzanine floor, a food court with a bunch of fast food restaurants. Best of all they were cheap! Ange got a weird salad thing with eggs and I got a chicken burger with fries from “Original Chicken Tender”.

Being so close to New York, New York we decided to head over. I’d heard that there was a roller coaster which dropped over the edge of a hotel at great height, so we headed over to see if that was at New York New York.

New York, New York

Inside a suitably garish casino [Casino Counter: 6], we eventually found signposts directing the way to the roller coaster. This took us through the arcade, big yellow markings on the floor making sure we didn’t get lost. We eventually made it to the top where I insisted Ange check to see if she was tall enough to go on the ride (minimum limit 4’6″, Ange well and truly over that at 5’2″). She wasn’t pleased.

But it turned out that the rollercoaster I’d been told about, definitely wasn’t this one – that was at Stratosphere – this one was a pretty tame one, so we headed back to the Luxor and thought about dinner.

On the way back we tried to scout out where the tour bus to Hoover Dam would pick us up from the next day, which necessitated walking along an overpass from the Luxor to the Excalibur and then out through the gaming floor [Casino Counter: 7] to pop out in a semi circular loading zone full of buses. Bingo!

Night on the Strip

We were relaxing in the room at the Luxor when all of a sudden we realised we hadn’t taken a photo of us at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign! I’d wanted to ever since working at TripAdvisor in London. The offices there were themed around a different continent per floor, and the top floor was all about the Americas.

The dining room in the office was fitted out to look like an American diner with a soda fountain, video games and tucked into the corner was a miniature Welcome to Las Vegas sign (it wasn’t even the most impressive floor – level 3 was themed after Africa and a large common area was decked out as a safari with huge stuffed toy lions, zebras and elephants).

So off we went, electing to walk because the night was balmy and the south end of the Strip very much quiet. Next door to the Luxor was the Mandalay Bay, the scene of the terrible mass shooting in 2017.

Anyway we got down to the sign and there’s a queue of tourists waiting to pose underneath it. I can see why, when you take a photo without queuing the contrast between the dark of the night and the brightness of the sign collude to either over or under exposing your photo. We do the best we can (bugger queuing!) and head back along the strip towards Vegas proper.

On the way back we discover The Little Chapel of the West, one of a large number of sweet little wedding chapels cashing in on drunken promises. We’re just taking photos outside (that’s Ange’s ring finger, I assure you!) when the doors open and Elvis leads a group of people out, unfortunately no way of knowing if it’s a wedding party or a tour. Celebrity sighting? Check!

We’re getting hungry by this point and just want anything to eat, when I notice in the near distance a McDonalds. Oh well, better than nothing. As we get up to it we notice that the dine-in is closed and it’s only available for drive through. We briefly consider walking through the drive through before moving on. Nearby is a Panda Express and so we get some franchise Asian food.

Mission accomplished – cheap food and pictures of the Welcome sign, so back we went to the hotel.

Day Three

We checked out of the hotel and got our luggage put in storage, then headed out to meet our Hoover Dam tour bus.

Hoover Dam

We’d been promised the “Ultimate Hoover Dam Tour” and the Excalibur was the last of the seven hotel pickups that they provided, so the bus was almost full by the time we got on. We selected seats and settled in as the driver navigated his way to the freeways which would take us to the Dam.

All the while the tour guide gave a run down of what was going to happen, sprinkled with jokes and stories – for this was a Comedy tour. Ange had selected it based on the fact that it went right inside the Dam, so it seemed that it was the most complete, and the humour was just the icing on the cake [Ed.note – I hadn’t actually realised it was a Comedy tour].

After driving through Boulder City where the workmen on the Dam had lived while creating the Dam, we parked up beside a bridge which overlooked the Dam. Here we walked along the bridge to get some great shots which showed the Dam in context with its surrounds.

Then it was back on the bus and we went down to the Dam itself, driving over the Dam and then returning to the parking building, stopping briefly to get off. While the bus disappeared to park we headed along the top of the Dam to inspect it from the outside.

Seeing as it was built in the 1930s the brass statues on top were reflective of the Art Deco style. They were the work of Oskar J. W. Hansen.

We made out way along the top of the Dam to take in the views on either side. On the left we checked out the intake towers and on the right the drop down to the water along the face of the Dam.

After going down a whole bunch of steps becasue the escalator was broken, we went through airport type security into a holding area. There they took our photo against a green screen and we waited in a queue with a school group.

The group leader gave the kids a speech about keeping quiet but it only dented the cacophony briefly before the decibels returned to their original height. Eventually we reached the front of the queue to be admitted into a theatre where we watched a fifteen minute movie on the making of the Dam.

And then we were lead away to the lifts and taken down into the bowels of the Dam itself. It was intriguing to see the layout of the pipes and tunnels and to see the layout of the Dam. It looked like an alien!

Our tour guide was very informative and matter of fact, answering questions and giving the import information. I couldn’t help but think he looked a little like John Malkovich. Ange didn’t agree but I think they shared some mannerisms which made the resemblance more than just a physical likeness.

We’d been counted into the lift and they ensured that the space was maximised to ensure an efficient trip through the exhibits.

In the great turbine hall on the Arizona side of the Dam. The Dam straddled the state line between Arizona and New Mexico with minimal difference between the two.

After we finished the tour of the inside of the dam we had a little bit of time and decided to check out the spill way on the near side of the dam where overflow would go. It was an out-of-the-way area, where not many people went so we had a pretty unique view.

The look back at the dam from the lake side managed to capture the dam, intake towers and the bridge which we’d originally looked down from.

And then it was time to get back on the bus and head back, stopping off at a restaurant on the way. We were given little menus to make our choices of what to eat and then these were collected and totalled and rang through so that the restaurant could start making them before we arrived.

The food was ok (though “potato spuds” are just what the English call crisps and Americans call chips – disappointing when I was expecting french fries!) though anyone ordering lemonade ended up sending that back as there was an issue which made it taste insipid.

Replacements were forthcoming, so no danger. We sat in booths of four and so met another couple and chatted with them while we ate. Found out lots about them – the Americans do like to share!

Then we headed back to Las Vegas and were dropped off first. The guide gave everyone a ticket to his show and Ange was pleased that we got free ticket until I pointed out that with the one drink minimum per person, you were still having to pay something. Great deal for the guide though – built in mid-week audience!

All along the trip the guide had dropped some not so subtle hints about the tip that was expected: even putting it in print on a brochure that the expected amount was $15 per person for the guide and $10 for the driver. The constant badgering was really the only sore point on the tour, everything else was pretty good.

Once we got back we collected our luggage and headed to our next hotel. Which proved a bit of a trek.

We had decided to take the monorail to the Venetian, which involved getting on at the MGM Grand, getting off at the Flamingo because the Harrah’s stop was closed, and the walking the rest of the way.

So off we trekked, discovering that the monorail station could only be reached by going through the gambling floor of the MGM Grand [Casino Counter: 8], and at the other end, to get to The Strip, we had to walk through Flamingo’s gaming floor [Casino Counter: 9]. I can’t prove it, but I suspect the distance to the MGM Grand station, plus the distance we walked from the Flamingo’s station to the Venetian was somehow more than it wold have been to just walk from the Luxor to the Venetian.

Anyway, after exploring the Venetian [Casino Counter: 10] with all of its pools, we headed out for our last night in Vegas.

The Mirage

We started off with the Volcano Show outside the Mirage. This turned out to be very close to the Venetian and we found a little trick. You can watch the show from across the road at the Denny’s. It was good to be able to avoid the crowds that had built up looking for a good vantage point.

The elevation and the comfort of being able to sit down while the flames entertained made this quite a good option. Unfortunately the outdoor area was blocked off because of the high winds. Fortunately they let me go out there anyways. Unfortunately by the time I got out there the show had just stopped. Never mind.

We made a note of what times the show was on, just in case we wanted to see it later in the evening.

Fremont Street

We’d heard that Fremont Street was where we needed to be – the place where people let their freak flag fly and let it all hang out. Apparently people became more nude as the night went by and it was a spectacle. Seeing as it was getting close to Halloween, we thought we’d be foolish not to check it out. We jumped in a cab and headed off.

It seemed to me that Fremont Street revolved around a huge mall area over which they’d stretched a canopy for shelter (not from the rain: from the sun!) and to shine fancy lights and advertising on. We wandered our way along it, taking in the sights. We’d been told that it doesn’t really get started until 10pm so we knew we were getting the PG version. We paused to watch a band in Halloween costumes rock out with gogo dancers and a light show.

High above us two levels of zip-lines operated the full length of the mall, the higher level offering a sit down riding style while those on the lower more of a Superman position. One superman-ing lady zoomed past with her friends and for whatever reason when they “landed” she did not and started moving backwards until she came to a halt over the crowd watching the music.

As the band finished their set, a staff member from the landing spot hooked on to the wire and came shimmying out to collect her and they headed back to the landing zone to cheers from the audience.

It was a good natured crowd, families with kids out this early, mixing with adults who were starting to get their drink on.

We’d be wandering along and then out of the corner of my eye I would catch another group of zipliners whizzing by – a little disconcerting but all part of the entertainment.

Probably my favourite part of Fremont was the Heart Attack Grill. It was a restaurant with a weighing platform out the front and signage indicating that if you were over 350lbs (about 160kg) then you ate for free.

I peered inside through the windows and saw that all the guests inside were wearing hospital gowns and some people had IV stands beside them. I was glad they specified it was the Heart Attack Grill: you’d hate for someone to think the medical theme was required due to food poisoning!

And so we bid Fremont Street farewell, too soon to get the full experience, but just a taster to whet the appetite. If we ever get back to Vegas we’ll be sure to save a night for everything it has to offer. We jumped a cab and headed back to the Mirage in time for…

The Mirage II

… a later showing of the Volcano Show. This time since we were so early and the hour later the crowds were thinner and we got right up close to the show. While the force of the flames had rattled the windows at Denny’s, this close we were kept toasty and warm. We could hear the music as well which you don’t get from Denny’s. Not indoors at Denny’s anyway.

And then we walked back to the Venetian. The next morning we breakfasted, checked out and took a taxi to the airport.

I didn’t hate Las Vegas as much as I thought that I would: I had very very low expectations. The city as a whole seemed hell bent on squeezing every last cent out of you (upgrade! tax! resort fee! tips!) and I saw ten more casinos than I really needed to.

I was told that I needed to embrace the tackiness while I was in Vegas and celebrate it, but with a few exceptions, I was never able to buy in to the style-over-substance attitude which the city is built on.

The post 3 Days in Las Vegas appeared first on etrip.tips.

Our trek to the Venetian Resort from the Luxor should have been a cab ride. Should have been. If it was it would have cost a bit of money and we would have got there straight away. Instead we tried to save a little money by walking to the monorail station at the MGM Grand and taking it to the Flamingo station and walking from there, the closer station (Harrah’s) being closed.

But even though the map says it was only a 1km to the station from the Luxor and 1km from the station to the Venetian, it seemed a lot longer.

When we finally arrived, we checked in and headed up to our room. We’d splurged on our final night in Vegas by getting the Luxury Suite, but thankfully no attempt was made to upgrade us. Again, the lifts were back through the gambling area, filled with smokers and slow walkers staring at the bright lights and promises of easy money.

The Luxury Suite certainly delivered. It was split on two levels, the upper level consisting of entrance way, bathroom and bed, while a lovely lounge area completed the lower level.

The bathroom had a small bath tucked between the shower and the his and hers vanity, and the toiletries were White Tea and Rose by Bath House.

Ange raved about the amenity kit, a cute little box packed with all sorts of goodies, including to Ange’s surprise and delight, a little sewing kit.

The lounge had everything you might need for relaxing: a formal table and three chairs, a couch and a couple of arm chairs. All settled in front of a big screen TV. Tucked in the corner was an impressive desk.

The king-size bed was super comfortable, and the bedside switches controlled the blinds and curtains. the view wasn’t anything special, looking out over the roofs to another building, but there was a slight gap where you could just see The Strip. After checking out the amenities in the room it was time to check out the pool situation.

The Venetian and the neighbouring Palazzo were two towers owned by the same company and so they’d built a walkway between them on the pool level. A third pool area called the Venezia was supposed to be on the third floor.

The first thing we noticed in approaching the pool area from the lifts was a hilarious sign telling us what the maximum occupancy was. The number seemed a little high, but as we circulated through the area, I started to see how that many guests could visit.

The pools themselves were a combination of large pools surrounded by pool loungers for the masses, private pools with cabanas and plants providing privacy, bars nestled between the pools and jacuzzis.

Both bars we came across seemed to be doing an OK trade, I think we were there almost on closing time, so most of the day drinkers were heading back to their rooms to prepare for the evening’s debauchery.

The larger pools has lifeguards sitting looking incredibly bored, as though the sun had made the temperature soar, shadows of the hotels had provided some respite, and a wind was blustering through making the temperature more comfortable to walk around in, but a little less than what the cold water of most of the pools required.

There were a few people in the larger pools, and I braved the cold water and tried out one of the more secluded spots. Ange made it halfway in before deciding that maybe the jacuzzi was a better option and I wasted no time joining her.

It was maybe 5:40pm when the lifeguards started coming around saying that they were closing in ten minutes, a bit of a buffer I guess for the slow to behave as it was supposed to be open until 6pm.

We went looking for the Venezia Pool, but it was off limits due to a private party. The pool was on a deck which had been set up like a Roman garden with marble floors and large planters with plants providing screens. We could see elegantly dressed people entering and starting the soiree. I must admit we probably looked like invading heathen hordes in our wet bathing suits looking for the pool.

I was perplexed by a sign in the lift stating that damage as a result of jumping would be punished with a fine. I was surprised that the design of the lift would allow it to be damaged by jumping – and at the luxurious hotel for having a low brow sign saying “you break it, you pay for it”.

The decor throughout was what you would expect from such a high end hotel: sumptuous settees, tasteful decorations and a colour scheme I would describe as beige and gold. There was the odd bold colour statement.

We headed out for our last night in Vegas, pausing on the way back in to take a few shots of the exterior, featuring their take on Palazzo Ducale and the Rialto Bridge. The real Rialto Bridge doesn’t have a travelator inside it taking you to the hotel’s retail area.

In the morning we decided to treat ourselves and headed to Bouchon for breakfast. Bouchon is a restaurant by Thomas Keller who has a particularly good resume, having won pretty much everything cooking related with Michelin stars out the wazoo and being described by Anthony Bourdain as having “the best restaurant, ever.”

When we arrive, they’ve just opened the outdoor area, which just happens to overlook the Venezia Pool which we couldn’t get into the previous evening. Ange took great pleasure in demonstrating the correct way to lay out one’s napkin. With a flourish!

I got the Petit Déjeuner Américain (American Breakfast) and Ange got the Hachis de Merguez (sausage hash). Mine came with the pastry of my choice and Ange’s came with eggs anyway. I elected to keep my pastry til the end because I didn’t want to spoil my appetite, and I’m glad I did because while I finished everything, it was a bit of a struggle!

I was surprised by the service – I expected it to be a lot more snooty than it was, very down to earth and appreciated. Would definitely go back!

And then it was time to go. But before we did, we decided to check out the canals. A little while before our stay the hotel had sent an email asking if we’d like a ride on a gondola, after all, what could be more Venice than a ride on the canals?

They were offering $29+tax per person for a shared gondola which fits 4 people or $116+tax private gondola for two. In the ride we’d had in Venice, we could look at the other traffic on the canals, see people’s lives on or from the water and generally soak up quintessential Venice.

At the Venetian you could look into shops (high end shops admittedly). On the second floor of a retail mall. Under a painted sky, floating on chlorinated water. We declined.

So we ended our stay at the Venetian, heading out to the taxi area via St Mark’s Square, dropping our key card into the drop box and completing the check out formalities from the airport because the wifi at the hotel lobby was so slow.

Would I Go Back?

I think staying at the Venetian is like seeing an attraction which isn’t worth returning to – one and done. It’s insanely expensive, yet at the same time the pseudo-Venice facade feels tacky and cheap. The location is great and the room fantastic, but at that price you would certainly hope so!

The post Review: Venetian Resort, Las Vegas appeared first on etrip.tips.

We arrived at the Luxor Hotel by monorail, initially watching it go by twice as we failed to understand that there were two monorails; one going from Camelot, where we’d got on to the Mandalay Bay and back, while the other one going from Mandalay Bay to the Luxor. We figured it out eventually and got off between the paws of a giant Sphinx, heading down across the taxi ranks to the grand entrance.

The main foyer of the hotel was packed with people retrieving their luggage and as we approached the line to attempt an early check in, a staff member beckoned me over. She asked how long I was staying for, and finding it was one night she called over to her colleague and let him know we were staying only one night. He then tried to sell us tickets to a show.

Realising I was a walking wallet, and she was really just wasting my time, I headed over to the queue of people waiting to check in.

While in the shape of a pyramid, the atrium and casino formed most of the huge inner void, meaning that the rooms themselves formed a single layer along the surface of the hotel. It seems a great waste of space.

The lifts servicing each floor were very specific, and inconveniently placed in the corners, meaning we had to again brave the casino machines and shops to get to where we were going. The lifts moved diagonally upwards, a bit of a shock when starting off, and we reached our room after walking another half length of the hotel. Who needs a gym?

The room when we got there was an interesting combination of slightly tired but interesting decor, had a pool view and was overall a very good size.

The view out the window was slightly filtered by coloured glass, which explained why you couldn’t see into the rooms from outside.

While the triangular shape of the room lead to some “dead areas” which you couldn’t use, they’d done their best and there was a comfortable lounge area facing the bed.

Speaking of which, the bed was huge and somehow only serviced by two thin pillows. After double checking the cupboards and drawers, we rang down to the front desk to ask for some more. After a member of staff dropped them off (with more of a snarl than a grin), I joked to Ange that they’d probably try and charge us for bringing them up.

I must admit that the furniture did look cool though – tastefully laid out in different shades of wood with a very dark trim which matched both the desk as well as the mirror.

I could now say that I have slept in a pyramid. We joked around for all the obscene things that the hieroglyphics might be spelling out on the cupboard doors.

But what was obscene was all the additional fees and add-ons they tried to charge you if you had room service. I get it – it’s a long way to walk, but still: $10 for a litre of water, plus tip, tax and additional delivery fee?

The bathroom was tastefully appointed with the towels nicely folded in racks on the walls. The toiletries were MGM Resorts’ own Kūer brand.

The place was huge. The one saving grace was that on the mezzanine floor in the middle of the pyramid was a food court with reasonably priced outlets.

But the main pool area was closed. For the winter. When it was 30+ degrees (Centigrade) outside! We went and had a look at the smaller pool which was open. No slides. #sadface. I did the maths: in the picture below, our room would have been somewhere near the right hand series of darker windows, probably around the third one from the bottom.

The Luxor has travellators for those trying to get into or away from the interior. Especially handy for people trying to reach the bus/Uber entrance on the side closest to the Excalibur, or for those attending a conference.

Lastly the light which shines into the sky from the peak of the pyramid serves as a beacon so that you can see it from all around the south part of the Strip. Very handy at night.

It was a bit funny seeing some of the statues – in March 2011 I had gone to Luxor as part of a family trip (yes, even after the military took over in February – we’d already paid for our tickets!) and so had seen them first hand. Below is the picture of Ange with the statues, and below that the originals from the Karnak Temple complex in Luxor, Egypt.

Would I Go Back?

I don’t think that I would. There are plenty of other hotels along the strip, and the less than subtle attempts to extract additional money out of you just seemed a little too much. The room itself was fine, and I did appreciate having other options for food. It would have been good to have more options for swimming, but that’s a seasonal thing, so no blame there. But no – plenty more options on the strip.

The post Review: Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas appeared first on etrip.tips.

The check in at the Bellagio Hotel Las Vegas is a zoo. A velvet rope makes the queue snake back and forth and while it’s less than half occupied it’s still a good 10 to 15 minutes before we reach the front.

It’s not through lack of personnel: the lengthy front desk has plenty of staff, so much so that I almost get whiplash trying to keep track of which staff member might be becoming available next. You almost needed one of those automated voices announcing the next teller that they have in chemists and supermarkets.

But this is the five star Bellagio, not a chemist or supermarket. And so it proves at check in when the lady behind the desk asks me if I’d like to upgrade to the penthouse, with 2000 square feet for an extra $100.

I laugh, thinking of the money I’d already spent on the room, and ask if it comes with a tiger (as in the movie The Hangover), to which she takes offence, retorting that it’s really good value as it’s a $700 per night room. Seeing as I wasn’t going to take the bait, she asks if instead I’d be interested in a suite, with views of the fountain.

Ange perks up: one of our reasons for choosing the Bellagio was because of the iconic fountains (they featured in the opening titles of Married With Children). Oh, I say, how much extra is that one? “An extra $50” she says. “And is it ready now?” I ask trying to be casual-like. “Yes” she says, and just like that we’ve upgraded to a suite with a view. I went online afterward and found that the normal difference in price was $60, so bargain!

Getting to the lifts involved walking through the middle of the gaming floor: a truly disorientating trek. If we hadn’t received clear instructions we’d still be walking around trying to find them.

The room was huge: being right at the end of the southern arm of the three pronged building meant we actually also had views away from the strip, but apart from a car park and other skyscrapers, there wasn’t anything of more in that direction.

Nope, all the action was on the strip. In the immediate foreground was the fountain, opposite us was the Eiffel Tower and in the distance was the Ferris wheel: their answer to the London Eye.

A huge comfortable bed was overlooked by a window pointing away from the strip, perfect for keeping away from the lights and noise. Electronic curtains and blinds helped achieve total darkness at night.

A cute little desk was against one wall and the imposing dresser and cupboards stood opposite, a big screen tv sitting above the minibar. I shuddered to think how much the Fiji water and peanuts would cost. In the dresser were a couple of robes and ample coat hangers.

The bathroom was also of an impressive size, with a full sized bath and his and hers vanities. The seperate high power shower was tucked behind the door and the toilet was squirrelled away in its own room. Plenty of privacy!

Having settled in we headed out for some lunch. On the way back we attempted to find the pool area and instead discovered an enormous foyer under a glass canopy decorated in exhibits with Indian animals. Almost as if a fleet of Macy’s parade floats had collided. Mists of water sprayed from the elephants trunks and crowds of tourists took photos.

We eventually extricated ourselves from the crowds and made our way back past the guests lifts to a shopping boulevard, dodging lanyard wearing conference attendees until we came to the doors to the pool area. Loungers and umbrellas clustered around an empty pool, people more interested in the poolside life rather than getting into the water.

Bored lifeguards slumped on their high chairs. We found a gelato shop and shared a tub. I was confused by the options. You got two scoops for a “single” and three for a “double”. Tasted good though!

With our view of the fountains there wasn’t really much reason to go out at night. The lady at check in had told us that the music they played was on the TV on channel 22 so we got some room service, moved the chairs close to the window and opened the curtains.

I thought that the same show and same music would play for each of the sessions, but no, a brand new dance of water and light accompanied each new song.

The music varied widely, certainly something for everybody (that likes MOR/Adult Contemporary), and the fountains themselves were really well choreographed: mesmerising! We actually started watching before it got dark, but the sessions after the sun went down were my favourites: the addition of the lights brought another dimension to the show.

Would I Go Back?

Like everywhere else in Vegas, it’s expensive, and they try and gouge you left and right, but if they offered the $700 room for an extra $100 I would be tempted to take it: as long as he had a view of the fountain though….

The post Review: Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas appeared first on etrip.tips.

We don’t usually have a problem checking in early – occasionally a hotel will try to charge extra to give early access to a room, and occasionally the room wont be ready, but usually hotels are happy to let you store your luggage as you go out and explore the local area.

That’s not quite the feeling that we got at the Travelodge by Wyndham Page. It seemed quite the imposition us leaving our luggage there, and when we came back at a little before 2pm it was a similar response: Check in is at 3pm. No checking if the room was ready early, just a blanket no.

In the next hour a steady stream came in to reception, all turned away because it was too early to check in. After 10 minutes I had the bright idea of asking if we could use the pool while we waited, only to be told that it was being repaired.

So we worked in the lobby while the time ticked down to 3pm. Occasionally a guest would come in and be able to check in because their room was ready, but I couldn’t figure out whether they were in the same kind of room as us or not.

Anyway, when we finally got to check in, we headed over to our ground level room. The Travelodge is typical of roadside motels – it reminded me of the ones in TV and movies like My Name is Earl and No Country For Old Men. To say that it was tired and needed a little TLC was an understatement. The bed was large enough and turned out to be comfortable.

The toiletries were a collection of no-name soaps and make up remover wipes, and the bathroom seemed clean enough.

The TV was built into the wall and I quipped that it was probably to avoid it being stolen. Behind it, outside the bathroom was an alcove which served as an open closet.

Ticked into the corner was a fridge and microwave. The fridge was quite noisy and I needed a power outlet to charge my phone so I took great pleasure in swapping the plugs.

In the evening the neighbors decided to sit on the path outside our room and have a chat. We could hear every word because the walls were so thin. I was tempted to go outside and sit beside them so I could contribute as well, but I figured that sort of thing gets you shot, so seethed quietly in our room instead.

We knew whenever someone pulled into the motel because the thin curtains let the headlights play across our wall unhindered.

I didn’t have high hopes for the breakfast, but was pleasantly surprised by the array of foodstuffs that they had. There wasn’t anything hot, but there were boiled eggs and toasters for toast, plus a smattering of cereals and fruit, so not a bad selection.

Would I Return?

Only if every other hotel in Page was booked up. And even then I’d try AirBnB first! The location is not terrible, but they have a lot to learn about service and the conditions of the room could only be described as basic. I guess this is the sort of hotel which makes you appreciate the good ones. The bed was comfortable though!

The post Review: Travelodge by Wyndham, Page appeared first on etrip.tips.

Day Zero

We arrived in Page and went straight to the Clarion Inn. We were able to check in straight away and then headed out to get some food. I have a soft spot for BBQ and so was very interested in Big Jim’s Texas BBQ directly across the road from the hotel.

The queue of people waiting to get in put me off though, so we headed further down the main street of Page. Too much selection! We eventually selected a Chinese buffet and was wondering whether it being empty was a bad omen when a couple of tour buses came through.

Day One

We got up very early to make it to the check in for our first tour of Antelope Canyon. Our hotel was selected because of its proximity to the pick up point and in no time we were checked in and waiting for the driver’s arrival.

Upper Antelope Canyon

When we checked in for our Upper Antelope Canyon tour we were given a coloured ticket which indicated which truck we’d be in. We watched as the holders of the red, yellow and green tickets leave before Marlene introduced herself and collected the orange tickets.

She seemed a little brusque as she got everyone settled into the truck, ensured that the seatbelts were done up and briefed everyone on how the morning would progress. And then we were off!

The seatbelts went across three people each, so we had to squeeze together, each side had three belts, three per belt meant each truck could take eighteen people.

We drove out to the Upper Canyon car park which took ten minutes, passing the Reservation office and cars of people who had self driven out. The trail out to the Canyon entrance was another ten minutes drive on dried river bed.

We could see why all the staff were wearing scarves: the dust kicked up by the trucks swirled around getting into everything including lungs. In no time at all we were at the entrance, and I was amused at the precision with which the trucks were parked.

The entrance to the canyon was a two storey gap in the red rock, and once we got inside Marlene came alive, telling us how the canyon was carved out in flash floods and answering questions.

We moved through a pre-set series of stops, and at each stop Marlene pointed out the iconic picture to take, the settings on your phone which would suit the conditions and the best way to take shots. Ange had to remind me that this was the Photography tour.

The combination of the sun’s low position in the sky due to the early hour and the red rock made for some startling colour combinations, with gold merging with peach and deepening into the dark colours of bruise.

We chatted amongst ourselves about the best time to visit: come as early as we had and you avoided the crowds, but with the sun low in the sky you got more shadow and less light. While moodier pictures, you didn’t get all the details of the rock walls. Come later and the sun would be more overhead, so more light, but harder to get through and more people’s heads in your shot. Hard choice!

My favourite shot was of The Eye. Very cool. We weren’t in the right season for the famous sunbeams: you had to be in the Upper Canyon in Summer and we were there in October.

Marlene and the other guides were incredibly good at getting the guests out of each other’s shots and the focus on Photography meant that the guest’s aim of getting the best shots was shared with the guides. It was a bit unusual having such a singular shared purpose on a guided tour. Was very much appreciated though!

One section of the Canyon leant itself to couple’s portraits and Ange dutifully passed her phone to Marlene for her to take the shot of us posing. After taking the photo we moved off and Ange retrieved her phone to review the shot.

I wandered off to investigate the next area while Marlene worked her way through the group, taking photos of each couple or family group. After a while I worked my way back to the group and was immediately taken with the jovial mood of our group. Everyone seemed very happy all of a sudden.

Ange showed me our photos and somehow each of them (Marlene had taken a few shots) had us looking very grumpy. I think we had just flashed our smiles just after each shot was taken. Then Ange let me in on the joke. She’d gone up to who she thought was me, to say that we looked like a Victorian couple, only to discover she was addressing some other tall guy from a different group! Much hilarity!

We’d reached the end of the Canyon and Marlene made sure to get us good group shots at the entrance, doing a panoramic photo to capture the scale of the exit.

The Upper Canyon is a one way route and you exit by passing back on yourself and squeezing past the other groups coming in. The guides are good and instruct their groups to stay to the right allowing you a partial gap to get through.

Marlene has told us we couldn’t take photos on the way back (that would have definitely caused a traffic jam!) but that we could take a video, which explained the peculiar stream of people we’d seen exiting when we’d been in the Canyon. They’d looked like their phones were torches as they made their way like Indiana Jones through the darkness.

Sometimes we couldn’t get through the crowds because they were wandering around in a daze and a couple of times I came across the back of a group photo. Not wanting to spoil their shot I would duck down until they’d finished and then move forward, probably appearing in the background anyway: “hey Frank it looks like you’ve got four legs!”

We came out into the open, blinking a little at the sudden brightness, and joined our group. I headed over to have a chat with Marlene. You see while we had booked both the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon tours, we hadn’t organised transport between them.

I’d kind of hoped we’d be able to be dropped off at the entrance to the Upper Canyon and scamper across the highway and the short distance to the Ken’s Tours for the tour of the Lower Canyon. But… we hadn’t checked with anyone whether that would be ok.

Marlene looked a little surprised at the request and said it wouldn’t be possible – that they couldn’t drop anyone off. It sounded like it might have been an insurance liability issue. She said that she’d check with the Tours Office on the way along the river bed back to the carpark.

There would not be enough time to get a cab from town and make it back in time for our time slot. It looked like that money would be wasted and we wouldn’t be able to do both tours today. And if they were booked up today and tomorrow, then we wouldn’t be able to get into the Lower Canyon at all.

Bugger we thought, as we climbed onto the back of the truck. We made sure to change our seats so that we were closest to the exit – just in case!

On the way back I made peace with the situation. I briefly contemplated leaping off the back of the truck as we stopped to get onto the highway, but if there was no traffic to wait for it was possible for me to jump out and for Ange to be stuck on the truck. And I’m no gazelle, so best to hope the Tour Office came through for us.

We came to the car park and the truck didn’t slow or stop, so I had assumed we were out of luck. But then the truck stopped to wait for traffic to enter the highway. I looked at Ange and could tell she was thinking the same about jumping out anyway. And then Marlene got out and came to the back of the truck. The Tour Office had said as long as we didn’t get out on Reservation land, it would be ok. She made sure to tell us that we were no longer covered by their insurance as she lowered the steps and let us off the back.

I could have kissed her, but instead gave her the tip we would’ve given her anyway (really good guide – thoroughly recommended) and descended the steps. Ange soon followed and we bade our companions farewell and broke into a jog to cross the road. “Be careful” Marlene called out as she headed back into town.

Scamper

If it wasn’t for the fences, we could have gone straight to the low slung buildings which formed Ken’s Tours, instead we found ourselves going two sides of a triangle. I stayed in jogging mode – more of a staggering lope than any sort of athletic motion, but it ate up the distance and I turned to Ange and indicated that it looked likely we would make the time slot for our tour.

Cars drove past us to and from Ken’s, the occupants turning to each other in wonder at some weird couple jogging on the road in the middle of the desert. In the distance the power station sent steam up two of the three spouts. And in the distance as far as the horizon, tussocky plants and desert.

Lower Antelope Canyon

After high-fiving in relief at making it to Ken’s for the 10 am tour, it took us a little while to figure out what we were supposed to do. We figured out that you checked in at the ticket booth and they then gave you a letter and a number which represented your group/guide, and then you had a little time to wait. They had timed entrances to the outdoor waiting area so we headed down to wait under the awning for our time to enter the Canyon.

Our guide’s name was Ryan and he was a font of knowledge of the area, having been brought up in the area and having played in the Canyons before they became such a tourist attraction. His patter was appreciated as we had to wait quite a while for our turn.

He told us why: the entrance to the canyon was down a metal staircase – which we were forbidden to take photos on – and people could only move at the pace of the slowest member of their group. We were in a pretty strict order, so if we found ourselves surrounded by the group in front we should wait a bit for Ryan & Co to catch up and likewise if we fell behind we should speed up a bit.

There were guides down there operating to smooth out the gaps between the groups – getting people to speed up if they dropped behind too much. Ryan played a bit of the traditional flute while we waited – none of the other guides did that.

The Canyon was entered and exited by similarly steep metal staircases – unfortunately no other options for those with accessibility issues.

Up close you could really see the walls and how they were literally scoured by wind and flooding.

The light was a lot better in the Lower Canyon, but I couldn’t tell immediately whether that was because of the later hour or if the gap at the top of the Canyon was larger and let more light through.

After a brief corridor, the Lower Canyon opened out into a large cavern. Packed full of people. It was a holding pen and we were waiting there for the other groups to filter out and into the Canyon proper. The focus on getting shots pointing upwards meant there was a constant danger of people stepping back onto your foot, so I kept my wits about me and avoided most accidents.

The onward route consisted of yet another steep ladder going up this time as we changed elevations. Ryan amused us with stories of yesteryear when there were no stairs or steps and to get around you had to climb the rock.

As we continued I realized that the Lower Canyon was wider at the top and therefore there was more light getting in. This made for slightly less dramatic contrasts, but more golds and oranges.

With the wider top, there were even parts where the bright blue of the sky could be seen, and with more light the striations of the stone became more obvious, and the subtle shading more nuanced.

The Lower Canyon was a lot longer than the Upper, with a one way system rather than doubling back, which made the crowding a little less obvious and allowed more unfettered photo taking.

While it wasn’t specifically a Photography tour, Ryan was still very knowledgeable about how to get the best shots.

We learnt that when it rained there was a very high chance of flooding – after all, that is what the Canyon is – and how the run off from rain makes its way down to Lake Powell. The sandy soil doesn’t absorb much of the water and so the rest cascades down through the Canyon, cutting further into it and changing the contours.

I looked around and asked how high the water gets and Ryan shook his head, seeing that I didn’t get it. The whole thing is full when it floods he said. I link to a video towards the end of this section – it shows the view from the top of the Canyon during flooding. Very scary!

Ryan continued and said that there were only two ways in and out – the entrance and the exit. I looked at the crowds and offered the opinion that they wouldn’t all be able to get out in time and he nodded. That’s why we have emergency rope ladders hidden along the route he said. I’m guessing the guides would somehow scale the cliffs and then drop them down for the tourists…?

Humans are made to see patterns and so a lot of the rocks have names like “Bruce the Shark” because it looks a little like Bruce the Shark from Finding Nemo. Some of the rocks look only very vaguely like their names, but we did come across one very famous feature – The Lady in the Wind.

We’d been told that there was no chance of capturing the sun beams that made the Canyon’s famous because of the time of the year, so we were very excited when, towards the last part of the Canyon, we noticed the sun was catching the dust in the air just right.

And then we were out. Ryan took a few more photos with us, and was kind enough to lend us his phone so we could order a taxi back to Page.

This is the flooding that Ryan was talking about. I could see why anyone stuck in the Canyon when this came through would be in very big trouble. Don’t forget: this is the view from the top of the Canyon – the bottom of it is anywhere from 40-100 feet below this level.

Which Is Better? The Upper or Lower Antelope Canyon?

I get it – you may not have the time or money to do both, or you may not want to scamper across the highway because you don’t have a car. So which should you do?

Well, if you have any mobility issues at all the decision is made for you – do the Upper Canyon. The flatness of the Canyon floor means that you will be able to get around easily and apart from getting onto and out of the truck, you should be golden.

If you’re ok with mobility I guess we should talk about the timing. The most expensive photo ever was apparently Peter Lik’s Phantom. But this required both a lack of crowds as well as the sun and dust to behave themselves perfectly.

If you are visiting between March and October between 11:30am and 1:30pm, these are the times for the sunbeams, so because of that you might want to capture your own $6 million photo and do the Upper Canyon.

For the length of the tour and the general quality of the photos though, my choice would be the Lower Canyon. You just get much more for your money. Ange agreed – she reckons it’s more interesting, longer, more adventurous and with better photos.

Big John’s Texas BBQ

There’s one taxi in Page, and they can pretty much charge what they like. The car they used is a little beat up, so don’t expect too much. We got the driver to drop us off at Big John’s and although the outdoor area was not completely packed, we elected to sit inside away from the smoke of the streetside smokers.

I’m not a fan of beans but the baby-back ribs came with them as a side so, when in Rome… Ange’s pulled pork bun hit the spot but I was a little underwhelmed by my ribs, being used to them being cooked in a sauce.

It doesn’t mean I left any meat on them though! And there were plenty of condiments available for flavouring should I have decided to go that route.

We shared a portion of brownie topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce. Decadent!

We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the hotel room, catching up on emails and doing a little work. Before long it was time for dinner and of all the cuisines on offer, Ange chose Italian. I would have been happier with something closer to the hotel, but that was purely because of all the walking we’d done during the day.

Strombolli’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

We’d been in America long enough to realise that what they say about the portion sizes is true. Everything is huge and you can put on a lot of weight just by not adjusting your intake.

We decided we’d be smart about things and just order a couple of appetizers (while an entree in the rest of the world is the first part of the meal, in the US its the main event, so entree/main/dessert vs appetiser/entree/dessert).

One of the appetizers came with a whole side of spaghetti! The shrimp salad was a great effort at healthiness which meant we felt justified sharing a slice of New York cheesecake.

Day Two

We got up and checked out of the hotel, walking down the road to our new accommodation, the Travelodge by Wyndham. Understandably the room wasn’t ready yet so we dropped off our luggage and headed back up the main road. We stopped off at the Lower Antelope Canyon tour office where we’d left from the previous day and asked for them to call us a taxi.

We whiled away the time looking through the souvenir shop next door, and then the familiar sight of the taxi hoved into view. We arranged for him to take us to Horseshoe Bend and pick us up and hour later to take us back to town. We agreed a fare and away we went.

Horseshoe Bend

I like to think widely when considering how to get around, which sometimes leads to unwise situations (like the scamper between Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons), and I was glad when we had rejected the options of walking or biking to Horseshoe Bend instead opting for the taxi.

The desert stretched in every direction and the constant blaring sunshine meant that it would have been a hellish hour walking there.

A brand new carpark was nearing capacity with tourists milling around and after walking up the hill we were greeted with a snaking trail leading to the edge of the cliff.

Below the cliff the iconic view was truly stunning. More concerning were the hordes of tourists getting closer and closer to the edge for that perfect photo. It made us both uncomfortable just watching them. There was a small safety rail in the center, but nothing around the sides and the taxi driver had told us that there were always reports of tourists who had fallen over the edge.

After looking down I could see why any mishap would be fatal – there were no lips or other features in the cliff which would halt the fall to the bottom.

As we waited for the taxi driver to come back, we overheard a kerfuffle between a pair of tourists returning from the Bend and their tour bus driver.

Apparently he’d been pretty clear on how much time they had and they were fifteen minutes late. Rude. If they were on their way to the Canyon(s) the passengers were putting the whole bus’s experience at risk!

Glen Canyon Dam

We got the taxi driver to take us back to town, but this time to the scenic view point overlooking the Glen Canyon Dam. We were just up river from the Horseshoe Bend, and some boats puttered around down on the river.

Apparently there was a tunnel which went from the clifftop level all the way down to river side. We tried to make out where that might start or end but couldn’t figure it out.

Denny’s

The taxi driver had left us at the Scenic overview, so after we’d taken photos and seen everything we could, we headed back in the hot sun towards our hotel by foot. We stopped halfway at Denny’s for a bite to eat, but it was hard going!

But after that we headed through the local golf course. We stayed off the greens and keep an eye out for players, but there was no one else around silly enough to be out and about in the early afternoon sun.

We made sure to make a lot of noise to scare away any snakes that might have been hiding in the long grass near the sides of the greens, and I don’t know if we were successful in scaring them off or there just weren’t any around because we made it to the other side without seeing any.

After a long trek in such blazing hot sun it would have been nice to soak away the heat and dust in the hotel swimming pool, but unfortunately the pool at our hotel wasn’t in use. A pity.

Day Three

Contour Airlines

Our day started early, and after breakfast and checkout from the hotel, we walked the short trip to the airport. As we walked through the check-in counters I kept an eye out for Contour, our airline for our flight to Vegas. All the tour helicopter firms were well represented with large counters and I almost missed the Contour one, ticked away at the end.

We checked in and the lady behind the desk couldn’t be more friendly. She let us know that TSA was right beside us and that they’d open up in a bit.

Lo and behold the agents arrived and started setting up and before long we were going through what must be the nicest TSA checkpoint ever. The agents were respectful, communicative and friendly.

The seating on the other side was basic and would have only just accommodated a full flight. The fact that ours was only half full meant we had plenty of space. Certainly no lounges! It was amusing being so close and being able to see the land side seating area two feet away from us airside.

After the passengers had all come through, the TSA agents started to pack up their equipment and close the checkpoint. Not a lot of flights leave Page!

We walked across the tarmac to our plane, boarding via a ramp onto our Bombardier and settled into comfy chairs similar to business class on other planes. There weren’t a lot of seats and they were arranged 2-1, so I’d been referring to it as almost a private jet. And that’s pretty much what it was.

The customer service rep did a sterling job, very friendly and efficient but after going through with snacks there wasn’t much for her to do, surely one of the more cushy routes!

I spent most of the time staring out the window at the lakes and then the endless desert between Page and Las Vegas, perking up a little when I saw a sight seeing helicopter far below, chasing its own shadow across the wrinkle of a row of hills.

We were on the right side of the plane, so got the full sight of the Strip from Old Vegas all the way through to the Luxor as we came in to land. It was striking flying over the mountains after so much time over featureless desert to encounter a city, especially so much green standing out against the beige.

The post Visiting Page, Arizona: Antelope Canyon Highlight appeared first on etrip.tips.

Page is a town with a population of 7,500 and is over served with hotels for its size due to being the gateway to the Antelope Canyon and home of the Horseshoe Bend. The Clarion Inn is a Choice Hotels hotel at the top of the main road of Page.

We checked in after our taxi trip from the Grand Canyon Village and walked down the corridor to the room. Our room was the first on the left hand side of the corridor, and looked out onto the carpark in front of the hotel.

It was suitably sprawling with the sumptuously large bed squarely in the middle.

A table and chair sat beside the set of drawers that housed the TV.

In the corner of the room stood a fridge and microwave combination, making up somewhat for the lack of a restaurant in the building.

The bathroom sink sat outside of the bathroom, a quirky state of affairs we’d seen elsewhere, most recently in Glasgow. I guess it allowed guests to clean their teeth when their partner was using the facilities…

The toiletries were Institute Swiss.

The shower head had multiple settings allowing an undulating massage or the standard spray, or a combination of the two. The bath was fitted out with accessible rails to allow easier access and a chair for sitting in the shower while washing. The bath walls were lower than normal to aid getting in and out also.

While there wasn’t a full on restaurant, we were told that the bar did bar snacks, but we were keen for a good meal so headed out. The hotel was very close to the main road of Page which housed numerous restaurants covering the style spectrum from BBQ (Big John’s literally over the road), to Chinese buffet all the way through to Italian.

The room rate included breakfast, so we were up early the next morning to get fueled up for our visit to the Antelope Canyon. So it seemed was everyone else that staying there! It was a scrum, and the staff did an admirable job of keeping all the foodstuffs topped up – in particular the hot plates. There was a good selection, so definitively something for everybody!

We went a little later the second day and were able to get photos without dodging the crowds. What I liked about the first day mass feeding was that as the guests spilled over from the eating area into the surrounding bar area, there was a friendliness as strangers shared bar tables. The various foreign languages bounced around the room as people found seats.

Outside the pool went unused by us as we just didn’t have time. The sun beating down made it a temptation later in the day. According to the signs along the edge it wasn’t very deep, and more signs reinforced that no life guard was on duty, despite there being a life guard’s chair there.

Would I Return?

Absolutely! In fact we tried to when it came to extend our stay in Page by a day so that we could take the plane to Las Vegas (it didn’t fly every day), but it was booked out. A great combination of location, comfort and reasonable price.

The post Review: Clarion Inn, Page appeared first on etrip.tips.

The Plan

We planned and booked our trip to the USA a good nine months before we headed over and were comfortable that we’d done our research and had everything locked and loaded.

Imagine our surprise when, four days before we were supposed to be getting a bus from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Village we got an email stating that the route was being discontinued.

I was understandably was a bit miffed so asked when they decided that the route wouldn’t be run anymore and they came back that they had stopped running it for about a month. And of course then I got another email stating that the Grand Canyon to Page service was also unavailable.

We jumped onto the internet and soon found that a different firm ran a service from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Village (and was cheaper as well), so that wasn’t the end of the world. Booked, paid for, done!

What we couldn’t find was a service from Grand Canyon Village to Page. We’re talking October, so shoulder season where the Summer rush has died down but before the possible closures due to snow and ice that comes with Winter.

Options

Let’s talk about our options.

Rental

Renting a car wasn’t a solution as we couldn’t drive in the US. Plus we’d need the car for three hours – not even a whole day, and a one way trip, so it would cost more.

Train

No trains go into or near Page, so that wasn’t a solution. While there is a train line into GC, it goes south to Williams, so it isn’t going to feature in the solution.

Plane/Helicopter

The distance between GC and Page is too small for any commercial flights to go there, but too far for one of the sight seeing helicopters to take us there from GC Airport. Looking at the organised helicopter sightseeing tours, the cost of a charter flight would be a little on the high side.

The cheapest flight I could find was $170 per person for 25 mins. It’s 75 miles from Grand Canyon Airport to Page Airport, and if you had to pay for the helicopter to get there and back, that would probably take an hour, so let’s say double the sightseeing duration and therefore double the rate.

So maybe $680 if you could actually get someone to agree to take you. There might be insurance issues. Who knows? $700 was a little steep (even if it did come with aerial views of the Canyon!). So steep that I didn’t even ring any of the tour companies to see how far off my estimates were.

Boat

There’s no commercial boat service from GC to Page, and we would have to find our way with luggage to the Colorado River – while it is down hill all the way, it’s not really an option.

Bus

What about a bus part of the way? We did find a bus that would take us to Marble Canyon for $80 each, leaving at 1:30pm and arriving at 4:00pm. But how to get from Marble Canyon to Page?

It didn’t seem that far on the map, and if you took away the road part it was a straight line to Page via the river. Surely you’d be able to get a boat to take you down river? It turns out there is a giant dam blocking the river at Page, and sheer cliffs to scale in order to get to the city.

They do have a taxi service in Page though, so I thought as a backup plan we could get two tickets on the bus and ring in advance for a cab to be waiting at Marble Canyon. So maybe $200 all up. Better than $700.

With that in mind we knew that the only way of checking alternatives would be while we were at GC, so we stopped worrying about it and resolved to have a look at alternatives when we were in country.

Other

The only three other options we hadn’t considered thus far were hitchhiking, Uber and taxi.

Hitchhiking we ruled out immediately becuase of safety concerns.

Uber turned out to be a waste of time as there were no drivers anywhere near the village when we turned it on, which left taxi.

We grabbed a taxi to our Lodge when we arrived at GC and got talking to the driver. He was up for it if he could borrow his flatmate’s car. He would check when he got back after his shift and let us know that night (we were looking at travelling to Page the following day). If not though, he’d ask at work and see if any of the other drivers wanted to do it.

It put my mind at ease that someone would want the fare, which made it possible to enjoy the day. When we got back in the evening, Taliesin (the driver) rang and let us know that he’d managed to secure his flatmate’s car, and we were all set for tomorrow. We arranged a pick up time and then I asked him how much he was thinking for the trip.

He said that he would leave it up to me to pay what I thought was right. He’d need a minimum for gas but that after that he’d leave it to me. I thanked him and did some research.

Price

As a benchmark I checked a taxifare finder site on the web and plugged in the destination and origin addresses. It came up with an Uber price of $220 and Lyft of $230.

I then checked how long the trip was going to be, and how long we’d need his services. Turns out it’s 130 miles and should take about 2.5 hours to drive. Doubling both meant that we’d be using gas for 260 miles and using up 5 hours of Tamiesin’s time. Gas prices were about $4 per gallon and at 30 miles per gallon means that we’d be using about 9 gallons of gas costing about $36. Let’s call it $40.

Then I checked for hourly rates for taxi drivers. Apparently they fell into a range from $12 to $17 per hour. Rounding that up to $20 per hour, it looked like the 5 hours should cost us $100. Adding a 20% tip, meant that we’d be looking at $120 plus $40 for the gas or $160 in total. That felt about right against the backup plans we had and the hypothetical Uber costs.

We discussed whether we should be concerned from a safety point of view with getting into what was effectively a stranger’s car. I was ok with it for a number of reasons: Tamiesin had said that he’d discussed the situation with the people at work (who of course all had an opinion on what he should charge!), so therefore if two tourists bodies showed up, or two tourists were reported missing, then he’d surely be the prime candidate. Also the Yavapai had security cameras, so there’d be a record of us getting into his car. But I agreed that you couldn’t be too careful, so we sent a friend of ours the details of the trip.

The Trip

Tamiesin managed to get off work a little earlier than expected and tracked us down lounging in the sun out the front of the Lodge. We grabbed our luggage and carefully placed it into the boot of the car.

Desert View Tower

I fully expected Tamiesin to head south, through the Tusayan (pronounced the same way as Tucson, confusingly) township where the airport was, but he instead headed east. He explained that this way we wouldn’t have to go south only to go north – we wouldn’t be doubling back on ourselves.

He asked if we’d been able to get to this end of the south rim, to which we said that no – we’d only really done the west part. He then suggested that maybe we’d like a brief stop at the Desert View Tower. I looked at Ange and she said sure, so we said why not?

Tamiesin gave us a hint to have a look at the special mirrors for a unique look out over the Canyon. Thanking him for the insight we set off at a lope to cover the short distance from the car park to the Tower. It was free entry and we checked it all out, making the sprint up to the top of the tower in long strides, thankful that we hadn’t gone any further down into the Canyon!

A smattering of photos later we were heading back to the car park to be picked up. While we queued in the car at the exit a bunch of deer lurched out of the underbrush from one side of the road to the other. Cool.

Cameron

On the way to Cameron, Tamiesin apologised. We were passing very picturesque sights north across the Canyon, but as this was reservation land, so stopping would invite attention from the locals and maybe the reservation police. Not something he was interested in, especially with a borrowed car.

We were fine with that and confined ourselves to looking in wonder over the Canyon. The local tribes had set up stalls at the best viewing positions and there were frequently cars parked there with tourists buying some of the locally produced goods and taking photos.

Before long we were in Cameron, a collection of gas stations, fast food joints and truck stops where we paused for Tamiesin to get a taco and what looked like a bucket of soda from McDonalds. And then we were out on the highway.

Conversation

We had a good chat in the hours of the trip – we found out about Tamiesin’s background and hopes for the future and while we didn’t agree on everything, conversation never got heated and we were all respectful of each other’s point of view.

The road north to Page passed through the start of the Painted Desert. This was our first exposure to the sort of landscape we could expect in the Antelope Canyon. We’d later see it featured in the Breaking Bad movie El Camino, where Jesse helps bury Todd’s housekeeper.

Right on schedule we found ourselves pulling into the Clarion Inn in Page, dusk just falling. We’d made good time and as we paid Tamiesin I looked closely to make sure he was OK with how much I was paying him. He looked happy enough, so I figured I’d done well with my estimations.

As we shook hands I joked and said thanks for not killing us and leaving us in a shallow grave. He smiled and said the same. I guess there were two of us! If you ever need a taxi in the Grand Canyon Village, look him up (there aren’t that many people with his name!) – and if you pay him enough he might show you a side of the Grand Canyon that only a local would know.

The post Roadtrip: Grand Canyon to Page appeared first on etrip.tips.

The National Park Service runs shuttle buses to and from population centres near the Grand Canyon: joining places like Flagstaff, Page and Las Vegas with both the North and South Rim of the Canyon. We’d therefore booked tickets from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon and Grand Canyon to Page using them.

About four days before travel we got an email stating that they’d decided to stop running those routes, sorry! Fortunately we found an alternate provider from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon and just had to figure out the Grand Canyon to Page leg.

Day Zero

The shuttle dropped us off outside Maswik Lodge and the driver pointed out where the local shuttle bus stop was. He noted our luggage and mentioned that they might not take us with that. When the bus did show up we could see why – it was jam packed. We popped inside the Maswik Lodge instead and got the guy at the Transportation counter to call us a taxi.

The taxi driver seemed nice enough and I asked him whether he’d be interested in taking us to Page the following day. He checked what time we wanted to go and said that he’d check with his flatmate to see if he could borrow their car and get back to us.

Even if he couldn’t do it he’d check with his co-workers to see if someone else would want to do it. He gave me his phone number so we could connect later in the evening and dropped us off at our hotel.

After checking in and getting settled into our room, we headed over to the General Store, the local supermarket. It was an impressive size and seemed to sell pretty much everything. It was good to know that if we didn’t like the restaurant at Yavapai that we could head over and get something from the Store.

We then headed over the road and caught one of the shuttle buses, trying to time our trip so we could catch the sunset. There were two routes (ok, three with the green one), independent except where they transferred at the head of the Bright Angel Trail.

The bus drivers are good and coordinate their routes. This means that the blue route (our bus), which serves the township, typically pulls up to the transfer station to find a red route bus waiting at the transfer point ready to take visitors to the western viewpoints.

Backcountry Information Centre

Before transferring over to the red bus we stopped off at the Information Centre. We knew that we wanted to go down into the Canyon the next day – just a taster, nothing serious, just to get a feel for it. Ange suggested and I readily agreed that we should know what we were in for so we headed to the Centre to find out what we needed to know.

They have a whole bunch of info-graphics and maps and such, and I’m idly wandering by and see the one categorizing the deaths of those in the Canyon. Apparently the people who die in the canyon are predominantly male (check), 40-50 (…ok) and die while tramping (hmmm…).

There is also a counter with a couple of park rangers there to answer questions, so we wander over to say hi. We tell them that we want a taster of the trail, maybe a mile or two in and then back. They explain that the lateral distance isn’t what gets you – it’s the elevation. One of the Rangers says that it takes twice as long to get up as it does to go down, so if it takes us an hour to get to the Lower Tunnel say, then it would take two hours to get back.

We look at the maps and elevation charts and say that the Lower Tunnel at a mile sounds good – and if we’re feeling good, we can keep going. The look of relief on the Ranger’s face is funny – I think that they must get a lot of people wanting to do more than what their abilities can support and that must be frustrating.

After all if someone asked me if I could walk 10 miles I would say yes. If they asked how long that would take I’d be inclined to say maybe 4 hours. And that would be fine, and accurate, on the flat.

Sunset

The red route bus stops at every stop on the way west but only three stops on the way back, so it’s a good idea to know where you want to go and how to get there.

We wasted too much time going to the western-most end of the route before doubling back to other spots – my fault. The Hermit’s Rest stop is truly the most unscenic spot on the whole South Rim!

I thought being at the western end of the rim would be the place to be but was proven very wrong – the secret is to get to the promontories and watch the light playing on the Canyon walls as the sun sets.

There really are no words for describing the Canyon. Pictures try to capture it and fail. It’s an amazing… phenomena. There’s no other word for it – you can try using “vista” or something similar, but the hugeness, the vastness, the sheer enormity of it escapes description.

When we get back to the room, we get a phone call from our taxi driver saying that he’d managed to borrow his room mates car and that he could come and pick us up at 3pm the next day to take us to Page. I asked him how much he would charge us. He said he’d leave that up to me, that I was a good guy and would come up with a number that was fair. As long as he had something to cover gas as a minimum.

Day One

Trek

After a decent breakfast and packing a little backpack with a couple of bottles of water (dehydration was the single biggest cause of hiking death) and a few snacks, we headed out, getting to the head of the trail at 10 am.

Ten minutes into the trail I turned to Ange and raised my eyebrows. She knew what I meant. I’m used to a certain level of Health and Safety. A banister when there is some danger. Yellow tape warning of edges, that sort of thing.

This was a dusty, stony path, maybe a metre and a half (four to five feet) in width with a sheer, guaranteed death inducing drop on one side with no guardrail, warning tape or anything else preventing a plummet to your absolutely inevitable death. A slip on fine sand, gravel, a loose stone or a mistimed overtaking manoeuvre could have serious consequences.

The funniest part of that realisation was who we were sharing the trail with. A family blew past us, a mother and father with a baby in a back rack accompanied with four children, surefooted as goats.

Runners came up the trail, dressed in only shorts and shoes, making more speed than I could going down hill flat out, one so heavily tattooed I was convinced he was wearing a shirt until he came alongside me. Sooo fit.

We kept to the uphill side of the path and pulled over to let people pass us – we weren’t in any sort of rush and were taking in the splendour of the view, and enjoyed the workout. The trail was still in the shade as the sun wasn’t high enough to blast us just yet.

Before long we’d come to the Upper Tunnel, having come down a surprisingly steep bit of the path, but without the switchbacks which featured later.

Below us in the distance we could see where the path lead along a flat outcrop to Plateau Point. The path split well before that section and headed down to the right down a gully to the bottom of the Canyon and the Colorado River. I imagined that the view of the river would be spectacular from Plateau Point though.

About 10:45am we made it to the Lower Tunnel. There was a bit of a traffic jam of people so we waited a bit for the others to move on before taking some photos.

As we rested a Japanese lady with trekking poles, a floppy hat, face mask and sun glasses asked if I’d take a photo of her in the Tunnel. I smiled and said sure, though under all that protection it’d be hard to tell who it was! We chatted a bit – she had been on a three day hike from the North Rim to the South, camping at the river and doing some rafting. She must have been about our age and was moving incredibly well for someone who was nearing the end of a three day hike up and down such inclines!

It actually felt better going uphill. Harder on the legs, but I guess more familiar and therefore less dangerous. Or maybe too, that all the other uphill traffic had been going for longer and were more tired than us so we were passing more people? For whatever reason, we saw a lot more wildlife on the way up.

About 12:00pm we arrived at the top, more or less about right for a 40-45 minute descent. We felt really good – our legs weren’t too sore, we’d had a good work out and felt like we’d accomplished something.

I was talking to my brother much later. He and his wife had freedom camped in the forest near the head of the trail, headed down to the bottom campsite starting before dawn, slept on a single mat under the stars and then headed back, again starting well before dawn. I shuddered to think of the possible missteps, but I guessed if the moon was out that would have been enough light. Fitter and younger! Good on them!

South Rim Trail

We weren’t going to be picked up until 3pm, so had plenty of time to kill. We decided to walk along the rim for a bit and see the view overlooking the trail we’d just done.

A wedding party were getting their photos done overlooking the Canyon – talk about a destination wedding! One of the other passengers in the shuttle from Flagstaff had talked about coming to the Canyon for a wedding, so we figured it must have been this one. We couldn’t see her in the wedding party so she must have just been a guest.

Down below we could see just how overlooked by the rim trail we were when we were down on the Bright Angel Trail. And I could see what the signs meant that we’d seen which had said “Throwing Rocks Kill Trampers”.

And that was the Grand Canyon. We made our way back to a bus stop and got the red route bus back to the transfer point, transferred to the blue route, got back to the hotel and waited for our pickup. And then we were on our way to Page!

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