4 states within 6 days
It's no secret that a well-planned trip
gives you the best value for your buck. Last thanksgiving break I visited four
states without breaking the bank with one of my friends. The travel plan I am
going to share with you will take minimum of 6 days and you will be able
to visit several breathtaking destinations during that short time. Yes, we
didn't have the chance to stay several days in one place and explore deeply.. However,
if you are planning your next travel trip to one of the destinations that I
visited during the last thanksgiving break, this post will give you some useful
tips. Add more days and stops along the way and make it a longer more relaxed
trip if your schedule allows.
Here’s the itinerary of our trip
- Tuesday – MCI to LAS
- Wednesday – Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon Tour in Arizona
- Thursday – Bus trip to Salt Lake City, UT
- Friday – Exploring Salt Lake City
- Saturday – Amtrack ride to Denver Colorado
- Sunday- Rocky Mountains National Park
- Monday- DEN to MCI
If you are curious about how we came up with this route, here's how it all started.
We decided we wanted to take a scenic
train ride to somewhere in America but couldn't really settle with one
destination. Me and my friend haven’t visited Las Vegas and Colorado so the adventurous side in us urged us to visit both these places and link the destinations with a train ride. Next challenge was
to choose the best train route that operates between these two states.
As we were looking into train routes operated by Amtrack, we found that Southwest Chief and California Zephyr are our
best options. Eventhough Southwest Chief train ride operates directly though Las Vegas and Denver , California Zephyr train ride does not have a stop in Vegas. However, we found out that the California Zephyr train goes through Salt Lake City, UT daily at 3:30 am.
As we were not planning to drive during this trip, we looked into connecting Gray Hound buses and luckily we found out a bus that operates between Vegas and Salt Lake City. In other words, taking this train meant that we had to take a connecting 9 hour long Gray Hound bus ride at 8 am on Thursday morning from Vegas to Salt Lake City, UT in order to keep up with our schedule. Thus, we decided to add Salt Lake City as one of our stops along the way to relax, explore and soak in the beauty of the charming Salt Lake City.
As we were not planning to drive during this trip, we looked into connecting Gray Hound buses and luckily we found out a bus that operates between Vegas and Salt Lake City. In other words, taking this train meant that we had to take a connecting 9 hour long Gray Hound bus ride at 8 am on Thursday morning from Vegas to Salt Lake City, UT in order to keep up with our schedule. Thus, we decided to add Salt Lake City as one of our stops along the way to relax, explore and soak in the beauty of the charming Salt Lake City.
You might be curious as to why we preferred
California Zephyr even though we had to go through a longer more time-consuming
route. Firstly, California Zephyr is known as one of the most scenic train
rides in North America. Secondly, we realized it will be a great chance for us
to explore another city, SLC. Flying to Vegas from Kansas City and coming back from Denver, CO back to Kansas City was the budget friendly option at that time due to the ticket prices. Now that I have already taken this route, I can assure that you won't regret taking the route I am suggesting in this post.
In my next series of posts I will share more about what we enjoyed at each stop including all about the Grand Canyon tour and the Rocky Mountains National Park tour. Comment and let me know if you are planning to travel or already traveled to any of these places I have mentioned in my post..
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