Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Places to Visit in Arizona (& Where to Use Points): Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Sedona, Flagstaff

• Raya & Duane

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In this episode, we're diving into some of the best places to visit in Arizona. Whether you're planning a road trip or just a weekend getaway, we’ve got you covered with four amazing destinations, all within a five-hour drive from Phoenix. From the iconic Grand Canyon to the hidden gems in Flagstaff and Sedona, we’ll show you how to explore the stunning scenery and enjoy family-friendly activities in these unforgettable locations.

First, we take you to the Grand Canyon, a true bucket-list destination and one of the most famous places to visit in Arizona. With breathtaking views and plenty of spots to explore, it's perfect for a day trip or an overnight stay. We'll share tips on where to stay, including options you can book with points, and some of the best experiences for families visiting this natural wonder.

Next, we head to Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell. Discover how you can paddleboard through serene waters or take a guided tour through the stunning canyon formations. Antelope Canyon is one of the most unique places to visit in Arizona, and we’ll give you all the details on how to make the most of your time there, including must-see spots like Horseshoe Bend.

Our third stop is Flagstaff, an ideal destination for families who want to escape the desert heat. With cooler temperatures, outdoor activities, and plenty of family-friendly attractions, Flagstaff is one of the best places to visit in Arizona during summer or winter. From skiing in the winter months to hiking in the summer, it’s a year-round destination worth checking out.

Finally, we wrap up our tour in Sedona, known for its famous red rocks and vibrant energy. This is one of the most popular places to visit in Arizona for a reason! We’ll talk about exploring the area’s unique hiking trails, experiencing the Pink Jeep Tours, and soaking in the beauty of this high-desert oasis. Sedona is perfect for day trips or a longer stay, especially if you’re looking to relax and connect with nature.

Along the way, we’ll share tips on how to book your stays using points and miles, making family travel more affordable than ever. Whether you're planning to visit during the warm summer months or looking for cooler escapes in the high desert, this episode will guide you through some of the most incredible places to visit in Arizona.

If you’re ready to explore Arizona beyond Phoenix, tune in to this episode to discover the best spots to visit, how to make the most of your time, and where to stay using points to maximize your travel budget. Don’t miss our pro tips on lodging, outdoor adventures, and family-friendly activities in Arizona’s most beautiful locations. PLUS we share an ideal 7-10 day itinerary at the end of the episode!



Speaker 1:

If you've had Arizona on your must visit list. In today's episode we are sharing four popular towns in Arizona that are all within five hours of Phoenix and will truly show you the beauty of Arizona outside of the city. Listen in. Hi, I'm Rhea.

Speaker 2:

And.

Speaker 1:

I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip hello, welcome back to today's episode on travel party.

Speaker 1:

Five thanks for tuning in. We appreciate you. We just had a incredibly dramatic saga where one of our microphones broke and I was very frustrated because it's not that old and and it was a whole thing. Fortunately we have a backup microphone which Duane is using today, so hopefully there are no audio issues, but if there are, we apologize.

Speaker 2:

Yes, sorry in advance.

Speaker 1:

So today we're going to be doing kind of like a second part to our Visit Arizona series and we're going to be sharing four places to visit in Arizona that are pretty popular destinations. They're all within five hours or less of Phoenix and these are all within Arizona. So there are other like places you can go to within Arizona I mean, I'm sorry, that are within five hours of Phoenix, that are outside of Arizona, like San Diego or Las Vegas or Palm Springs. We're not talking about those today, we are purposely staying inside of Arizona, and so those four main places are going to be the Grand Canyon, which obviously Lake Powell slash, antelope Canyon, flagstaff and Sedona.

Speaker 2:

Yes, all really beautiful places.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and we also have as a little bonus a few little towns that you can do day trips to from Sedona, or really Flagstaff too.

Speaker 2:

We're going to tell you where you can stay on points at each of these locations and some activities you can do, mostly based on personal experience. I also want to mention that this is not an inclusive list. There are a lot of other places to visit as well, but these are the ones that give you the most bang for your buck.

Speaker 1:

And will give you a true feeling of Arizona, I feel like, because if you're just staying in Phoenix, you're not getting it in my opinion. Do you agree?

Speaker 1:

agree 100 okay, so let's dive right in. Um number one Grand Canyon. I feel like this is on everyone's top bucket list. It's one of the seven wonders of the world, and the south rim is about a three and a half hour drive from the Phoenix area. You can do this in a day trip. It's just a long day, and I have done this in a day trip probably at least four times, because whenever people come to visit, they always want to see the Grand Canyon.

Speaker 2:

I just want to add that I've lived here for 25 years and the first time I went to the Grand Canyon was what? Two years ago.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

What did you think?

Speaker 2:

I thought it was beautiful. Definitely see why it's one of the seven wonders.

Speaker 1:

Yes, Okay, so I can't remember if I said this, but the south rim of the Grand Canyon is what is close to Phoenix, and by close I mean again three and a half hours. So there's also the north rim. It's basically on the other side and obviously you can't drive through it, so that's much farther away. So everything we're going to talk about is at the south rim. If you don't want to do it in one day, then you can stay overnight. There's a little town. There's a few hotel options and some stores and restaurants. There is a Holiday Inn Express that you can stay at, which is IHG, so you can use IHG points to book that.

Speaker 1:

I have stayed there once. It was fine. It's exactly what you would expect from a Holiday Inn. But you know they do the free breakfast and all that. If you want something a little more unique but also a little more expensive whether we're talking points or cash there is also glamping. Okay, now, we have not done this yet, but I'm super excited about this option as a kind of once in a while thing. So I don't even know if you know this, but Hyatt recently purchased a brand called Under Canvas, and I don't even fully know what to call it, but their website calls it a quote, luxury outdoor resort brand, so we'll go with that. Basically it is like glamping aka tents, but think like luxury tents with bathrooms, hot showers, king-size beds, the whole shebang.

Speaker 2:

Actually, I did know that because we found out at the same time. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1:

I mean what do you like? Would you go stay in a tent?

Speaker 2:

I mean yeah first of all, I'm not a camper, so that's not me. But I would give glamping a try.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think I mean okay, so let me give you a little more info. So they I think they have like 11 locations around the US. Most of them are all near national parks, so think Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite Zion, etc. And I like I might consider this when we go to Yellowstone. But for the one in the Grand Canyon specifically, I looked it up for a family of five, or I think you could even do a family of six for this room or tent, I guess. Okay, listen to this description.

Speaker 1:

This is the suite with kids tent, like that's what it's called. So it's 360 square feet plus 147 square feet, so I think the suite is 360. Then there's also a kid's tent, which is 147. It sleeps up to four adults only and up to two kids under 18 years old. As a side note, if you search for two adults and three kids, there are no options available via points, so what you have to do is search for like four, and then there's even a note that says like add a note if you have more than two kids. So it is a private covered deck with furniture, raised canvas tents with hardwood flooring, natural tones and handcrafted furnishings. Raised canvas tents with hardwood flooring, natural tones and handcrafted furnishings king size bed, adjacent kids tent with twin beds, living area with a queen size sofa bed and wood burning stove, Plus private intent bathroom with a pull chain, shower and flushing toilet. Battery packs to charge your devices, fans, lanterns and organic essential oils devices, fans, lanterns and organic essential oils, bath products.

Speaker 2:

I wonder if everything's solar powered.

Speaker 1:

I don't know, but so the cost for this suite was 44,000 Hyatt points a night. I was looking for next August just to get a good like idea of what it would be. At what I think is peak time. They do dynamic pricing so they don't follow the typical Hyatt award chart, and so your points cost could vary daily. This was just one date that I checked.

Speaker 2:

So there's no category for this place.

Speaker 1:

No, I don't think so. Similar to, like the Mr and Mrs Smith properties, their points cost is based on whatever the cash price is. But here's the kind of thing that sucks a little bit is this is not a good redemption points wise, because the cash rate for this exact suite on the same exact date was $540. So I would pay cash because that's not a good like 44,000 points you should be getting.

Speaker 2:

At least two nights somewhere, right.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, or like a room that costs more than $800, I think. So I would probably pay cash to do that, because we value our Chase and Hyatt points a lot, but obviously do whatever works for you. If you know using the points is the only way you can swing it and you really want to stay there, then that's what you should do. The other thing about these under canvas, or about the under canvas brand, is I'm pretty sure all of their locations are seasonal, or at least most of them are so. Specifically for the Grand Canyon one, they are open April 16th through October 27th, and that's 2025 dates.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I. I would assume it's just be too cold. Yeah, I think it's too cold, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And the other thing that I thought was cool is it is a dark sky resort, which means you can see the stars. They, you know, limit the the lighting that they have so that you can see the stars. They have coffee on tap. It said 24-7 on the website. I don't know why you need coffee 24 hours a day, but whatever. And they have a restaurant. They also have free nightly fires and s'mores and live music, morning yoga, kids activities, and I believe that those are all included. So definitely on our list to stay at soon.

Speaker 2:

Those are some nice touches for free free.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think like when can you know? I don't know, this is how you camp with kids when you're not campers. In my opinion, the kids would love it. Okay, let's jump on to, or jump into, the second location, which is Antelope Canyon.

Speaker 2:

Antelope Canyon.

Speaker 1:

Slash Lake Powell. So you and I have been here, and I've also been here with my friends.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you've been what Three times now.

Speaker 1:

Total yes, three times. So pro tip. There's a Mexican restaurant called El Tapatio in Page, arizona, and you should eat there. But let's back up. So some things to do in the Antelope Canyon Lake Powell area. Number one Horseshoe Bend is very popular. That is like if you've seen the photo where it literally looks like a horseshoe and there's these big mountains and like the horseshoe is the river, that's Horseshoe Bend. I would recommend it. There's actually two different ways that you can see it, depending on. I would recommend it. There's actually two different ways that you can see it, depending on how adventurous you are. So you can visit from the top. You literally park and just walk over and you can see it, or you can kayak or paddle the Colorado River like around it, and so I've done both last time you went, did you go to Horseshoe Bend?

Speaker 2:

yes, like the top we went to the top and we paddled it oh yeah, so the last time I went they were building like a viewing deck, is that?

Speaker 1:

yes, that's done now, yeah, how's that? It was fine. So I mean the it was just it's crazy because the first time that I went there, I think, was 2015. Yeah, there's like no railings.

Speaker 1:

That's when you were there. You were there too. Yeah, there was no railings. You just parked in a parking lot and you walked across like a very long sandy, I don't know area. It was pretty long and it was just sand, like it felt like you were walking on the beach, and then you just got to the top or to the edge and there was no railing.

Speaker 1:

There's nothing keeping you from going over the edge, and we had our two-year-old with us yes actually you know what I'm sorry he wasn't two, because we had the second one by then he was like three and a half or four, almost four I think. So, yeah, imagine just being at the edge of this cliff with a four-year-old with nothing keeping him from going over the edge. That was terrifying. But yes, now there's like a viewing platform. I think you even have to pay money to park now, like, I'm pretty sure I don't, yeah, so, anyways, if okay, but I'm going to tell you if you want to paddle horseshoe bend, I'm going to tell you exactly how to do it, because it was really cool and I would recommend it.

Speaker 1:

So if you're going to paddle horseshoe bend, you should not stay in Page, which is the town near Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell. You should stay in Lee's Ferry, which is about 45 minutes to an hour from Page. We stayed at the Lee's Ferry Lodge. We stayed there for two nights. You could do one. The reason is you have to leave fairly or you want to leave fairly early to do this, and you know driving back and forth just takes a lot of time. So it's where we stayed, which was the Lee's Ferry Lodge. You cannot book it on points, but it was fairly affordable, it was clean, it was fine and they had beautiful views, and we were only 10 minutes from the launch at Lee's Ferry.

Speaker 1:

Lee's Ferry is a town, like a very small town, so to do the paddle boarding or the kayaking, you first have to hire a ferry to back haul you up the Colorado River. So you start at Lee's Ferry and then they'll drive you all the way up to the Glen Canyon Dam, which is about 15 miles from the start, or they can also drop you at like the 10 mile mark if you don't want to do the whole 15 miles. The company that we used was called Kayak Horseshoe Bend and our driver was great. I'm pretty sure it was like $80 a person for the ferry, but it's the only way that you can do it. You cannot drive there Like there's no other option.

Speaker 2:

Did you do the 15 miles or the 10 miles?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we did the 15 miles, so we got all went all the way to the as far as you can go, and then you, they drop you off on like a little sandy area and then you just get on your paddleboard or in your kayak and you float back down and I think the river on average goes around three miles an hour.

Speaker 1:

So I mean you go, but it's not super fast and it's also very cold. The water is pulled from the bottom of Lake Powell and so it's like it's very cold. You also can pack in camping gear because there's a few campsites like along the river so you can have the boat haul you up with your camping gear and you can stop at one of these campsites and spend the night. It's first come, first serve. They're free, but you know you have to get there early and we did not choose to do that. The other thing that's cool is you can stop and see petroglyphs along the way, like our ferry driver told us, all the recommended stops and markers and all that fun stuff. So yeah, I think it took four to six hours to do.

Speaker 2:

And the petro glyphs were pretty cool right they were cool.

Speaker 1:

Like they're smaller than you expect them to be, so it's maybe a five minute walk from like you. You park your paddleboard, you get off and you do a little hike. They're just, they're small, but I mean it's crazy to know how old they are. You, you know. Like when you look at it, you're like, wow, so are they cool? Yes, are they small Also? Yes, I also would recommend, if you're staying in the Lee's Ferry area there's not a lot there, but the Cliff Dwellers Lodge, which is another place you can stay. As a side note, I just haven't stayed there so I don't know, but they had a restaurant and it was very good, so would recommend eating there for dinner.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that was a little tangent. If you want to do Horseshoe Bend, that's how you should do it. But if you just want to visit Antelope Canyon, you also have two options. So one you can book a tour with a guide, and this is what we did. Yes, so you, in order to go into antelope canyon, like from the ground, you have to have a permit, and the only people that can get permits are the guides, who are like it's on native land. You have to be native in order to get a permit is how I understand it. So we used Ken's Tours, which is a pretty popular one. I can link it in the show notes probably Basically, you climb down a ladder into the ground and then you're in the canyon.

Speaker 2:

Yes, very beautiful canyon.

Speaker 1:

Stunning.

Speaker 2:

Our tour guide on my ad was really good at the tour he took our cameras. He took a lot of pictures, really great pictures.

Speaker 1:

At one point he threw some sand on this thing that I don't know. It's hard to describe. Yeah, so that in the photo there, was sand trickling down.

Speaker 2:

It was actually really cool.

Speaker 1:

It looked really cool, yeah, so that is like, if you're crunched on time, that is probably what I would recommend to see Antelope Canyon. The other way, which is a little cheaper but takes more time, is you can paddleboard or kayak into the canyon from Lake Powell and I've actually done this two different times and you don't need a permit to do it. This way it is cool. Paddle boarding on Lake Powell is hard, but once you get into the canyon because it's choppy, but once you get into the canyon it's very calm and it's beautiful. If you're deciding between one, I would probably do the guided tour because I think that you get a better like canyon experience, if that makes sense. Like when you paddle in, you're not fully enclosed, whereas when you do the guided tour, you literally climb down into the ground and, like when you look up, you really can't see the sky yeah, I'm want to add like you drive up to this place and it really doesn't look like there's anything there and then you go, like down this ladder into these canyons yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And then from there you're, are you're amazed by what it looks like down there?

Speaker 1:

you know, yeah, if you've seen like the photos of, like the, the wind I don't know if it's wind or water, but it's like I can't even describe it you know what? Go, google it, unless you're driving, and then google it later if you haven't seen it, do it um, so yes.

Speaker 1:

So if you, if you're trying to choose one, I would probably do the guided tour, but if you're looking for adventure, then it is fun to paddleboard in. You're just not going to get the full experience because basically, you, you paddleboard in and you get to a point where you can't anymore. And that point I will add changes depending on the water levels. Like, one year we went, the water levels were very low and so we were walking for a while. The second year we went, which was was that last year, 2023?

Speaker 1:

Yes, I think so it might have been 2022. It doesn't matter, though. We were still floating on our paddle boards in a spot where we had been walking the prior time. So, at some point, though, the water will end and you will park your paddle board, and then you get out and you can hike back, and you can hike back, honestly, as long as you want, but you need to be cognizant of the time. You also need to check the weather, because this area is known for flash floods, and I can assure you that you do not want to be stuck in the canyon during a flash flood, because you would probably die, yep you definitely don't want that.

Speaker 1:

So keep an eye on the weather, but super fun experience either way. And then, on the note of Lake Powell, you can also just go to Lake Powell for the day and rent a boat or I don't know hang out and enjoy the lake. So the water is cold, but that would be a good time as well. As far as where to stay in Page, and if you're doing Antelope Canyon or Lake Powell, you will want to stay in Page. The only exception would be is if you're paddling Horseshoe Bend, then you want to stay in Lees Ferry. But for anything else, if you're just going to look at Horseshoe Bend from the top, which you can also do, you want to stay in Page. There's a ton of points options.

Speaker 1:

We have stayed at a Wingate by Wyndham which you could use Wyndham points at. That's where we stayed when we went with my parents. And then the other place I stayed is there's a Hyatt Place, and the Hyatt Place is in a beautiful location. It has beautiful views and that's I would stay at the Hyatt Place if we were going to go again. It was a very nice Hyatt Place. They had a really nice bar. It was cool. And I mean there's other points options too, but those are the two that I've stayed at. Both were fine. I would do the Hyatt Place again. You want to talk about our next spot?

Speaker 2:

Yes, Sedona. We've been there multiple times. It's famous for the Red Rock. It's also famous for the only mcdonald's that doesn't have a yellow arch yes, it's green.

Speaker 1:

What's funny is duane hasn't read the whole script. I don't think, but that's in here oh, do we have a script? Well, it's not like a script, it's like an outline and I had that on there, um.

Speaker 2:

But yes, that's true but yes, yeah, um this, if you come to arizona, everyone always goes to sedona. Um, yes, it's one of the probably the most visited place in arizona. Yeah, um, again, you can do jeep tours, hiking. Um, it's famous for vortexes and things of that nature it's like general yoga hippie crystal vibes. Yes, crystals, that's what I was going to say next.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, also it's worth noting that if you're doing the Grand Canyon in one day, you could stop at Sedona on your way back and like kind of knock out both. You won't have a ton of time to spend there, but you'll be able to see it at least, you know, have dinner or something.

Speaker 2:

You'll be able to see it. At least you know, have dinner or something, yeah, we did a pink Jeep tour. Yes, One year I thought it was pretty cool On that tour, the guy the guy was showing us where lightning has struck the rocks. Do you remember that?

Speaker 1:

I do not remember that.

Speaker 2:

You don't remember that?

Speaker 1:

No, but I was pregnant when we went, like newly pregnant, and I was so nauseous as a side note, I don't think you're supposed to go on these tours when you're pregnant, but like it's very bumpy. Yeah, it's really bumpy, but it was fine. I what? What did it look like where it hit the rocks?

Speaker 2:

um, it just looked like this little like purple, purple perfect circle, like a burnt perfect, oh you know, I do kind of remember that.

Speaker 1:

Actually, I also remember Okay, I don't know if this is true. This blew my mind when he said it and I haven't been able to find any corroborating evidence that this is true. Tell me if you remember this. He said that I'm going to butcher the timeframe here, but maybe it was a thousand years ago. Arizona wasn't a desert, it was like a, a lush. Uh had lush landscape with like trees and a lot of water and stuff, and that in another thousand years it's going to go back to that. And I thought what do you think that's like?

Speaker 2:

I don't remember him saying that.

Speaker 1:

I just remember I was like I'm sorry, like that blew my mind. I'm going to assume that that was incorrect, but I also don't know why he would say it if it wasn't true. So some other things to do in Sedona are you said Pink Jeep Tour? You can visit the vortexes. You can like hike to them. We actually haven't done that, but I would love to. They have a lot of like crystal shops and little you know hippie type vibes. And then they also have Slide Rock State Park, which is super fun with kids in the summer. I would recommend getting there early. But the reason that it's called Slide Rock is there is basically like water has formed these rocks into a kind of naturally made water slide. It's not super long but it is fun yeah, definitely great time for the kids, yeah also good for a day trip and it is, it gets packed

Speaker 1:

it does get packed. You want to get there early or you won't get in because they close where to stay in Sedona? So a couple of options. There is a Hyatt Residence Club property which you can book on points. It's called Pinion Point and this is not like a Hyatt hotel, it's actually a timeshare property. But you can use Hyatt points, like I said, and you can also use free night certificates, like the one to four category ones. They don't honor any globalist benefits, so you're not going to get free breakfast or anything like that, but it does have a good location. There's also a residence in Sedona and a tribute portfolio hotel which are both Marriott properties. You can book with Marriott points. And if you want a luxury stay, the place to stay in sedona is called lobeige. You cannot book it with points. You can only pay cash. It is not cheap, but it is like where famous people stay when they go there.

Speaker 2:

So if you're splurging, that's like down in, like the valley right. Yeah, it's like right by.

Speaker 1:

It's like right next to the river. Um, the next thing on my outline was about the mcdonald's. Duane stole my thunder, but well, let me explain why I was going to talk about the mcdonald's. So sedona has a ton of super strict building codes and rules and that's why there's not as many hotel options as there are in other cities. It's also pretty small, like sedona is not big, and I was going to say fun fact, sedona has the only McDonald's in the world with turquoise arches and it's because they wanted to like, blend in with the land and the, the surroundings.

Speaker 2:

They didn't want a big yellow arch.

Speaker 1:

Well, that like, yes, like, basically like, sedona was like. Our building codes are so strict and rules are so strict that even McDonald's cannot have yellow arches here and I mean, I don't think you can build over like three floors, right something like that. Yeah, like there's nothing high there which makes sense, because it would totally block the view of the mountains.

Speaker 2:

So they also have. I don't know if you put it on here, but they have Snoopy rock which, from one point from one, if you're looking at it from a certain place, it looks like Snoopy laying down in a bed like sleeping yes, I did not put that on here, so it's your second fun fact for Sedona.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so from Sedona there are two day trips that you could take, and one of them is called a little town called Jerome. Jerome used to be a mining town and it's basically like this little historic town built into the side of a mountain. It's known to be haunted. They have lots of ghost tours. So if you're going in the fall especially, I think that would be super fun to do a ghost tour, like right around Halloween. But book in advance because they do sell out, cause we tried to do one when we were there and I think we were there in October and we couldn't. There was no availability. Yeah, this would also be a good lunch stop If you're doing a day, a day trip. Um, we have eaten at the haunted hamburger and it was fine, really good views, because it's up like on a, on a hill on the side of a mountain oh, everything on the town is on the side of a mountain.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they also have an old bordello which is it's still called the bordello of jerome, except now it's a restaurant. I think that would be a super fun place to go, except if you have kids with you and they can read. Maybe not, because the menu is very suggestive, I think. So keep that in mind.

Speaker 2:

We didn't go there right? No, we didn't.

Speaker 1:

No, the other day trip you can do from Sedona is Cottonwood. Cottonwood, I would say, is a little bit up and coming in Arizona in terms of tourism, and so it's on the Verde Valley Wine Trail and it's most well known for wineries, so I would go there and visit a few wineries. They also have a state park that's called Dead Horse Ranch State Park. You can go hiking there. If your kids need to run around, that would be a good spot. The other thing you can go hiking there if your kids need to run around. That would be a good spot. The other thing you can do are there dead horses?

Speaker 1:

that's how it got its name is like. There was, like my understanding is, a dad and his kids were visiting these parks and there was a dead horse on the side of the road at one of them, and later he asked his kids which one did you like best? And they said the one with the dead horse. So that's how it got its name.

Speaker 1:

The other thing that you can do in the Cottonwood area is the Verde Canyon Railroad. So if you or your kid is into trains, this is like a four hour train ride that goes from Clarkdale to Perkinsville and back on the Verde Canyon Railroad. This is a historic route. You have beautiful views from the train. You don't ever leave the train, so you're on the train the whole time and it runs through like a protected corridor at the edge of a river and you can see like these towering red rocks. You go near ancient indian ruins and I think it would be a cool way to see some of the foliage and stuff in the fall. And fun fact, isn't this what we have a gift certificate to do yes, we have tickets for this.

Speaker 2:

Well, a gift certificate, yes, we need to book it and there are different types of train rides. I know there's like a chocolate train ride the lady was telling me you can do a train ride at night. Yeah, comes with a bar, fully stocked bar in there. They give you like a charcuterie board to start? Yeah, so yes, we definitely need to book it.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we do, because we've been saving it, because we wanted to go in the fall to see the leaves. So we will probably do a whole episode on that once we do it and we will report back. Okay, the last of our four is Flagstaff and as a side note I probably should have said this in the beginning I'm going to give you like how I would do a full seven to 10 day Arizona road trip and exactly the order I would do this in at the end. So if you need an itinerary, it's coming. Okay, flagstaff Skiing in the winter, hiking in the summer.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's up in the mountains, so it's not Phoenix. Yes, it's green, there's trees everywhere.

Speaker 1:

It's beautiful, beautiful it's not the desert not the desert yeah, flagstaff has a lot of breweries. Um, they have also the lowell observatory, which fun fact if you or your kids are into astronomy. This is the very spot where they first spotted the dwarf planet Pluto.

Speaker 2:

What about Uranus?

Speaker 1:

Oh, my god, bless your heart and soul. Did you know that it's Uranus?

Speaker 2:

No, I'm talking about Uranus.

Speaker 1:

Oh my god, I'm just sorry to everyone that's listening.

Speaker 2:

Yes, the first time I spotted Uranus was in Tempe. Arizona.

Speaker 1:

You got to cut that out. We can't say that, okay, also from Flagstaff you can also do a couple of day trips, and so we've got Williams, which is west of Flagstaff, and then we've got Meteor Crater, which is east. So let's do Williams first.

Speaker 2:

So, yes, we went to Williams to experience the Polar Express. Yes, or, as my kid called it, the Kohler Express. Obviously, you do it in the wintertime. It's like the Polar Express you jump on a train, the kids are in jammies. Um, you get to see santa claus from the train. What else, yeah?

Speaker 1:

they have cookies and hot chocolate um, it's really fun. And then they drive you to like santa's village.

Speaker 2:

It's um younger kids will love it.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, younger kids will love it. Yeah, but santa's village is interesting yes we are gonna go this year for the second time because first time we went, we only had one one kid right. Or did we have two, doesn't matter, only one kid went I think it was just one kid, yeah, yeah, and now we're getting to the point where our younger two haven't done it and so we're gonna do it again this year. We have it booked already. Um, the other thing williams has is barizona. Do you want to talk about our?

Speaker 2:

barizona, definitely put this on your list. It's basically a zoo that you drive into and you stay in your car. Yeah, when we went, we went during COVID. It was a perfect trip during COVID.

Speaker 1:

We literally drove up and back in the same day. So, we didn't have to like stay anywhere, obviously, but we had to get out of the house Like the kids were going crazy.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and they loved it. I mean, I loved it.

Speaker 1:

It was really fun.

Speaker 2:

Yes, at the time we went, there was a bear trying to get into the back of this guy's truck.

Speaker 1:

It was pretty hilarious like our kids, still remember it to this day yes, it was pretty funny so yes, would recommend, super fun yeah, I mean they have all types of bears.

Speaker 2:

Uh, did they have buffalo?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I think so. Yeah, bison or something, yeah bison wolves yeah yeah it was it was a good time. Definitely definitely recommend that yep, and then on the other side of flagstaff we have meteor crater, which is kind of near winslow. So you know, standing on the corner of winslow, arizona, you can go there and do that too.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Meteor Crater is. This was another COVID trip we did actually, so let me explain what it is in case you don't know. It is a bowl shaped pit that is 600 feet deep that was created by a large meteorite. The meteorite is thought to have hit the earth at a speed of 29,000 miles per hour and released an energy equivalent of 10 megatons of TNT, and the impact vaporized most of the meteorite and left behind a crater that is 4,000 feet in diameter.

Speaker 2:

It's huge.

Speaker 1:

It is huge and astronauts literally have trained here to prepare for exploring the moon. So you can go there. You can see the crater itself. They have a little visitor center with some other activities. And what's cool is we have since been to the natural history museums in both New York City and Washington DC and both of those museums have pictures of Meteor Crater as part of their exhibits.

Speaker 2:

And it's been so fun because our kids are always like, hey, we've been there.

Speaker 1:

Definitely put that on your list. Yes, especially if you're like into astronomy and meteors and stuff, you can do theell observatory and flagstaff. You can drive to meteor crater. You can also, if you want to make this like a long day trip from flagstaff, you can also continue on after meteor crater about another hour and visit the petrified national forest, so that's like best known for Triassic fossils and the Painted Desert. So that is there too. Yeah, I mean, we've actually never been there?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we've never been there.

Speaker 1:

In Flagstaff. Where I would stay is the Hyatt Place Flagstaff. That's where we stay every time. You can book it with points. It's not super cheap. We were there earlier this year. We're going to go there in December. That's where we will stay when we do the Polar Express, but there's also a lot of other options in Flagstaff, including like Holiday Inn, Marriott, etc. What is the name of the haunted hotel? Do you remember?

Speaker 2:

In Jerome.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no in Flagstaff, Remember we went in and we were like trying to go up in the elevator.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no, that was Jerome. It was yes.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no, that was Jerome, it was.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that was the Hotel Jerome, but there is also a haunted Hotel in.

Speaker 1:

Flagstaff yes.

Speaker 2:

Let me look it up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, the one in Flagstaff is the Hotel Monte Vista, and so that is, in theory, haunted. So if that's your thing, go check it out. Have you seen that on your ghost show that you watch?

Speaker 2:

I have actually Both places. Both of them yes.

Speaker 1:

We didn't see any ghosts, which was a bummer.

Speaker 2:

No, I went around snapping pictures trying to get something.

Speaker 1:

That's what we were doing. Yeah, no ghosts in the photos sadly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay. So we did Grand Canyon, we did Antelope Canyon, slash Lake Powell, which is Page, where you should Page is where you should stay. We did Sedona and we did Flagstaff. So if you wanted to combine all of these places into like a seven to 10 day road trip, this is how I would do it. So I would fly into Phoenix and then I would immediately drive to Sedona, which is about two hours. Obviously, you're going to rent a car for this road trip and I would spend two to three days in Sedona. I would visit a Vortex, I would do a pink Jeep tour and I would take one or two day trips, like we mentioned, to Jerome and Cottonwood. I would visit some wineries. I would, you know, check out Jerome as well and, you know, if you're short on time, you could do both of those in one day.

Speaker 1:

It would be a long day, but it would be a long day, yeah, and you probably couldn't do the railroad, but you could do, I think, everything else. Like just don't drink and drive. If you're doing wineries, obviously, um, and then I would drive to page and I would spend a day there. I would visit Antelope Canyon. I would do the guided tour to save on time, and then I would also see Horseshoe Bend from the top. If you have more than seven days, I would totally paddle Horseshoe Bend. That was just like a highlight for me. And I would add a night in Lee's Ferry. If you're going to do that, then I would drive to the Grand Canyon. I would stay overnight. I would see the park. You can drive through and stop at all the different lookouts, have lunch. They have a restaurant in the park and sometimes you can eat there and look out in the. Are they elk? That will come out. They just roam the grass there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I don't know if they're elk, but yes, something.

Speaker 1:

They also have a book that you can get in the Grand Canyon about all the people that have died at the Grand Canyon, which I find fascinating because it's incredibly sad, but when you go there you'll understand why. Because there are no railings anywhere, so, like when we take our kids, they have to be either strapped to us or like they're not allowed to let go of our hand, because it's, as a parent, slightly terrifying.

Speaker 2:

And it's massive.

Speaker 1:

Yes, huge. Ok. So one day in the Grand Canyon and then I would do one to two nights in Flagstaff and I would do Meteor, crater or Williams or both, depending on what your interests are. Then I would drive back to Phoenix and I would spend one or two days in Scottsdale. I would enjoy the pool at my hotel, some good restaurants and relax a bit after all the road tripping and maybe hiking that you just did. And that's what I would do.

Speaker 1:

I like to save the relaxing for the end, so when you leave you truly feel refreshed. You know when you're going back to the grind. One more tip I have before we wrap up this episode is the way that I would plan a trip like this, or any trip where I need to look at where things are on a map. Logistically is super simple. I literally put all the locations that I want to visit into Google Maps on a desktop and then you can easily drag and drop them and find out which like route makes the most sense geographically. So that is how I do for every trip, and just a little tip from me to you. And that is all we have today in our Visit Arizona series, part two.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so if you're looking to come to AZ, hopefully this will help you decide.

Speaker 1:

It really is a beautiful, beautiful state and there's a lot to see here just not in the summertime. Well, no, no, actually I would do this trip in the summer, because you're you're leaving phoenix true, true and then you're. You know the time you have in scottsdale it'll be warm, but you're just gonna hang by the pool it'll be hot okay, yes, it'll be hot.

Speaker 1:

Um, if you are coming to phoenix, send us a message on instagram. At travel party of five would love to give you some tips and restaurants and all that fun stuff. Um, if you are so inclined and you found this podcast helpful, we would really love and appreciate a review or a rating, depending on where you're listening. That helps more people find our podcast and we appreciate you so much yes, thank you so much thank you, catch you on the next one have a good one bye.