Adventure Tours

Grand Canyon South Rim Bus Tour $129.00 US

2005-10-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

Thanks to paradisefoundtours.com you can see the Grand Canyon South Rim in style and comfort for $129.00 US. Join us on the most popular tour from Las Vegas, to visit, the South Rim Grand Canyon National Park. This fun filled, same day round trip bus tour is the best of it's kind.

Don't just travel. Travel well, travel in style, in our comfortable new Deluxe Touring Coaches with on board RESTROOMS, LARGE CUSTOM WINDOWS, CLIMATE CONTROLLED AIR CONDITIONED, RECLINING SEATS, REMOVABLE ARM RESTS, INDIVIDUAL FOOT RESTS, VCR MONITORS for documentary movies and such, and more leg room than most airline coach seating. We leave nothing to chance when it comes to your safety and comfort.

Our driver/guides are the cream of the crop; they will entertain and inform you as you travel to the Grand Canyon. They are true professionals who love what they do. From the time we pick you up at your Las Vegas hotel to the time we return you, our service, commitment and value is like no other.

Our tour begins with a drive from Las Vegas to Hoover Dam. We will cross over the dam to the Arizona side for a brief photo opportunity. Make sure you bring your camera for shots of the Dam, Lake Mead, and the Colorado River. As we continue on check out fortification hill (built to protect the dam during world war two). Travel through the habitat of the big horn sheep, Black Canyon. Learn about the Pioneer Indian Wars, early Spanish Conquistadors, the Missionaries, Mountain Men, Explorers and Settlers.

Our next stop is a stretch and smoke stop in Kingman, Arizona. Pick up a snack, beverage, or a souvenir. From Kingman you will travel to Williams, Arizona. Home to the Grand Canyon Railway a National Register of Historic Places. In addition to having Lunch, which is included, you will have time at the gift shop or to browse the railway museum or depot.

After lunch we will take you inside the Grand Canyon National Park stopping at the new state of the art visitor center (offering information on all aspects of the grand Canyon), Mather Point (the deepest part of the canyon), Yavapai Point (the widest part of the canyon), and Bright Angel Point (the most panoramic). Additional free time to browse Bright Angel Lodge, it's gift shops, museum, and snack shop. This is the hub of activities at the Grand Canyon Historic Village district area. You are a short walk to Hopi House, the Indian art museum and gift shop. All our stops provide time for exploring and photographing.

On our return trip to Las Vegas we will again make a rest, stretch and snack and smoke stop in Kingman before traveling to and across Hoover Dam, arriving in Las Vegas at about 8:45 PM.

Tour Pick Up: Approximately 6:30 AM - Your exact pick up time and location will be provided at the time of booking or via e-mail.

Tour Length: Return to Las Vegas at about 8:45 PM - Approx 14 hours (hotel to hotel).

WAKE UP CALL: Please provide us with your room number when you call us to reconfirm after you arrive in Las Vegas.

Tour Features:
The following is a list of features that this tour includes.

Free hotel pickup and drop off
Deluxe Motor Coaches equipped with Restrooms, VCR's, deluxe seating, Air Conditioned, Large Custom Windows and more
Professional Driver/ Guide
Lunch at the Grand Canyon Railway
Hoover Dam Photo Stop (Stretch the legs)
Guided Grand Canyon Rim Tour with stops at the deepest, widest and most panoramic view points
Grand Canyon Visitor Center stop and time to browse, shop and take photos at each stop
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Tour Length: 14 Hours: From Hotel Pickup to Hotel Drop off
Transportation: Motorcoach
Days Available: Daily
Departure Times: 6:30 AM
Child Price (12 and under): $129.99 US
Hotel Pickup: Complimentary pick-up service available from most Las Vegas hotels. Please advise pick-up hotel at time of booking.
Additional Details: Return to Las Vegas at about 8:45 PM.
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Your guaranteed all-inclusive price
is $129.99 US per adult!
no taxes and no additional fees or surcharges.

Click here to reserve now!

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Other valuable resources

Valuable Links:
Grand Canyon Tours
Las Vegas Tours
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Greetings from the Flamingo Hotel Las Vegas

2005-07-31T20:00:00.000-07:00

In the past, I've stayed at Mandalay Bay and the Mirage. I was a little leery of the Flamingo. I shouldn't have been. It an older property, and not as nice as the others, but is still fine -- and much cheaper. The rooms are reasonably large, the beds are comfortable, there's a good sized closet and a good sized safe, and the location is ideal. It also has a very nice pool. On the down side, it's somewhat worn around the edges; I wouldn't want to walk barefoot on the carpeting in the room. The restaurants are nothing special, and the casino is just fair, but it's easy enough to leave the hotel for food and gambling. I checked in at the airport, and tried the $20 trick. Either it worked, or I live right. I got a strip view room on the 22nd floor (22104). Directly facing me was Caesars Palace, to the right was The Mirage, and to the left was Bellagio and its lake. In the distance was The Rio Hotel, as well as a beautiful mountain backdrop. Look down and you could see Las Vegas Boulevard. Perfect!

Wynn Las Vegas. I didn't stay at the Wynn, just visited. There have already been a number of detailed reviews. I'll just say that it's not revolutionary; it didn't blow me away. However, it's probably the nicest hotel on the strip, incrementally better that the others. On opening day, I got to walk through several of the restaurants, and the night club La Bite, as well as the shops and casino. I visited three other times, and eaten there twice. I also purchased some ridiculously overpriced but delicious chocolates at one of their shops. I like the airy feeling of the hotel, the casino is open and easy to navigate, I must be one of the few who liked Le Reve, and my initial impression of the restaurants is that they're top notch (although I have a lot more eating to do before I'll know for sure). When I stay there in September, I'll see what the rooms and pool are like.

Food ---- This trip was solo, so I ate most of my meals alone. It takes a little getting used to, but Las Vegas is an especially comfortable place for singles. I'd feel comfortable eating by myself even at most of the top dining spots. Sometimes a table for one is a good choice; sometimes there's a bar which serves the complete menu.

Delmonico Steakhouse. One of the high end steak houses, it's located in the Venetian. I ate dinner at the bar, where a full menu is available. Overall the meal was very good: very good foie gras; an excellent bone-in rib eye steak with three sauces (béarnaise, A-OK [like a fancy version of A-1], and a third sauce that I liked but can't remember anything about); bananas Foster ice cream pie that was good but not to die for. A number of wines are available by the glass.

Okada. Here comes a long winded review. This Japanese restaurant and sushi bar is in Wynn Las Vegas. I got there at opening time the first night it opened (April 28). No tables were available, but I snagged what turned out to be a prime spot at the sushi bar. I've eaten sushi for over thirty years, and have tried many of the top spots in Vegas. Okada has the potential to be the best. The quality of their sushi is top notch, and the prices aren't too bad. In fact, some prices are below those at places like Shintaro or Hyakumi. In particular, they had o-toro at $8/piece. When I last went, Shintaro charged $25/piece, and Hyakumi charged about the same. Other memorable items: uni/sea urchin (very firm and fresh); unagi/eel (not just warm, but ever so slightly crisp); tamago/egg (not one of my favorite types of sushi, but quite good here); o-toro/tuna belly sashimi (great flavor and texture, melt-in-your-mouth); hamachi/yellowtail (very rich and flavorful); awabi?/abalone (two pieces, each with a different flavoring); ama-ebi/raw shrimp (great flavor, but they don't serve the heads as tempura). The sushi chefs were also excellent. Somehow or other, the man who appeared to be head chef recognized me. He had been a sushi chef at Shintaro before moving to Okada, and knew me from there. However, there was one major flaw. When I was seated, I was informed by the waitress that I must order each piece of sushi from her. The sushi chefs were apologetic, but confirmed this rule. This was a disaster in the making. Not only does it tend to spoil the interaction between customer and chef, but it slowed orders down to a crawl. Fortunately, after a couple of painful rounds of ordering, the chefs saw what was happening and ignored the rule. After that, I had a great time. I'm sending a letter to Wynn Las Vegas urging them to change the rule.

Hyakumi. Located in Caesars Palace. Prior to Okada, it was my favorite sushi bar in Las Vegas. As good as ever. Order ama-ebi/raw shrimp, and as a bonus they prepare the shrimp heads as tempura. It sounds weird, but it's delicious. They also had ankimo - kind of a pate made out of monkfish liver. Also delicious! Ankimo isn't always available, and I don't know if it's on the menu; just ask for it.

Shibuya. MGM Grand. Japanese restaurant and sushi bar. Looks nice, but the sushi bar gets a failing grade because you must order from the waiter (see my comments on Okada). At least partially due to that, the atmosphere is sterile, even though the sushi is good. It might be better to get a table at this restaurant.

Michael Mina. At the Bellagio, this restaurant emphasizes seafood, but has other good choices as well. I ate at the bar; it's a pretty friendly spot if you're eating by yourself, and a full menu is available. I tried the seasonal tasting menu (pricey at a bit over $100) and the accompanying wine pairings (pricier still at $80 or $85). Picasso is better, and no more expensive, but I still enjoyed myself. The meal included hamachi tartare; lobster salad; (third course that I can't remember); kobe beef, foie gras and lobster mashed potatoes; trio of desserts, including an improbable but excellent sasparilla float. Excellent meal.

Bouchon. I had breakfast here. It's more formal than most breakfast spots, but is very bright and cheerful - a good place for a leisurely meal. French Toast Bouchon style is like sweet bread pudding, with apples. I had heard wonderful things about it, and was a bit disappointed. It was good, but not memorable. However, given the nice atmosphere, I'd be inclined to return and try something else.

Wynn Buffet for Breakfast. I'm not a big fan of buffets, but was curious. I tried out the breakfast buffet the day Wynn opened. The restaurant is pretty, and tables are spaced nicely apart. Service was friendly; coffee came quickly. There's a varied selection of food. What I tried was good, including: muffin; some sort of smoked fish; two Chinese dishes that I had never heard of before (one with beef, the other I forget); a type of link sausage. The omelet station looked good, there was a lot of fruit and pastries available, as well as Mexican dishes. All in all, pretty good. I haven't eaten at any of the other top buffets, and thus can't offer any comparisons.

Aloha Kitchen. This is a couple of miles off the strip, not too far from UNLV. There are a couple of other locations as well. It caters to the large local Hawaiian community. A typical meal is the mix plate, consisting of a large amount of white rice, a scoop of macaroni salad, and one or more items such as kalua pork, chicken katsu, and pork lau lau. Spam is also a mainstay (spam sushi!), or try the loco moco (bed of rice, hamburger patty, fried egg, and a big ladle of brown gravy). Health food lovers need not apply. Their food is cheap and filling. I like it a lot.

Carnegie Deli. At The Mirage. The new kid on the block, it's a branch of a New York deli. It should have stayed in New York. Their sandwiches consist of two regular size pieces of rye bread, with what must be a pound of deli inside. Large bamboo skewers hold everything together. If that's not big enough, you can order the Woody Allen, which combines corned beef and roast beef for an even bigger sandwich. You don't pick up the sandwich, you lift off the bread and use a fork. Sounds good so far, but the corned beef was only fair; same for the pastrami. At breakfast, I tried the matzobrei, pancake style. It was just an omelet with a little matzo thrown in - very disappointing. Their menu doesn't even mention sour cream as an option – you have to ask for it.

Rosemary's. This is way off the strip - perhaps a 20 or 25 minute ride. After hearing so many good things about it, I had to give it a try. Well…it was worth it. To save money, order from the prix fixe menu (available only at lunch). It includes an appetizer, main course, and dessert, for $20. A la carte is much more expensive. I had Hugo's Texas BBQ Shrimp and Maytag Bleu Cheese Cole Slaw (sounds weird, tastes great), grilled mahi mahi, and goat cheese cheesecake. The food is served in large portions and is very rich. Oh yes, this is another place where I ate at the bar, and felt quite comfortable.

Lotus of Siam. Lotus of Siam has a reputation as an excellent Thai restaurant. It deserves its reputation. There are numerous reviews out on the Internet. My observations: (1) reviewers warn against the buffet, which is standard Chinese. From what I saw, I'll second that view. Order interesting Thai food from the menu. (2) I had Nam Kao Tod (minced sour sausage mixed with green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanut, and lots of crispy rice); charbroiled catfish; sticky rice with mango. It was a lot of food, and everything was very good. (3) The address is on Sahara Avenue. However, that's the BACK of the restaurant. Don't run away in horror; instead, drive around to the other side. It turns out to be a shopping mall, with the entrance to Lotus of Siam.

China Grill. At Mandalay Bay. There are two things of note here. First is the size of their salads. I ordered Peking Duck Caesar Salad; my companion ordered plain Caesar Salad. The waiter warned us that the salads were very large, and that one was more than enough for two people. When we told him that we were ordering no main course, just the salad for dinner, he paused and then said that might be OK. The pause should have warned us. These salads are obscenely large. They're served on dinner plates, piled so high that it's impossible to transfer some to your plate without causing a landslide (saladslide?) that ends on the table. I'm a big eater, and finished less than half…but it was very good. The second item of note is the bathrooms. Think translucent glass, music and LCD monitors - in the stalls.

Jean-Philippe Petisserie. This was opened as part of Bellagio's new Spa Tower expansion. Their pastries are wonderful - both beautiful and delicious. I can vouch for the cheesecake in white chocolate, Chocobana (chocolate mousse, caramelized bananas, dark chocolate cremeux, hazelnut dough), Opera (chocolate ganache, coffee butter cream, almond biscuit, espresso syrup), and the Pecan Tart (pecan caramel, espresso cream, pecan buttercream, hazelnut dough). The gelato was good, but not in the same league as the pastries.

Activities ---------- Hiking. I love to walk and take day hikes, but am not a dyed-in-the-wool hiker. At the end of the day, I want to go back to an air-conditioned hotel room. I also have no sense of direction whatsoever, and can get lost in an elevator with two sets of doors. Having said that, hiking is one of the highlights of my Vegas trips. Go to Red Rock Canyon, about 30 - 45 minutes west of Las Vegas. It's beautiful, and there are trails for all skill and fitness levels. I highly recommend a guide name Neil Sobelson, sole proprietor of Hike This! His web site is http://www.hikethislasvegas.com/. He specializes in customized hikes. That's right, for just you, or the two of you, or your group of friends. He'll ask about your interests and physical condition, and will tailor a hike to meet your needs. I've gone with Neil twice for hiking, and once for rock scrambling (see below), and have always had a great time. Warning: it can get HOT; hiking in the sun when it's even 80 degrees can be brutal. March and April are usually good; May can be hot, so hike early in the morning. In any case, make sure to take tons of water. For a half day hike, take a minimum of two quarts of water, or more if it's hot.

Rock Climbing. You know, with ropes and harnesses and all that good stuff. This was my second time doing rock climbing. My first time was an introduction with no more than 30 minutes actual climbing time. This would be a full day, with hours of climbing. Rock climbing is strenuous, scary, and incredibly exciting - and this from someone who was afraid of heights not too long ago. I highly recommend it, but make sure to get a good instructor. I used American Alpine Institute (http://aai.cc/). My instructor was Jason Martin. He was very good, spending lots of time on basics and on safety. He also put me through the wringer, which is what I wanted. I was able to complete some climbs, but not others; by the time I cried uncle, my arms were trembling so much I had trouble controlling them. I got to find out just how much I could do. I can't wait to go back. A note about trembling arms: this is an indication I was dong things all wrong; “use your legs, not your arms”. I've heard from more than one person that women, who have less upper body strength than men, usually learn faster than men – presumably because they have less opportunity to do things the wrong way.

Rock Scrambling. This is half way between hiking and rock climbing. It involves climbing over and around rocks/boulders that are anywhere from a foot tall to ten or more feet tall. No ropes, just arms and legs. My guide was Neil Sobelson of Hike This! (see hiking, above). Again, Neil is highly recommended. This doesn't take too much skill, mostly just good balance and a lot of care. However, it does take good leg strength and lots of stamina. This was my first time, and I think I'm hooked.

Kayaking. Boulder City Outfitters (http://www.bouldercityoutfitters.com/) offers a guided kayak tour of the Colorado River in Black Canyon, below Hoover Dam. The government limits kayak permits to 30 people per day, with no motorboats allowed on weekends. It's beautiful, great fun, and beginners are welcome. However, be warned that it's a very strenuous trip. Yes, it's downstream, but it still requires continuous paddling for eleven miles, it takes most of the day, and there may be a headwind.

Walking The Strip. I love to walk The Strip. There's a different feeling at different times of day. To me, it seems that the porn slappers were a little less aggressive than last year – or maybe I've just gotten used to them.

Shows ----- Penn & Teller. If you've ever seen them on TV, you know what to expect. Nonetheless, good fun. Arrive early, and you'll be invited to get up on the stage and examine a couple of large boxes they use in their show.

We Will Rock You. The music is good, but the dialog ranges from annoying to downright embarrassing. If you can mentally filter out everything but the songs, you'll do fine. I couldn't.

Ka. This is one of the Cirque de Soleil shows. I'm not sure if this was good. I say “not sure” because I was exhausted from rock climbing that day, and repeatedly fell asleep. I even dreamt, combining rock climbing with the show. Talk about bizarre dreams! However, I liked most of the parts of the show that I saw. It was just a little bit too dreamlike for someone in my sleepy condition. The stage moves, not just up and down, but it rotates, and tilts all the way to vertical. I don't want to give away anything, but the final scene is dramatic.

Le Reve. The new show at Wynn Las Vegas. It's water based, with a circular stage so that all seats are center. I've seen mixed reviews, but it was my favorite show. Yes, it's similar to Cirque shows, but it's very well done, and the theater feels intimate.

George Carlin. He's back from rehab, and ready to offend everyone. I liked him a lot, but be prepared for very caustic humor.

Nighttime --------- The Bar at Times Square. Located in New York New York, this is one of those dueling piano type of bars. It might have been the first in Vegas, although now they're all over the place. It's loud, crowded, commercial, and corny – and a lot of fun! If you get there before 8pm, there's no cover charge. Get there later, and you not only pay, but may have to wait in line.

Gambling -------- I'm not much of a gambler, but I decided to try craps this trip. I knew the theory, but not the practice. My observations: Many casinos offer free craps lessons. If you know the theory, it isn't really necessary to take a class, but I found it made me feel more comfortable. The dealers were invariably friendly, and glad to offer help to newbies. There are a million kinds of bets, but it's very easy if you start with the simplest bet (basically, that the shooter will win). That bet also has a small enough house percentage that you'll probably be able to play awhile before losing all of your money. Craps is fun - especially because I won big. Well, given my bet size, big means enough for a nice dinner, but it sure beats losing. Uh-oh, I think I'm hooked. This could get expensive next time! I checked out many of the larger hotels on The Strip. Table minimums are usually around $10. Sometimes you can find $5 minimums, and sometimes $15 is the lowest. Wynn Las Vegas had one $10 minimum table on opening day. The Flamingo sometimes had $5 tables, but sometimes $10 was the minimum. I've read that there are lower minimums in some of the smaller places, like Casino Royale, but didn't check them out.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Other valuable resources

Valuable Links:
Fun Grand Canyon Tours
Fun Las Vegas Tours
Fun Hoover Dam Tours
Las Vegas
Grand Canyon

Las Vegas is One Big Jackpot

2005-07-29T09:23:00.000-07:00

Starting off with a T-time of +150 days, the departure date for our June 18 trip finally arrived. My husband, Mario, and I were out of the house and on our way to pick up our traveling companions by 4:30 a.m. Maureen and Dale were ready to go and … I’ll spare you the yada-yada-yada of the flight portion of our trip, which to sum it up was smooth and uneventful.

I had booked an intermediate car with Dollar, and was planning on using an upgrade coupon for a full-size. These coupons are based on availability, and we were disappointed to find that there wasn’t a single full-size car on the lot. I asked the attendant if there was anything else she could offer us, and she indicated a mini-van. The four of us looked at each other but didn’t need to talk about it – we were not going to take a mini-van unless we had absolutely no other choice. The attendant indicated that we could wait for some more cars to come out of the garage from being cleaned and washed, and see if a full-size came out. A lone Chrysler 300 Touring/Limited sat in the luxury aisle. I pulled a $20 out of my wallet, and asked if it was available. The attendant broke into a big, toothy smile, took the $20 and said “help yourself”. Which we did, and after Mario and Dale spent 5 minutes in the office adding Dale onto our contract as a second driver, off we went. Luxury class car rental $204.35 for 9 days (plus $20 “tip”)

Our first 3 nights were to be at the Rio (or so I hoped).

Let me explain. Dale received an offer from Rio/Harrah’s for $79 for that Saturday night, with Sunday and Monday nights free. Maureen and Dale had never stayed at the Rio, and were thrilled with the chance to stay there, especially since we’d often told them how great the rooms were. Mario and I have been receiving offers from the Rio for 4 or 5 years now – whereas this was the first offer Dale and Maureen have ever received from Rio/Harrah’s. Admittedly, the two of us don’t give the Rio much play, and we have often wondered how we’ve merited free room offers, but we weren’t about to question anyone about it. I know well enough that these offers are always intended only for the person they have been mailed to, but I thought we had nothing to lose by calling and trying to book under Dale’s offer code. I figured we’d be receiving a similar offer anyway, and somehow ours was just late coming to us. I was just going to plead ignorance when the clerk called me an idiot or even worse, anticipating her caustic reply when she told me that the offer I quoted her was not meant for me. Usually, if you receive a mailed offer from the Rio, you will also find your offer listed on their website when you login and check under “My Offers”. I kept checking right up until the week before we left, and all I got was one offer for Harrah’s Laughlin. Nothing from the Rio.

I called a Rio reservations clerk, gave her the rate code, and she put me on hold. When she came back on the line she confirmed our reservation under the $79/free/free rate. I was more than surprised it had worked, and I had visions of trying to check-in at the Rio and being told there had been a mistake and being turned away or, alternatively, being charged more than we’ve ever had to spend on a hotel room before.

I might as well fess up right now: we’re … um … frugal, and paying full-price for a 3-night stay at the Rio was more $$ than we were willing to spend. We did come up with a back-up plan, though. The 4 Queen’s sent us a 2-nights free offer, and out of caution I booked the Sunday/Monday portion of our trip at the 4Q’s. That way, if the Rio reservation didn’t pan out, then that would only leave Mario and me sleeping in the car for the Saturday night.

Okay, so now we’re at the Rio’s front desk, and I’m holding my breath the entire time the desk clerk is tick-tick-ticking away on her computer. She confirms our rate of $79/free/free and assigns us a room in the Ipanema Tower. Even as we walk away from the front desk I am expecting someone to call me back and say there seems to be a problem. But it didn’t happen.

I’d read a post that the Ipanema rooms had been renovated fairly recently, and that the rooms in the Masquerade Tower were beginning to show some wear, so I was pleased that we would be staying in that tower. Maureen and Dale were assigned a room in the Masquerade Tower.

I thought the Ipanema room was smaller than the Masquerade Tower rooms. And I didn’t like it nearly as well. Pretty picky all of a sudden, wasn’t I? – this person who only moments before had been crossing her fingers and toes, hoping against hope that she would even be staying at the Rio? Mario just sighed, and rolled his eyes when I called the front desk and asked for a room change to the Masquerade Tower. They informed me that they were not doing any more room changes that afternoon, but we could move in the morning if we wanted. I was pretty sure that the idea of this was that by the time morning came most people just couldn’t be bothered to move. The next morning I called the front desk again, explaining that we were traveling with friends, and would greatly appreciate having a room in the same tower as they were in. I believe I heard Mario sighing again as we dragged our suitcases through the casino towards our new room in the Masquerade Tower. We were assigned a room on the 16th floor with a great view of the Rio pool. I was happy. Mario was just glad to be staying at the Rio.

Over the next few days, we spent a couple hours each afternoon at the pool. That first day the music was cranked, full-blast rap and what seemed to be a variety of rhythmic jungle beat music – boom, boom, boom. I don’t really mind the music itself, but truthfully, it was being played so loud that even though we were sitting on lounge chairs only inches away from each other, we had to shout to make ourselves heard. The next two days, though, the music was more mainstream and was set at a reasonable volume, so I have to assume that the first day was not the norm. The Rio pool area itself is great, with several pools, lots of greenery and plenty of lounge chairs. This is a pool area that is definitely dominated by beautiful 20-somethings. The women were showing a lot of skin and the men were displaying a lot of muscle. The 4 of us were out of our element (we are in our late 40’s), but it made for some very interesting people-watching each afternoon. It seemed to me that many people’s activities at the pool were going to have a big impact on what they would be doing later that night, if you catch my drift.

One morning we had breakfast at the Rio buffet, using this coupon, which is good until the end of August, I believe:

http://www.harrahs.com/our_casinos/rlv/exhilaration/offer5.html

I’d recommend the Rio buffet for breakfast at least. I’ve never had lunch or dinner there, though. The selection was great, and the food was very good!

We played slots at the Rio off and on throughout our stay, but lost more than we won. I like the slots in the Carnival Court best, because that’s where the best variety of penny or multi-denominational slots are. Unfortunately, especially in the evening, this area of the casino is extremely noisy – and I stress, extremely noisy – and it definitely impacted on our playing time there.

On Sunday morning we drove out to Green Valley Ranch, intending to have breakfast at the buffet there (using our ACG coupons) and then spend a few hours in the casino. When we arrived, we realized it was Father’s Day, the price of the Sunday buffet had been pumped up for the occasion, and we saw that our ACG coupons weren’t good on Sundays. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on breakfast, so we hopped back in the car and went to the Café at Sunset Station for a cheap but excellent breakfast.

We then played the slots for an hour or so, with no significant wins or losses. After that, we made a quick trip to Walmart, which is across the street from Sunset Station, so that we could stock up the fridge in our rooms with bottled water and Diet Pepsi.

That afternoon Mario and I attended a LVT Meet at the Monte Carlo Brew Pub. We were pleased to see Frank (the LVT Webmaster) and Dusty once again, and to make the acquaintance of BugsySiegel, dmeeks9 and TrawnaJack. It never fails to amaze me how these Meets, which bring strangers together, would, to someone looking in from the outside, believe it to be a gathering of good friends. It’s a wonderful way to meet people who share our love of Las Vegas, and it’s great fun to be able to put a face to a LVT Board name!

What a long walk it is now through the Bellagio’s new tower to get to the tram for the Monte Carlo. I doubt it actually saves you any steps if you are coming in through Bellagio from the Strip. We stopped at the Conservatory on our way back and Mario took some pictures. The display was beautiful, but not as inspired as I’ve seen it on other occasions. Someone needs to come up with some fresh new ideas, I think.

Maureen and their 3 children had surprised Dale with a Father’s Day gift of a helicopter tour to the Grand Canyon. Dale has often mentioned over the past several years how much he wanted to do this, so he was absolutely thrilled. The cost was around $300 CAD per person for about a 4-hour trip, which included a picnic lunch in the canyon. A limo picked them up at 9:00 on Monday morning. When they returned around 1:30 they were positively glowing – they said it was spectacular - an experience of a lifetime.

That night we had dinner at the Monterey Room in the Gold Coast. No Vegas trip is ever complete for us without having the $9.95 Texas T-Bone Steak Special. The price has gone up a bit in the past few years, but it’s worth every cent. You will need to bring a big appetite to get through this dinner.

Each trip we like to check out a casino we’ve never been to before, so we decided to take a drive out to the SunCoast after dinner. Not realizing that the map I’d brought along had become quite outdated, we had some trouble finding the SunCoast. First, we drove several miles past the turn we should have taken, and then when we got back on track we ended up taking more wrong turns, and went on quite the tour of the area. Eventually we made it there, more by fluke than anything else.

The SunCoast is a nice but rather small casino. Mario and I settled down at a Twilight Zone slot machine, and managed to turn $20 into around $180. We have a rule that we cash out once we’ve tripled our money, or if we hit a nice jackpot, we play it down to the nearest $20 and cash it out. Then we will put another $20 in and see how that goes. It seems to work well for us, at the very least keeping us within our gambling budget for the day.

We decided to call home before we went back to our hotel, and our son told us that our basement had flooded on the day we left Calgary. We’d had some torrential rains in June, but since we live on a hill, we had never been concerned about water damage to our home before. Apparently, we only had a few inches of water coming in, which had actually seeped up from the sump and through some cracks in the basement floor. At least it was clean rainwater and not a sewer back-up.

On Tuesday we moved to the MGM for 3 days. We’d booked under an email special that I saw mentioned on the Deals forum of LasVegasTalk - $59/night weekdays for slot club members, which, among other things, including a $35 dining credit at any of the MGM-owned restaurants, buffet or eateries. Maureen & Dale didn’t actually belong to the slot club, but they joined online and then booked the room.

Once we’d dropped our suitcases off in our respective rooms, we threw on our bathing suits and met Maureen and Dale downstairs for some pool time. Maureen commented on how huge the rooms were – even bigger than the Rio rooms. What?? Our room was more or less a standard hotel room, certainly not anywhere near the size of a Rio room. She described the huge bathroom, with not only a tub but a separate glass shower; a nice living room area, a fridge, a bar, etc. etc. Somehow, without asking for one, or even realizing it, they had been given a suite! Very nice!

To access the MGM pool you have to walk through the Studio Walk, which is the MGM’s shopping mall. I’d read several negative comments about how far away the pool area is from the room elevators, but truthfully I didn’t think it was that bad – just a 3 or 4-minute walk. The pool area is very large, set amongst an abundance of palm trees, flowers and shrubs. There are several pools and a lazy river. Inner tubes are available for around $15 a day, but you really don’t need one to float along the lazy river. The lazy river was great – we loved it!

Later that afternoon we drove out to Texas Station, where we’d planned to do a little gambling, and then have dinner and a movie. First stop was at the Fatburger in the food court for one of their fantastic chocolate shakes – I don’t even want to guess how many calories those things are, but then again if you have one of them when you’re on vacation, the calorie count is zero. Or so I’ve heard.

While we sucked back our shakes, Mario and I had some good luck on a slot machine called Password. We played this machine for quite some time, and cashed a few nice little jackpots out of it, to the tune of close to $200.

We had planned on having dinner at the Texas Station’s buffet using our ACG coupons, but the line-ups were long, and the four of us didn’t really feel like waiting in a line-up, especially seeing as we were not all that hungry – a buffet was probably more than we needed that night, anyway. In January of this year, Mario and I had met up with Grenadier (from the LVT Board) and his wife, Henny, who are Texas Station regulars. I recalled Grenadier mentioning at that time that the clam chowder served at the Texas Star Oyster Bar was excellent. That seemed like a good idea for a lighter meal, and as we passed by, we saw that there were plenty of tables available. All four of us ordered a bowl of clam chowder which, indeed, was delicious, and far more filling than we had anticipated. I loved the thin crisp parmesan bread wafers they served with the soup! Maureen & Dale had ordered a side dish of calamari to share, which they said was very good. Mario and I ordered a side dish of hot chicken fingers. More like chicken fists – they were absolutely huge, and served dripping with hot sauce. The soup had pretty well filled me up, and I could only get through ½ a piece of chicken, but it was excellent, simply excellent. We will return there next trip, without a doubt.

After dinner each couple went their own way to gamble for a few hours, and we met at the theatres for the 10:00 showing of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Mario thought it was pretty good, and Maureen, Dale and I sheepishly admitted to sleeping through most of it. The story line was just so unbelievable; I couldn’t get interested in it. And that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it. Maureen and Dale said they were just plain tired.

Since we had that $35 MGM dining credit, we decided to try the buffet for breakfast on Wednesday morning. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special, either. I’m glad it didn’t cost us anything.

Maureen and Dale planned on seeing the Titanic Exhibit (which Dale raved about afterwards!) over at the Tropicana that morning, so Mario and I hopped in the car and drove over to Green Valley Ranch to play some slots. For some reason, we always seem to do fairly well at GVR, and this morning was no exception. After a couple hours, we left about $80 up. Fiesta Henderson then fairly quickly relieved us of that $80.

We had planned on meeting Maureen and Dale at the pool that afternoon, but by the time we got back to the hotel, the weather had deteriorated, it had rained, and there was still lightning and thunder in the air. The pool was closed.

Since we had tickets for We Will Rock You (purchased at ½ price online with Goldstar Events - http://www.goldstarevents.com) that night, we decided we should find a place to eat not too far from the Paris Hotel.

Maureen and Dale hadn’t ridden the monorail yet, so we decided to take it from the MGM all the way to the Sahara, and then back to Bally’s. Then we would walk over to the Barbary Coast and have supper at the Victorian Room.

Mario and I hadn’t eaten at the Victorian Room in years, but we remembered it as a great place for a casual meal, with good prices. Once we were seated, I was surprised to see that the tables had tablecloths on them, and this was not the casual café I had remembered. I did think as we approached the restaurant that it was odd there wasn’t a line-up at the door, like there always used to be. And the menu – well, an open-faced turkey sandwich was $14; a burger was $10. Yikes. I wasn’t very hungry, and all I wanted was something light and simple, like a chef’s salad or a taco salad. The waiter informed me there were no salads available at dinner time. Give me a freakin’ break. I grudgingly settled on a bowl of clam chowder soup. Maureen and Mario each had the turkey sandwich, and Dale had an open-faced hot roast beef sandwich. The waiter got a little snotty when I ordered only soup.

There weren’t that many people in the restaurant, and it took 45 minutes to get our meal, during which time we were virtually ignored by our waiter. Coffee and/or water refills would have been appreciated, and we had to stop a passing waitress for refills. My soup should have been served much hotter than it was, and the meals were mediocre. A definite “will not eat there again” experience.

We then walked over to the Paris Hotel and picked up our We Will Rock You tickets at the box office. Mario and I went over to Bally’s for a while, and lost some money on their slots. I don’t think we’ve ever won a cent at Bally’s.

Our seats for We Will Rock You were in the Radio Ga Ga section, about ¾ of the way from the top of the theatre, off to the right of the stage. The theatre is fairly small, and I don’t really think there are any bad seats. We Will Rock You is a fun show – the music and dancing was very good, and there is a bit of a campy feel to the show. Lots of humour, and even some sad parts. There were some young kids sitting in front of us, and I thought there was some dialogue that wasn’t appropriate for their ears – but I guess it depends on what you expose your kids to ordinarily (probably nothing they haven’t heard in the schoolyard anyway, I guess).

I stopped and bought my eldest son a Queen t-shirt to add to his collection of rock memorabilia, and then we strolled over to the Bellagio to watch a couple fountain shows. I can’t remember the name of the first show we saw, but the second one was Viva Las Vegas. It doesn’t get more appropriate than that.

We walked back to the MGM and said goodnight to Maureen and Dale. We played some slots for a couple hours, and had a bit of luck on a Matchgame slot. It was around 1:30 by that time, and both of us were hungry. By rights we probably should have just gone to bed, but we were on holidays, dammit. We could do whatever we wanted to do. We got a table at the Studio Café, which was extremely busy even at that time of night. I ordered some type of Chinese chicken salad, which was excellent, and Mario had a clubhouse sandwich, which he enjoyed. We sat for quite a while afterward, chatting, and by about 3:00 we were more than ready to drag ourselves through the casino and up to bed.

On Thursday morning we hopped in the car and headed to the Grand Lux Café at the Venetian for breakfast. This is my favorite place for breakfast in Las Vegas. We all chose the small buffet they offer, rather than ordering from the menu. The buffet includes an omelet bar, fresh fruits, yogurt, excellent breads, muffins and pastries, and all the other usual breakfast items. I believe the price is around $13 per person.

After breakfast we drove out to the Valley of Fire. It was a hot day, and the car gauge showing the outside temperature read upwards of 115 degrees at times. Las Vegas Norm had kindly given me some pointers as to what sights not to miss, and we stopped at each one he had recommended along the way.

Atlatl Rock

There were many petroglyphs on the rocks, and it would have been interesting to know what stories these prehistoric Indian rock writings told. There was a natural arch in one area that offered a great photo opportunity, and we stopped to take some pictures of each other.

A little further on we came to an area called the Mouse’s Tank, which is a natural basin in the rock where rainfall collects and can remain for several months. Intriguing, seeing as this is such an arid environment. We thought we would take the short walk to see what it was all about. Bad idea. The sand we were walking through was so fine that it was like red icing sugar, and it made walking rather more difficult, not to mention that Dale, Maureen and I were wearing sandals. Hot, hot, hot toes! That “short” walk took at least 20 minutes or more, back and forth each way, and we Canadians from the Great White North don’t tolerate heat all that well. We had thought to bring our bottles of water with us, but since we’d read that it was a short walk, we thought we’d only be gone no more than 15 or 20 minutes total. Our tongues were practically dragging on the ground by the time we got back to the car. All further sightseeing at the Valley of Fire that day was done from the comfort of our air conditioned vehicle.

On the way back to town we stopped at Overton Beach Marina on Lake Mead. We bought some very much appreciated cold drinks, and relaxed for a little while as we took in the view from a picnic bench.

The plan was to stop one more time, at Lake Las Vegas, before heading home to the MGM, but somehow, somewhere, we took a wrong turn, and missed it entirely, so we ended up back in Las Vegas.

I understand that the San Remo Hotel and Casino has been bought out by Hooters. It must be happening soon, because it looked like some of the signs have already been removed from the front of the property. I don’t know how many times I’ve read that the $5.95 Prime Rib Dinner is well worth the money, and I wanted to go there once before the hotel went through its conversion.

Dale, Mario and I ordered the Prime Rib special, and Maureen ordered a Monte Cristo sandwich. Maureen regretted her choice, because the sandwich was apparently deep fried and tasted rather nastily like fish. If it had been me, I would have complained and sent the sandwich back, but I don’t think Maureen likes to do that, so she ate as much as she could, and left the rest. Our prime rib dinners were good, and well worth the $5.95 price tag.

That night, Maureen and Dale had “2 for 1” tickets for Folies Bergeres, which they’d won on the free spin in front of the Tropicana. This worked out great for them, as one of the things they wanted to do this trip was see one of the traditional-types of Vegas shows. That really didn’t interest us, and Mario and I decided to head over to the Bar at Times Square in NYNY for an evening of Dueling Pianos. I wanted to get there early enough for a table, which are at a premium, so we were there by 7:30, with the entertainment scheduled to start at 8:00. Some basketball final was on TV, and many people in the bar were glued to the game. Of course – it HAD to go into overtime, and Dueling Pianos didn’t start until shortly after the game ended, at 9:00. Just a note here – the drink prices, as if they’re not bad enough already ($6.50 for a rum & coke), go up when Dueling Pianos starts, but that night even though the show started an hour late, the drink prices went up right on time nonetheless. I believe my second rum & coke cost close to $8.00.

Anyway, even over-priced drinks won’t keep me away from Dueling Pianos, and we had a great time that night. The camaraderie, laughter and good fun we enjoy in that bar cannot be beat. We stayed through two sets, and left shortly after the first pair of entertainers came back for their second set.

Mario told me, on the walk back to the MGM, that when I’d left the bar at one point in search of a ladies washroom, a woman who had been acting quite strangely moved over to sit in my chair at our cozy little table for two. She had drawn our attention earlier because she had walked into the bar with a guy, but she crossed over to the side of the bar with tables by herself, and sat down at a table of women she apparently didn’t know. The other women seemed rather surprised, but this strange woman didn’t acknowledge them in any way – she stared straight ahead and didn’t say a word. When the music was playing and absolutely everyone in the bar was singing at the tops of their lungs, this woman continued to stare straight ahead – totally unaffected by the music. When one of the entertainers encouraged all the women in the bar to get up out of their seats and sing, we all did, yet she sat there like she was made out of stone. In any event, when she moved into my chair and tried to engage Mario in a conversation, Mario told her that his wife would be back in a minute or two, and the chair wasn’t available. She stared at him for a minute and then got up and sat back in the chair she was in earlier. It would seem that perhaps she was a hooker, but her methods were very strange – there were at least 50 young, single drunk guys on the other side of the bar who would probably have enjoyed her attention.

Friday morning was check-out day. I tried to do the video check-out but the $35 food credit had not been applied to our bill, so we had to go down to the front desk to check-out. The desk clerk got the bill straightened out, eventually, and off we went to the Orleans for breakfast.

The Courtyard Café has some great early morning specials, but we arrived too late for those. You can always depend on a good meal at this restaurant, at a reasonable price. We were not disappointed, and after breakfast we arranged to meet Maureen and Dale at 10:00. We had fun playing several slot machines, Turkey Shoot being one of our favorites, but left the Orleans that morning lighter in the wallet.

I like to shop: Maureen LOVES to shop. The men dropped us off at the Fashion Show Mall, and they walked over to the Wynn Hotel to spend a few hours there.

When we met back up with the men again later, Maureen said she hadn’t even made it out of Macy’s yet, and here I’d sailed through several stores and was ready to leave. Maureen needed more shopping time, so we scheduled that in for the next day.

We were spending the next 2 nights at the Golden Nugget, so we hopped in the car and headed for downtown. We had reserved the GN under a $79/night weekend special, which included several good coupons. Check-in was quick and we were assigned rooms in the south tower. Maureen and Dale wanted to relax for a few hours at the pool, but the two of us elected to wander around Fremont Street for a while. We walked up and down Fremont Street, and then settled in at Las Vegas Club to play some slots. Let’s just say it would have been significantly cheaper to go to the pool.

We spent the evening at Texas Station, and this time we did have the buffet for dinner. The line-ups were bad again, which apparently was because there was only one person on the till that night and lots of people were paying by credit card, which slowed progress down a lot. By the time we were almost to the front of the line, another till opened that was only taking payment by cash, and we got through in no time after that. It must be a favorite buffet for the locals, as there sure were a lot of families in line, and SO many kids.

Dale is a “rib guy” – he just loves ribs, and he raved about them at Texas Station. I’ve never heard anyone say “mmmmmm” so many times during any one meal.

I found the abundance of unruly kids at this buffet very annoying. Their parents allowed them to run all over the place, yelling and fooling around, and taking food from the buffet without supervision. This resulted in spilled food on the counters and floors, and the mess around the ice cream machine was simply disgusting. Some parents need a serious kick in the a$$. We’ve eaten here several times before, and this was the first time we’d seen anything like this. Maybe Friday nights are a good time to stay away from there.

After the buffet fiasco it was time to play some more slots. We played Men in Black for an $80 profit, and then sat down at a slot machine that was called something like The Great Cheese Caper, which was fun, and paid us a couple small jackpots. We gave some money back on a few other slots over the next while, but managed to walk out of there in the black. At midnight we met back up with our traveling companions, and drove back downtown. Mario and I walked over to the Plaza (now that it’s virtually stink-free, thanks to new carpeting), and spent a few hours playing a slot machine we’d discovered at Green Valley Ranch – the theme was something about magicians. We did pretty good on that slot, but gave some of our winnings back on some other slots we played afterwards.

By around 2:00 we were ready to call it a night, and I remember remarking how relatively cool it was outside that night.

We met Maureen and Dale the next morning for breakfast at the Carson Street Café. This restaurant is consistently good, and today was no exception. We used one of our coupons we’d been issued at check-in, which was good for up to 4 people for $3 off each of our meals.

After dropping Maureen off at the Fashion Show Mall to continue her shopping experience, Dale, Mario and I drove over to the Imperial Palace to take part in their 11:00 Texas Hold’em lessons. The table was full, and we had an entertaining dealer doing the teaching. Most of us were fairly familiar with the game already, and we had a great time playing just for fun over the next half hour or so. After that, a table was opened for anyone from the lessons that wanted to play for real, and most of us moved over to join in. A few other stragglers showed up, and the table was full. I’d apparently picked up a horseshoe when I sat down at this table, because for the next 10 or 15 hands or so, I raked in the great majority of the pots. Then I started getting dealt mostly garbage, and for the rest of our time at the table I rarely stayed in past the flop. The horseshoe moved over to Dale, and he won some very nice pots over the next hour or so. Mario couldn’t get a hand if his life depended on it, and when he did manage to pull something even half-decent, he never got the cards he needed to win a hand. The players at the table were a happy and fun bunch, and we greatly enjoyed our time in the poker room. $30 profit for me; $46 for Dale; Mario lost $50.

Once we’d picked Maureen up from the mall, it was pool time once again for her and Dale. Mario and I begged off, and we met up with them later for dinner at the Golden Nugget buffet. We had 2 for 1 coupons, so we figured we might as well use them. The buffet was good enough, but I don’t know that I’d bother to go there again.

We’ve been to enough buffets (do ya think???) that we know not to over-indulge at them. It’s tempting to try everything that looks good and stuff yourself to the point of being uncomfortable. But it’s so not worth it.

Maureen and I hadn’t seen the Wynn Hotel yet, so that was the plan for our last night in Las Vegas. Yes, readers (or … maybe … reader, if even one of you is still with me?), there is an end in sight.

We parked at the Fashion Show Mall and walked across the street. Maureen and Dale had some things they wanted to see first on that end of the Strip, so after we arranged to meet at the car at midnight, they went off towards TI.

Thankfully, a walkover to the Wynn is in the final stages of being built, so soon there will be no need to cross over at street level.

The pond and waterfall in front of the main entrance to the Wynn is very nice. Inside the casino there is small garden area, where they hang different colors and sizes of fresh flower “balls” from the trees.

We played slots the rest of the evening at the Wynn, and accumulated more than 500 points on our slot card. Once you have 500 points on the blank slot card you are given initially, you can then go sign up for their slot club. You are awarded 2 free buffets at that time, which must be used within the next couple of days.

Once we got back downtown for the night, Mario and I spent a couple hours roaming in and out of the various casinos on Fremont Street. We were getting a little peckish, and decided to stop in at the Carson Street Café for a late night snack. We settled on nachos. They sucked – which is probably a good thing, seeing as by rights we really didn’t need to be eating just before going to bed anyway. The type of cheese they used to melt on the nachos was too moist and it made the chips mucky and limp. Yuck.

Sunday morning. The day we dreaded. Reality was looming. Our hope that 9 days in Vegas would be long enough for us was not to be. It was still not long enough. Not by a long shot.

We packed up our suitcases, checked-out of the Golden Nugget, and found a gas station to fill up the car in anticipation of returning it to the Dollar lot.

Since we had to use those two free buffets at the Wynn, or lose them, we offered one to Maureen and Dale, and off we went to experience the Wynn Buffet. We were worried that the line-ups might be bad on a Sunday morning at 9:00, but they weren’t.

The dining area is beautiful, light and airy. And if I had to sum up the food at this buffet in one word, it would be - wow!

Someone had mentioned to me the night before that the crab legs on this buffet were – and he held his hands out 2-feet apart from each other. I had laughed at his exaggeration. This morning, as I was wandering around the buffet checking out the selection, I actually saw someone with a full plateful of 2-foot long crab legs.

All four of us wished we had been hungrier that morning, because there were so many great-looking dishes that we would have liked to sample. One bakery item that really sticks out in my memory is the small cinnamon buns – absolutely wonderful – light and moist and perfect. Even the bacon was somehow better than regular bacon – it was cooked very well, but it wasn’t all curled up and greasy – each piece was straight as a poker and had a light hickory flavor. The orange and grapefruit juice was served by a chef at the buffet itself – because it was fresh squeezed the chef needed to keep stirring it to keep the pulp from settling.

We spent some time just enjoying the ambiance of the dining area, leisurely sipping our coffees, and reflecting on the past 8 days that we’d spent together.

As we walked back to the car, we decided to leave the Strip and spend our few remaining hours in Las Vegas at Terribles. Initially, when we had begun to plan this trip, we had booked Terribles through Vegas.com for the week-night portion of our stay. The pool area was remarkably nice, the rooms were decent, if not fancy, and the nightly rate was $34. Somehow it seemed fitting that we should spend at least some time at Terribles, since our plans had changed quite a bit since those initial planning stages.

Much too soon, it was time to leave for the airport. Our diabolical plan that one of us would win a huge jackpot just before we left, so that we could extend our stay at the very last moment, never came to fruition. It was a very sad and sorry-looking group of travelers that handed off the car keys to the Dollar lot attendant that day.

Well, that’s what I did on my vacation this year. I give you credit if you actually read through this long dissertation. You must be very much in need of a Vegas fix. I hope I provided that for you, and thank you for sticking with me through this.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Hot Hot Hot in Las Vegas

2005-07-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hot! Hot! Hot! That pretty much sums up the trip. The weather was beastly hot...100 in the shade but I shouldn't complain being that MN might not see summer this year. On this trip, I'm meeting a friend of mine in Vegas and it has only taken us 10 years of planning to actually make it happen. Also, this is my second trip this year to my favorite city.

Flight out (7:30am)from the Humphrey terminal on Sun Country airlines was a breeze and it was nice that they gave out free hot breakfast sandwiches on the flight. Remember those days? Watched Ocean's 11 on my portable DVD player on the way out. Actually the guy sitting next to me enjoyed it too. Arrived at McCarron at 8:30am and it was smooth sailing from the time I got my bags to the time I picked up my rental car from Dollar. I rented an SUV that put me back about $238 for the week. Met up with my friend (DK) and we started our adventure.

HOTELS: We both checked into our hotels. I stayed at the Aladdin and she stayed at Sam's Town. I got a great nightly rate of $49 and her nightly rate at Sam's was $39. Can't beat it. I did the ol slip a $20 to the check-in guy, flashed the pearlie whites and asked for a strip view. I got a strip view all right but right below me was a view of the roof top of the casino only to find out later that at night, an orange light from the roof shines into my glass window making it hard to see the city lights. However for $49 a night, I can't complain and actually, the large bathroom with the huge soaking tub made up for the lack of view. Nice room overall! Sam's Town is a really nice hotel off the strip on Boulder Highway. DK's room was normal size and very clean. Nice decor too. I think what impressed me the most about Sam's is the fabulous staff that works there. Very polite, fun, and helpful! I did not find that to be the same at the Aladdin. Actually, complete opposite. An example is that during my stay, I couldn't get my club card to work around the second day so I walked over to the club desk and reported the fact. This woman lectured me on the topic of demagnatizing and how I need to keep it away from my room key and cell phone. Thank you for the info.....NOW BACK OFF! I told her that I simply wanted her to demagnatize the card and I would be on my way. She just kept lecturing and her demeanor was less than civil. My players card did not work the rest of the trip and I made sure to keep it separate from everything else. I just let it go. No comps for me.

RESTAURANTS: DK and I hit a couple buffets while in Vegas. The World Carnival at the RIO and the one at Sam's Town. Sam's Town was by far the better buffet which really surprised me because years past, I would have voted the one at the RIO to be the best but they have changed their setup and alot of the food was dried out and cold. We also ate at Samba's at the Mirage which is a brazilian all you can eat steakhouse. I was not impressed with this place at all. I've eaten at a similar place in New York City called Churrascaria Plataforma and there is just no comparison. Pretty disappointing in fact. I absolutely LOVED Chin Chin a Chinese Cafe which is located at New York New York. The pork potstickers were huge and so tasty. I also had the chicken fried rice and General Tso's Chicken and I can't say enough about them! YUMMY!!! DK and I tried to get a In-N-Out burger during our stay but holy smokes....around 1:00pm or so, the line both outside and inside was a block long. I've had them before and they are wonderful. Maybe next trip I'll be successful. We had lunch at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere and this was absolutely wonderful! Of course the views were spectacular and the food was pleasantly tasteful and reasonably priced because it was lunch. I've been there at night as well and that is equally if not better but you certainly pay for the night views and menu items. The day we went, the winds were gusting at around 30 to 40 miles and so they closed the rides down. We noticed little sand storms developing way out in the distance too which was something to see.

GAMBLING: I'm normally a very lucky person. In past trips, I've won pots as low as $450 and as high as $1,000 but this trip was a total bust. Which is just fine. I just enjoy the entertainment of the machines. I have to tell you, we gambled at every casino there except for Mandalay Bay, MGM & TI. I think my luckiest spots were at The Orleans, Westward HO, Bally's and Sunset Station. I played mostly nickel machines this trip which is so not like me. I usually play dollar slots. My favorite nickel slots in Vegas are Frank Sinatra, Twighlight Zone, Gilligan's Island, and Monthy Pythons Holy Grail. I took out $100 from a penny Twighlight Zone machine at Barbary Coast. I was shocked and so were the 2 other players on either side of me. I must have hit 6 bonus rounds one right after another and picked the right doors etc.... DK is strictly a BJ player and we had a good time playing the tables. She did really well at Sam's! Hopefully she will share her experiences on this board. Had a great time gambling downtown! The 15th marked Vegas's 100th Birthday so they had a huge party downtown. Bands, cake, etc.....it was super crowded (more so than normal) but it was a fun. Bottom line: I started out with $1,800 and came back with $700. I guess that is not too bad but usually I can come home even + whatever pot I had won.

ENTERTAINMENT: I booked myself a helicopter night flight while in vegas and it was ok. It costs me $60 for a free shuttle pickup at my hotel and a 12 minute flight around the strip. I sat in the back and on the right side of the heli which did not give me a good view of the strip. But it was fine. I met some great people. Two gals from Britain who at that point of their trip had done everything from horseback riding in the Grand Canyon to Bungee Jumping at Circus Circus. They were having a blast! DK and I saw Danny Gans. Very entertaining. We actually were moved up to the front row seats because there were 2 no-shows and they don't like having empty seats in the front. Lucky us! Danny does a hilarious Jeff Foxworthy and Johnny Carson skit. I've heard negative reviews on him but I thought he was great! Last trip in January, I saw "O" and Celine Dion. Both were fabulous and I highly recommend "O"!!!!

HOTEL REVIEWS: As mentioned earlier, we hit nearly every hotel in Vegas. My favorite hotels to gamble at because of either atmosphere or great drink service are: The Westin (drink service), Venetian (fun people and great free bands), Sunset Station (great all around), Golden Nugget (great all around), RIO (hot waiter guys), Sam's Town (fun BJ w/ 70's disco music)and The Orleans. There are others but those stood out on this trip. Worse and would not visit again: Bourbon Street, Slots of Fun, Stratosphere, Ellis Island and The Plaza. Of course my all time favorite hotels that i love to just hang out at are: NY NY, Mandalay Bay, Mirage, Bellagio, etc.....they are just so grand but not to gamble. Green Valley Ranch...beautiful area but tight on the slots. Did not get a chance to visit Wynn. Next trip for sure. Up to this point and of all my trips to Vegas the past years, my favorite hotel room in Vegas has been at the RIO. Oversized rooms with floor to ceiling windows and if you get one that faces the strip and the pool, it is great!

MISC: I've learned a few things this trip.
1. Never keep your players card(s) next to your cell phone or room key and if you do, play dumb and tell them that you had it in your back pocket the whole time and don't know why it demagnatized. Or just tell them that you lost it. Also, Bally's seem to offer the best comps. Played there about 4 hours total and earned $40 in comps. I stayed there in January and ended up earning $85 in comps and they paid for all my meals.
2. Never to go to Vegas during the hot months unless of course you love the desert heat. I prefer the months of March and October.
3. Regarding the Aladdin, with Plantet Hollywood now the owners, the arabian nights theme will be no more and the hotel/casino will have a hollywood theme thruout. I'm not sure what they are going to do with the Desert Pasage shopping mall but it sounds like it will all be gone by the fall of 2006. This might be a good time to grab as much Aladdin named memorabilia as possible.
4. Valet! Valet! Valet!
5. Visit some of the casino's off the strip if you can. They are loved by the locals and seem to be alot looser in slots. Also, drink service is better.
6. Make sure you have a good battery in your car before you park it at the airport for the entire week. Actually, I know this can't be helped but when I arrived back to MN (the Humphrey airport) around 12:30am...I discovered a dead battery and had to wait one and half hours for a jump. Got home to bed around 3:00am. Reality had set in that the vacation was over!!!!!

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Grand Canyon and a grand deal for the price

2005-07-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Myself and two friends hiked down into the Grand Canyon. This was my first hike down and did not expect the comfortable stay we had at Phantom Ranch. It was great to sit outside and have the fast moving creek run through and put you to sleep at night.

There are cottages for couples and bunkrooms for single genders. We were in the female cottage with 10 beds, an inside bathroom, and a hot shower (HEAVEN!!). Very clean, pillow, blankets, clean sheets, towels for each person and toilet paper were included.

When we arrived, we went to the Canteen to order fresh lemonades. The Canteen closes to get ready for dinner. Dinner was served at 6:30pm and consisted of all-you-can-eat beef stew, corn bread, salad, tea, and chocolate cake. I'm not a meat-eater, and I didn't know I could have ordered a vegetarian dish, so I just had the salad, cornbread, and tea. The salad was very fresh and one of the best salads I had. At night, the Canteen reopens 8pm to serve beers.

There is also a ranger talk we attended. It was about 45 minutes to 1 hour. The ranger was very informative and entertaining.

There is fresh spring water available to fill bladders and bottles before the hike up and a pay phone available.

The next morning, they do two breakfasts. A 5 am and a 7 am (I think). We wanted to get a good start so our reservation was for 5 am breakfast. At 4:30am wake-up call for those attending the 5am breakfast. And that's a staff member going to each cottage to those scheduled and letting them know breakfast will be ready in 30 minutes. Breakfast was pancakes, bacon, eggs, orange juice, peaches, and tea or coffee. They gave us a sack lunch to take with us, which consisted of apple juice, a large bagel with cream cheese/jam, a small beef summer sausage, a package of peanuts, a package of raisins, an apple, pretzels, cookies, and powder electrolyte.

For $87, this was a good deal. If you are the adventurous type or enjoy being out in nature, this is the place to stay.

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Loved Grand Canyon & Grand Canyon Railway

2005-07-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

Just returned from our family trip to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Took the Grand Canyon Railway trip through AAA and loved it ! Grand Canyon Railway hotel was much nicer than I thought (after reading some reviews). The room was plenty big enough for the 4 of us. The food, on the other hand, had alot to be desired at Max & Thelma's. The dinner buffet was horrible but breakfast was much better. The train ride was great (with entertainment on the way) and once at the canyon, you just couldn't believe your eyes. Words cannot describe the beauty of this National Park. We had some sun the first day which casted amazing shadows on the peaks. The second day we had rain and hail and COLD! But that's the nature of the park, I guess. We took the shuttle bus all around to see the points of interest and ventured out a bit on our own to see the sun rise. We stayed at Maswick lodge which again, was much better than I had expected (since I believe it's the lowest priced accommodations). We had a view out into the woods and at night you could hear the elk walking around and snorting outside !!! We had a prepaid buffett lunch at the Maswick and after that we didn't eat there again. It was lousy. If you don't have much time, I would highly recommend the Railway Trip. You get all the highlights in a short amount of time and it's alot of fun.

Bottom line - Grand Canyon National Park is beautiful; a natural wonder and a must see for everyone.

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Grand Canyon North Rim Vs South Rim

2005-07-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

Visited the North Rim in late September 2004. Although there were a reasonable number of other visitors it didn't feel at all crowded and seemed so tranquil. I believe the views from the North rim points are just as good as the south and no jostling at photo points to take snaps.

The North Rim Lodge hotel looked very nice, we sat on some large wooden chairs out front, enjoyed an iced lemonade and were rewarded by witnessing a landslide on the other side of the canyon and the clouds of dust that headed skywards afterwards. Not very many people can lay claim to seeing something like that! Also inside the lodge is a bronze life size statue of a donkey called "Brighty" and a nice story that goes with it.
We also enjoyed the drive in to the North Rim and on the way out headed off to visit several of the other viewpoints which I would recommend.

Also worth a mention is, when you leave the North Rim there is a gasoline station and garage with a food store and restaurant (at the junction with the main highway I think) - they sell what tasted liked home made cookies - one of these is enough for dinner! They were fantastic, specially recommend the chocolate cookie, with mallow topping then a chocolate cream over - best cookies ever!!!

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Grand Canyon is so beautiful it made my wife stop talking

2005-07-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

We visited the Grand Canyon with another family during the 4th of July weekend. We were worried about the crowds but found entrance into the park went very smooth. Definitely remember to bring cash! The cash only lane to buy a park pass is much faster and shorter than the credit card line.

The Canyon was awe inspiring. Our kids (ages 14 - 7) were completely fascinated. Even in July, the weather wasn't too hot, about 85 degress F. The park staff, from the bus drivers to the park rangers to the restaurant staff were extremely friendly and helpful. Be sure to vist both the rim west of Grand Canyon Village as well as the more popular east side. The Rim Trail is very easy to navigate and the Shuttle Buses run every 15 minutes during the summertime. We will be back to further explore this amazing and beautiful place.

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Grand Canyon National Park: Yavapai Lodge: Great place to get away from the madding crowd

2005-06-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

Just pent 3 nights at Yavapai 06 May, and couldn't really fault it. The room was spotlessly clean, and the service was great. Only ate at the coffee shop once - it was quite adequate.
Ate most meals at Bright Angel, where the food was good and reasonably priced.
I would highly recommend doing the Xanterra tours if you are staying there. We did 2 tours for US$35 per person - 2 hour Desert View bus tour, then a 4 hour Hermits Rest tour. Both are excellent, and the drivers are full of all sorts on facts about the Grand Canyon. (Just book at hotel tour desk.) It is certainly easier than driving and trying to find a parking space!

I had never been to the Grand Canyon before, and it is true - you cannot put into words what it is really like. I would definitely recommend staying at Yavapai for its location - it is far enough away from the rim to be quiet, but close enough to walk. Much better than staying outside the park itself, in my opinion.
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Can you ever gawk alone at the Grand Canyon?

2005-06-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon comes with a lot of baggage. For a century at least, the 277-mile gash through Earth's skin in northwestern Arizona has been unrivaled as the must-see monument of natural America. Nearly 5 million people a year visit, and therein lies the problem. They're packed six deep along the guardrails of overlooks. But dodging crowds in the backcountry can mean missing classic views. Can the casual day visitor experience the grandeur without feeling like a passenger on the Tokyo subway?

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Fortunately, yes. Most visitors head straight to Grand Canyon Village, just inside the South Entrance, and slowly spread out along the rim through the day. Flip that itinerary, and you're on your way to seeing what everyone else does, without having to see everyone else in the process.

The little-used East Entrance is in the middle of nowhere, a 230-mile drive from Phoenix or 300 miles from Las Vegas. But it's only 30 miles from the dusty town of Cameron, Ariz., where the comfortable Trading Post and Motel makes an excellent starting point. Stock up on gas, water, and buffalo jerky the night before, and get ready for a predawn departure.

The Grand Canyon can be spectacular any time of day, but it's worth making the effort to time your first view to sunrise, about 5:15 a.m. in June or 6 a.m. by late August. Drive to Lipan Point, a few miles past the East Entrance (it will be unattended--you'll have to pay the $20 entrance fee later in the day) and prepare to be dazzled. The sun rises slowly, revealing each horizon of the layer-cake geology in turn. Gaze back to the east, and you'll see the 1932 stone Watchtower in silhouette against the rising sun; scan across the 180-degree view to the west and new colors and features will emerge every few minutes as the complex rock forms are thrown into ever sharper relief. Solitude factor: high.

A dozen miles farther along Desert View Drive--about halfway to the village--you come to Grandview Point and a look at the view that first made the canyon famous. This was the South Rim's first tourist hub, home to a rustic lodging as early as 1893. Grandview Trail was closed for upkeep on a recent morning, but the point was nearly deserted--East Entrance tourists tend to gather at the Watchtower for sunrise, and those coming from Grand Canyon Village won't be here for hours. Solitude factor: moderate.

Go down. It's still early, but traffic is picking up and the crowds are swelling with tour bus arrivals. It's time to dip a little deeper into the abyss. "Especially at mid-day, the canyon can look pretty static when you're glued to the rim," says Mike Buchheit, 41, director of the Grand Canyon Field Institute. "But below the rim, the view changes with every switchback. You don't have to descend far to get a taste." Your best bet is the South Kaibab Trail--the only hiking route built along a ridgeline, providing unforgettable 360-degree views (and occasional bouts of vertigo). The trailhead is accessible only by park bus, so you'll have to drive into the village to catch the free shuttle. Gawk at crowds snapping cellphone photos from the most crowded overlooks as you pass.

It's a steep descent--you'll want sturdy shoes or hiking boots and plenty of water--and you'll most likely run into other hikers. But make your way down 1.5 miles to Cedar Ridge (about an hour down and two hours back at a moderate pace), and you'll find that even the human encounters take on a different character below the rim. "This is spectacular," says Sharon Bloodgood, 65, surveying the view from Cedar Ridge with her sister and longtime hiking partner, Irene Cline, 84, both from Madison, Wis. "Mount Rainier and Lake Tahoe are pretty spectacular too," says Bloodgood, "but the sheer size of this is awesome." Solitude factor: low, but down here that doesn't seem to matter.

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With the sun now overhead, it's time to head for cover. Shoshone Point doesn't show up on the park's tourist maps, making it your afternoon ace in the hole. Turn into the small roadside clearing 1.2 miles east of Yaki Point for a milelong hike along a dirt road through cool juniper forest to a permit-only picnic area near the point. Walk out onto the spectacular overlook--no guardrails here--and make your way a few dozen feet below the rim and out of sight of civilization. Solitude factor: near perfect.

There's still sunset, of course. Just for contrast, hop a free shuttle from the village to Hopi Point on the western Hermit Road, where it seems all 5 million visitors have gathered for the final show of the day. Solitude factor: Are you kidding? Watching grumpy sunsetters race for prime seats on the return bus before the sun has even dipped below the horizon, you'll be glad your earlier vistas were enjoyed more or less alone.

LOCAL FAVE

"From Bright Angel Point on the North Rim, you can look across 15 miles to the South Rim, where distant mountains loom above the horizon. Cast your eye down from the white limestone on the rim to the ancient rocks exposed in the bed of the Colorado River at the bottom of the mile-deep Grand Canyon."

James L. Powell, author of Grand Canyon: Solving Earth's Grandest Puzzle

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Grand Canyon is Best Outdoor View Ever

2005-06-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

We visited the Grand Canyon National Park in November 2003. Seeing the Grand Canyon with your own eyes defies any depiction in a picture or movie. It is completely breathtaking and awesome. I always wanted to see the canyon and when I finally got the chance I must say that it exceeded the expectations that pictures and film had set.

Take advantage of the free shuttles. The west rim (red line) is your best bet. The shuttle makes eight stops in 35 minutes going west and offers visitors a chance to see the canyon at various spots along the way. This trip is well worth your time. Bright Angel lodge is a great place to park your car to catch the shuttles. The walking path is also nearby. The hike to the bottom of the canyon takes five hours down and seven back. However, you can pick closer destinations such as Indian garden (2 down, 3 back) or rest stops even closer.

I also went to Sedona over the same weekend but nothing can come close to the Grand Canyon for awesome views and total outdoor granduer! If you have a chance to see the canyon, take it. It is an experience that everyone should have and there is no secret why it is #1 in the world for natural wonders.

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Taking South Kaibab Trail to Ooh-Aah point

2005-06-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon can not really be described by words alone. Even pictures lack the power to convey the true immensity of this place. We took the tram to Hermits Rest, the new visitor center, and to the Yavapai lodge cafeteria. The trams were punctual and easy to use. I would recommend them highly to help reduce congested lookout points.

On March 17th, my husband, my 12 year old daughter, and I hiked down the South Kaibab trail as far as the Ooh-Aah point. The views were spectacular! The trail was steep, but not dangerous. I am not in good shape (bad back, bunion, overweight) but had no problem going down. Coming back up the trail (3/4 of a mile) I had to stop frequently, but made it with no difficulty. The temperature was about 42 degrees F. and a breeze. This was perfect for strenous hiking. Layering of clothing made it possible to be warm while hiking down the trail, and to peel off layers when climbing back up. We only took 1 liter of water per person and had plenty. It took about 40 minutes to get to the Ooh- Aah point, but about 1 hour and 30 minutes to go back up the trail. Just take your time and no problem.

Sitting at the Ooh-Aah point overlooking the Grand Canyon is where my husband (not easily impressed) finally felt the awe and grandeur of this place. If you have only time to take a short hike, this is the one! HOWEVER I would NOT recomment this hike if you have a small child. The sheer drop offs on the trail are too dangerous if you can not hold your child's hand at all times.

Natures best at its best - Grand Canyon

2005-06-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Incurably addicted to Nature? My husband and I are, and so we took a bus tour from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and it was totally worth it. The bus tour costed us 75 per head (I heard sometimes its more .. sometimes we can get better deals). Bus picked us up from our hotel - Stratosphere (good rooms and attractions but we lost on all slot machines there!!) at 7 AM.. we stopped at other hotels and picked up the rest. It was a diverse crowd and the bus tour guide being so funny had all of us talking and interacting with each other in minutes.

Our first halt was at the Hoover Dam and the drive from there was in anticipation of whats instore at the Grand Canyon Village.
We reached the magnificient Grand Canyon. Its a totally unimaginable place. Grand Canyon is an erosional feature that owes its existence to the Colorado River. If we choose to walk - which all us of did, it was a total of 2.3 miles walk along the rim.

The view, the walk along the rim, the serenity, the breeze, the colours of the rocks, the vastness, the height, the look of nature, the sunshine on the Canyon, the old trees and woods which depicts mother nature, I think I could go on and on about the spectacular Grand Canyon.

How many of you go to Vegas and miss this trip to the Grand Canyon - I just have one thing to say - You will believe the beauty and feel the serenity when you see the place.

Go Grand Canyon!!

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Visits are up at Grand Canyon, U.S. parks

2005-06-15T18:21:00.000-07:00

The number of tourists visiting Grand Canyon National Park has risen in the past two years, the first upward streak the park has seen in the past decade.
Between January and June this year, nearly 2.2 million people visited the park, a 7.2 percent jump from the same time last year. The spike began in March, said Jim O'Sickey, a fee and revenue analyst with the Park Service.
"March, April and May totally surprised us this year," O'Sickey said.
Visits to the Grand Canyon have been fickle in the past decade, jumping up by as much as 350,000 one year and plummeting a couple hundred thousand the next. The largest drop in recent history occurred in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks, which affected travel nationwide.

That year, the number of visitors dropped by about 9 percent, the biggest dive the park had seen since a 29 percent drop in 1973, the year the world oil shock began and OPEC quadrupled gas prices.

The latest numbers seem to mirror a trend throughout the country's 388 national parks, said David Barna, a National Park Service spokesman.
Visitors to the nation's parks began decreasing in 2000 and dropped by about 6 million visitors in 2001 from 286 million the previous year. But early numbers indicate traffic is picking up throughout the nation and will continue to do so, Barna said.

Despite a slower June this year than last at the Grand Canyon, O'Sickey said visitation this year could match or beat the park's record 4.9 million visitors in 1999.

He said while visitors from Asia and Europe have been rising since 2003, domestic tourism has been the largest contributor to the increases. The number of foreign travelers still has yet to reach pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels.

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Deep In The Grand Canyon

2005-06-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

The walls whisper of billions of years, the rapids roar like thunder, and time drifts by as endlessly as the Colorado River flowing...

At first I mistake the noise for the sound of my own heart hurling itself against the bars of my rib cage as boatman Jan Yost maneuvers us toward the lip of the rapid. But then I hear it againclouder, closer, and directly overhead. Thunder.

Perfect. Here we are drifting toward Lava Falls, the largest rapid in the Grand Canyon, a spot where the entire Colorado River is churned into chaos, and even the sky above is about to go wild. I chuckle at the theatrical melodrama of it all: wind blowing in strange gusts, clouds swirling with rain, canyon walls cloaked in gray. "Now," I think to myself, "if only we had some of that jagged horror-movie lightning."

A lightning bolt cracks across the sky.

No rapid in the world is the subject of more campfire stories than fabled Lava Falls. Cutting through an ancient lava flow, it is a jumble of massive waves and roiling currents where the river drops 37 feet in a few hundred yards. It has been called the fastest navigable white-water rapid in North America.

The roar of the rapid sweeps our voices away. We have to shout to be heard. The sky above, the river below, and the dories in between. There is a gust of wind and the feel of the dory dropping down the first wave as if falling into an elevator shaft....

To most of its five million visitors a year, Grand Canyon National Park means breathtaking vistas, postcard views of imponderable reaches. Even without the Hollywood-style special effects, it is one of the most dramatic landscapes on the planet—277 miles long, 10 miles across, over a mile deep. Step to the edge and your sense of scale shatters like glass. Whole mountain ranges could be hidden down there. Set the Empire State Building in the sand on the canyon floor and its roof would barely peek out of the inner gorge.

The spectacle of all that space, of cliffs plunging a thousand vertical feet, of nothing between you and eternity but thin air shot through with golden light, can, for some, teeter on that fine line between wonder and terror. Visitors have been known to recoil with fright at their first glimpse. Several years ago, a German woman took one look over the edge and fainted, falling to her death over the rim. Four days later, a man from Japan was similarly overcome and toppled in.

For most, the view is less fatal but no less inspiring. It moves some to song, some to silence, and some to wedding vows. The sight of the Grand Canyon from the rim is, as one early explorer wrote, quite simply "the most sublime spectacle in nature."

But there is another side to the Grand Canyon, one barely imagined in those guardrailed views from the rim. It is a world where you can run your hand over billion-year-old rocks, where the rapids roar like thunder and fern-draped side canyons echo with a silence so deep you can hear your own heartbeat. That world lies in the blue-green ribbon shimmering thousands of feet below the rim: the Colorado River.

"Everybody ready?" asks head boatman, chuck wales, as he shoves his boat, the Toroweap, off the gravel bar and into the river. We float almost motionless for a moment, the turquoise blue of the hull shimmering on the water, before we catch the current and move downstream. Three other boats fall in line behind, each one floating quietly in the pool of its own brightly colored reflection.

My wife, Jill, and I have joined 13 other passengers and six crew members for a 14-day journey down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. In 1869, John Wesley Powell and his men—with a few bags of moldy flour and a large sack of coffee—became the first to complete this journey, filling in one of the last great blank spots on the American map.

Now, 23,000 people a year run the river. That's not all that will be different. We'll have steaks on the grill, ice for our drinks. And the wild, silt-bristled Colorado River has been tamed, a bit, by Glen Canyon Dam. Still, a float trip through the canyon is one of the great American adventures. Thoughts of dams vanish like mist at the first tug of the current, or at the sound of the first white-water rapid.

"Badger Rapid?" Jill half asks, half tells me, as we hear a rising rumble near Mile 8. We check the straps on our life jackets, tighten the strings on our sunglasses, and reach for the handholds.

You can run the river in 40-foot motorized boats, or in smaller, oar-powered rubber rafts that wallop and bend their way through the rapids. But we have chosen dories for exactly this kind of moment. "A perfect craft for the canyon," says Derald Stewart, a dory builder and boatman who is rowing the Temple Butte just ahead of us. "Buoyant, quick, and. . . ." The bow of his boat dips into the rapid, slides down the slick, tonguelike first wave, and then rises, twisting slightly like a bubble caught in a crosswind, straightens, and curls down the other side. . . graceful."

We turn to watch the other two dories bounce through the rapid—the maroon Redwall and the black Muav. They are craft of ancient lines: 18 feet long, flat-bottomed, flared out widely amidships, and swept up on both ends like a quarter moon. They seem to leap through the white water. Every wave, every pirouette of current, touches them, brings them to life. It is the motion...of dance. Exactly. The dories are dancing with the waves.

In the first days, there are only a few dances. Although there are over 160 rapids in the Grand Canyon—and some of the largest in the world—most of the big ones come later, in the lower canyon. Here, the boats drift quietly, moving easily beneath the slow parade of canyon walls.

Unlike the all-at-once views from the rim, the river-level views of the canyon are revealed one cliff face, one bend, at a time. It is a poetic way to see this landscape, each layer cut by the river a verse in the poetry of stone. It becomes a chant: Kaibab Limestone, Toroweap, Coconino Sandstone, Hermit Shale, Supai, Redwall, and down and down, as though we are sliding into the center of the earth. A river flowing backward in time.

We pass a side canyon where 300-million-year-old sea creatures called nautiloids swim fossilized in rock. We drift beneath cliff walls wavy with the lines of a riverbed turned to stone 400 million years ago. There are places in the canyon where the width of your hand can encompass nearly a billion years of geologic time. "Kind of makes our 70 years here on earth seem insignificant, doesn't it?" I once heard a passenger say. "Or precious," the boatman answered. "Or precious."

Every bend yields something new. At Vaseys Paradise, a snow white fountain of springwater appears out of solid rock. Near Mile 50 I hike alone into a small grotto so silent I can hear my pulse—the red river flowing in my own veins. Once, we float up silently on a herd of bighorn sheep: seven ewes and two rams half hidden in the brush. In the stillness, we can hear the clicking of teeth as one of the ewes bites at an itch on its flank.

The dizzying cliffs and stifling heat can make the Grand Canyon seem a lifeless place, an empty stone house. At Unkar Delta near Mile 72, on a broad flat where the walls peel back a bit, letting in more light, lies the largest archaeological site in the canyon. From about 950 until 1150 A.D., when they were driven out of the canyon by drought, a group of Anasazi families lived on this spot, growing corn, hunting mule deer, and making pottery.

Other cultures have left pictographs, a few small granaries, graceful split-twig figurines sprinkled throughout the canyon. But it is the pottery at Unkar Delta that seems to echo the most. The ground sparkles with shards—sunset red, gray as fog, pinched clay braids, and the famous black-on-white pattern. Picking them up is like holding a chip of time in the palm of your hand. "The Anasazi potters have always inspired me," says Jan Yost, an artist herself. "Here they were eking out an existence, and yet art was still so important to them that they spent precious extra hours just to make something beautiful." How could they not, I think to myself, setting the shard back among the stones, with so much beauty all around them?

Dawn. the sun's first light has just now brushed itself across the desert sky, turning it a soft, watery blue that will last only a few hours before the heat of the day. At this early hour, the canyon walls seem to lean in to stare at themselves in the river, their reflections swirling the water with ribbons of gold and orange and red. There is a canyon wren singing, its song skipping down the scale like pebbles sprinkled down a cliff face. The notes add music to a morning breeze already tinged with the aroma of brewing coffee and the soft scent of sage.

But there is more on the breeze than the smells of breakfast. There is an edge of tension. By Mile 93, the openness of the upper canyon is gone. The walls have closed in, gone dark with rock as old as time itself. At 1.7 billion years old, Vishnu schist is some of the oldest rock on the planet. The earth's bones. It squeezes the river tight. The shadows seem to swallow the light. The air rumbles with the sound of rapids.

We have entered the Inner Gorge, the dark heart of the canyon. It is, as boatman Amy Wiley calls it, "the land of the giants." Here are the rapids the Grand Canyon is famous for—Horn Creek, Granite, Hermit, Crystal. Granite lies just downstream, close enough to have rumbled all night in our dreams.

Packing goes slower today. People check and recheck their gear. The air seems heavy, and it is harder to breathe. We are about to put ourselves into the maw of the Colorado River's power, into the very strength that has carved this canyon. To ease the tension, all the boatmen have slipped into black shorts—Vishnu shorts they call them, in parody of the rock that creates the Inner Gorge. Despite the humor, they take this stretch of river very seriously.

After a long scout, with Derald sketching the rapids in the sand to be sure of the route, all the boats run Granite safely. We relax a bit. Still, as the boatmen like to say, "Events occur." This time, they occur in Hermit Rapid. The Temple Butte slides down the fourth of seven mountainous waves, lines up for the fifth in perfect position, and then is upside-down. Just like that. As quick as slapping a mosquito. From downstream, we hear a shout, "They're over!" It is a sunny morning, already hot, but the water is frigid. A long swim can be dangerous. Two passengers come floating downstream. Kristi Washburn is wide-eyed but gives the thumbs-up sign when I yell to her. Ed Smith swims up snapping photographs with his waterproof camera.

With help, Derald rights the boat, the buoyant dory rolling back up easily, collects his remaining passenger, and floats down to a beach where we stop to regroup. The adrenaline is coursing like electric current. Everyone is talking. "I've never felt so helpless in all my life," Ed says, still shaking with cold and with the enormity of what he was moments ago afloat in. "That river did whatever it wanted with me."

No one is hurt. Nothing important is lost. Within a few minutes we are back on the water, running a whole string of rapids—Boucher and Crystal, some of "the Gems"—without incident. "There are just two kinds of boatmen in the Grand Canyon," an old river saying goes, "Those who have flipped and those who are going to." Later that night, sitting in the boats, drinking beer and retelling the story, Derald takes me aside and whispers "Jeff, if you put that in your article, just make sure and say I hit it square." So...he hit it square.

The Grand Canyon is not a single gash. Hundreds of smaller side canyons cut their way to the main canyon, slicing their own depths through the rock, each one a beautiful brushstroke in stone. After a day in the big rapids, the river slows for a few days, giving us time to relax and explore. At Shinumo Creek we wade through jade green water to slide like river otters down a small waterfall on our bellies. At Matkatamiba, we create "butt dams" by sitting close together in the narrow creek to back up the water, and then jump up, racing the mini flash floods downstream. We take a whole day to wander the blue-green paradise of Havasu Canyon.

It is a world unimaginable from the rim—the sensuous swirls of rock, monkeyflowers tickling your calves, drops of water like dew on your face. If it was the power of water that created the Grand Canyon, it is its artistry that makes it beautiful. Deep in Havasu Canyon the rest of the world seems distant.

It is a calm before the storm. Near Mile 175, the nervousness among the guides returns. We are nearing Lava Falls. Forty-foot motor rigs have been flipped here, dories tossed end for end. Once, when I rowed my father through on a trip 14 years ago, he shook my hand four times below this rapid and said, "That's the most exciting thing in my life since I met your mother."

The guides scout for a long time, standing atop the black boulders pointing at the waves. The roar of the rapid is deafening. Jan stretches to limber up. Derald winds and rewinds the tape over a blistered finger.

The guides are back in the boats, and suddenly there is water everywhere—waves breaking over us like white mountains, sheets of rain hammering the dories. Thunder like rocks rolling in the sky; rocks rolling like thunder in the river.

"ABL!" I hear Chuck yell as we are shot out into the quiet water below. "Alive Below Lava." As the last of the boats comes safely through the waves, the sun breaks out as if on cue.

"The world looks different below Lava," Chuck says as our two boats float close together. "It always does." With the big rapids behind us now, we drift in the current hardly dipping the oars, searching for bighorn in the cliffs. We soak each other in water fights with the bailing buckets to beat the heat and work on our campfire stories for the last night.

Thinking about what stories I will tell, I remember watching Jan sketching in a dory, Amy scrambling among the rocks to photograph the star-burst pattern of an agave plant. Each of us, in our own way, tries to capture a piece of a place like the Grand Canyon, something to carry away with us. Yet, is there a color on the palette for the softness of the sand in the morning? Or an f-stop for the taste, like iron, of fear in your mouth standing above a rapid?

For all the photographs and paintings, for all the words we write, the canyon remains just beyond the reach of our imaginations, ungraspable in its entirety. We take our memories, like a pocketful of colorful threads, and weave our own view of it as best we can.

Our final camp is on a small crescent of beach just above Mile 237 Rapid. Below, where the river goes still with the fat fingers of Lake Mead, a motorboat will meet us tomorrow and speed us back to a bus bound for Las Vegas. For now though, there are toasts to be made, stories to tell long after dark, sitting in the warm sand. And tomorrow, one final rapid to run. This time there are no Hollywood theatrics, no sky-splitting bolts of lightning. There are just soft shafts of sunlight draped across the canyon walls, the song of a canyon wren mixing with the roar of the rapid. And one last time, the dories dancing. It is enough. It is more than enough.

The information in this story was accurate at the time it was published, but we suggest you confirm all details before making travel plans

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Be sure to drink lots of water in Las Vegas

2005-06-05T17:57:00.000-07:00

Be sure to drink lots of water if you're going to walk the strip when it hot out. It can get over 100 degrees, and you can get heat exhaustion pretty quickly. Many hotels offer free trams to other hotels.. Before planning your day, make sure to schedule in these trams to minimize your walking. Also, don't walk downtown (other than freemont st) at night by yourself!
Best Way to Get Around:

Taxi's are good to get around.. I recommend renting a car for at least a day or two so you can see the beautiful things around Las Vegas.

I took a trip to Arizona and stopped at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon

2005-06-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

In November, 2001, I took a trip to Arizona and stopped at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, almost as an afterthought. Since I was in the area, I figured I'd stop by and see this "must see" place known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

I read somewhere that the average visitor spends 8 minutes looking at the Grand Canyon. I headed over on a day trip, thinking the couple of hours allotted for the excursion would be sufficient.

Something changed in me forever when I saw the Canyon for the first time. I don't remember those 8 minutes going by or the time that followed. I was awestruck, utterly fascinated by the sight that lay before me. By the time my now clearly too short visit was over, two things were apparent to me. I knew I had to return. I also knew that I had to hike to the bottom.

Two years later, the dream came true. In November, 2003, just days after my 30th birthday, I set out from the Grand Canyon South Rim in the pouring near freezing rain on a long anticipated three day excursion to the bottom of the Canyon. Hiking the Grand Canyon had been my objective since that November day two years prior. It didn't quite go as I planned, but it was more than I could have imagined.

I plan to return one day to hike from the North Rim to the bottom. Since I haven't been out there yet, I don't dream of the hike with the vivid images that haunted me for 2 years before the South Rim hike. But I still dream of the Canyon and anticipate the day I can make the dream continue. Send Picture as a PostCard. Grand Canyon In November, 2003, I began my 3 day hike from the South Rim to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. To say that things did not go as planned would be the biggest understatement of my not exactly understated life. At 7 a.m. the first morning of the hike, Jim and Dan, my hiking guides and companions on this otherwise unexpecetedly solo trip, arrived bearing not so great news. A weather system had blown over the area and was expected to last for three days. Depending on the severity of the storm, we could encounter flash floods and rockslides along the Hermit Trail, our intended route.

I'd began planning this trip a year and a half in advance. For many reasons, it was something I needed to do. So many things had stood in the way, but, in spite of them, I made it this far. I told Jim that canceling wasn't an option and that we needed to go. He smiled and said, "This is your dream. Its taken a lot for you to get out here. We'll find a way to make it happen." If he only knew the truth of what he was saying.

Jim and Dan managed to get a permit to camp at Bright Angel and Indian Gardens, which they felt was a safer route, given the weather. So we set off later that Monday morning, under gray skies which had been clear blue in my dreams, bundled up to protect against pelting rain and 30 degree temperatures. Jim promised me 2 things that morning: that we would make it safely and that it would be an incredible experience. He was right on both counts.

Oftentimes in our travels, we meet people who have an impact on us. On a very rare occasion, we meet those whose words and actions touch us so deeply that they leave an imprint on our hearts and minds. For me, those people are usually the ones who do not realize that they have done something so powerful. They are usually the humble everday sorts just going about their business, neither wanting nor seeking praise and attention, yet creating a bit of road magic for those fortunate enough to cross their paths. Jim was one of those people.

On that cold Monday morning when I contemplated quitting on this whole thing, Jim reminded me that this was my dream and that he was here to make it happen. It was, and, thanks to his perseverence, he did. I'll always be grateful for that, and, in some way, this page is my tribute to this very special man who inspires people far more than he realizes. Thanks, Jim.

The Mandalay is the newest acquisition by the MGM Mirage Group Las Vegas

2005-06-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

That’s right—7.9 billion dollars! The Mandalay is the newest acquisition by the MGM Mirage Group, owners of half the properties on the Strip.

Q:What does this mean to you?
A: Being treated like a million dollars simply comes standard.

Vacations can demand lots of exploring time off-property. Mandalay Bay solves that issue, consciously constructed to be the ultimate vacation experience. All things desired to deliver a sated stray from home are found on one property. Las Vegas has been reinvented. Welcome to destination Mandalay Bay!

Mandalay Bay shines among Sin City’s competition for more reasons than this sky-scraping hotel’s precious-metal-tinted windows, a 43-story golden treasure visible to and defining the hopes of every passenger in a window seat landing at the airport. Imagine this: three hotels, 16 restaurants, 7 pools on 11 lagoon acres, Broadway venues, world-class spas, live music, hot dance clubs, professional sporting events, top concert entertainment, and its own unique retail shopping plaza (containing another 45 shops and restaurants!) set on 60 lush acres!

Mandalay’s Towers rise tall, providing a stay where the casino welcomes you to and from your room. About 3,300 rooms and suites opened their doors in 1999. THE hotelis the latest in sophisticated service and boutique atmosphere. All 1,100 rooms are suites. A stand-alone tower connected to the main hotel by easy indoor access provides its own restaurants, lounges, and clubs. The Four Seasons affords access to the amenities of Mandalay. It is complete with a private pool and building exclusively for its discriminating guests.

This is gamblers’ paradise. Slots sing seductive siren's songs, beckoning us to depart with our dollars or fund the fantasy of the ever-elusive progressive jackpot. Choruses of cheers float to the ceiling from the craps tables while the snap of crisp cards on blackjack tables create a symphony hall effect in 135,000 square feet of casino. Mind your obsessions or let them go wild, depending on what you can afford.

From the famousHouse of Blues and The Gospel Brunch; to Chef Hubert Keller’s San Francisco French culinary extravaganza, Fleur de Lys; to the tropically Cajun and Caribbean fare of Rum Jungle, doubling as one of the hottest dance clubs in town; and to Broadway’s Mama Mia musical and the host of live bands playing throughout the various club venues in the casino, boredom is illegal.

Quick Tips/Suggestions:

Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino at 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S. in Las Vegas, Nevada 89119
877/632-7800

On the Monorail, a ticket is needed for each ride. A single ride is $3 from your boarding point to your chosen disembarking point. The tickets are conveniently sold at the stations, and there are discounted values available.

$10 Unlimited Day Pass - This is good for exactly 24 hours.
$20 Dollar Ten-Ride Shareable Family Pack Pass - Each ride is counted from a get-on to get-off stop.
$25 Three-Day Unlimited Pass - Non-shareable

Careful with the ticket. Bent ones will not work. Place it safely, since it is like cash in your wallet or purse when not using it.

There are no fee charges to your credit or bank cards. There are no refunds.

Check the Internet before your trip for discount coupons and free passes. Show tickets should be reserved ahead of time. And always, always, always keep your wallet safely in your front pocket and cash separate. Any crowded situation is a pickpocket’s payday.
Best Way to Get Around:

The Mandalay property is meant to be walked. Familiarizing yourself with the property to ease navigation to your locations is a good idea. There are maps at the check-in desk or VIP reception. If you find reason to leave for a while during your stay:

A tram is available in the Mandalay and swiftly delivers you to the Luxor and the Excalibur. It is a short walk across Las Vegas Boulevard to the MGM Grand and the Monorail.

Taxis are available at all hotels and can be very expensive.

The Monorail recently expanded from three to seven stops. It is inexpensive, and on busy days, faster than cabs on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Open 7am to 2am, it runs in a continuous loop from the MGM to the Sahara in about 15 minutes.
Kids under 5 ride free.
Stations are under armed security and monitored by closed-circuit TV, making it one of the safest mass-transit systems in the country.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Where do you start with highlights in Las Vegas?

2005-06-02T22:39:00.000-07:00

Where do you start with highlights in Las Vegas? Race for Atlantis is a must do at Ceasar’s Palace, Star Trek - The Experience is another not to miss. For sheer wonder, go to Freemont Street at night and see the spectacular light show. Go on a helicopter ride over the city at night.

Probably the easiest highlight to tackle is simply to wander down the Strip at night and look at all the hotels in their glory. Quick Tips/Suggestions:

Drink plenty of water while walking about, it is very hot in Vegas and you dehydrate very quickly.

Try to visit as many hotels as possible, they are attractions in their own right. Best Way to Get Around:

Walking is the best way of getting around, although if you need to go from one end of the Strip to the other, a taxi is probably a better idea. There are also moving walkways operating between many of the hotels, just hop on and let the path do the walking. Shuttle buses also operate up and down the Strip. If you plan to go further, then the car is the only viable option.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam And Las Vegas

2005-05-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

Going to the Grand Canyon was great. So was the Hoover Dam. A lot of people think that the Grand Canyon is just a "big hole in the earth" but it really is magnificent.

Walking the Strip and going to all of the casinos is fun. All casinos have different décor/themes that distinguish them from each other.

There are a lot of varied museums that you can see, depending on your interest. Being from NYC, I did not feel the need to go to another wax museum, but there are other things to do besides gamble. For instance, I really had more fun on the roller coasters than in the casinos.

Vegas is a dynamic place, it’s kind of like being in a make-believe land; anything you want is yours for the having (with the right amount of $$). If you’re thinking of going, you’re thinking too hard: just go!

Quick Tips/Suggestions:

The Strip is VERY big. I recommend a central hotel like the Flamingo, Harrah's, Bally's, Ceasar's, or Bellagio.

Food can be cheap but the cheaper it is, the worse it is. My advice is not to eat the $0.99 pound hotdog at Circus Circus. The Bellagio has a GREAT buffet. I recommend eating there.

It is best to stay at a hotel on the Strip. Many people don't realize how big the strip is. Staying off-strip can be a real pain.

Do yourself a favor... read the coupon books before going out. I really felt stupid paying 15 dollars for something when back at the hotel I had a coupon for 50% off.

Oh, and try not to spend all your money at the airport... there are slots right at the gate and they are NOT generous. Book any bus-tours before you leave on your trip. It's a LOT cheaper booked ahead of time.

Best Way to Get Around:

Walk or take the free monorails (one is between Bally’s and MGM Grand; the other runs from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay with a stop at Luxor). You can take a bus to the Freemont Street Experience and there are public buses available. There is also a strip-tram that runs cheaply. We found walking to be the easiest and must fulfilling way to see Vegas. If you are going to the Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam, I'd take a tour bus. It was a looooong drive to the Canyon, and I was glad I was a passenger on a bus and not the driver. Don’t rent a car if you plan to stay on strip. It’s not worth it.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Flickr

2005-05-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Las Vegas I Will Sleep When I am Dead

2005-05-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

The highlight of this trip was the wave pool and lazy river at Mandalay Bay. I’ve never had so much fun at a pool before. We body surfed the waves, we jumped the waves, we got knocked over by the waves, and we watched cute boys in the waves. It was fun in the sun. Then we rested by taking an intertube down the lazy river – a river/pool with a 2 mph current that lets you relax and enjoy the ride.

Just staying at Mandalay Bay was a treat in itself. Normally out of my price range, I managed a great rate for Sunday night – my last night there. Thus far, it’s my favorite Vegas hotel – but I haven’t stayed at the Bellagio or the Venetian yet. The casino was exquisite, the room was huge (with two vanities), and we requested a great view and got just that!

Two staples of every trip my friend and I make to Vegas are a trip to the Luxor Spa and Friday night '80s night at the House of Blues. Friday night always hosts '80s dance music at the HOB - it’s the music of my generation, and every song inspires me to boogie on the dance floor. Then, my aching feet and aching everything else gets taken care of the next day with a wonderful massage and facial at the spa.

The newest slot machine game and my favorite of the trip was the Men In Black penny slot. Frank the Dog and Zed make an appearance, and it’s one of the most interactive and fun slots I’ve ever played. Frank the dog even sings, “And now we’re back. From outer space.” It gets stuck in your head.

Last, we tried something new this year – the Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues on Sunday afternoon. It was a great breakfast followed by some “church up in here.” Don’t expect to sit much – you’ll be on your feet! I even went up on stage!

Quick Tips/Suggestions:

Tips: Always look in the complimentary hotel magazines for coupons – Mandalay Bay even handed them out when you checked in. Look online as well – I printed out a ton of coupons for the Dessert Passage mall in the Aladdin before I left.

Also, take lots of change for playing the slots and also for tipping.

And always, ALWAYS request a room with a view. Can you believe that some people just take what they’re given? We requested views in both hotels and ended up with something fantastic to look at.

Best Way to Get Around:

You could walk - and this I recommend if it's your first trip. That way you'll get the whole experience. But now that I've been a few times and done the touristy side of Vegas, I take cab rides and save my feet for the dancing and shopping!

Something new I learned this time as well. The line for cabs at the airport was REALLY long - 15 planes landed all at the same time, so someone my friend met on the plane suggested we split a limo. Why not, we're in Vegas. There was a Town Car owner with a sign that read, "Knight Group." Our very knowledgeable new friend asked how much to take a town car - $35. But I was thinking, what about the poor Knight group? Well, there was no Knight group; he just can't solicit overtly at the airport. Good to know! We saved about 30 minutes in a taxi line, and our new friend picked up the tab. Woo hoo!

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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The Train Is A Grand Way To See The Grand Canyon

2005-05-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

Our grand adventure in Grand Canyon started in Williams, Arizona. After a hearty breakfast,we followed the train tracks to the lively cowboy gunfight show held prior to the train’s departure.

We rode coach class going up and first class coming back. We recommend paying the extra for first class because we had more leg room plus free drinks and food. We feasted on cheeses, crackers, dips, vegetables, and champagne poured in long-stemmed plastic glasses.

Strolling fiddle players entertained us with Old West folk tunes both ways, which made the two-hour trip go very fast.

When our train puffed into Grand Canyon Village about lunchtime, we rushed over to an observation point to get our first glimpse of this spectacular wonder carved by the Colorado River five million years ago.

Crescent-shaped basins of red rocks way below rim blended masterfully with varied colors and greenery on the cliffsides. The rocks looked like giant red clay flowerpots. Some of the “flowerpot” rocks looked as if ancient swirling waters had cut them in half. We grabbed our cameras and started taking pictures.

After a quick but bountiful lunch buffet (included with our bus tour package), we were on a bus to see more of Grand Canyon. At every observation point, we marveled at the rich-hued colors, the rapids cutting away more rocks, and the sky blue Colorado River at the very bottom of the canyon. Clouds hung over us most of the afternoon, but when the sun finally peaked out, we saw new brilliance in the canyon below.

Soon our three-hour bus tour was over, and it was time to board the train. On the return trip, two masked gunmen walked through the railcar and playfully held up passengers. Our attendant told us a story about a lady passenger who thought the train robbery was for real and hid her diamond bracelet in a package of crackers. She forgot to take the crackers with her when she left the train, but eventually she was reunited with her bracelet.

We started with relaxing steam train ride that avoided the heavy traffic on the roads around the national park. Best of all, we came back with many lovely memories and no broken bones.

Quick Tips/Suggestions:

Although we drove to Williams,you can take Amtrak to Williams and then connect to the Grand Canyon Railway later.

After spending a restful night in our deluxe room, we met hotel guests the next morning who had arrived from California on the eastbound Amtrak train. A Fray Marcos shuttle meets eastbound and westbound passenger trains at nearby Williams Junction every day.

Check out Route 66 in Williams before you leave.

Best Way to Get Around:

We did not need to do much walking up and down hills as our bus parked conveniently on the observation points reserved for buses and shuttles only. Earlier our guide warned us that the South rim is about 7,200-foot elevation, and we should not overexert ourselves in the high altitude.

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Grand Canyon South Rim Find Value Lose The Crowds

2005-05-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

The south rim of the Grand Canyon is about an hour's drive north of Flagstaff. During the summer months, the 25-mile entrance road can seem like little more than a long traffic jam that moves in fits and starts, but late March-early April will give you time to exchange greetings with the few people you see. The souvenir vendors that normally line Highway 64 to sell their wares don't even bother to set up for the few cars that whiz by. As for the canyon, it's awesome. But keep in mind that this is high country and temperatures in the mid-40s to mid-50s are common. (Coming after long a Wisconsin winter as we do, this doesn't bother us, but it scares off thin-skinned southern tourists in droves). Bring plenty of film, since every scenic vista will be nearly yours alone to photograph. This is some of the most fabulous scenery in North America and Grand Canyon National Park attracts nearly 5 million visitors annually. Fortunately for you and thanks to good timing, you may not encounter more than a few hundred of them.

Call it hokey, but we picked up a copy of the 'Grand Canyon' music tape at the gift shop as accompaniment to our drive to the various parking spots along the rim from scenic vista to scenic vista and it truly did contribute to the experience. (Many of these places were empty or nearly so in late March). It was a memorable day, but we did not feel we needed a second day, opting instead for other environs in the larger region.

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Grand Canyon Tours at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for hoover dam tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Hoover Dam Tours

2005-05-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

Why not do the Hoover Dam with a better lunch than the Hacienda and with a Comic on the bus? We booked the Ultimate Double Decker Bus Comedy Tour through paradisefoundtours.com. Unlike most Hoover Dam Tours, they provide both a friendly driver and a professional comedian guide! Double up in laughter as their comedian/guide keeps you amused! Discover enlightening historical facts about Las Vegas and Hoover Dam, presented in a lighthearted, descriptive fashion.

There's no need to worry as your driver zooms down the freeway at 60 mph while holding the microphone recanting boring facts because their drivers do not double as guides. Your guide (a headlining comedian from here in town) will treat you to a fun morning, making the 45-minute trip seem like seconds. Relive parts of your youth as you don fun disguises for your trip at the government inspection station. their guides aren't just fun they are also highly informative and will enlighten you to history of this magnificent structure.

Once at the dam, you'll be treated to their signature tour "Walk the Top", a fully guided walking tour over Hoover Dam. Their guides aren't just fun they are also highly informative and will enlighten you to history of this magnificent structure. Your guide will walk over the giant Arizona Spillway (large enough o float the largest battleship). The Bureau of Reclamations Discovery Tour is next. Here youll travel 500 down into the canyon wall to see the nine massive generators on the Nevada side of Hoover Dam. Youll also be able to take pictures from the visitors center overlook and view the exhibits. You may want to visit the gift shop before boarding the bus and heading off to enjoy a breathtaking Lake Mead scenic photo stop. The water here is some of the bluest youll ever see.

While here you may want to just take in the peaceful surroundings or laugh as the dozens of Antelope squirrel scamper around the area. For the adventurous, this stop also includes a stinktheyed demonstration. A morning outdoors is just what you need to work up an appetite. By now you should be ready for lunch and its a good thing because they have a delicious hot made to order lunch for you. Eat where Presidents, royalty and movie stars have, at the Historic Boulder Dam Hotel. No boring buffet here they make nearly everything themselves. It's time for the best 20 Minute movie you can see on Hoover Dam. It's all vintage footage of the actual construction. If you like knowledge and history you day is not over. After the movie you'll be able to check out the Boulder (Hoover) Dam Museum. Learn the history of discrimination during the construction or listen to the original 1935 switchboard where people who built the Dam tell their stories. No Hoover Dam tour would be complete without a tour of Boulder City (the historic town built for the dam workers). Find out why this is the only city in Nevada that does not have legalized gambling. It was built for the Dam workers and there is plenty to see and learn here. You will be amazed at the enormous size of one of the generators turbine engines (it shotheyd up defective and is now on display in central park).

You are going to see and learn about the famous dingbat houses built for the workers, the original Department of Reclamation and the historic Boulder (Hoover) Dam hotel. Beware this hotel is listed as #4 of Americas top 10 most haunted hotels. Next door to the hotel is Grandma Daisys homemade fudge shop, they cant leave town without sampling the stheyets here.

Speaking of sweets their next stop is at the world famous Ethyl Ms Chocolate Factory (home of the Mars bar) and Botanical Gardens. Youll have 45 minutes here to take a walking tour, sample their candy, purchase some treats or take a walk in the garden. On the way back to Vegas, their professional comedian/guide provides intriguing facts on the Las Vegas Mafia, Howard Hughes and what has been dubbed the "biggest bloodless coup" in Las Vegas history!

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Hoover Dam Tours at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Hoover Dam tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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The Fantastic And Unforgettable Las Vegas

2005-05-02T00:31:00.000-07:00

If someone had told me 3 months ago that I’d be spending Christmas in Las Vegas I would have told them they were mad. So when Rachel asked me to go 3 weeks before Christmas to attend their wedding there was no way I could say no. It was a trip I’d never thought of really making and certainly wasn’t high on my destinations list, or at least that’s what I thought. As the trip got the closer and the more I thought about it, the more I actually realised I really wanted to go.

We flew out with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick on the 23rd and some 10 hours and 4 films later arrived at Las Vegas, McCarran airport. It is a long flight to Vegas but taking off the 8 hours time difference meant we arrived at about one local time having left Gatwick at 10.30. The hardest part of the whole trip was next to come though as we stood in the immigration queue for almost 2 hours. The airport thankfully is right on the side of the strip so after that long arduous wait for immigration it isn’t a long transfer to the hotel. There are a number of shuttle buses and taxis available to take you from the airport to your desired hotel. If, however you fancy arriving at your hotel in style there are also Limos for hire outside. The Limo will cost you about $35 plus tip but the shuttles and taxis are very affordable.

At one point Las Vegas boasted 19 of the 20 biggest hotel complexes in the world and when you see the size of them it’s not hard to understand why. As you drive towards The Strip (the main street) there is a number of 4 and 5 story Travel Lodges. They cost about the same as the larger hotels on The Strip itself but not many people actually realise this before booking up. Due to the sheer number of rooms available in Vegas, some 124,270, they need to keep the prices competitive. So there are plenty of bargains to be had, with the flight likely to cost more than the hotel.

It’s hard to really imagine how Las Vegas will actually look. I’d built a mental picture in my mind but nothing prepared me for the views looking out of the hotel and onto The Strip. It’s hard to believe that a once small quiet town has developed into something as spectacular as this. It was during the construction of the Hoover Dam that Vegas started to expand, as the workers needed somewhere to spend their hard earned money on women and gambling. From there sprouted this truly amazing place that boast such sites as The Eiffel Tower and A Roman Coliseum.

We were staying at the Aladdin Hotel. It’s around about the middle of The Strip and offers guests the chance of a fantastic view of the Bellagio fountains. With some 52 floors and about 4000 rooms the Aladdin is a huge hotel. Like a lot of Vegas locations it has just about everything that’s needed under one roof. Each casino/hotel complex is pretty similar in this respect. All along The Strip the hotels seem to all have a large casino coupled with a number of attractions and a shopping centre. For instance the Aladdin had roughly a miles worth of shops in the fantastic Deserts Passage.

The main reason Vegas is famous though is nothing to do with the shops or the fantastic sights on offer around The Strip. It’s more famous for the Casinos and when I saw the size of these places it was easy to see why. In fact an amazing 9 billion is made from these casinos every year and with the casino floor being the size of a decent sized Tesco’s that figure almost seems a bit light. I didn’t have much cash to spend while I was there due to Christmas and everything else but I still managed to spend at least 3 hours a night in the casino playing various machines. With a jackpot of approaching 3 million dollars on some machines it was almost too hard to resist.

There is a lot more to Vegas than the Casinos though. If you have the time then the Grand Canyon and The Hoover Dam are both close by and it’s possible to do a number of excursions direct from your hotel lobby for around $40 - $60. We didn’t have time to do either trip but one day I will be going back to visit both of them. There are still literally hundreds of things you can do within Vegas itself and most of them are located along The Strip. It doesn’t matter what you are looking for, whether it be a magic show, play or even a wax work museum there are plenty of places worth visiting.

One of the best in my opinion was certainly the Las Vegas version of Ben Elton’s hit Queen Musical. I haven’t been to see the original London version yet but this one was fantastic. It’s showing at The Paris Hotel and tickets start at a very reasonable $50. A bit of the humour has been adapted to suit the American audience but regardless it was very funny. We didn’t get to see any other acts but with headliners such as Cirque De Soleil, David Copperfield and Celine Dion there is pretty much something for everyone.

The shows weren’t the only attractions that caught our eye. In fact it got to the point where 5 days really didn’t seem to be enough as every hotel offered an attraction of some sort that is worth visiting. The Roller Coaster on top of the New York New York casino seemed to draw us towards it on Christmas Day. Apart from a slight mishap it was a great ride and, although a little steep at $12 a go, was still well worth it. For the thrill seekers amongst you there are a number of attractions around, with the Luxor’s I-max cinema and Circus Circus having a fantastic indoor theme park. There are also a number of rides on top of the Stratosphere Tower, which unfortunately we didn’t make it to. The rides on top of there look to be quite extreme as they are some 345 metres above The Strip.

There are also a large number of museums with Madame Tussauds well worth a visit, it’s a lot better than the London one and Tussauds pass holders get in for free. Tussauds is located at The Venetian Hotel along with The Guggenheim Museum, which unfortunately we didn’t get to visit but it certainly sounds worth going to. The only attraction that really disappointed me was The Shark Reef at The Mandalay Bay as it didn’t seem to be any better than a Sea Life Centre. Even the promise of a Great White was a slight exaggeration as it was only a baby rather than the larger one we were told was there. It cost us almost $13 and the value for money seemed to be sadly lacking, but that’s another review.

I already briefly mentioned the shopping aspect of Vegas and around The Strip there is no shortage of places to shop. There are designer shops all over the place with the Bellagio home to a lot of the more exclusive shops. If you are looking for clothes the best place to go would be the Fashion Show Mall or The Forum shopping centre, both located along the Strip. A lot of the shops seemed to be quite expensive in the other Casinos but I found The Forum at Caesar’s Palace to be quite reasonably priced. One of the most fascinating shops in Vegas has to be the M&M store. A 4 storey building with every item of M&M merchandising you can think of. So whether it’s a T-shirt or a fridge magnet or one of 21 different flavours of M&Ms they can be found here.

You’ll also find the need to eat and again there is pretty much something for everyone. So whether you fancy McDonalds or a $35 a course lobster claw dinner from The Bellagio then you will be sure to find it. We had all our meals at the hotel and with the various restaurants located in the Desert Passage there is plenty of choice. There is an average of about 8 places to eat in each casino, all very reasonably priced and easy to find. There is even a 24 hour Starbucks in the Aladdin for those of you, like me, who love a good cup of tea.

The biggest problem we found with the food and drink search was actually finding a bar to sit down and have a drink. All the restaurants had small areas you could sit in but no where really encouraged you to go there and have 4 or 5 drinks, it was more get you in get you out. It was, however, cheaper to get drinks as you played on the various machines in the Casino as it only costs you what ever you want to tip the waitress rather than the bar price. The other thing that impressed us were the cocktail bars in various hotels shopping complexes, where you could buy large cocktails to carry round with you whilst you took in the sights of Las Vegas.

One of the other main reasons people make trips to Vegas, and the main reason for our trip, is to get married. It’s said there are around 315 weddings a day in Vegas and at a cost of roughly $35 dollars it is easy to understand why. Each casino seemed to have a wedding chapel of their own and there are also a number of independently run chapels. They all go to great lengths to make sure you have a special day and have a number of packages available. If you really feel the need to get married on the spur of the moment you can even use a drive thru chapel and not have to leave your car and I wouldn’t be surprised if they throw in burger and fries with it as well.

Getting around in Vegas is relatively easy. Of course you have the option of walking but the shear distances involved can be too much for some people. So rather than walk everywhere it is probably easiest to get the Monorail, which runs from the MGM Grand to The Sahara and Excalibur to Mandalay Bay, stopping at various other Hotels on the way. It is reasonably priced with a day ticket costing about $3. There are also bus routes and taxis on The Strip but during most of the day and night it is totally packed and it’s actually easier to walk. The cost of a taxi is very reasonable though and if you intend to travel anywhere off The Strip it’s certainly the best way to travel.

I felt we really got the timing of our visit spot on. As Vegas is in the middle of the desert the summers can be unbearably warm. Christmas time however is quite similar to our summer time and although the Americans were complaining about the cold, I spent most of the trip wearing t-shirts and even came back with a reasonable tan. It did rain on the last day of our visit but we were already on the way to the airport. They don’t get much rain in Vegas, but I’d certainly recommend going during the winter.

It is without doubt an amazing place and nothing can really prepare you for just how surreal the whole experience is. I would definitely recommend visiting Vegas to anyone who thinks they would like to go but is still a little unsure. There is plenty to do even if you don’t feel that gambling is your type of thing. The fountains outside the Bellagio for instance are a sight not to be missed and certainly something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. The next time I visit it will certainly be for longer, with a lot more money as there are still loads of things I’d love to do.

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Other valuable resources

Valuable Links:
Grand Canyon Tours
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Grand Canyon

I Worked At The Grand Canyon

2005-05-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

I worked at the Grand Canyon for two years, and it was one of the best things I ever did in my life. Living and working in a national park is absolutely a wonderful experience. You get to see the park in all seasons, in every light, from sunrise to sunset and moonrise and beyond. You don't just visit the park, you get to learn about the area, its people, and its moods. So, if you get the opportunity, run don't walk, and work at a park!

Now that I've said that, working at a park also teaches you the best times to visit...when the tourists aren't there! If you like feeling as if you have the park to yourself, obviously summertime isn't going to be your first choice for a park vacation. Just as obviously, many people, especially those with families, can't go at any other time. If you have to visit in the summer, try for very early (late April, early May), or very late (late September, early October). Even then, the crowds will be more than they would be at other times, but you may not run into as many people as say, the 4th of July. I would avoid three-day weekends like the plague.

Of course it goes without saying that the most popular points, like Yavapai, Hermit's Rest, and Desert View are usually also the busiest in any season. One of my favorite ways to get away, and find some peace and quiet, even during the summer, was walk the short trail from the El Tovar Hotel to the Visitor's Center. It's not more than a mile, paved, and winds right along the rim of the canyon. There are plenty of places to sit and look out over the canyon, away from the crowds, hustle, and bustle. One of my favorite memories is sitting there one summer evening, right after dusk, and watching a big thunderstorm over on the North Rim. It was magical.

I think the very best time to visit the canyon is in the winter. If the roads are bad, try taking the train, it's a great trip, and safer than driving. In the winter, the park takes on a whole different personality. It's quiet, some of the lodges and restaurants are closed, and everything takes on a slower, calmer aspect. The employees and park personnel have more time to talk with you, and you can spend more time just staring out into the canyon in solitude, if you'd like to. The busiest times in the winter are over Christmas, and again, three day weekends. To avoid the crowds, avoid those times.

Winter at the canyon is a magic time. If you get the chance, make sure you visit this winter!

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for The Grand Canyon at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

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Valuable Links:
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Grand Canyon

I Worked At The Grand Canyon

2005-05-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

Comprehensive Guide To Las Vegas

2005-04-26T00:15:00.000-07:00

I have been long-haul on British Airways, and can tell you that the services and facilities – eg, leg room, space, food, in-flight movies etc – do not differ greatly. Nonetheless, I do give a lot of credit to Virgin Atlantic for an easy, stress-free flight. Although the space in the economy seating – what do you expect, I’m not willing to pay £8000 to sit in first class - was limited (I am about 6”1’), I still had free movement and enough space to sit comfortably for 10 hours. The service from the stewards was top-rate, and we were continually offered free drinks. I can not remember what I had to eat on the flight, but we had two meals per flight, as well as snacks, all of which I found reasonable – do not believe the harsh stereotypes of disgusting aeroplane food (unless you are flying with EasyJet I suppose.) In-flight entertainment was excellent, with a choice of 9 or so movies to keep me entertained, as well as music. All the movies are updated monthly, as to keep it up to date, so you will not be watching any films that have been out more than a couple of months.
and I feel more beautiful.

It should be noted that there are many stop over flights, which enable you to visit other parts of America such as San Francisco. However, this is time consuming, and if you are only really going to see LV, it is definitely worth flying direct.

After the flight, we nipped into a taxi which drove us to our hotel in a couple of minutes. As the strip is fairly modern, the first hotel being erected just after WWII, everything is built together efficiently and effectively, so no long distance journeys from destination to destination. One thing to say about the taxis is to ask the driver lots of questions. A small percentage of the time, they can be a bit grumpy and impatient, but many have a tremendous and fascinating local knowledge of the area. I gained a lot of information about LV’s history, as well as ideas and places to visit.

Nonetheless, the taxis are fairly expensive – all running on the same meter due to a number of businesses owning the whole ‘taxi industry’ in LV – and I would suggest the bus. The buses run almost constantly up and down the strip, though if time is limited (which it probably is as there is so much to see) it may be worth spending a few extra dollars on a taxi.

However, walking the strip is what I would recommend the most, especially on warm, pleasant days. Although the strip is 4 miles long, and it wouldn’t be too wise to walk it all, walking enables you to stop and look in shops, cafes, restaurants or hotels at your own leisure. There are monorails joining some hotels, which is an easier way to travel – free and direct. However, they are very limited, and I would only recommend using the one linking the Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay.

ACCOMODATION

We stayed in the Excalibur, in the southern end of the strip. The room was fairly standard – bed, air con, table, sofa, television etc. However, this really isn’t important at all, for the simple reason that you spend such little time in your room. As this was our first visit, we weren’t quite sure where to stay, but the Excalibur is a lively, relatively cheap option. I would also recommend Circus Circus as one of the cheapest options, but it is more family orientated in the hotel.

Every Hotel has a casino, with literally thousands of various slots, as well as tables for blackjack, roulette and craps (amongst others). In many hotels, there are also poker rooms to compete against fellow gamblers. For the high rollers, there are separate rooms to gamble away thousands at a time – not greatly appealing to me!!! When gambling, free drinks are given, though you often have to wait for a long time to be served by the few waitresses there are covering a huge casino floor.

There are often food courts in the hotels as well, with a few small cafes and restaurants in addition to the usual McDonalds and Pizza Hut. I would urge everyone to visit a buffet at least once during a visit, all of which are fairly cheap.

Lots of hotels have arcades for the U21’s, but most are not as ‘up to date’ as all the information guides say. They are fairly standard, just as you would see in England. I would highly recommend the arcade at Circus Circus. It is huge and also has an indoor theme park with an indoor log flume.

LAS VEGAS WEATHER

Throughout the year, the weather is mainly sunny. I feel it is best to go between March – June, as in the summer months my friend told me it was uncomfortably hot on occasions, and it was best to stay inside with the air condition. In summer, it is also far busier leading to cramped, sweaty conditions in many of the leading hotels.

TIPPING

Though slightly irrelevant at this point, tipping is an important factor in LV. From taxi drivers to blackjack dealers, it is claimed you should “tip everybody.” It is hard to suss out how much you should give, but a couple of dollars per taxi fare should be sufficient, and if receiving a free drink in the casinos, it is customary to leave a one dollar bill.

SHOWS AND ENTERTAINMENT

I can not speak highly enough of “The Tournament of the Kings” at the Excalibur. In a small arena, you are divided into countries cheering on your horseman in jousting and fighting events throughout the evening. The atmosphere is immense, as is the action and drama. This is a really professional show where the actors do really go at each other with their swords, adding to the realism and excitement. Throughout the evening, I had to remind myself we weren’t in the medieval era!!! Served with half a chicken and wedges was fun, having to eat it with your hands – you can see how the atmosphere is set – and the overall meal and entertainment turned out to be great value for money. I got talking to a couple of Americans just before the show who had seen the show no less than 34 times. WARNING – if sitting in the front row, make sure you eat fairly quickly as the horses can kick sand up into your meal.

There are shows throughout the strip with huge stars such as Elton John and Celine Dion. However, performers often change and it is best to research who will be there at the corresponding dates. Huge musical shows as well as sports events are usually held at Caesar’s Palace.

The gondola rides in The Venetian are a must for any romantic couples, serenaded as you travel through a canal inside the hotel. Definitely worth doing, as the scenery is beautiful – sounds a bit strange doesn’t it as you are inside, but the ceiling is painted like the sky and the shops and cafes around are stunning. Be warned though, you often get the feeling you are being stared at by others along the river.

The Stratosphere is another must for everyone visiting LV for the first time. It gives a fantastic view of the strip – a great photo opportunity. It also has the fastest lift in the world, climbing 120 floors in about 20 seconds – apparently going 21mph.

There is quite a number of simulator rides and Imax 3D experiences, some of which are worth visiting. Most are only a few dollars, and quite fun. Obviously these change frequently, so I could not recommend a certain film to you.

There are also a number of free shows which are performed nightly in the overall attempt to gain the upper hand from hotel to hotel. I can recommend a few…

Treasure Island outdoor show – amazing sound, action and fireworks telling a story of enemy pirates. It includes dancing and fighting, as well as a huge moving boat – amazing considering this is all just outside the hotel. (Performed three times per night.)

Exploding volcano – outside the Mirage every fifteen minutes. I was unsatisfied with this spectacle, which lasted around two minutes. Worth seeing though if you are walking past.

Fountain Show – at the Bellagio. Huge jets fire masses of water in time with the music. There are also different demonstrates, so I saw the fantastic fountains about six times in all. Really spectacular.

The Conservatory – inside the Bellagio. Absolutely amazing plants, as well as a real life scene from Monet’s famous paintings. Really worth seeing, along with the famous Italian glass inside the hotel.

The Freemont experience – downtown, to the North of the strip. This is definitely worth seeing, with millions of LED lights giving a daily laser show on the ceiling!!!

M+M world is a huge building dedicated to the wonderful chocolate that is M+M. Interesting.

FOR THE ADVENTUROUS

The Rollercoaster around New York New York is not for the faint-hearted. Apparently, the views are great and you even get to see the strip upside down, but the queues are often long and slow moving.

The stratosphere has a number of rides, including a rollercoaster. There is also a ride that tips you over the edge of the building, as you sit there facing down 120 storeys – not really my cup of tea!!!

EATING AND DRINKING

As I have mentioned, it is definitely worth checking out a buffet or two, but there are a number of other fantastic bars and restaurants. I am only going to mention a few of the ones that stood out for me, because there are numerous restaurants, all serving great food.

Coyote Ugly at New York New York is a lively bar just like in the film, with table top dancing and a wild, party atmosphere.

Eiffel Tower Restaurant at the Paris Hotel is a great restaurant with terrific views, as you suddenly find yourself in France, which I found out is actually in America, not… France?!?!?

The Cheesecake factory is amazing for a light lunch or massive cheesecake – at Caesar’s Palace.

The Terrace Restaurant at the Bellagio is a stylish place to dine, with the additional factor of the magnificent fountains as a show every fifteen minutes.

SHOPPING

There are a fair few shopping centres but I would only recommend the Premium Outlet Centre just North of the strip. It sells clothes at an amazing price, half of what you would expect to pay in England. If you have children or grandchildren, it is definitely worth getting them some clothes, as there is loads of Nike and Adidas items!

For the more lavish shopper, get to the Mall at Caesar’s Palace. It has shops from all the best designers such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and D&G. Quite expensive though, as you can imagine.

There are also masses of souvenirs which are a must, located all along the strip.

GRAND CANYON

It is essential for anybody on a single visit to fly via plane or helicopter over the Hoover dam and around the Grand Canyon. It is safer to book in advance, but you can get great deals from operators on the strip. We flew to Grand Canyon, had BBQ lunch on the rim of Grand Canyon, flew down into basin by Helicopter and went on a boat along the Colorado river and back up in the Helicopter and flew back to Vegas for £150 each. The views are simply breathtaking, and I would love to meet anybody who could put the whole experience into words.

GENERAL LAS VEGAS BOULEVARD

Las Vegas is not simply about gambling. For me, it was more about looking at the overwhelming sites in and around the hotel – here are a few of the fantastic hotels and what they represent…

Luxor – pyramid

Excalibur – medieval castle

Venetian – Venice

Paris – Paris (obviously)

Caesar’s Palace – well you can imagine, absolutely awe-inspiring.

New York New York – fantastic skyline of New York and Statue of Liberty (with memorial to Sep 11.) x

There is also constant building work along the boulevard, meaning rapid growth for LV. In ten years time, I think the Strip will be twice as big and popular as it is now. My prediction is that there will eventually be a “London Hotel” – though I will claim the idea, just think of the possibilities; Houses of Parliament, London Dungeons, London Eye?

MY TIPS AND IDEAS

Plan a basic itinerary before you arrive and list all the things you plan to see, and then tick it off once you have – it is very easy to forget to go somewhere which you will regret later.

Spend time visiting each casino, and collect as many souvenirs as possible – eg money pots, used decks of cards and matches.

Avoid the roads as much as possible – its extremely dangerous crossing seven lane highways – use bridges from hotel to hotel as much as possible.

Avoid travelling on the roads at weekends; it becomes extremely congested at times.

When checking out at the airport, especially terminal two at the McCarren airport, it is worth checking in your bags as early as possible (usually around four hours before boarding) and then getting a taxi to the Hard Rock Hotel/Cafe for lunch - just off the strip by the airport. This means you waste minimal time waiting around at the airport, and the hotel has a huge variety of memorabilia which is worth seeing.***

Watch out for any fashions or clothes people are wearing – in a couple of months, it is likely to be a hit in England, but double the price.

This is possibly the best advice I had from an American whilst standing in the queue for breakfast – “Think 24 hours, not 12!” Everything is always open, so go to bed when you are tired, not necessarily at conventional hours. There is too much to see for you to be wasting time sleeping – there is always time to sleep when you get home!

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas Tours at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Valuable Links:
Grand Canyon Tours
Las Vegas Tours
Hoover Dam Tours
Las Vegas

Grand Canyon And The Total Perspective Vortex

2005-04-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

Trin Tragula was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space, or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake.

"Have some sense of proportion!" she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.

And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex--just to show her. And into one end he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.

To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford is a sense of proportion.’ (Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy)

The Grand Canyon, may not be the whole infinity of creation, or a fairy cake but it certainly puts size into perspective, and as for a sense of proportion well...

The Grand Canyon is undoubtedly one of the true natural wonders of the world. The rock formations are known the world over, as the red strata is one of the most photographed areas in the world. This stratum shows millions years of evolution and erosion, the inaccessibility of some of the pictographs (cave drawings) are proof of that. But however many pictures you see, however many holiday programmes you watch, you could even know every statistic there is to know on what is essentially an enormous hole in the ground, but the reaction when you first see it, is indescribable it is very difficult not to gasp in amazement and awesome may be a horrid word, but for the Grand Canyon, it works.

When we visited we took a rather long way round, we drove around the North rim up to the far end of the Grand Canyon, where we stayed in Page on the shore of Lake Powell. The two extremes of the Grand Canyon are marked by two dams, the Glen Canyon dam in the East which forms Lake Powell and Hoover Dam (as repaired by Christopher Reeve in Superman!) in the West forming Lake Mead. Now, the Grand Canyon itself is 150 miles long, so I really don’t understand why the majority of visitors chose to visit only a 3 mile area of it, which is on the South Rim about half way down where you will find the Grand Canyon Village.

There are several ways of seeing the Grand Canyon; one of the most popular is by Helicopter or Plane. We didn’t do this but I understand from many reports, this can be a little unnerving. I think you’re fine if love flying, but if you suffer from motion sickness it can get very turbulent, I think they plan on cleaning out the machines fairly regularly. The prices for this seem to range from $150 - $250 depending on the length of trip.

Then there is by raft, this is one of the ways I would really love to see the Grand Canyon. The main issue is getting out again, there are only a couple of stops along the way where you can actually get access to the river so they offer trips of 3 days minimum or 7 days takes you down to the end of the line at lake Mead. The other issue with this area of the Grand Canyon is the white water so if you don’t want to do rapids, don’t do it. I was pregnant at the time of our visit so this option was out, but even if I hadn’t been you have to book places on the raft trips upwards of 18 months beforehand. My cousin did an independent canoe trip through and it took him 2 years to get the permit to allow him to do it, as the number of visitors allowed within the rim is strictly regulated.

However there is another option, as I mentioned earlier we stayed in Page and you can take a one day float (no rapids) down the Glen Canyon which is not as vast, but just as beautiful and costs (from memory) $50. These can be booked in Page itself and you do not need to pre-book. We did this and it was a wonderful day, the peace of floating down the river, seeing the wild life and rock formations and after just a short walk some 4000 year old pictographs. They provided lunch. The whole day was truly amazing, and fine for pregnant ladies. You get out at Lees Ferry, which is at the entrance to the Grand Canyon and is where the other rafting trips start.

Then there are the options that you can take from the Grand Canyon village, you can walk down into the rim, which if you plan on staying overnight you will need an overnight permit but if you do this you could stay at Phantom Range, if you don’t want to walk down you can take a mule. It is however a two day trip to go down to the valley floor, although the distance isn’t huge, it’s a really steep climb and you need to make sure you are properly prepared, copious amounts of water are essential as dehydration is the biggest problem. Mainly because this is desert country so it is hot. Having visited in the middle of summer some of the pictures of the Grand Canyon covered in snow are very beautiful but does looks very bizarre.

At this point I would recommend anyone who is interested in hiking, mules or planes to also have a read of the Grand Canyon review by Trampus, who describes her hair raising activities in excellent style.

Daily life at the Grand Canyon village is fairly predictable. Everybody wakes up fairly early, before sun rise to see the sun come up on the Grand Canyon, the colours change substantially and dramatically depending on the time of day, and photographers are out in force throughout the day, we are fairly good photographers and it has to be said all the photos we took from the Grand Canyon rim were well below our usual standard, and I think this is a fairly common experience so it is worth buying some postcards or something similar while you are there. The most popular time for photographs is of course Sunset, when the colours are at their most vibrant, and it is very orange. Most visitors to the Grand Canyon do not venture down inside the rim and simply gaze in wonder from the edge at the village, so at sunset in particular guard your spot early as from the various lookout points there is a huge number of people lined up with their cameras ready for the nightly show.

Accommodation in the village is actually fairly reasonable for a National Park, there are the usual sorts of hotel available and naturally you pay a supplement for a canyon view, there are 4 campsites within the park and any lodging is booked up way in advance, so you do have to get in early. The website address is www.grand.canyon.national-park.com and this has all the details you will need, although a straight forward search gives loads of options so it is worth having a good surf before you book.

the Grand Canyon village is as I mentioned earlier only a very small part of the Grand Canyon itself and I would strongly urge any visitor not to make it their sole focus. For me the most enjoyable part was not the Village, which I would not have missed for anything but the stay in Page beforehand. Page is on the shore of Lake Powell and at the entrance to the Glen Canyon, although is not as vast as the Grand Canyon it is very beautiful. The rock formation within the Glen Canyon is much softer than in the Grand Canyon, a bit like the difference between the Dolomites and the Alps for any of you who may have crossed them in Europe. There is much more to do in Page and it is cheaper, not being within the National Park. The view from the hotel room genuinely does not look real, it is like a picture of utter tranquillity and the changes in colour throughout the day is the only thing that reminds you it is not a painting.

The other noticeable difference in Page from the Grand Canyon village is the colour of the river, there is a very definite difference between the blue of the water and the red of the rock. However, the river running through the Grand Canyon is the Colorado which literally translates as ‘Colour Red’ and not without good reason, we were very lucky as we arrived on a blue day and then we had torrential downpour of rain, which disturbed all the sediment within the river, so the following day it was red or just dirty whichever way you want to think of it. This only took effect from the entrance to the Grand Canyon, and apparently can take several weeks to clear. From the Grand Canyon village the river is barely visible, and I love water so the main reason for preferring Page to the village was the fact that the river was so accessible. The Grand Canyon is just that, very Grand, very majestic but the Glen Canyon is smaller, softer and I feel more beautiful.

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Grand Canyon Tours at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Grand Canyon tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Valuable Links:
Grand Canyon Tours
Las Vegas Tours
Hoover Dam Tours

Hoover Dam, Not Only Gargantuan, But Amazing!!

2005-04-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

Hoover Dam is a perfect stop on your drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and vice versa. When you are standing on top of the dam and look all the way down at the channeled Colorado River, you will be dizzy. Although it is not the world's largest dam, the scariest part comes in with the fact. The dam has been built one year ahead of schedule and under budget BACK IN 1935 WITH NO SPECIAL EQUIPMENT. It was done by mechanical means and BY HAND!

The Journey

It is summer time again and you decide to take your wife for a road trip. After an exhausting drive you stop by Hoover Dam because your wife wants to see it. Your friends and family has been saying, "You gotta check out Hoover Dam! It is one of seven technological marvels man has ever created!" Frustrated and exhausted you say, "We must keep going on! We have a tight schedule. Why do we have to stop by? It's only a dam!" "Come on honey, do it for me. Please?:(" she says. When she is walking ahead of you, you grumble and say "Dammit! ):{"

It is 107 degrees. The sun bears down all its oven-like, dry radiating heat with no mercy. It's so hot that you decide to slow down to conserve your own energy. The sidewalk, under your shoes, are radiating heat. The wall, which prevents you from walking over the dam also radiates heat at you. No matter what, you can't run and you can't hide. 300 meters from where you parked your car, your wife says, "Honey look at this!" She is at the edge of the dam and points down. You are 500 hundred feet above the narrow portion of the Colorado River and you become dizzy. Super smooth yellow-white concrete covers your peripheral vision. A constant gust of 30 mile per hour wind blows nothing but hot air as if you cranked up your car's heater at full blast! The concrete is built in a steep fashion. However, you sense that it is like a smooth and steep "slide." "I wonder if someone ever committed suicide here?" you say.

You face back to look at the blue and prodigious beauty of Lake Mead. Small grasshopper sized white boats cruise along as if they moved inch by inch. Then you look at your left. There is an intake tower and a huge clock marked, "Nevada time." To your right you see another tower and a clock marked, "Arizona time." You are confused realizing that Arizona and Nevada are both west regions of the U.S. You ask yourself 'Why are there two clocks?' To answer this question, Arizona do not observe day light savings time. If it is 1pm in Nevada, it is 12pm in Arizona. During winter, it would be 12pm on both clocks.

Your wife wants to go on a tour. "Here we go again!" you say with a sigh. After you wait an hour to get the tickets, you and your wife decide to get some water. After all you are getting dehydrated from staying out too long during a heat wave. You and your wife decide to check out the museum. The place is mobbed with tourists all over the world. It is hard to see the showcase for groups of tourists are reading 48 font articles and looking at pictures of the dam's construction 2 feet away.

You and your wife decides to go to a "mini theater" with stadium seating. A film projector shows a 22 minute video of the dam's construction from start to end. You learn that the dam's location had to be moved to its present location(where you are at). Then you learn that the dam was previously named, Boulder dam. When you watch the black and white video, you see a souped up model T carrying 50-60 people as if it was a double decker bus, in London. You also see "cable cars" transporting construction workers from one side of the dam to the other. In addition, you see cranes holding a huge 6 foot bucket and releasing all the cement. The rumor of people being buried in cement is false. However, you learn that most death has occurred as a result of Carbon Monoxide poisoning. What is amazing is you see a huge 160 ton penstar(An aperture of the diversion tunnel) being towed by a bulldozer with a trailer 18 WHEELS.

You now realize that this is no ordinary dam, it is special. Special like your old high school science project that rewarded you a gold medal. Likewise, this dam(you are at) has been mankind's greatest achievement besides the Titanic.

It's about time you and your wife go for the tour. The guide introduces him/herself as usual and you ride an elevator all the way down where your eyes met the "small" Colorado river an hour ago. You are now looking at over 12 green shiny generators. They are like oil containers in an oil refinery and make a steady constant hum like a giant refrigerator. You learn that the purpose of the dam is to create electricity and to use the profits to pay back the interest of the $175 million construction cost. (It would cost $1 billion now). You go outside and you look all the way up to see people small as ants and the clear blue sky above it. The guide says that millions of pounds of pressure are being applied behind the yellow concrete. The guide also mentions that the dam is made of 6'X 6'X 6' cube of cements. Like Legos, the cube of cements created the dam holding the immense pressure of the man made lake Mead. You look at channels of rushing water flowing into the Colorado River. You go inside again and you find yourself, your wife, and 18 other tourists inside a cave lit by incandescent light bulbs. It is cool and damp as a castle. You also hear drips of water and see a tiny puddle on the dark red, shiny floor. Finally you are at the last stop, the diversion tunnel. A channel of water is rushing only 5-7 feet from where your foot is at. There are electronic diagrams showing the path of the flowing water.

"Wow!" "How did they make this dam without special equipment?" By now you have won a worthwhile fight and apologize to your wife for being cranky couple hours ago. You are baffled as your mind tries to comprehend such marvelous achievement; A man made lake, a man made dam with no one buried in cement, and power generated all the way west as far as L.A.!

The pros

There is a cool museum to revitalize your energy. You will not believe that the dam was never made with today's latest technology. They have literally made this magnificent marvel by hand! There are tour guides to match your budget. The $8 per person. The one I just mentioned above and the $25 hard hat tour. With the $25 hard hat tour, you might have problems with young children because of age requirements. However, you are rewarded with a hard at the conclusion of the hard hat tour.

The cons

Tourists plague the parking space and the museum! If you want to have fewer crowds, it is better to come during winter. During summer, the sun dries all the moisture on your hair. This result with itching scalp and loss of 2-10 strands of hair! To avoid this bring a hat/cap.

Recommended for

Engineers, families, and senior citizens. Engineers will appreciate the mechanical concepts of the dam. Parents and children will have no problem with the $8 regular tour. Senior citizens will truly appreciate the beauty of dam with a great view of crystal clear Lake Mead.

Not recommended for

Small kids. They would get very bored and can't appreciate the challenges that had to be met upon building the dam. They can't be accepted for the $25 hard hat tour due to age requirements. If you hate crowds of people, the parking lot is always full and it is impossible to read the articles, inside the museum, since tourists are everywhere you go.

I enjoyed my couple hours stay at Hoover Dam. It was fun watching the generators pump electricity utilizing hydro power. My grandmother have said, "You did not see Hoover Dam unless you went down where the generators are located at!" Indeed I went down all the way to see the generators, diversion tunnels, and its "caves." Hoover Dam is huge but what makes it amazing is that men created it so long ago with the aid of no "special effects."

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Hoover Dam at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for hoover dam tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Other valuable resources

Hoover Dam Tours
Grand Canyon Tours
Las Vegas Tours

The Best of Las Vegas In Two Days

2005-04-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

Just came back from my 4th trip to the "Sin City". What amazes me most is that in the last decade none of my visits to this city was the same. They are always adding something new and fascinating. If you visited Vegas before 1995 you would not recognize the city today. The skyline is completely different and so are the attractions. It is "Orlando" of the west and you will surely have lots of fun.

Following is a list of must-see in order of preference and after that I will suggest an itinerary to see it all.

1- The Hoover Dam Tour

2- The Water Show at the Bellagio lake;

3- The view from the "Eiffel Tower" in Paris, Vegas;

4- The "Shark Reef" at Mandalay Bay;

5- The "Desert Passage" at Alladin;

6- The "Luxor" atrium and architecture;

7- The "Stratosphere" Tower;

8- The "Venetian" canal;

9- The "Manhattan Express" and skyline at New York, New York;

10- The Treasure Island and Mirage outdoor shows.

How can you save time and see all of these in a short time? It is easy unless you are a gambler and get stuck in the first casino you enter. A solution: break in change whatever you can afford to loose (in my case it was $20.00 in nickels and that's a lot of coins!). That way every place you visit you can play the slot machines for a while and try your lucky. If you are not familiar with casino rules it is my duty to inform that you can drink for free as long as you are playing. So, waste a few coins and you can sip a drink in every casino while you rest between walks. All you have to do is tip the nice attendant girl $1.00 . Sometimes the drink takes a while, so play slowly. Believe me, I drank way more worth than my $20.00 + tip. So, if I did not win a penny at least I drank for free. Who knows? You might also hit a jackpot by chance! One more thing? stop drinking and playing if you finish the coins you were allowed to loose. You've gone too far by then.

Now that we are all set let's start our city tour. You must divide The Strip (Las Vegas Blvd) in 4 sections. Each takes about 1/2 day to cover. So, you can do it in just 2 days, but if you have more time in town go slower and enjoy more of each casino and attractions.

SECTION ONE: Mandalay Bay/Luxor/ Excalibur/N.Y.N.Y and MGM.

You should do this tour in the morning since the only thing you might wanna see at night in this area is the bright light coming out of the top of the pyramid at Luxor, but you can easily do that later at night driving by car along The Strip.

I suggest you to park at N.Y.N.Y since it is well situated, free and has walkways over the strip to 2 other casinos. To reach the further ones you will take a tram.

The N.Y.N.Y main attraction is the Manhattan Express, a really scary roller coaster that runs outside and inside the casino. I love those type of rides but this one is way out of control . It is also pricey at $12.00 but if you are not dizzy enough at the end of the journey, the second ride is "only" $5.00. Would you dare? Be warned: in the beginning when the cars are climbing you can see your reflection at the mirrored windows of the hotel skyscrapers and that by itself will freeze your heart. It is very, very high as you have absolutely no idea looking at it from the street level. There are 2 horrifying dips and what I think is the worst, you will shake like crazy and have a pain in your neck at the end. You do not feel as safe as you do when riding Disney's roller coasters, that is for sure. Should you go? It's up to you, but don't blame me.

Besides the coaster you want to walk down to the casino throughout New York alleys and neighborhoods filled up with restaurants and shops and go outside to see the statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge replicas up close. If you are looking for the best spot where you can frame the whole building in a picture you'll find that at the Tropicana Casino in the opposite diagonal corner. The view from here is not obstruct as it is from the caged walkways over the streets.

Next you can either go to MGM for a free look at the lions or cross the walkway to Excalibur. At the latter you will have photo opportunities at the entrance to the castle. Wander around the casino a bit and immerse yourself in a medieval time. Take the tram all the way to the Mandalay Bay. Here you must visit Shark Reef ($14.00). It is an awesome aquarium where you will be surrounded by sharks in every single direction, that is, above, bellow and all side walls. Worth the price!

Now you can either walk or take the tram back to the Luxor next door. This casino has an amazing architecture, probably as remarkable as the original pyramids in Egypt if you do not consider the historical value of the latter. Here you'll find rides and an IMAX theatre which pale compared to the rest. Definitely the huge atrium interior is something so extraordinary that you can't avoid contemplating it with your mouth opened for quite some time. The elevators are called "inclinators" because they ascend diagonally, but unfortunately you have to be a registered guest nowadays to ride one to the top. The pool area on the other hand is one of the few ones in Vegas where you can wander free and it's worth to see the building from this perspective. Also take a look at the Sphinx (you have to go under it to go back to the tram station). Don't forget to come back here at night to see the light coming out of the pyramid summit. It can be seen even from space!!!

Time to retrace your steps back to N.Y.NY., get in your car and go on to the next area.

SECTION TWO: Alladin/Paris, Vegas/Caesar Palace/Bellagio

This is one of the best areas on the Strip. Choose to do it in the afternoon and evening hours so that you can enjoy the lights and the outdoor shows.

Park at the Caesar. The shopping here used to be the best in town a few years ago, but now some newer casinos have outshine it a bit. Still, it is an impressive casino that you can not afford to pass by. Go to the Forum and then watch the statues to come alive hourly. Take the walkways to the outside area to contemplate the gardens and roman statuary. At this time this area is under construction and you bet it will be amazing in a near future with the Coliseum addition.

Next door is Bellagio, the beautiful! The most dramatic and inspiring of them all. If you only have time to visit one casino, look no further, this is the one. Belaggio is also the most luxurious. The splendid blue lake at its entrance and the dancing-water show will take your breath away and make you fall in love with the place right the way. The best picture you will take of the Eiffel tower (located across the street) can be taken from the higher grounds around the mid section of the lake sidewalk near the casino main doors. The water show starts at 3PM, but during the night hours it runs more frequently at 15 minutes intervals. Explore every corner of this building you can possibly go to, it is exuberant in every aspect. Do not miss the colorful sculptured glass-flowered ceiling at the main lobby.

I had the opportunity to watch "O" at the Bellagio. This is by far the best show I've seen from the Cirque du Soleil which I admire immensely . What an incredible acrobatic circus in the water spectacle ! Probably one of your best night out choices in Vegas.

Now, take the outside moving walkways and go to the Alladin, located across L.V.Blvd. This casino is a newer version that replaced the old one imploded a few years ago. The best here is the mall next door called "Desert Passage", an adventure à la Arabian Nights storyteller. Either if you like shopping or merely browsing around my advice is not to miss it.

Finally finish up this section at the Paris, Vegas. The heart of the casino is the Eiffel Tower foundation against a realistic blue and cloudy sky. Lights are dim and the atmosphere is naturally romantic at the "sidewalk cafes" and bistros. Even the hostess will greet you in French! This is certainly a good area to have dinner and a cocktail. A must is to cross the bridge and take the elevator to the top of the Eiffel tower itself (U$12). This is in my opinion a better view than the one offered at the taller Stratosphere because it is more centered on the Strip and so you will have a great close-up view of the surroundings. You have to remain at the tower top plateau at least to glimpse the water show at the Belaggio Lake down bellow. You can hear the music all the way from up there! Also, check outside the casino some other famous landmarks like the "Triumph Arch" and the "Louvre" museum façade.

SECTION THREE: Mirage/Treasure Island/Venetian

In a second day start by visiting this area. You can park for free at the Venetian. Go to the Grand Canal to do some shopping or to admire the view of the gondolas crossing the inner waterways all along the path. Check out the San Marco Square and the exterior Italian architecture.

Across the street visit the tropical and lush Mirage. Go to the check-in area to see the aquarium and visit the free White Tiger exhibition. They also have a small zoo and Dolphin Habitat that costs $10 to get in. I particularly did not care much for it, but would definitely recommend for kids.

Late in the afternoon you must watch the Buccaneer Bay pirate show a the Treasure Island . It gets crowded, so try to get a sit at a table at one of its restaurants to observe the "battle" comfortably. Expect fire, smoke and visual effects. It is not too long, but it is free. Right after that go back to the Mirage to catch up a volcano explosion every so often atop its front courtyard waterfall.

Now, head to the last section of the Strip toward the tall Stratosphere tower.

SECTION FOUR: Stratosphere/Downtown

You should get here by sunset, so that you can admire the view from the tallest structure in town. You can see the entire city, as far as the mountains and the desert all around. At the top you can dine, ride a corkscrew roller coaster or do the "Big Shot" up on its antenna like shaped pinnacle. Both are fun, but I preferred the latter . You can combine it all with the third ride (the elevator itself to the top) to save some money.

When the night falls go to downtown Las Vegas at Freemont Street. Here the lights are the old Vegas style and great for pictures. Quite hot under it too! You must wait for the top of the hour when they have the Fremont St. Experience show. This is an unforgettable moment and a highlight of your trip to Vegas. Suddenly the casino lights are turned off all at the same time and above you , extending 4 street blocks , millions of computer controlled micro-lights will form pictures, as if it was a movie rolling on the sky, accordingly to the music that fills up the air. It is a surreal sight, something like the future in a different planet or a dreamlike fantasy like this 2 incredible days you just had in Las Vegas.

There's more to see while here, but you can rest assured that with little or no time in your hands you will see absolutely the best you could possible see and know the city like a pro. Enjoy it!

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Hoover Dam at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for hoover dam tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Other valuable resources

Hoover Dam Tours

Grand Canyon Tours
Las Vegas Tours

Grand Canyon Tours Information

2005-04-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon is more than a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. It is more than an awe-inspiring view. It is more than a pleasuring ground for those that explore the roads, hike the trails, or float the currents of the turbulent Colorado River.

This canyon is a gift that transcends what we experience. Its beauty and size humbles us. Its timelessness provokes a comparison to our short existence. In its vast spaces we may find solace from our hectic lives.

The Grand Canyon we visit today is a gift from past generations. Take time to enjoy this gift. Sit and watch the changing play of light and shadows. Wander along a trail and feel the sunshine and wind on your face. Attend a ranger program. Follow the antics of ravens soaring above the rim. Listen for the roar of the rapids far below. Savor a sunrise or sunset.

As the shadows lengthen across the spires and buttes, time passing into the depths of the canyon, understand what this great chasm passes to us - a sense of humility born in the interconnections of all that is and a willingness to care for this land. We have the responsibility to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to form their own connections with Grand Canyon National Park.

How big is The Grand Canyon?

Are there dams in Grand Canyon?

How old is the Grand Canyon?

Are the oldest rocks in the world exposed at Grand Canyon?

When and why did Grand Canyon become a National Park?

How do I get to the Grand Canyon?

How does one see the Grand Canyon?

When is the best time to visit the Grand Canyon?

Can I bring my dog along with me if I hike into the Grand Canyon?

Do I have to make reservations for lodging at the Grand Canyon?

How hard is it to hike into the Grand Canyon?

Do I need a permit to hike into the Grand Canyon?

What is the weather like at the Grand Canyon?

Does it cost anything to enter Grand Canyon National Park?

Where can I get more information on visiting the Grand Canyon?

How do I take a mule ride to the inner canyon?

What advice - travel tips do you have for international - overseas visitors?

What kinds of activities are available at Grand Canyon National Park?

Where can I make reseravtions for Grand Canyon Tours?

How big is it?: That depends on how you look at it. The park includes over a million acres of land - 1,218,375.54 acres / 493,077 hectares, to be exact, or 1,904 square miles / 4931 square kilometers. But most people measure the canyon in river miles, along the course of the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. By that standard, Grand Canyon is 277 miles / 446 km long. It begins at Lees Ferry (mile 0) and ends at the Grand Wash Cliffs (mile 277 / km 446). The Colorado River is longer, of course: 1450 miles / 2333 km long from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to the Gulf of California in Mexico. Grand Canyon is only one of many beautiful canyons which the river has carved. Others include Cataract Canyon and Glen Canyon - the latter now beneath the waters of Lake Powell. Most people agree, however, that Grand Canyon is the most spectacular. There's simply no other place in the world that looks quite like it. Width and depth of the Canyon vary from place to place. At the South Rim, near Grand Canyon Village, it's a vertical mile (about 5,000 feet / 1524 m) from rim to river (7 miles / 11.3 km by trail, if you're walking). At its deepest, it is 6000 vertical feet / 1829 km from rim to river. The width of the canyon at Grand Canyon Village is 10 miles / 16 km (rim to rim), though in places it is as much as 18 miles / 29 km wide. Here's another way to look at size: a trip to the bottom of the Canyon and back (on foot or by mule) is a two-day journey. Rim-to-rim hikers generally take three days one way to get from the North Rim to the South Rim. A trip through Grand Canyon by raft can take two weeks or longer, and experienced backpackers have spent weeks in the more remote areas of the Canyon.

Are there dams in Grand Canyon?: No, although several dams bordering the park have a profound effect on Grand Canyon. At the upper end of the Canyon, 15 river miles / 24 km above Lees Ferry, is Lake Powell, formed by the waters behind Glen Canyon Dam. At the lower end of the canyon is Lake Mead, formed by the waters behind Hoover Dam. The controlled release of water from Glen Canyon Dam at the upstream end affects the water that flows through Grand Canyon. Waters from Lake Mead flood the lower 40 miles / 64 km of Grand Canyon when the lake is full. Hoover Dam was completed in 1936. Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963.

How old is the Canyon?: That's a tricky question. Although rocks exposed in the walls of the canyon are geologically quite old, the Canyon itself is a fairly young feature. The oldest rocks at the canyon bottom are close to 2000 million years old. The Canyon itself - an erosional feature - has formed only in the past five or six million years. Geologically speaking, Grand Canyon is very young.

Are the oldest rocks in the world exposed at Grand Canyon?: No. Although the oldest rocks at Grand Canyon (2000 million years old) are fairly old by any standard, the oldest rocks in the world are closer to 4000 million years old. The oldest exposed rocks in North America, which are among the oldest rocks in the world, are in northern Canada.

When and why did Grand Canyon become a National Park?: Grand Canyon is unmatched throughout the world in the incomparable vistas it offers to visitors on the rim. It is not the deepest canyon in the world (both the Barranca del Cobre in northern Mexico and Hell's Canyon in Idaho are deeper, just to name two), but the Grand Canyon is known throughout the world for its overwhelming size and its intricate and colorful landscape. Geologically it is significant because of the thick sequence of ancient rocks that are beautifully preserved and exposed in the walls of the canyon. These rock layers record much of the early geological history of the North American continent. Finally, it is one of the most spectacular examples of erosion in the world. Although first afforded Federal protection in 1893 as a Forest Reserve and later as a National Monument, Grand Canyon did not achieve National Park status until 1919, three years after the creation of the National Park Service. Today Grand Canyon National Park receives close to five million visitors each year - a far cry from the annual visitation of 44,173 which the park received in 1919. Grand Canyon became a national park in order to give it the best protection we as a nation have to offer. The mission of the National Park Service, here and elsewhere, is to preserve the park and all of its features, including the processes that created them, and to provide for the enjoyment of the park by visitors in a way that will leave the canyon unspoiled for future generations.

How do I get to the Grand Canyon?: The SOUTH RIM allows you several options. Common driving routes are from Williams, Arizona (via State Route 64 from Interstate 40) or Flagstaff (via US Highway 180). Commercial airlines serve Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Las Vegas. There is limited air service into Grand Canyon Airport from Las Vegas and elsewhere. Greyhound provides bus service to Flagstaff, and public bus transportation is available from Flagstaff to the South Rim. Amtrak provides rail service to Flagstaff with connecting bus service to the canyon. Grand Canyon Railway offers vintage train service from Williams. (more info)

The NORTH RIM does not have as many options. There is no public transportation to the North Rim other than the Trans Canyon Van Shuttle from the South Rim. You will need to drive on US Highway 89A or State Route 389 to Jacob Lake, just south of the Utah border, and take Highway 67 to the North Rim. You can fly into Las Vegas and drive 263 miles one-way. Keep in mind that heavy snows close the road to the North Rim from late October to mid May of each year. (more info)

How does one see the Canyon?: Nearly five million people see Grand Canyon each year. Most of them see it from their car at overlooks along the South Rim (this includes Grand Canyon Village, Hermits Rest, and Desert View). The South Rim - 60 miles / 97 km north of Williams and 80 miles / 97 km northwest of Flagstaff, Arizona - is the most accessible part of the park and is open all year. A much smaller number of people see the Canyon from the North Rim, which lies just 10 miles / 16 km (as the raven flies) directly across the Canyon from the South Rim. The North Rim rises a thousand feet higher than the South Rim, and is much less accessible. Heavy snows close the road to the North Rim from late October to mid May of each year. Even in good weather it's harder to get to: it's 220 miles / 354 km by car from the South Rim, or 21 miles / 34 km by foot across the Canyon by way of the North and South Kaibab Trails. The inner canyon includes everything below the rim and is seen mainly by hikers, mule riders, or river runners. There are many opportunities here for adventurous and hardy persons who want to backpack, ride a mule to Phantom Ranch, or take a river trip through the Canyon on the Colorado River (which can take anywhere from a few days to three weeks - there are no one-day river trips through Grand Canyon). How do people get across the canyon? If you're walking, the South Kaibab Trail crosses the Colorado River on a narrow foot bridge 70 feet / 21 m above the water. There is only one way to cross by automobile, and that is via Navajo Bridge, just a few miles downstream from Lees Ferry, where the Canyon is still only 400 feet / 122 m wide.

When is the best time to visit the Grand Canyon?: Expect heavy crowds during spring, summer, and fall months. You will find fewer crowds in the early spring or late fall. The South Rim is open year round, but heavy snows close the road to the North Rim from late October to mid May of each year.

Can I bring my dog along with me if I hike into the canyon?: Pets must be physically restrained at all times. Leashed pets are allowed on the rim trails throughout the developed areas in the park but not below the rim. The only exception is certified service dogs. Persons wishing to take a service dog below the rim must check in first at the Backcountry Information Center. There is a kennel on the South Rim but not on the North Rim.

Do I have to make reservations for lodging at the Grand Canyon?: Yes, lodging in Grand Canyon National Park becomes completely booked well in advance. Be sure to make reservations as far ahead as possible. Call (303) 297-2757 or toll free (888) 297-2757, or write Xanterra Parks & Resorts, 14001 East Iliff, Ste 600 Aurora, CO, 80014 for reservations at the South Rim or the North Rim. Or visit www.grandcanyonlodges.com..

How hard is it to hike into the Grand Canyon?: Unlike hiking in mountainous terrain, Grand Canyon trails involve a downhill trip followed by a strenuous uphill climb. Hiking in the Grand Canyon is so demanding that even people in excellent condition often emerge sore and fatigued. Yet it has been hiked by small children, senior citizens, and people with physical disabilities.

The day hiker, out for just a few hours, and the overnight backpacker must be equally prepared for the lack of water, extreme heat and cold, and isolation characteristic of the Grand Canyon. There are few places where the comforts of hotels, campgrounds, shops and restaurants are found so close to such a harsh environment. Particularly in the summer, mental attitude and adequate water consumption are the two most important factors in the success of any hike into the Grand Canyon.

Backcountry rangers recommend that hikers make their first overnight trip into the inner canyon on the park's "Corridor" trails. The Corridor is the area including and immediately adjacent to the Bright Angel and North and South Kaibab trails. This area includes three campgrounds: Indian Garden, Bright Angel, and Cottonwood.

Do I need a permit to hike into the Grand Canyon?: Permits are not required for day hikes below the rim, but you must obtain a backcountry permit if you plan on camping overnight outside an established campground.

What is the weather like at the Grand Canyon?: Summer - Summer temperatures on the South Rim are relatively pleasant (50°s - 80°s F; 10°s to high 20°s C) but inner canyon temperatures are extreme. Daytime highs at the river, 5000 feet below the rim, often exceed 100° F (38° C). North Rim summer temperatures are cooler that those on the South Rim due to the increased elevation.

Winter - Winter conditions at the South Rim can be extreme: expect snow, icy roads, and possible road closures. Temperatures are low, and with the wind-chill factor can at times drop below 0° F (-18° C). Canyon views may be temporarily obscured during winter storms; in such cases, entrance fees are not refundable. The North Rim is closed in winter.

Spring and Fall - Spring and Fall weather is extremely unpredictable; be prepared for sudden changes in the weather during these seasons.

Does it cost anything to enter Grand Canyon National Park?: Yes, entrance to the park is $20 per private vehicle, $10 pedestrian or cyclist; fees for commercial bus/tour van passengers vary. Admission is for 7 days and includes both rims; there are no refunds due to inclement weather. U. S. citizens aged 62 or older may obtain a Golden Age Passport for a one-time fee of $10 and gain free admission. Persons holding a current National Parks Pass (obtainable for $50 at any national park) are admitted free. Annual Grand Canyon passports, valid for the calendar year, are available for $40. U.S. citizens who have a permanent physical, mental or sensory impairment may apply in person for a Golden Access Passport, which provides the same privileges as the Golden Age passport. (more info)

Where can I get more information on visiting the Grand Canyon?: To receive the most current park trip planning information, write: Trip Planner Grand Canyon National Park, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, AZ, 86023. Or, visit our on-line Trip Planner. Or call (928) 638-7888. To purchase publications about the Grand Canyon you can write or call the Grand Canyon Association, P.O. Box 399, Grand Canyon, AZ 86023, (928) 638-2481, FAX (928) 638-2484 or visit them at www.grandcanyon.org.

How do I take a mule ride to the inner canyon?: Mule rides from the South Rim are arranged through Grand Canyon National Park Lodges (303-297-2757) or visit www.grandcanyonlodges.com. It is a 2-day round-trip to the Colorado River at the canyon bottom. A one-day trip is also offered which goes part way to the river. Overnight riders stay and eat at Phantom Ranch. Mule trips may be booked 11 months in advance and fill up early. A waiting list is maintained for cancellations, but chances of obtaining reservations on the waiting list are slim. If you wish to make a trip into the canyon on mule, plan ahead! There are restrictions: mule riders must be over 4 feet 7 inches in height, weigh less than 200 lbs. (91K) and cannot be pregnant. Mule riders must be able to understand English. Please note that all pre-paid reservations must be claimed in person at the Bright Angel Lodge Transportation Desk ONE HOUR prior to departure. Unclaimed reservations are subject to resale. Mule trips are available from the North Rim (one-day and half-day trips) but do not go all the way to the river. Call Grand Canyon Trail Rides for reservations, (435) 679-8665, or write to PO Box 128, Tropic, Utah, 84776, or visit them at www.onlinepages.net/canyonrides.

What advice - travel tips do you have for international - overseas visitors?: Remember that the southwestern US is big and remote. Put a map of your home country next the distance you plan to cover in the USA to get an idea of what you are up against. Transportation takes time and is often expensive. Public transportation in northern Arizona is very limited, so find transportation & schedules before you leave, and expect to need some money to get around. - Many prices are "plus tax", so add 7-8% to your budget. * Common conversion factors: * temp. Celsius = (Fahrenheit - 32) * 5 / 9. temp. Fahrenheit = Celsius * 9 / 5 + 32. 1 pound (lb)= .45 kg 1 ounce (oz)= 1/16 pound 1 quart (qt)= .95 liters 1 gallon (gal)= 3.8 liters 1 inch (in)= 2.5 cm 1 foot (ft)= 30 cm 1 yard = .92 meters 1 mile = 1.61 Km 1 mile per hour (mph) = 1.6 Km/hr 1 "nickel" = 5 cents = 1/20 $. 1 "dime" = 10 cents = 1/10 $. 1 "quarter" = 25 cents = 1/4 $.

What kinds of activities are available at Grand Canyon National Park?: Gazing at the beautiful views of the canyon from the various vista points is the number one activity for many people. People of every age and condition can find activities to suit their desires, including the following: hiking, rafting trips, backpacking, mule rides or horseback rides, camping, scenic air tours. A wide variety of free interpretive programs (South Rim, North Rim) are offered by NPS rangers. Bicycling is allowed on park roads.

Where can I make Reservations for Grand Canyon Tours ?: Paradise Found Tours offers a variety of Grand Canyon Tours, Las Vegas Tours and Hoover Dam Tours that are personally selected for spectacular scenery, adventure, comfort, safety, and personal attention.

Going to Las Vegas for 5 days am really excited.

2005-04-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

Hi Going to vegas for 5 days am really excited. We have to fly from Denver which is a 5 hour car drive to start with. Got to DEN on Sunday evening and to bed early for our 7am flight. Flight was only about 1/2 full at best so it was pretty relaxing. Touch down right on time. Picked up our car at the dollar rental car, had to walk the last 2 blocks as the shuttle bus died in the middle of an intersection. Not a great way to start. Arrived at harrahs by 9;15 for early check-in we have 2 nights comped. Gave the clerk the $20 tip and ask for an upgrade and a view of the strip, he stated no problem but if this is an upgrade I would never want to stay in a regular room. View was the imperial palace and if your head works like an owls you could see a little of the strip. Headed downstairs to start gambling, I play slots and craps wife plays BJ.. The only BJ tables open are $15. minimum so wife is disgusted right away. We walked over to the casino royale and played for a couple of hours. I played alittle BJ and won $120. lost about $50 at craps. Wife had no luck. We then walked down to the Paris and played the afternoon. Wife wins some at BJ I lose at craps but play all afternoon. Nothing much on slots. We decided to eat the $4.95 steak deal at ellis island, atomsphere sucks but it was a good meal. Back to the harrahs and no more luck, I really do not care for this place much. To bed early, suffering a little jet lag...

Tueday am I get up early 5am and go to coffee shop below and get us coffee and rolls pretty good. We then decide to wander some more. We drive to the frontier as we had some free stuff there. I play VP most of the morning win alittle lose alittle. Wife wins some at BJ. I walk down to the Riv to pick up some collectors chips for a friend. As I am leaving decide to play the 98% return dollar slots, BINGO in 4 plays I hit $250. machine needs a re-fill they are not to quick with this. As I am standing and waiting decide to drop a few dollars in another machine and win $50.. Leave with a $276 profit now that's better. We catch a late lunch at Margarita's mexican had 2 for 1 does not seem as good as it used to be.

We had a 7:30 reservation at the Samba Grill @ Mirage for dinner that night. Read some of the reports from here and decided to try it.. Get to the mirage at 6 and play some slots, no luck, wife also lose's at BJ. We both order the redizzio special @ $31.95 per plate. Really disappointed, meats were awfully dry! If here again would eat the filet as it looked much better.. Probably will not return. Bach to harrahs and alittle gambling NO LUCK

Checkout early wed morning as we really did not enjoy harrahs much. Moved to the aladdin, used the $20 tip trick again and BINGO there is hope. We get upgraded to a suite with a huge bathroom and a great view of the fountains at the bellagio. Go downstairs and get our players cards and enter the no risk slot tournament. choose the $20 food coupon and $10 in free slot play. DO not do well in the tourney, beat wife by 400 points but that is the only small victory. Go play my $10 free slot and nothing, wife who NEVER plays slots hits 3 red sevens on .25 machine and cashes out $80. This makes here happy. She goes to play BJ and me the .50 slots I put in a $100 and about halfway through I hit $750. GREAT,, we decide to play golf at Royal Links so we have a 1pm tee time and go. COurse okay, pretty windy and kinda cold. Scores are not real good though mid 80's.

Back to the aladdin about 5 pm and to the room for a rest, and bath in the soaking tub, this is great... All the help seems so great and friendly at the A instead of harrahs. I get invlolved in a craps game around 8pm and find myself still playing and alittle drunk when I finally quit around 5 am.. make alittle but per hour it is not enough to live on, maybe $6. Go up to room and crash Wife played BJ until 4am and retired a winner. Can't sleep after all this is Vegas Thursday, we go over to the NYNY for awhile as we have stayed here often. Have not gotten any offers for a good year now! Win nothing at slots, leave after lunch and go back to the aladdin. Stop by the desk to see a host/hostess for a check on our points. They send me to VIP room, they run my card and tell my 2 nights as of now will be comped! GREAT> We call it a early night around mid-night as we are running out of gas. We did eat at the Spice Market buffet and it was great.

Friday, up at 4am and decide to walk to the MGM and play some slots, win alittle and head back to the aladdin and call the wife to see if she wants me pick her up anything for breakfast, grab the food and head for the room. Call down for a late checkout around 3 for out flight that leaves at 7pm Just hate to leave. We gamble downstairs some and decide to head to the Palms for some VP and BJ.. Eat lunch at Gardunos it was pretty good. Signup for players cards and head to the tables and VP, I win nothing at VP but do play for quite awhile on my $100. wife is winning at BJ so I go grab our stuff from the Aladdin and VIP hostess tells me everything is taken care of... great place. Meanwhile I get back to the palms and wife is up a couple 100's at BJ I go to play craps and find 3 good shooters, cash out for $450. win. Go play the slots for awhile and win about $50. Only about 2 hours before flight leaves. Back to craps table and another small victory about $150. Head for the airport for a non event flight back to Denver, everything goes smooth and were back at denver at 10pm

Summary Will NOT stay at the harrahs again Will Stay at the ALADDIN whenever possible (great employees) Samba GRIll- disappointment Spice Market Buffet- still one of the top 3 in town Drink of Choice- Sobe and Grey Goose Vodka.. Can not wait to return in the summer!!!!!!!

For More Information

Paradise Found Tours maintains a website for Las Vegas at http://www.paradisefoundtours.com. The site provides information for Las Vegas tours, special news, fees and other pertinent information.

Other valuable resources

Grand Canyon Tours
Hoover Dam Tours

2005-04-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

My husband and I just came back from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have seen the South Rim three times and this was my first visit to the North Rim, which is not nearly as crowded as the South, but equally as beautiful!

We saw seven deer as we were leaving the park, Kaibab Plateau, which is full of trees, something you don't see much of on the South Rim.

I would recommend to anyone who has seen the canyon not to miss the North Rim. I would not recommend driving South Rim to North Rim just because it would take about five hours one way. We spent time in Page, Ariz., which put us in position for the North Rim. Plus, there is so much more to see once you are north Zion and Bryce canyons, which are equally as impressive as the Grand Canyon. Not as many viewpoints on the north end as the south.

There's been plenty of "Top Ten Places You Must Se...

2004-10-12T21:54:00.000-07:00

A Grand Canyon Tour: There's been plenty of "Top Ten Places You Must See Before You Die" lists written over the years, and I think The Grand Canyon has been in pretty much every one of them. Reviewing such an awesome natural monument is almost impossible, but I'll do my humble best?

I visited the Grand Canyon in January 2002 ? a group of four young guys on their first trip to America. We drove from Los Angeles up to Las Vegas (couldn't stand either of those cities personally, but then I might have liked LA more if I'd had a chance to see more of it), stayed in a Travel Lodge for just $30 for the night ($7.5 per person wasn't bad even if the "breakfast" they gave you in the price was a stale cookie and carton of stale orange juice!), and got a trip to the Grand Canyon for about $150 (can't remember the exact price). This trip included being picked up in the morning by coach and taken to the aerodrome, flying in to the Grand Canyon in a 10-seater Cessna, a buffet lunch near a Native Indian reservation, and the return journey ? about 6 hours in total. (Also on offer was a helicopter trip, which I think was about $200 ? this didn't offer the lunch etc and lasted about 4 hours in total, but it did take you right into the GC, so if I'd had the money I would have liked to do both trips.) The company that offered these trips was right next to the Travel Lodge, but you wouldn't be able to walk down the main part of Vegas for very long without being offered a similar package.

The coach came on time and it was only about 15-20 minutes before we were at the aerodrome. We had our picture taken in front of the Cessna with the pilot before boarding the plane, which while obviously being another money-spinner (I think it was $10) for them did actually make a very nice souvenir. I've never been in a Cessna before and boy was it interesting! If, like me, you've only ever been on large commercial airliners, you're in for a bit of a shock. The tiny plane is buffeted by the slightest winds and of course is much more prone to air pockets, so every few seconds it felt like you were going to drop out of the sky. It was fantastic! It really was the most amazing ride of my life.

There was on-board commentary about what was below us, which at one point early on included the Hoover Dam. (On the way back the pilot opted for U2 instead, which wasn't bad either?) The commentary was quite interesting although to be honest the feeling of flying / being about to fall out of the sky, combined with the mind-blowing view, would have been more than enough to keep your senses overloaded, let alone busy. Seeing these amazing aerial views of the Grand Canyon will be something I will never forget.

Upon landing there was short wait for the coach, which took us to a sort of large, open cafeteria that served traditional Native Indian food (at least that was what they claimed, and I have no particular reason not to believe them ? anyway, it tasted good). It was "eat-as-much-as-you-want" too, though stuffing yourself would not be particularly recommended as looking over the side of any of the immense cliffs is severely vertigo-inducing. Out of the coach load I was with, only myself and one other person were brave (stupid?) enough to stand right on the edge. I think my bravery lasted, ooh, at least 2 seconds before I felt an overwhelming need to step back! Well, that was the first time ? I think I managed the amazing feat of 5 seconds the second time round? Apart from breathtaking scenery everywhere you looked, the local Indians also has some handicraft ? jewellery, "dreamcatchers", and so on -to sell. From what I saw it looked pretty good quality and fairly priced, but what they were selling wasn't really my sort of thing. Now if they'd been selling carvings of eagles and suchlike, I might have taken more notice. (Yes, I am strange. But I don't care.)

The Tour Guide on the coach on the way back (with another stop to survey one of the most impressive chasms) told us a little about this history of the local tribe (she was a member of the tribe herself), which unfortunately I can't remember the name of :-( - all I can remember is it wasn't one of the very well known ones ? I think it may have been "Shawnee" but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong! ? and then we went back and plunged through the air again in the little Cessna.

I can't describe my overall impression in simple words, even as I'm typing this huge gestures are flying from my hands (and believe me, that makes typing rather difficult?). It's one of the most impressive things you will ever see, and like most impressive things, seeing pictures of it just doesn't convey anything truly pertinent about how it looks when you're actually there.

Superlatives fail me. This isn't a place that I recommend - it's a place you must go to!

2004-08-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

Prepare yourself for the awe-inspiring beauty of the Grand Canyon. The Canyon's panoramic vastness awaits you. My journey began with a flight out of Las Vegas with a brief sojourn at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead and continued through a rugged Joshua tree forest and onto the Grand Canyon West Rim, native home of the Hualapai tribe, where the Grand Canyon's natural beauty remains nearly untouched by man. No crowds, no guardrails and stunning views as far as the eye can see. I Descended further and deeper into the Grand Canyon and landed on the canyon floor, located just above the mighty Colorado River. I Enjoyed many incredible photo opportunities. I Departed the Canyon floor, flew back through the Grand Canyon. I concluded my Grand Canyon journey by flying over Lake Mead, extinct volcanoes and Hoover Dam. I then finished my journey over the Las Vegas Strip above the amazing Hotel skyline. This is my Grand Canyon blog and I look forward to posting my adventures as I tackle exploring every part of the Grand Canyon.

Make your grand canyon vacation unforgettable. Experience a grand canyon tour today. The very first time I took a Grand Canyon tour, I booked from Paradise Found Tours. They were so helpful and friendly that I have chosen them over and over in the past and will choose them to book all my tours in the future. Paradise Found Tours offers a grand canyon tour from las vegas that is quite memorable. They offer an extensive grand canyon picture library on their site, though it doesn't compare in seeing the grand canyon live. If you are looking for a las vegas tour they have many to choose from. A las vegas helicopter tour will leave you breathless. Hoover dam is not far from Las vegas and they also offer a very entertaining hoover dam tour.