Canyon Country & National Parks fly-drive

Begin your trip in style with included airport lounge access before your flight to Las Vegas. This truly remarkable city rises from the desert like a neon oasis, its world-famous casinos and clubs, flamboyant hotels, top-class restaurants and big-name shows making it one of the world's truly great party towns. It's big, brash, boisterous and an utterly stark contrast to the natural beauty, tranquillity and relative isolation that awaits on the remainder of the holiday. Looking for a bucket-list experience? Take a helicopter flight over the Strip.

Collect your hire car this morning, driving northeast through the desert to Utah's Zion National Park. Your hotel is ideally situated right on the edge of the national park, just a stone's throw from its jutting sandstone monoliths and surprisingly verdant valley floors. It's also at the confluence of several hiking trails that wind their way up into the canyon. You'll also well placed for rides on the shuttle bus, which stops at eight major locations throughout the national park. 

Stay: Cliffrose Lodge, Springdale (Superior)

Famous for its unique geology, Bryce Canyon is made up of a series of spectacular horseshoe-shaped amphitheatres, carved out of the red rock by centuries of weather erosion. The colourful limestone has been transformed into all manner of bizarre shapes, from slots, canyons and hoodoos to dramatic fins and spires. To make exploring easy, the park's shuttle bus picks up in town for a four-hour circuit of the park. If you prefer to explore on foot, a network of gravity-defying trails descend through fragrant juniper bushes to arrive in the grand amphitheatres below.

Stay: Best Western Plus Bryce Canyon Grand (Standard)

Once called the Land of the Sleeping Rainbow by the region's Native-American tribes, Capitol Reef National Park is certainly one of the most unusual places you'll visit, even among the incredible geological anomalies and landscapes displayed on this journey so far. The park's defining feature, the 100-mile-long Waterpocket Fold, rises above the semi-arid plateau. A seemingly impenetrable cliff, its most scenic portion is Capitol Reef itself, named for its resemblance to Washington's capitol buildings. Take it all in on ambling hikes and dusty 4x4 trails before spending the night in the small town of Torrey, 11 miles west of the park entrance.

Stay: Capitol Reef Resort (Superior)

It's hard to comprehend the forces of nature that sculpted Arches National Park. Over 2,000 structures, from towering spires to precariously balanced rocks, complement the eponymous arches themselves, all creating a remarkable assortment of landforms in a relatively compact area. You'll spend two nights near the town of Moab, from where you can access both the Arches and Canyonland National Parks. At Canyonlands, the scenic drive to the Island in the Sky mesa provides the best views, with overlooks perched 1,000 feet about the surrounding terrain. Your accommodation for the night will be at Gravity House Moab, but for something special, consider an upgrade to Sorrel River Lodge, where spa treatments and rooms complete with handcrafted furnishings look out to views of the Colorado River. 

Stay: Gravity House Moab (Standard)

Before continuing your journey, we recommend a detour to Mesa Verde National Park, renowned for its ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings built into the rocky hillsides more than 1,600 years ago. Since the most popular sites – Cliff Palace, Balcony House, Spruce Tree House and Long House – can only be toured with a guide, it's best to get tickets for these tours as soon as you arrive. If you decide to take this detour, the Far View Lodge is an ideal accommodation choice. 

Your next stop is Monument Valley, whose towering buttes and mesas form one of the USA's most familiar landscapes, and one of its most spectacular. It's also a region steeped in Native-American history, once as the home of the Ancestral Puebloans and later the Navajo, who called this site the 'Valley Between the Rocks'. Take the 17-mile Valley Drive, which brings you through unending desert landscape to eleven marked stops, each one showcasing fine views of the park's iconic sandstone towers.

Continue your journey heading west, setting your sights on Lake Powell. This enormous reservoir, spilling across the border between Arizona and Utah, formed in 1963 when the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam held back the waters of the Colorado River. It's the second-largest reservoir in the USA today, renowned for its spectacular red rock formations and abundance of opportunities for outdoor pursuits, including camping, hiking, fishing and a whole host of water sports. 

Stay: Lake Powell Resort & Marina

At 277 miles long and 6,000 feet deep, the Grand Canyon, a World Heritage site and natural wonder of the world, is a truly remarkable place. Taking the Desert View Drive – a 25-mile route along the canyon's south rim – you'll pause at a series of viewpoints to enjoy magnificent views across the layers of multi-coloured rock, some dating back millions of years, that form the canyon's sheer rock walls.

Many say they can feel the special spirits in Sedona, others say it's just the pristine beauty of red rock that makes this such as special place to visit. The town itself is set so far down among the rock formations that as you drive around its quiet streets, red-rock cliffs seem to tower above at almost every angle. Catch the Sedona Trolley for tours of the region and for a complete introduction to this spectacular corner of Arizona desert. Enjoy a stay among the spectacular canyon views of the Orchards Inn, or for an upgrade, opt for the deluxe Amara Resort & Spa.

Stay: Orchards Inn (Superior)

Return your hire car to Phoenix airport and board your return flight to the UK.

Alternatively, extend your holiday with a ranch stay in the Sonoran Desert on the outskirts of Tucson. With a range of activities included, from horseback rides to mountain biking coupled with the likes of cowboy cookout barbecues, it's the ideal introduction to dude ranch culture. You might also decide to make a stop in Scottsdale, a desert city on the outskirts of Phoenix, packed with luxury hotels, spa resorts, fine dining restaurants and magnificent golf courses.