Cultures & Canyons of Western USA Self-Drive Tour

Fourteen nights across the American Southwest, self-drive with the flights included, from Santa Fe up to Salt Lake City.

Santa Fe takes the first three nights, the oldest capital city in the United States, with a guided walk round the Palace of the Governors and the central plaza and a mix of Spanish colonial and Pueblo Revival building. Taos follows for two, with Taos Pueblo, which has been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years and is both a world heritage site and a national historic landmark.

Durango comes next for two nights through the San Juan National Forest, with a ride on the narrow gauge railroad to Silverton behind an 1880s steam locomotive. Moab follows for two by way of Mesa Verde, where the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings were built into the canyon walls between roughly 600 and 1300, with a private guided tour of Arches, the Islands in the Sky district of Canyonlands, and Dead Horse Point, which closed the final scene of Thelma and Louise. Bryce Canyon comes later on the way north.

Flights, fully insured car hire, all the accommodation and round-the-clock support while travelling are included, and the price is quoted per person. Fifteen days at this pace suits a route where the interest is as much cultural as scenic: the pueblos, the railway and the cliff dwellings all take time to look at properly. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since the canyon country in July is extremely hot and the high ground can hold snow into May.