Rock Stars of the West (Family)

Fifteen nights in a loop from Las Vegas in a motorhome, round the Southwest national parks, priced for a family.

Las Vegas takes the first two nights in a hotel, with a private transfer in from the airport, before the motorhome is collected. Zion comes first on the road, where the canyon walls close in and the hanging gardens grow out of the seeping sandstone, then Bryce Canyon, whose hoodoos are rock spires left standing by frost shattering and look like nothing else.

Moab follows, the base for Canyonlands, the largest national park in Utah, and Arches, which holds the largest concentration of natural stone arches anywhere. Monument Valley comes next, the buttes that half the classic westerns were shot against, then Lake Powell for swimming and water activities, which is the stop that makes this work as a family trip. The Grand Canyon closes the loop, with a rim walk and a picnic before the run back to Las Vegas.

International flights, twelve nights of motorhome hire with a fifteen-hundred-mile pack, two nights in a Las Vegas hotel and the airport transfer are included; national park entrance fees are payable locally. Sixteen days for six parks means steady driving, with a day or so at each. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since summer on the plateau is extremely hot and the air conditioning only works with the engine running or on a powered site. Lake Powell is the stop worth an extra night if the dates can stretch.