The final three nights of our family holiday in the USA in Summer 2025 was spent at Grand Canyon Village in Arizona. When planning the trip back in the UK, we had initially settled on a quick stop-off here on our way to Flagstaff; the gateway city to Utah’s Monument Valley. We didn’t pre-book any accommodation, opting instead to play it by ear and book something whilst in the States.

During an evening in San Francisco some 10 days before, I realised that the round-trip drive from Flagstaff to Monument Valley was six hours, and that that would be required after a five-hour drive to Flagstaff from Las Vegas, via Grand Canyon Village. So we made the decision to cancel our Flagstaff / Utah plans and instead to spend more time at the Grand Canyon. We booked to stay at Thunderbird Lodge and were speechless when we arrived and discovered that the South Rim of the Canyon itself was a mere 20 metres from our room’s window!

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