One thing we can all agree on, is that there’s no place like The US for a good road trip.
The road trip we took in the American Southwest is one we wanted to do for so long and finally realized last April. We loved every single stop along the way and if you’re planning an American road trip, you’re not going to regret this one!

DAY 1: Valley of Fire

Drive time: 1 h 30 min

After leaving Vegas, our first stop was the Valley of Fire. The Valley of Fire has gorgeous landscapes and it works as a great “in between” stop as there’s not much to do there, except for admiring the scenery and getting gorgeous photos. We spent a couple hours there and then drove all the way to the Bryce Canyon.

DAY 2: Bryce Canyon & Horseshoeband

Drive time: 4 h

We got to the Bryce Canyon really late the night before and the next morning we set our alarm at 6am to catch the sunrise. It was SO cold (-10 degrees C) and we didn’t have puffy coats or jackets as it was going to be our only “cold stop”, so we wore layers and layers, but were still freezing! It’s an incredibly beautiful place and it offers gorgeous views, and considering we were short on time we only spent half day there, but we felt like it was enough.

Where to stay: we stayed at the Best Western Plus Bryce Canyon, it was pretty bad, but only a 10 minute drive from the Bryce Canyon National Park Sunrise Point, which in our opinion was the best spot to capture the hoodoos in the early morning.

Horseshoe Band

Drive time: 2 h 30 min

We arrived at Lake Powell late afternoon and went straight to the Horseshoe band, as we were told the best times to visit were sunrise and sunset. Looking back, sunrise would have probably been better than sunset, as the sun sets right in front of you so pictures end up being backlit. It’s incredibly crowded and it almost feels extremely dangerous so if you’re afraid of heights… buckle up because you’re going to be scared!

DAY 3: Lake Powell & Lower Antelope Canyon

In the morning we went on a boat tour on Lake Powell which was provided by our hotel and it was oh so worth it! The colors are incredible and the scenery is unlike anything we have in Europe; this tour includes highlights such as the Glen Canyon Dam, Antelope Canyon and the high-walled Navajo Sandstone side arm of Lake Powell famous for its coloration and slot canyons.

Lower Antelope Canyon

In the afternoon we had a tour of the Lower Antelope Canyon, one of the places we were most excited to visit! We have to say that this place isn’t one of those “IG vs reality” kinda place, because it’s just as stunning in real life as you would expect. We were told that the Upper Antelope Canyon was even better so we were really looking forward to our tour the following day.

Where to stay: staying at Amangiri would have been a dream, but this hotel sets you back at least $3.000 per night, so we ended up staying at Lake Powell Resorts & Marina, which is also where we ate most of our meals.

DAY 4: Upper Antelope Canyon & Navajo Reserve

We booked a 12pm tour because we really wanted to see the light beams which only happen at midday from mid-March until mid-October, and those time slots sell out months in advance! The Upper Antelope Canyon is breathtaking! This place is a photographer’s dream: its colors, textures, shapes… you can’t help but fall in love.

We then proceeded to drive through the Navajo Reserve heading to the Monument Valley.

DAY 5: Monument Valley

Drive time: 2 h 20 min

The Monument Valley is everything you’d expect, and more. Words cannot describe the excitement you feel as you approach the giant stone pinnacles from far away, so we’ll let photos do their work. There are two options to visit the Monument Valley, you can either book a guided tour with a Navajo company or you can self-drive into the park. We opted for the latter and we suggest you do the same as it’s a pretty easy drive.

A good photo spot is also Forrest Gump point, but it’s better to visit at sunrise or during the day, because it was backlit at sunset.

Where to stay: Definitely The View Hotel, which is where we stayed and never has a name been more accurate… this hotel is located right inside the Monument Valley! And the view from our room on the 2nd floor was astounding. We enjoyed a glorious sunset from there and it was so magical it almost didn’t seem real. We also had a typical navajo dinner there.

DAY 6: Grand Canyon

Drive time: 3 h 10 min

We got to the Grand Canyon after lunch and we would have loved to do a helicopter ride, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to visit this park, as we were only there for a few hours. The Grand Canyon is one of the world’s natural wonders, but it definitely wasn’t our favorite stop of the road trip, although it might have been because we didn’t spend as much time there.
Make sure to catch sunset at Mather Point.

Drive time: 2 h 15 min

SEDONA

After a long and exhausting day and over 5 hours in the car, we arrived in Sedona and we were craving Italian food really badly so we had dinner at Dahl & Di Luca Ristorante. The food was pretty good and it tasted even better after an entire week of burgers and fast food.
Where to stay: Hyatt Residence Club Sedona.

DAY 7: Sedona & Arcosanti

Sedona is known for its spiritual vortexes and good energy vibes, but unfortunately we didn’t appreciate it enough as we were only there for one night, and in retrospective we probably should have done two.
Our favorite thing to see was the Chapel of the Holy Cross. The architecture of this church is definitely one of a kind as its built into the buttes of Sedona.

ARCOSANTI

Drive time: 1 hour

Arcosanti is an architectural site and urban laboratory where the residents are part of a 24/7 living experiment! “Arcosanti, begun in 1970, continues to be developed as an experiential learning center, walk-through demonstration of how to pursue efficient “lean” alternatives to urban sprawl.
Paolo Soleri’s concept of compact city design, ARCOLOGY(ARChitecture and ecOLOGY), saves resources and improves quality of life for all”.
This is a place that you have to see for yourself. If you find yourself in Arizona we definitely recommend you pay a visit, it’ll only take a couple hours out of your day but there’s no other place like this in the world.

DAY 7: Scottsdale & Phoenix

Drive time: 1 h 15 min

We got to Scottsdale the night before and we spent the evening relaxing in our beautiful resort. Considering it was a long and exhausting week on the road, we spent most of our time by the pool and checking out some good restaurants and cafés.

Where to stay: The Scott Resort & Spa, a great place to relax and unravel away from the chaos.
Where to eat / get coffee: The Henry, Lux Central, Palabra, Giant Coffee.

This road trip was a truly unforgettable experience and there are so many good memories and breathtaking sceneries that we’ll never get out of our heads and we’ll cherish forever. Doing it in just seven days was honestly a lot, and we didn’t even get to see all the places we initially intended to (Zyon Park and Coyote Buttes to name a couple).
We lived off of fast food for four days straight because there aren’t many good restaurants / hotels along the way (mostly from The Valley of Fire to Sedona), and having to pack/unpack every single to go to a different hotel is exhausting. So, after spending so many hours in the car we were happy to go back to LA for another few days and relax, but so grateful to have witnessed so much beauty.

One final but important tip: we both had AT&T Sim cards so neither of us had ANY service for the most part of the trip, which made it all a lot more challenging! We had to download and save maps on Google Maps so that we could use them in offline mode while we were driving, all of this using one of the hotel’s terrible wifi network. Get a Verizon SIM card and you should be fine!

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INTO THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: the ultimate road trip through Nevada, Utah and Arizona