Wonders of the West

Three weeks from San Francisco to Yellowstone, taking in nine national parks and finishing in the Rockies rather than coming back for the coast. It is the longest and furthest-reaching of their western trips, arranged from the UK with flights, car and hotels together.

The first week is Californian: three nights in San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, then two nights at Yosemite for the valley, Mariposa Grove and Glacier Point. Death Valley and Las Vegas follow, then the Utah canyons in sequence, Zion for two nights with Angel’s Landing and the Narrows, then Bryce and the hoodoos. The Grand Canyon is taken from the North Rim here, which is quieter and higher than the South and open only in summer.

Then it goes somewhere none of their other trips do. Page and Monument Valley, two nights at Moab for Arches and Canyonlands, and then north through Dinosaur National Monument into Wyoming. Two nights in Grand Teton and two in Yellowstone close the trip, with Old Faithful, the Grand Prismatic Spring and the bison and wolf country of the Lamar and Hayden valleys.

Around 2,200 miles, and genuinely one way: you fly home from Salt Lake City or Jackson Hole rather than returning west, so the flights need planning around that. The Tioga Pass into Yosemite is a summer road only. Everything is tailorable, with nights addable, Las Vegas droppable entirely and departures arranged around your dates. It suits anyone who wants the full sweep from the Pacific to the geysers, and understands that three weeks is the minimum it takes.