I have wanted to do a travel review for a while now. So this is the first chance I have had to take my digital SLR camera away with me abroad and take some decent pictures.

I can't stand beach type holidays, so don't worry about lot of pictures of the sea and people drinking by the pool. It's not going to happen.

I have taken over 2000 Pictures and there is no way I am going to be able to show all of them here. But I will try and pick the better ones to give a good idea of the places we visited and things we did. This was very much a lads holiday, in that it was just two longtime friends traveling and exploring some of the most interesting parts of the Western USA.

We pre planned most of the days and pre booked most of the accommodation in advance. The advancement of technology allowed us to use PDA based sat nav but we still took my trusty Rand Mcnally map.

I am going to give a day to day account of things and give details of where we stayed and what roads we traveled on. Hopefully this will enable me to remember events in a few years time.

Day1 Thursday 11th May 2006

Fly from London Gatwick to Las Vegas Mcarran direct. I've have to say that they Virgin is the only company offering the direct flight service. It's well worth the extra money to fly direct. I've traveled via an in connecting flight before and it can be a real pain waiting for the second flight or missing it completely because of delays in the air or on the ground. The in flight entertainment on Virgin is also better than most with a choice of channels and films.

We arrived at Las Vegas mid afternoon and had to wait around for the courtesy bus to take us to the Alamo car rental. We has our first taste of the desert sun and began to realize how careful you must be.

We collected our Chevrolet Equinox LT SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) the first time we have rented this type of vehicle. On previous visits I have just had a normal large sized car. We thought the higher viewpoint would be better from the SUV. Also the 4WD proved useful for some of the roads we ended up on.

Onto the Las Vegas strip to find our hotel.
Las Vegas for those of you that have never been is a little bonkers. Its a great place for starting a holiday and has a huge selection of 5 star hotels for very reasonable money. The secret is not to gamble but just enjoy the hotels and restaurants that gambling has made possible.

I've not taken many pictures round Las Vegas as I've been a few times before. My friend has and I will post those pictures up when I can. But just visiting the web sites below will give you a good idea.

The cost of building these hotels is into the billions of dollars. Most have a theme to them, I'll let you guess that for this one! The copy of the Eiffel tower is exactly half the size of the real one. At 460 feet high it's not exactly small.

Two days in Vegas to get over the flight and wonder up and down the strip to the various shopping malls and attractions. There is so much to do in Vegas it could take up an entire holiday all on its own. But both of us have been before and we just went to the new places and some favourite old ones.

We were gutted to find our long time farourite Steak House Jeremiah's is no longer there. So had to console ourselves by visiting the brand new Hooters Hotel and Casino for some food instead. :-) Did I mention the food is quite good as well? Must have been distracted by something!

Stay
Paris Hotel and Casino Resort
Las Vegas

Day 2 Friday 12th May

Stay
Paris Hotel and Casino Resort
Las Vegas

On the second day we wanted to visit an outdoor equipment shop. We both shoot Air Rifles and wanted to see if we could get and bargain scopes and accesories. We has the address of a shop called Bass Pro and it gave it's location as next to the Silverton Casino a couple of miles down the strip just outside of the main city.

To say we were a little shocked to find out that the Bass Pro shop was actually just as large as the Casino and actually joined to it is an understatement. The place is HUGE. At this point we are both walking round like kids in a sweet shop. It's hard to take in just all of the things on sale in one visit. Everything from camping, fishing, boating, walking, hunting, archery, you name it. So we spent some money. Played with some scopes. Spent some more money and decided that we needed to come back.

Time to wonder round the multitude of Casino shopping malls. These are great at the Aladdin, Caesers Palace and the Venetian. I finally got to see and play with a Rolex Sea Dweller at the Tourneau shop in Caesers. They told me that they had more Rolex watches on display than anywhere else on the planet. Needless to say I did not buy one this time. Maybe another year!

Time to go and try and find a decent Steak house again, plus go and visit the Las Vegas Hilton for some Sci-Fi.

For all you Star Trek fans the Las Vegas Hilton Star Trek Experience is an absolute must. :-)

It is sort of a mini adventure with a few great tricks and surprises thrown in. Even if your not a massive fan you will enjoy it.

Onto our search for a replacement for Jeremiah's we happened upon the Renaissance hotel and the Envy steakhouse. I have to admit that this is probably the best steak I have ever had. But my friend thought the truffle reggiano fries were a little too poncy for his own taste. I liked them though. One of the few places in Vegas with no gambling as well.

Day 3 Saturday 13th May

Travel from Las Vegas to Page AZ 305 Miles

Visit Marble Canyon

This is our first major day of travelling. I made a last minute change to the route and we travelled a little further than we originally planned. But in the end it proved to be the correct decision as the journey had lot of interesting scenery as you will see in the pictures below. The Navajo Bridge is well worth stopping at.

Stay at Page AZ
Motel 6 Page #4013

Day 4 Sunday 14th May

Travel from Page AZ to Monument Valley 130 Miles

This day starts with a breakfast of silly proportions at the local Denny's in Page. Then time for a better look at the Glen Canyon Dam from the Scenic Viewpoint. We will be back later on the way to Zion NP.

A reasonable drive out to Monument Valley through some pretty impressive scenery. Unfortunately we did not take many pics on route. But you will see a few on the way back below.

Onto the main event of the day. Monument Valley has to be one of the worlds most filmed and photographed places. It really does have a very striking presence and awe inspiring effect on you when you first see it. This is my second time there and we made sure that we had enough time to take the full drive around the valley floor.

This is not a state owned National Park as many of the other places we visited. But is owned by the local Navajo Tribe. There is a pretty good visitor centre that has a Navajo wind talkers exhibit and lot of local made pottery and jewellery.

A tip for those of you that are tempted to take the open top truck tour round the valley. Take a face mask with you! As is is very very dusty. We had the Luxury of a 4WD SUV with air con. It's by far the better way to travel.