Afternoon: Walk, bike, or take the shuttle to the viewpoints along Hermit Road. Evening: Have dinner. Watch the sunset over the Grand Canyon. If you are visiting the Grand Canyon with kids: This itinerary works well. If you like hiking, I recommend putting the majority of your time into a day hike. It is truly an unforgettable experience. Most people do it in two days, spending the night at Bright Angel Campground near the Colorado River.
Hiking from rim to river to rim in the Grand Canyon is one of my favorite national park experiences of all time. Learn more in our guide on the South Kaibab and Bright Angel trails. Several shuttles that operate in and near Grand Canyon Village. You will use these shuttles to get around the South Rim. In Grand Canyon Village, there is a large parking lot that is open for day trippers and those coming in from Tusayan. On the park map, you will see other parking lots, but these spaces are reserved for visitors who are spending the night in one of the lodges and for staff members.
Plan on getting here by 9 am in order to get a spot. From the visitor center, there are three different shuttle lines. To get around the park, you will use the orange and blue lines. If you are staying in Tusayan, the purple shuttle connects Tusayan with the visitor center this is a seasonal shuttle and does not operate during the winter months. To visit Hermit Road, take the blue shuttle to the Village Route Transfer station to transfer to the red line.
If you are staying at a hotel in Tusayan, leave your car parked at your hotel and ride the free shuttle purple line into the park. The shuttles are free and you can ride them as much as you need to. Click here to learn more. The Grand Canyon can be visited year round. Peak season is during the summer months and during the holiday seasons of Easter and Christmas. During these times, expect large crowds, traffic jams to enter the park, and hotels booked to capacity.
Spring and fall are great times to visit the park. Winter is the off-season. Crowds will be low, but so will the temperatures. Snow is a possibility, but that will only make the Grand Canyon look more magical.
Staying here gives you the advantage of easy access to the shuttles, short walks to several of the viewpoints, and no hassles driving into and out the park every day. However, the hotels get mediocre reviews and many people say they are expensive for what you get. Click here to view the lodges and get updated pricing.
These hotels fill up very far in advance. Make your reservations 4 — 6 months in advance. You also have the option to stay in Tusayan. From Tusayan, it is a minute drive into the park.
There are several hotels to choose from as well as some restaurants. We stayed at The Grand Hotel in Tusayan. It is the highest rated hotel in the area. The hotel looks impressive from the outside and the lobby is very nice but the rooms are nothing special. On Booking. However, the rooms are clean and quiet and fit our needs.
This fee also includes the visit to the North Rim. If you want to take the stress out of planning your visit, or you have no plans to rent a car, here are several highly rated tours to consider. If you are planning to spend one day in the Grand Canyon and have any questions, comment below! Note: This post contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase using one of these affiliate links, we get paid a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Due to the heavy wildfires this summer, how good the views can be anticipated? Would it be better to postpone visiting GC for another year? I have never been to GC yet. Sorry for my late response. If the sky is hazy, you will have reduced visibility of the Grand Canyon, so you might not get the same views you see in many photos.
The haze can be weather dependent. Sometimes rain or wind can clear up the sky, but most likely, if wildfires are nearby, you will have some amount of haze. If might be worth postponing it to next year or late Plus, the national parks in that part of the US are so crowded this year.
We were planning on visiting northern California in September but have changed our plans because of the wildfires there and potential haze. Cheers, Julie. Thank you for the great information. Your one day itinerary looks great. I have one question about it. When you say watch the sunrise from the ooh aah point, is that only possible if we hike down to it in the dark?
You can start your hike down once you get some light in the sky, which starts about 30 minutes before sunrise. Or, you can even start right at sunrise. As you hike down, you will see the sun illuminating the canyon, which is nice too. This guide is great for those who have never been there and those who will be traveling solo. The rim to river to rim hike is amazing and a great way to experience the Grand Canyon.
Have fun on your first trip to the Grand Canyon! Great info and nicely written and laid out article! I recently published the itinerary for the Grand Canyon and the Mighty 5. Here is the link so you can read it. This is amazing…thanks for all of the great info! And would it even be a good idea? I think that Ooh Aah Point would be a great place to watch the sunset. To help you plan your day, you could visit the viewpoints along Hermit Road in the morning, before it gets busy.
Midday, see the views from the overlooks near the Visitor Center and if you like the idea of taking a helicopter ride, midday is a great time to do it.
About an hour and a half to two hours before sunset, hike down to Ooh Aah Point. You could even go a little farther down the trail, for more expansive views. Get back to Ooh Aah Point for sunset and then hike back up the rim. Bring a headlight or flashlight since you will be hiking in the dark. You can check sunset times here and shuttle times here. Thank you for your amazing website.
I am planning a 12 day SW road trip and all of your tips and suggestions especially the one day itineraries are giving me so much confidence and a great sense of preparedness. We are cramming a lot into a short time frame but I feel like we really know what to spend time on and what not to. Thank you! Hello Tarah. This is the best travel website I have found. You give so much good information without being too detailed and your photos are gorgeous.
I will be revisiting your web site again and again. Thank you so much for all the work that went into preparing the site! This guide is so helpful in giving direction and building confidence for the trip. Any suggestions on the best airline travel locations to access the South Rim? Thanks again. Phoenix and Las Vegas will have the largest airports with the best selection of direct and cheap flights. First, beware of the heat.
The interior of the canyon averages triple-digit highs June through August, and those temperatures contributed to 82 rescues and one death in alone. If a summer trip is your only option, or you want to get away from the crowds, head to the North Rim, which gets about a tenth of the visitors and, at an elevation of 8, feet, runs nearly ten degrees cooler than the South Rim. In fact, all park amenities on the North Rim are closed November through April, and the road into the park closes in December—or earlier if enough snow falls—meaning you can only access the North Rim by hiking, snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing with a backcountry permit.
No matter the season, be prepared for some paperwork and some luck. If you know your way around an oar rig, the odds of winning a permit for a noncommercial river trip are notoriously difficult, especially for popular times like autumn and spring.
For example, there were applications to launch on September 18, , alone. On the other hand, some days in December, when the days are short and the nights are cold, see no applicants at all. Trip applications submitted during this time are rewarded through a lottery. The nonprofit Grand Canyon Trust has a good explainer of the byzantine system here. The Grand Canyon is split into two distinct zones divided by, well, the actual canyon.
No car, or prefer not to drive? The Arizona Shuttle runs vans from Flagstaff to the village three times a day from May 15 to October El Tovar is a landmark, not only for its location just steps from the canyon rim but also for its iconic architectural style, which influenced many of the National Park lodges that followed.
There are five other hotels on the South Rim , all pretty basic, and another half dozen in the town of Tusayan, just outside the park, about six miles from the rim. You can catch the same west-facing views at the North Rim Campground , a mile or so north of the lodge.
The Phantom Ranch, tucked into a shady cottonwood grove at the bottom of the chasm, switched its reservation system to a lottery this year, and entries are due a whopping 15 months ahead of your desired dates.
You can still order meals from Phantom Ranch, which will lighten your load for the hike in. They roll up in their rental car, park, stroll to the guardrail rim, browse the gift shops, and then head to the next national park on their checklist.
Even hopping on the free shuttles that stop for fresh views along the South Rim every mile or so is enough to leave most of the horde behind. The farther you get from the visitor center, the more the crowds thin out. Rent bikes from Bright Angel Bicycles , located next to the visitor center, and cruise the South Rim. The Hermit Road winds seven miles along the rim from the village and is closed to private cars March through November, making it one of the most scenic cycling paths in the world.
Or head east from the visitors center and link the bike path with the car-free Yaki Point Road. Jutting far into the canyon, Yaki Point is a popular spot to catch the sunset splash rosy light across a mile swath of canyon all the way from the Palisades of the Desert, 25 miles to the east, to Havasupai Point, 17 miles west. Here you will find a wide range of native arts and crafts available for purchase, such as hand-crafted kachina dolls, Native American jewelry and pottery, and hand-woven Navajo rugs.
Count minutes for a visit. They might be an excellent addition to your one-day Grand Canyon itinerary, especially if you are not planning to do much hiking. Practical information: For a complete list of ranger programs, times, and locations, visit the National Park Service website.
Note that all ranger programs are free of charge and that children must be accompanied by an adult. Outdoor ranger programs are subject to cancellation based on weather or when lightning danger is present.
There are endless possibilities and ways to experience the Grand Canyon. The athletic and adventurous can choose from guided hiking or biking tours , mule tours, jeep tours , river float tours , or white-water rafting tours. Other fantastic and more distinctive options include sightseeing on a Grand Canyon helicopter tour or a scenic plane ride. There are even Grand Canyon zipline and skydiving options for those looking to add some adrenaline to their adventure.
Regardless of which tour you choose, each one of these exciting opportunities provides astonishing viewpoints and memories to last a lifetime.
It takes just a little time and is therefore a perfect choice if you are short on time and have just one day in Grand Canyon. Check it out! The minute IMAX Grand Canyon film transports viewers through time as it depicts the lives of the first inhabitants of the Grand Canyon to the present-day Natural Wonder that the canyon is today.
Taking in the movie from the comfortable and air-conditioned IMAX theater is definitely one of the best things to do after a long day of hiking and outdoor heat, or for those people who are less mobile. This highly recommended visitor center provides travelers with more in-depth information about the Grand Canyon and includes an expansive souvenir shop and dining area.
Here you can book the IMAX movie tickets in advance. TIP: Be prepared to drive your own car and do the walking, as park shuttles only run until 1 hour after sunset. Also, make sure to bring along a flashlight or a headlight to help you walk to and from your stargazing location. Following the recommendations above, I created a sample Grand Canyon 1 day itinerary. I assume that you are staying very close to the South Rim and can indeed spend an entire day exploring Grand Canyon.
It is valid in all National Parks and 2, federal recreation sites across the United States for one year from the month of purchase. As I already mentioned, one of the best ways to get the most out of your day at the Grand Canyon is to stay as close to the South Rim as possible. That way you can beat the traffic and the crowds. There are several hotels at the Grand Canyon Village itself. These accommodations are, of course, more expensive and usually fully booked than the hotels outside the National Park.
For more affordable options nearby, check hotels in Tusayan this is where the helicopter tours start, some 6 miles from the South Rim. The Red Feather Lodge is a good budget option. TIP: Using the map below, you can easily compare Tusayan hotels and short-term rental accommodations nearby. You may have to zoom out a bit more for more options a bit further away from the National Park entrance. Other popular places to stay near the Grand Canyon are the two bigger towns Williams and Flagstaff , within Both these towns offer a big variety of accommodations at more affordable prices and are easily accessible from the main highways in the area.
So, these are our suggestions for the best way to spend one day at the Grand Canyon National Park. I hope that this guide will help you make the best of your short time at this beautiful natural landmark.
Below, you can find some questions that our readers asked about visiting the Grand Canyon and our answers to them. The area is open year-round, it offers easy access to the most beautiful viewpoints, and there are also great facilities and visitor services including a shuttle bus that brings you to the best places along Hermit Road.
Grand Canyon National Park is huge and it would take days to explore all four rims and do some hiking inside the canyon. That being said, one day is enough for the main highlights of the Grand Canyon. With just 1 day in Grand Canyon, we recommend visiting the South Rim and getting there as early in the morning as possible. So how much time you need will depend on what you absolutely want to see and whether you are planning to do any hiking.
If you plan on visiting in the summer, make sure to book your accommodations well in advance. We recommend arriving as early in the morning as possible and staying late. Sunrises and sunsets are magical at the Grand Canyon! If you come early in the morning ideally before South Rim is open year-round and has better facilities and nicer overlooks.
North Rim of the Grand Canyon can only be visited in summer; the road is usually open from around mid-May to mid-October. Yes, it is possible to visit the Grand Canyon as a day trip from Las Vegas. If you are touring in the Western United States, you may also like these travel guides on our blog.
Are you on Pinterest? Pin this image! This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Thank you for your site! My husband and I are planning a trip to Sedona and a side trip to the South Rim and your guide is perfect for us!
Glad to hear that, Kathy, and have a great time in Arizona! If you are looking for more info on Sedona, take a look here: what to see and do in Sedona. Wanted to say thanks for the info. My wife and I used this for a day trip to the Grand Canyon and it was amazing. Thank you for taking the time to leave this feedback, Nathan. It's always nice to hear from our readers and I'm really glad to hear that you had such a great time at the Grand Canyon!
I think that good preparation is a must for such short trips to such popular places. Happy travels! You left out the North Rim, completely. This is my favorite side. Much easier to get to if coming from the north. Hi Dilworth, we didn't leave it out, rather focused on the place that most people can easily visit when traveling to Grand Canyon for just a day at any time of the year. And that is the South Rim. And Grand Canyon West is quite a lot more expensive to visit and not as popular either.
I think we already explained in the article somewhere why we recommend South Rim for those visiting the area for the first time and for just a day. South Rim is the best option if you have just one day at the Grand Canyon.
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