Arizona Travel Guide

Arizona changes completely as you drive north to south. Up on the Colorado Plateau above the Mogollon Rim, at 5,000 to 7,000 feet, you get pine forest, red rock, canyons and snow in winter; drop into the Sonoran Desert below and it’s all saguaro cactus and summer afternoons above 110F. Phoenix and the Grand Canyon share a license plate and almost nothing else.

Most first trips run north. Fly into Phoenix Sky Harbor or Las Vegas, drive a loop through Sedona, Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Page and Monument Valley, and come back down. That loop is around a week, and the thing that trips people up is not distance. It’s permissions.

The permission layer nobody explains

American public land is not one system, and Arizona is where that becomes expensive. The Grand Canyon, Saguaro and Petrified Forest are National Park Service land. Sedona’s red rock trailheads are US Forest Service. Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon are Navajo Nation land, which is a sovereign nation, not a federal park at all.

That last distinction is the one that costs money and ruins plans. Your America the Beautiful pass does nothing on tribal land. Neither does the National Park Service reservation system. Navajo Nation parks charge their own fees, keep their own hours, and in the case of Antelope Canyon, do not let you in without a Navajo guide. Not “recommend a guide” - mandatory, at Upper Antelope, Lower Antelope, Antelope Canyon X and Cardiac Canyon alike, with a $15 per-person park permit on top of whatever the tour operator charges. Book the tour weeks ahead in high season; there is no walk-up option and no self-guided version.

The second surprise arrived on 1 January 2026. Non-US residents aged 16 and over now pay a $100 nonresident fee on top of the standard entrance charge at eleven national parks, and the Grand Canyon is on that list. For a British or Australian couple that’s $200 plus the $35 vehicle fee for one canyon visit. If your itinerary includes two or more of the eleven - the Grand Canyon plus Zion or Bryce, say - the $250 America the Beautiful Non-Resident Annual Pass stops being a luxury and starts being arithmetic. Children 15 and under are exempt either way.

Saguaro and Petrified Forest, both in Arizona, are not on the list. They charge $25 per vehicle to everyone, resident or not.

The Grand Canyon, briefly

You already know you’re going. What matters for planning is which rim and when. The South Rim is open 24 hours a year-round, has the free shuttle network, the Rim Trail and almost all the lodging. The North Rim is a thousand feet higher, far quieter, and closed to all vehicles from 1 December to 14 May; after the 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire it reopened in May 2026 for day use only, with no overnight lodging in the 2026 season. Rim to rim is 212 miles by road, about four and a half hours, so treat them as separate trips.

Our full Grand Canyon National Park guide covers shuttles, the safe limits on hiking below the rim and where to sleep. One number from it is worth repeating here: the park’s own advice is not to hike from rim to river and back in a single day, especially May through September. People ignore that every summer and some of them do not walk back out.

Page: Horseshoe Bend and the slot canyons

Page is a small town built for the Glen Canyon Dam and now living off two photographs. Horseshoe Bend is the entrenched meander of the Colorado River you’ve seen a thousand times; it’s about 1.5 miles round trip from the lot on soft sand, with a $10 parking fee that goes to the City of Page rather than the Park Service. There is no railing along most of the rim. Take that seriously with children.

The slot canyons are the other draw. Upper Antelope is the wide, easy one with the famous light beams around midday in summer; Lower Antelope is narrower, involves ladders and generally costs less. Both need that guide and that permit. Photography and filming permits are not being issued for either at the moment because of visitor numbers, so plan on a standard sightseeing tour rather than a tripod session.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley is about 130 miles east of Page on the Arizona-Utah line, and it’s the landscape most people actually picture when they think “American West”. It’s a Navajo tribal park: $15 per vehicle for the 17-mile Valley Drive, open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in summer with last entry at 4:30 p.m., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in winter with last entry at 2:30 p.m.

You can drive the loop yourself in a normal car if you’re careful and unhurried - the road is rough dirt with deep sand in places, and motorcycles and RVs aren’t allowed on it at all. The backcountry, including landmarks like Ear of the Wind, is reachable only with a Navajo guide. Hiring one is also, frankly, what turns a scenic drive into something you’ll remember: the interpretation is the point.

Sedona

Sedona sits two hours north of Phoenix in a bowl of red sandstone, and it has become popular enough to need traffic management. The Forest Service charges a Red Rock Pass at 19 day-use sites: $5 a day, $15 a week, $20 a year, with no pass needed for a stop of 15 minutes or less to take a photo.

The better news is the free Sedona Shuttle. It runs Thursday to Sunday year-round (seven days a week during the spring peak, 26 February to 26 April 2026), needs no reservation and no Red Rock Pass, and serves the trailheads that fill first. While it operates, the parking lots at Cathedral Rock and Soldier Pass are closed to private vehicles altogether. Park free at North SR-179 or Posse Grounds and ride in. Turning up at 10 a.m. on a Saturday hoping to park at Cathedral Rock is the single most common Sedona mistake.

Phoenix, Scottsdale and the desert south

Phoenix is where most flights land and where most itineraries spend the least time, which is a fair reflection of what it offers a short-stay visitor. Scottsdale is the polished half: resorts, spas, golf, a walkable Old Town with galleries and bars. Phoenix proper has the Desert Botanical Garden and the Heard Museum, which is the best introduction to the Southwest’s Native cultures you’ll find anywhere and worth two hours before you drive north.

Further south, Tucson is the more likeable city and the gateway to Saguaro National Park, split into two districts either side of town ($25 per vehicle, good for both, seven days). If you want the saguaro forest you’re picturing, this is where it is; the Grand Canyon has none.

Heat, and why it decides your dates

In 2024 Phoenix spent 113 consecutive days at or above 100F, smashing a record of 76 days that had stood since 1993, and logged 70 days at or above 110F - the most since records began in 1896. This is not a colorful statistic. It’s the reason Arizona itineraries are built around months.

March, April, October and November are the good ones: warm in the desert, comfortable up north, everything open. December to February is peak season in Phoenix and Scottsdale, when the resorts fill and prices climb, while Flagstaff gets snow and the Grand Canyon’s North Rim is shut. June through August is genuinely dangerous in the low desert; if you must come, do the north, where 7,000 feet of elevation buys you a livable afternoon, and understand that July and August also bring monsoon thunderstorms and flash floods through exactly the slot canyons you came to photograph.

Practicalities

Rent a car. Arizona has no useful intercity transit for a sightseeing trip, and the loop from Phoenix to Sedona to the Grand Canyon to Page to Monument Valley and back runs around 800 miles. A standard sedan handles everything described here, including the Valley Drive, if you go slowly.

Carry more water than you think you need, including a reserve left in the car, because a breakdown in the low desert in July is a medical situation rather than an inconvenience. And check sunset times against the last-entry times at tribal parks: they’re earlier than you’d expect and strictly enforced, so an afternoon that slips by an hour can cost you the visit entirely.

If you’re arriving from the west, Las Vegas is a common and cheap way into the region, and our Nevada travel guide covers the drive across. Heading north instead? Utah picks up where the Colorado Plateau continues.

Read also

• The big one, in detail: Grand Canyon National Park guide
• Over the state line: Utah travel guide and Zion National Park
• Fly in cheap: things to do in Las Vegas and the Nevada travel guide
• Browse all US states and national parks