• 2 Dinner (D)
• 6 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• Vail: Welcome to one of Colorado’s great playgrounds. While the winter attracts the ski crowds, the summer draws in guests to the European-style Vail Village. Surrounded by towering Rocky Mountain peaks, the pedestrian village offers a unique mix of shops, restaurants, pubs and cafes. Feel the friendly local vibe that makes Vail cosmopolitan and unpretentious.
• Arches National Park: Nature’s creations spring to life at Arches National Park, home to the greatest concentration of natural arches in the world. Some 2,000 natural sandstone arches can be found within the boundaries of the national park. On your visit, unlock all the science and history of how these 6,000 natural sandstone arches were formed by rain and wind. Take in the sights of Delicate Arch and Balanced Rock while admiring the ever-changing landscapes as you traverse the park. 
• Canyonlands National Park: There’s no better spot to witness the power of the Colorado River carving through rocky red landscapes than at Canyonlands National Park. Take in the views from the Green River Overlook, and be inspired by the vast expanse of high desert canyons at Grand Viewpoint.    
• Mesa Verde National Park: There’s no better place to learn about the ancient cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Puebloan people than at Mesa Verde National Park. View the carvings in the sandstone of the canyon walls at the several hundred of these dwellings – astounded by the history presented before you. This UNESCO-listed park also features thousands of well-known preserved archaeological sites. Take in the sites of this protected area as you ride along the Mesa Top Loop and Cliff Palace Loop, where you can see the magnificent Cliff Palace.
• Grand Canyon National Park: The great outdoors is your classroom today when you meet geologist Canyon Tim for an enlightening talk about the Grand Canyon at the South Rim . Having over 30 years of geological experience, Tim’s fascinating talk reveals how this natural marvel was formed millions of years ago and how the different layers that make up the Colorado Plateau are still visible today.
• Grand Canyon National Park: One of the seven natural wonders of the world and the second most visited national park in the United States. Explore the Visitor Center and get familiar with the history of the Grand Canyon, grab a coffee at a local café and take a walk along the Rim Trail. Keep your camera on-hand as you explore some of the 278 miles of the Colorado River and adjacent canyonlands at one of the most spectacular examples of erosion anywhere in the world with unmatched vistas along its rim.
• Las Vegas: Go sightseeing in the largest city in Nevada and one of the world’s greatest resort cities, Las Vegas. 

• Deluxe coach travel
• Selected hotel dinners plus a locally hosted meal
• Standard regional accommodation

Visit Mesa Verde National Park to view cliff dwellings built by Ancestral Pueblo people into sheltered sandstone alcoves. From the park’s scenic routes and viewpoints, see archaeological sites including the remarkable Cliff Palace.

This UNESCO World Heritage Site protects a record of communities who lived on the mesa and in its canyons for centuries. Viewing the dwellings in their landscape offers insight into their architecture, daily life and enduring cultural significance.

Trafalgar

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a welcome dinner in Denver. It is a chance to share introductions and settle into the company that will accompany you through the American Southwest.

Known as the Mile High City, Denver sits at the edge of the Rocky Mountains. Its mountain-meets-city character provides a fitting setting for the start of a journey through Colorado’s alpine landscapes and the canyonlands beyond.

Explore Vail Village, a pedestrian-friendly alpine centre framed by Colorado’s Rocky Mountain peaks. Walk among its chalet-style buildings, shops and cafés, and experience a place designed as much for mountain life as for its celebrated ski slopes.

Developed as a ski destination in the 1960s, Vail has grown into a year-round resort. Its European-inspired village setting offers a distinctive contrast to the desert scenery elsewhere on this tour.

Meet owners Jessica and Scott at Field to Fork in Palisade for a hosted visit to their organic farm. Walk through the growing areas, greenhouse and barn as they explain how they cultivate seasonal vegetables and heritage fruit.

Share a farm-fresh meal featuring local ingredients, from vegetables and pizza to a seasonal fruit dessert. The visit offers a personal introduction to the growers and agricultural traditions of Colorado’s Grand Valley.

Explore Arches National Park with your Travel Director and see a landscape shaped into thousands of natural sandstone arches. Look for Delicate Arch and Balanced Rock while learning how erosion, weather and geological uplift created the park’s striking forms.

Near Moab, layers of red and pale stone change colour with the light. The guided visit connects those views to the slow natural processes that continue to shape Utah’s high desert.

Discover Canyonlands National Park from Island in the Sky, a high mesa overlooking a vast network of canyons. Take in expansive views, including the Green River Overlook and Grand View Point, where distant cliffs and mesas reveal the scale of the landscape.

The Colorado and Green rivers have carved through layers of rock over immense spans of time. From the overlooks, their work is visible in the deep channels and broad, stepped terrain below.

Ride in an open-air, all-terrain vehicle with a Navajo guide through Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. See sandstone buttes and mesas rise from the desert floor while hearing perspectives from someone with a connection to this land.

The valley is part of the Navajo Nation and has appeared in many Western films, including Stagecoach. This locally guided MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience places its scenery within the living culture of the Diné people.

Travel along Desert View Drive, the scenic approach to Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim. Watch the high-desert landscape open into canyon country and take in views of the layered rock and far-reaching terrain.

These viewpoints offer a sense of the canyon’s immense scale before a closer exploration of the rim. The shifting colours of its cliffs reveal rock layers formed across different chapters of geological history.

Explore the exhibits at Desert Intertribal Cultural Heritage near the Grand Canyon. Learn about the stories, traditions and knowledge of the tribal communities connected to the canyon and its surrounding lands.

The visit offers a perspective that reaches beyond the canyon’s geology and scenery. It highlights the continuing cultural relationship between local tribes and this landscape, helping visitors understand why the place holds meaning for the people whose histories are rooted here.

Explore Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim, with opportunities to visit the Visitor Center and walk along the Rim Trail for views into the canyon. Meet geological expert Canyon Tim for a private nature talk about how the landscape formed.

The canyon exposes layers of the Colorado Plateau in its vast walls. Tim’s insights help make sense of the rock beneath the viewpoints, connecting the spectacle of the rim with the processes that shaped it.

Gather with your fellow travellers for a farewell dinner inside Grand Canyon National Park. Share stories from the journey in the company of the people who explored the Southwest’s parks and desert landscapes alongside you.

Unlike a routine evening meal, this organised gathering marks the close of the group’s national-parks experience. Its setting within the park keeps the Grand Canyon atmosphere close at hand as the tour draws to a close.

Travel along parts of historic Route 66 through the desert on the way towards Las Vegas. See the roadside motels, diners and gas stations associated with one of America’s most recognisable highways.

Established in 1926, Route 66 became a symbol of cross-country travel and the roadside communities that served it. This scenic drive offers a glimpse of that motoring heritage without requiring a separate guided stop or attraction entry.

Discover Las Vegas on a sightseeing introduction to Nevada’s best-known resort city. Take in the city’s bold skyline and the contrasting atmosphere of its entertainment districts against the surrounding Mojave Desert.

Famous for its themed hotels and illuminated streets, Las Vegas has evolved from a desert settlement into a centre of entertainment. The sightseeing experience offers an overview of its distinctive urban character; specific attraction entries are not stated as part of the tour.

Experience Canyonlands by Night on an optional outing near Moab. Enjoy a cowboy-style Dutch oven dinner, then board the Moab Queen II for a river journey beside canyon walls illuminated during the evening light show.

The combination of hearty outdoor cooking, water and glowing rock gives a different perspective on Utah’s canyon country. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

See the Grand Canyon from the air on an optional helicopter or fixed-wing flightseeing tour. An aerial view reveals the breadth of its branching canyons, layered cliffs and high-desert surroundings beyond what can be seen from a single rim viewpoint.

Flightseeing offers a distinct way to appreciate the scale of a landscape carved by the Colorado River. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the aircraft option may vary.